Skipping Church

I skipped church last Sunday.

There. I said it. As hard as it was for a retired pastor (who always encouraged church attendance by his flock) to admit it, I skipped church. They say that confession is good for the soul, which I hope is the case, since I am confessing that to you now.

Of course, even in the midst of confession, the rational (and sinful) mind slips in a few rationalizations, or what is referred to in the legal system as “exculpatory” reasons for my absence. The first is that I attended a church service on Friday afternoon for one of our late church members, and though I did not lead it, I did listen intently to the sermon and even joined in singing the Lord’s Prayer at the close of the service (which singing may require further confession and repentance). Then, on Saturday, I participated in our church’s monthly senior luncheon, where I got to fellowship with a number of members and visitors and even got to lead the mealtime prayer. That should count for something!

But the real reason for skipping church was the onset of a head cold with sneezing and coughing, which I decided was my duty not to pass on to our members who might be in attendance. So actually, you could say I did something righteous by skipping church!

Or not. But what about this matter of attending or skipping church? What do we as Christians understand to be God’s will and our obligation in this matter? Because there can be some confusion due to different denominational teachings, I’d like to share a few ideas about what I believe the Bible, and the Church, teach on this matter.

1: First, our practice and beliefs about weekly worship go back to the act of creation itself, when God created all there is in six days, and rested on the seventh. Genesis 2:2-3 tells us, “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

2: The commandment to institutionalize man’s observance of God’s creation and rest is given in the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20:9-11, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” This command is repeated and expanded slightly in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. Obedience to this command became one of the chief hallmarks of the Israelites/Jews over the millennia and regulated their weekly lives.

3: Regulations regarding weekly Sabbath observance multiplied over the centuries as devout religious leaders developed rules to ensure compliance with the general command to keep the Sabbath holy. Some of the rules were excessive and burdensome on the people, extending even to food prep, bathing, distances you could walk, etc.

4: Jesus and his disciples ran afoul of some of these extra rules by doing such actions as healing the sick and blind, casting out a demon, and eating some wheat grains while walking through a wheat field (Matthew 12:1) – all on the Sabbath. He was harshly criticized by the Pharisees for doing so, to whom he replied in three ways:

• First, by comparing his acts of mercy with other Sabbath-permissible acts such as circumcision (John 7:22-23) and rescuing one’s son or ox from falling into a well (Luke 14:5). He even compared his disciples eating wheat grains on the Sabbath with the time David and his starving men entered the Tabernacle and ate the holy show-bread (Bread of the Presence) that sat there (Matthew 12:2-4).
• Second, by explaining that God’s purpose for establishing the pattern of Sabbath rest was to benefit mankind. Though it was a law, the purpose was according to God’s grace. Thus the need to serve/help people trumped the need to keep strict rules (many of which man had invented anyway).
• And third, Jesus proclaimed that he himself was Lord of the Sabbath, and therefore he had the authority to determine what was proper or not: “And he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.’” (Luke 6:5).

5: Of course, Jesus, the disciples, other Jews, and the first Christians (most of whom were Jewish) observed the Sabbath day on what we call, Saturday, the seventh day of the week. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, his followers also observed Sunday, the first day of each week, as “The Lord’s Day,” in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. Specific references to Sunday gathering and worship by Christians are made for Resurrection Day itself, the following Sunday (when Thomas showed up), and the Day of Pentecost. Acts 20 tells of believers gathered to break bread on Sunday (at which a man named Eutychus fell asleep during the sermon, fell out the window and died – a warning against falling asleep in church! Actually, Paul immediately raised him back to life . . .). Also, in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he told his readers to set aside an offering on the first day of each week (which may have been during worship). Finally, we read that John received what he recorded in the Book of Revelation while he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.”

6: As time went on, as the Church increased and spread among the Gentiles, and as separation from Judaism grew, Sunday became the Christian Sabbath. Apparently Pope Sylvester (AD 314-325) made the change official in the Western Church, though the practice was already common. Most Christians have kept the Sunday Sabbath ever since, except for certain groups like the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Seventh-Day Baptists, and many Messianic Jews.

So, now that we have reviewed the basis for our weekly worship services, the question comes to mind: “Do we have to go to church each week?” and from that, another question: “Is it a sin to skip church?”

To answer that, we need to go back to Jesus’ own statements about the Sabbath (and here I am accepting the Lord’s Day – Sunday – as our Sabbath). He said two essential things: first that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, and second, that the Sabbath was made for us. The Apostle Paul explained what this means in terms of observing the Sabbath by two critical verses in his letter to the Colossians. In Chapter two, verses 16 and 17, he wrote, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Sabbath was the shadow; Christ is the substance to which it points.

Keeping the Sabbath is law; but we can only keep it perfectly by faith in Christ. He is our Sabbath rest, he has fulfilled the demands of the Law and is the Sabbath personified. Therefore, if we are in him, we have kept the Sabbath, just as we have kept all the Law by believing in the One through whom grace and truth came into the world (John 1:17). Do you believe in Jesus Christ? If so, you have already fulfilled the Law, which without Christ would have condemned you for imperfectly keeping its letter and spirit. If you ever did any work on a Sunday, missed one worship service, ever felt reluctant to go to church, checked out during the sermon or scripture readings, let your mind wander to impure thoughts toward or against fellow worshipers, or failed to tithe when the offering plate came around, you have broken the commandment and have sinned! Except, the Son has set you free, so you are free indeed (John 8:36); Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

Therefore, our freedom in Christ sets us free from the condemnation facing all who break any of God’s commandments, by graciously forgiving our sins and removing the burden of fear and guilt. We can skip church without fearing that we will go to hell, for the Lord of the Sabbath is taking us to heaven.

But that brings us to the second part of what Jesus said, that the Sabbath was made for us. Therefore, though we can skip church or violate the prohibition against working on Sunday, when we do we miss out on the blessings that God has in store for keeping that command. What blessings are those? On the one hand, there is the benefit of physical and mental rest, of “down-time” from the daily rigors we face at work or around the home. A day of rest gives us a “time-out” but in a good way.  On the other hand, there are the significant blessings that come from gathering with fellow Christians to worship our Lord. Besides the fellowship we share with each other – a not insignificant blessing – there is the hearing of God’s Word, the explanation and application of God’s Word in the sermons, the call to confess our sins and receive absolution, being joined with others in prayer, the reminders of Christ in the church’s furnishings and symbols (such as the altar, the candles, the crosses, etc.), and the receipt of the sacrament of Holy Communion with its promise of forgiveness.

When we gather we are strengthened and we strengthen each other – weekly, or else we may face our daily challenges weakly. Even if we don’t feel we need church (a self-delusion), other people do; our participation in worship gives testimony and support to all who are there with us. Our faithfulness is a blessing to others.

Doing so follows the pattern of the first church recorded in Acts 2, beginning with verse 42:  “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Such corporate worship is so important, the author of Hebrews exhorts us in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Martin Luther said of keeping the Sabbath: “The spiritual rest which God especially intends in this commandment is that we not only cease from our labor and trade but much more-that we let God alone work in us and that in all our powers do we do nothing of our own.” How much more could the Sabbath be made for us, than that we receive God’s spiritual blessings as well as physical and mental rest? He also condemned both a rigid legalism that focused on obedience, and a despising of the Sabbath by those who would ignore or reject it. He said we had evangelical freedom regarding the Sabbath, but should not abuse that freedom by staying away from church.

Most significantly, Luther detached Sabbath keeping from being a particular day, to the hearing and learning of God’s Word. Thus, every day was to a Sabbath, for each day we are to hear and learn from God’s Word. To give God just one day a week diminishes his role in our lives, and reduces the blessings he would give us when we recognizing him daily as our Creator and Redeemer.

So where does this leave me, a week after skipping church? I guess I’ve talked myself into making sure my absence doesn’t become a habit, for in missing church, I would be missing a lot, not worshiping and receiving blessings from the Lord of the sabbath himself.

See you Sunday!

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Matthew 12:1-12, John 9, Acts 2:42-47