MWR : Shopping Sabbath?

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Feb. 15, 2010 issue

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Tags: Letters Bible and theology

Shopping Sabbath?

By John D. Rempel Goshen, Ind.

I was grieved to read about the opening of grocery stores on Sundays in one of the Mennonite and Christian heartlands.

“Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy” is one of the Ten Commandments. It marked the completion of creation. It was taken over by the early church and framed by Jesus’ resurrection. We call it “the Lord’s Day” because Sunday marks the completion of our redemption. Celebrating the Lord’s Day is one of the foundational markers of Christian identity. Every seventh day it enacts God’s sovereignty over creation and his gift of freedom to all his creatures. It is the great leveler: It belongs to the factory worker as much as to the factory owner.

The intention of the Sabbath is to limit the tyranny of work and consumption. Never was there a culture that more needed to be set free from these forces than ours. Sunday is exactly what our frenetic, frazzled society needs, yet Christians seem blind to this gift of God’s grace.

Christians are the culprits. If we didn’t shop or go to restaurants on Sundays, people like Curvin Hurst of Oregon Dairy wouldn’t have been forced into the “toughest decision” of his career, to open on Sunday. If Christians, by far the majority in the United States, accepted the discipline of Sunday as a day of rest, store owners would have no reason to open their stores.

Every time we violate the Fourth Commandment we are depriving the person we have forced to work of the opportunity to go to church, to be with his or her family, to find the renewal that comes to the human spirit when limits are set to the tyranny of work.

Comments

Hi,

The Sabbath is really unchanged and starts Fridays at sundown until the following sunset. There is no changing of days in the scriptures but many warnings on following the commandments. Anyone may email me, and I will share more and answer your concerns on the issue.

Sunday is a doctrine of men only and is the first day of the week.

- Roger (feb 11 at 9:08 p.m.)
Roger, you did not say whether you keep the OT Sabbath. What did Jesus mean when he said he came to fulfill the law and the prophets?

There is no mention of Christians entering the synagogue after Acts 19:8 or meeting on the Sabbath after Acts 18:4.

But there is mention of the first day of the week at the time of Jesus' resurrection and in Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:2. We don't know which of these Scriptures was written first, if that matters.

Jesus never commanded his followers to keep the Sabbath, although he did quote most of the other 10 commandments for us to keep.

Jesus often "violated" the "Sabbath". That day too had become "man-made" or the multiple rules were.

The real question is; "What is the purpose of the Sabbath?"

- Les (feb 12 at 7:19 p.m.)
Roger, you did not say whether you keep the OT Sabbath. What did Jesus mean when he said he came to fulfill the law and the prophets?

There is no mention of Christians entering the synagogue after Acts 19:8 or meeting on the Sabbath after Acts 18:4.

But there is mention of the first day of the week at the time of Jesus' resurrection and in Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:2. We don't know which of these Scriptures was written first, if that matters.

Jesus never commanded his followers to keep the Sabbath, although he did quote most of the other 10 commandments for us to keep.

Jesus often "violated" the "Sabbath". That day too had become "man-made" or the multiple rules were.

The real question is; "What is the purpose of the Sabbath?"

- Les (feb 12 at 7:20 p.m.)
Hi Roger

Accually this kind of goes along if you read all of Acts 15. We as gentiles are not under the Law but the Law is good. I beleive that you should set aside a day for the Lord and to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. But as Les said if that was the case then Jesus himself broke the Law when He healed the mans hand on the sabath.

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”[f]—to whom we gave no such commandment— 25 it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.[g] If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

Hope this helps you God Bless Heather :)

- Heather Beard (feb 15 at 1:59 p.m.)

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