We have been attending a church that meets late Sunday afternoons. We enjoy the timing because it makes the whole day feel very restful, but not going to church Sunday mornings makes me paranoid. We live in a small town (albeit next to a big city, it is still a small town) where many of our neighbors invited us to church upon meeting us. Both of our cars are obviously home every Sunday morning. Then I took the girls for a walk this morning and I wondered what people thought about me walking around with two casually dressed children at 10:30 Sunday morning. I almost wanted a shirt that said, “I’m not a pagan. I go to church later in the day.” Sunday mornings are just so entrenched in our culture as church time, and I do appreciate the setting apart of a day for the Lord, but I know that 11 a.m. is not intrinsically sacred. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.
Search This Classical Life:
categories:
in the middle of:
read in 2016:
Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saintsarchives:
*L*
I totally understand!
Where are y’all churching?
You’re right: there’s nothing particularly magical about 11:00 (or 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, or 10:45 for that matter) on a Sunday morning. And our RC friends are perfectly justified in having Sunday services on Saturday evening. They are not “just trying to get out of going to church on Sunday”, as I was told when I was a child. Biblically, a day begins at Sundown, so the Lord’s Day begins at sundown on Saturday. This is also why most synagogues (including the ones where you live) offer services on both Friday evening and Saturday morning.
So Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon–it’s all the Lord’s Day, and any of those times you choose to attend worship are part of the Lord’s Day.
Just smile and wave at those neighbors as they see you out walking while they’re getting ready to go to church. :-)
Thanks, Rev. B!
Rick, we’re attending Red Mountain.
at least you aren’t mowing your grass.. that’s how we separate the sheep from the goats around these parts.
“at least you aren’t mowing your grass.. that’s how we separate the sheep from the goats around these parts.”
*L* And we do see that here in suburbia. . .
Followed your link from RT’s site.
I completely understand. When we were living in St. Louis, our church met on Sunday evenings (it was a “start up” church and we used another church’s fellowship hall). It was nice to have a long, relaxing Sunday, yet still awkward to not go to church first thing on a Sunday. We got some stares, both from neighbors who went to church in the AM and also from those neighbors who knew we were Christians and thought that we should be going to church in the morning.
I suppose it’s just a stereotype.
Being back in Lincoln, though, I have to say that I like going in the morning again. There just seems to be something right about it. Stressful at times trying to get my 3 year old, 1 year old, husband, as well as myself out the door early. But, I like it.
I can completely empathize with your thoughts. We visited a Sunday afternoon church a few Sundays, and I felt so embarassed being home *for all the neighbors to see* on Sunday morning. I’m so easily led astray.