Kick-Back Day

Sunday is for most just a "kick-back" day;
Time to sleep-in, and let the whiskers grow;
To visit the folks and Aunt Sally May;
Great for watching football and shopping go!
Why churches spoil it, doing what they do,
Gathering crowds dressed up in "Sunday best";
Trying to make a sinner out of you,
For staying home on your one day of rest!
See? It's not hard to make excuse for sin;
The devil is quick to supply them galore;
The wrong way always appears right to men
In Satan's grip, headed straight for hell's door!
God's way's always opposite the world's way;
Why not honor Him, on His Risen day?

Here I go again, yearning for the "good ole days" when all things were different! Have you ever heard of something like the "blue" laws? Before America had shopping malls; before economists ran the country and accelerated spending to 150% of income in order to maximize the Gross National Product; before the chairman of the Reserve Bank learned to tweak the prime rate of interest to avoid inflation and depression; when people had a strange luxury called "leisure time"; the 48 states all had laws that businesses had to remain closed on Sundays. How quaint! We, as a nation, honored God on Sunday, not the idol of Wall Street, better known as the "bottom line", or, even better as The Almighty Dollar! We honored Him by closing every place of commerce; stores, auto service stations, movies; athletic contests, etc. Eric Liddell, the Scottish minister who had the talent of being incredibly fast as a runner, refused to race on Sunday in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. His story was featured in the film, "Chariots of Fire". He was called before the crown prince of England who personally asked him to forego his religious principles and run, but he refused. What a man! That is, what a dedicated Christian man! In these times, many church leaders, doubting the fidelity of their members to uphold their God-honoring vow of keeping Sunday sacred, call off services on Super Bowl Sunday; or they show the televised game in church. I wonder if they "black out" the beer ads for prayer, or skip the sometimes-bawdy halftime shows. But the blue laws are gone forever, I guess. How could the nation avoid deep economic depression by giving up the income of people's spending on Sundays?

A typical Sunday before WW2 in America went like this: 9:45---Sunday School; 11:00---Preaching; 12:30---a huge dinner of roast beef (fried chicken if the preacher went home with you), mashed potatoes with gravy, snapped beans, coconut meringue pie; 1:30---naptime for all, even reluctant kids; 5:00---cold cuts or leftovers; 6:00---BYPU (Baptist Young People's Union); 7:00---Preaching; 9:00---bedtime.

Have we become so enamored of the world that the day that Jesus walked out of the tomb alive---resurrected---we let Sunday become more important for the jolt it gives our economy than for the day God commanded us to keep holy?