Four - Sabbath Worship

I recently read the book “With Reverence and Awe” by D.G. Hart and John Muether. It is an unapologetically Reformed book on corporate worship within the church, and while I can’t unequivocally recommend it, they challenged my thinking in a number of areas, and articulated more clearly than I could have some things I have thought for a while.

One thing that I really appreciated was the chapter on “The Holy Day of Worship”. They begin by saying the rhythm of corporate worship is important; the regular observation of, and preparation for, Sunday worship is an important part of our Christian growth. They continue by saying that we often treat our corporate worship indifferently because we treat Sundays indifferently. The general thrust of their argument is this:

The decline in sabbath-keeping (Note – I prefer the term “Celebrating the Lord’s Day”) and the current unrest and confusion about worship are related. They assert there are two main reasons for this. First, as many churches have become increasingly focused on particular demographics and offered numerous programs to meet felt needs, Sunday worship services have become just one more program, instead of a centre of church life.

Second, the domination of evangelicalism by revivalism (as opposed to revival. See “Evangelicalism Divided” by the always-insightful Iain Murray for a balanced and wide-ranging look at this subject) in the past fifty years has created a thirst for “mountain top” experiences and a consequent distain for the regular cadence of celebrating Sundays by worshipping with God’s people. Without this regular, consistent feeding and nourishment, believers can become spiritually bulimic.

They devote much of the rest of the chapter to offering a Biblical defense for these views as well as how to correct the situation. I will post some more of their comments next week.

It served as a reminder to me of the importance of devoting our Sundays to the Lord, and planning ahead so that we can celebrate Sundays. We try to use Saturday to bring the week to an end and prepare spiritually and physically for Sunday.

All our lives are to be lived to the glory of God and offered as a spiritual sacrifice of worship, but let us not neglect the special and unique blessings that accrue to believers who faithfully devote themselves to keeping Sunday holy. May our Sundays be holy, “set apart”, to help our worship of our holy God be holy as well.