This is primarily to the Lutherans out there, although I think the question pertinent to many Evangelicals as well: What think ye of the Sabbath rest today? Even though we lay under a new dispensation, are we still not instructed to rest from our labors on the Lord’s Day, the new Sabbath for a new people? Is the New Covenant one that abrogates Sabbath-keeping so as to inflict on us a seven-day workweek or a new Son’s Day that looks like the old Monday?
Is it law to keep the Sabbath, to refrain from work, to refrain even from, say, shopping for ephemera or going to a ballgame or a movie?
I ask because I grew up with the idea that Sunday was simply that day in which you jammed a one-hour and twenty-minute liturgy into your schedule and you were good to go. Strict church attendance was emphasized to an almost legalistic degree, but preparation for receiving Holy Communion or what we were to do after the service was almost never addressed.
Luther, in his Large Catechism, addresses the Sabbath in his explication of the Fourth Commandment, and in so doing seems to interpret Sunday “observance” as little more than an accommodation to the poor and working classes, and for the purpose of maintaining some kind of “order”:
This commandment, therefore, according to its gross sense, does not concern us Christians; for it is altogether an external matter, like other ordinances of the Old Testament, which were attached to particular customs, persons, times, and places, and now have been made free through Christ.
But to grasp a Christian meaning for the simple as to what God requires in this commandment, note that we keep holy days not for the sake of intelligent and learned Christians … but first of all for bodily causes and necessities, which nature teaches and requires; for the common people, man-servants and maid-servants, who have been attending to their work and trade the whole week, that for a day they may retire in order to rest and be refreshed.
Secondly, and most especially, that on such day of rest (since we can get no other opportunity) freedom and time be taken to attend divine service, so that we come together to hear and treat of God’s and then to praise God, to sing and pray.
However, this, I say, is not so restricted to any time, as with the Jews, that it must be just on this or that day; for in itself no one day is better than another; but this should indeed be done daily; however, since the masses cannot give such attendance, there must be at least one day in the week set apart. But since from of old Sunday [the Lord's Day] has been appointed for this purpose, we also should continue the same, in order that everything be done in harmonious order, and no one create disorder by unnecessary innovation. [emphasis added]
Reformed Christians have generally held a higher view of the Sabbath than most others within the church universal, and not merely by emphasizing church attendance; Catholics traditionally have been very strict about that. Rather, they have tended to celebrate the Lord’s Day as a time to truly rest from quotidian concerns—or, as Stuart Bryan writes here in this very interesting article—to truly feast on no ordinary meal on no routine occasion.
March 18th, 2010 | 12:03 pm | #1
My explanation was always:
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but regard it as holy, and gladly hear and learn it.
Having a periodic time once a week is conducive to fearing and loving God’s Word. It’s convenient and orderly. But periodic services are a means to an end, not an end to themselves.
It is entirely ok to work or see a ballgame on a Sunday, and to skip church to do so. This behavior might be an indication that you do not view God’s Word or fellowship with believers as highly as you should. It might not. But in those cases, the sin committed is not ‘skipping church’, it’s ‘not loving God enough to listen to what He has to say’.
March 18th, 2010 | 12:09 pm | #2
Luther’s treatment of this commandment in the Small Catechism is very brief, but perhaps more seminal.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word,
but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”
Holding God’s Word sacred may initially seem like an alternative to a mandate to physical inaction. However the older and busier I have become, the more I see that a truly devotional life must be an unrushed one. Especially as a pastor, I often read the Bible as a part of “getting something done.” My ancestors were German farmers for whom work was something of a sacrament. I am only beginning to understand that virtue requires a degree of habitual inactivity.
March 18th, 2010 | 6:06 pm | #3
I am somewhat surprised that Luther says so little about the human need for regular periods of rest, unless it’s implied with this phrase: “for bodily causes and necessities, which nature teaches and requires.” Perhaps I’m missing something here, but why would Luther think this need is restricted to “common people, man-servants and maid-servants,” and not to “intelligent and learned Christians”?
March 18th, 2010 | 6:45 pm | #4
Here’s a Zenit article relevant to this subject: Europeans Initiate Campaign for Work-Free Sunday. And here’s the website of the group mentioned in the article: http://www.free-sunday.eu/.
March 21st, 2010 | 12:22 pm | #5
First of all, welcome aboard EVANGEL! Nice to have another Lutheran among the contributors.
Second, re. your post: I think Luther is right!
: )
Seriously, while on the one hand we do not want to institute the kind of legalistic, and non-Biblical view that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath day, we surely would benefit from treating the worship day as a day of rest from regular routines, activities and work in order to focus our hearts and minds on God.
There has to be a healthy balance here, but finding that is often the crux of the challenge.
March 21st, 2010 | 3:47 pm | #6
Paul, would you be able to address the question I posed above with respect to Luther’s approach to the sabbath? I would be interested to hear how a Lutheran would respond. Thanks in advance.
March 21st, 2010 | 4:41 pm | #7
A few thoughts:
First, Luther has a lot to say about the need for rest, and one should not look for him to be comprehensive on any given topic in any specific documents he wrote. That was not his style.
Second, you are correct that the part you quoted is a reference to the need for rest.
Third, Luther is writing the Large Catechism chiefly for clergy and the educated classes. In his day, the groups to which he referred did work six long days a week and Sunday was their only opportunity to hear the preaching and teaching of His Word and that is why he said what he said.
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