Sabbath for Man

It's 10:13 on Sunday morning. Since Crievewood now has an early morning service, I am often away from church by 9:30 or 10:30 (depending on if I stay for Sunday school). Sometimes I go to Starbucks, or to a park, or just come back home to do laundry or relax on the back patio. Wherever I go, I love to observe the people who aren't in church. Perhaps they went early, like me, or maybe they went to a Saturday evening service, or perhaps they are not the churchgoing sort at all. It is this last bunch that I am most intrigued by.

I observe them partially because I wonder what it is like to not feel any sort of obligation to go to church every Sunday. I was raised always going, and now that I'm a pastor's wife, people will nag my husband to death if I don't show up. There is guilt involved in not going--like staying home from work or school sick when you're not really that sick. I remember in college, someone once told me they dress up to go to the dining hall on Sundays for lunch, because those who have come straight from church would judge him if he showed up in pajamas. So, I watch with interest those who show up at Starbucks in jeans, or those playing with their kids at the park who don't appear to have come straight from church. They seem to have come to these places for the same reason I have, only without having put in the requisite hour in worship first. They have come to relax, to have fun, to enjoy the beautiful day and have a few moments to themselves before heading back to the office on Monday.

I do not wish to deny the importance of singing praises to God, praying, or discussing issues of spiritual importance. I often find, though, that my hour of relaxation is more worshipful and centering than my hour or two spent in the structured worship setting. I also notice the joy of those who passed go without collecting their wine and wafer. This is their sabbath as well. As Jesus told his critics, "Man was not made for the sabbath, but the sabbath for man." God did not designate a sabbath day so that we should feel burdened by obligation, but so that we can experience time free of obligations--time to relax and rejuvenate ourselves for six more days of work. I sometimes wonder if those who have skipped church altogether understand that concept more than the rest of us.