Sunday is Only the Beginning

When I first started this blog three and a half years ago, I found that one of the hardest initial things to decide upon was a blog title. I wanted something that would be catchy, yet somewhat meaningful; something that was timely and yet something that would be enduring as my ministry and circumstances would inevitably change over the years. In the end after much prayer and contemplation I decided on the title "Sunday is Only the Beginning" as it summed up both my ministry philosophy and my hope for the church. The tag-line for my blog is "the end of the church service is the beginning of the Christian life," and for me that encompasses what I believe my role as a pastor/teacher is for the congregation that I'm serving. The worship service was never supposed to be the be-all and end all for the Christian, but rather a place of empowering, equipping and commissioning to go and live a missionary life wherever God has placed you.

So this morning as I got up to spend some time with God before music practice I came across Luke 3:7-18 in my lectionary readings and I instantly felt resonance with this idea that Sunday is the beginning (and not the end) of it all. Here is what it says:

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ 

And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ 

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ 

It's an interesting story with quite the application I think for the contemporary church. Here are a group of people who have come to worship - more than that, they have come to submit to the will of the Lord in baptism (something that as a church we need to learn a lot about!) and yet Christ's first reaction to their worship is to call them a brood of Vipers! How would you feel if that was how you were greeted on a Sunday morning by your pastor? He proceeds to give them further grief for their practice of 'playing worship' when the occasion called for it while not backing up that profession of faith with their lifestyle.

I think that Jesus here is coming down hard on the idea that worship is a compartmentalized aspect of our lives that exists in its own little bubble for 1 hour a week. He's ripping to shreds the notion that Sunday morning faith is sufficient to call oneself a disciple. Our lives must bear fruits worthy of repentance - which is to say that it's not enough to live as though there is no God six days a week and then come to church and seek forgiveness on the seventh. If your worship of God does not produce fruit throughout the rest of the week and the other areas of your life, Jesus warns that the axe is at the root and the fruitless will be cut down and thrown into the fire! I know that we don't like to reflect on the judgment of God on believers in our Evangelical Christian sub-culture - but Jesus is far more concerned with judging those on the inside of the community of faith than those on the outside!

In response then to Jesus exhortation, people start asking the right questions: "What then shall we do?" Or another way of putting it, "How now shall we live?" And Jesus' response continues with the same theme: Don't be greedy, but practice generosity (2 coats, food when your neighbour is hungry, etc). Don't cheat people, but treat them fairly; don't exploit people but show them justice; be satisfied with what you have and don't be obsessed with having more (a LOT of people in our culture could learn something from this last one). Jesus is showing them that professions of worship need to be backed up by fruitful lives - that is lives that bear the fruit of the Gospel in everyday settings.

Friends, I can't tell you how many times I've caught myself singing a song of praise and dedication to God and then walking out of the building and living an utterly selfish and fruitless life. I wish it wasn't so frequently but I'm ashamed to say that it is. I need to be reminded time and time again that Sunday is not the end of my week (which is an especially heinous temptation as a pastor who week after week is working towards Sunday) but the beginning of a new way of living. I don't think that it is merely coincidental that the resurrection of Christ, and the subsequent Christian tradition of worship happened on the first day of the week - I think that there is something deeply significant about it. I think that God was demonstrating for us in Jesus that this is a new beginning, a new opportunity to be reconciled to God through the resurrection power of Jesus, and that as the resurrection is mirrored week after week in the worship of the Church that we also have the opportunity to make changes and be renewed for a missional life into the world. Sunday is, and always has been, only the beginning!

Then as we get to the end of the passage we come back to the familiar story that John was pointing people to Jesus as the Messiah, but once again there is the looming threat of judgment for those who are fruitless (in this case the imagery of wheat and chaff is used instead but the point is the same), and yet when Luke finishes telling this story he ends it with the most peculiar statement:

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Judgment. You brood of vipers. The Axe is at the root, and the fruitless will be thrown into the fire. The wheat will be separated from the chaff and the later will be burned up. This is good news?

Yes! This is good news. It's good news that Christ has made a way for us to follow him in true discipleship rather than lifeless rote worship. It's good news that the people of God will be known for a different type of living than the rest of the world and that as the old song says, "they will know we are Christians by our love."It is good news that the baptism Jesus is offering will not simply wash away dirt but will purge away the root causes of our sin and fill us anew with the Spirit's power to live lives worthy of our worship. It's good news that Sunday wasn't the end of it all, that worship was not simply a once per-week box to check off our list of things that keep God happy, but that instead it is designed for the Christian as an integral and important starting point for a fruitful life of true discipleship.

In other words, the end of the worship service is the beginning of the Christian life. Sunday is only the beginning. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you here at The Bridge this morning so we can all begin together again!

Until next time,

Chris