It is Friday…
And we have been working for the weekend…
I remember that song… it was back in the 80’s and well that’s what we did.
Didn’t… doesn’t everyone?
Days off. Sleeping in. Rest. Bosslessness. Irresponsibility.
Truth? Adulting is not any of that. Weekends are just a changing of the guard. Different boss. Different responsibilities.
Maybe a bit more rest if we can manage it. But usually no rest for the weary.
Thanks Adam! Thanks Eve!
How about working for the Sabbath? Aiming for that day?
Not on our lives! Why do I say this? Because it is not to be worked for! And anyway Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath.
In other words, we need the Sabbath and it don’t need us.
Think about it as if your grandmother hollered for you from the other room that you should come and sit down at the table and eat your ice cream.
What a chore! Imagine someone demanding such a thing! What torture! What labor!
You would think that going to church is like this… by the way some people talk… act…
And guess what? It is…
Wait… like ice cream? Yes, but no… I mean, labor and hard to do and go all the time… and… painful…
It is for our sinful flesh! It is for our sinful born fleshly children… and spouse… and neighbors … and…
Well, the whole of everything the devil, this world and that “us” can throw at us to keep us from going to sit down at The Table of the Lord…
They will.
And yet it is supposed to be sitting down to eat ice cream.
It is, but it is hard to hear… hard to see… hard to taste when there is so much noise coming from outside… so much smoke and ash… so much pollution that you can taste it like bile…
So many things tugging… even our own bodies…
Yet, be glad when they say (with David the Psalmist, the king, the shepherd, the type of Christ to come) I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.… [Psalm 122:1]
Because…
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. [Psalm 84:10].
We don’t go there for God. We don’t go there to check a box off on the required responsible adult to do list. This is not a point in the good column.
This day has been set aside for us. This is a day that God Himself comes to us in the most special of ways. Like none other. It does not have to be Sunday, but that has been the day that the church has set up in honor of Jesus’ Easter resurrection. It used to be Saturday.
It used to be in the cool of the day…
Where He comes to us. Where He brings His things to give to us. When He bestows His refreshments. Where He restores what we have broken (again). Where He feeds the hungry and quenches the thirsty from want of all that is good—from that which is missing—righteousness.
You know… even if you can’t notice on any given Sunday, He still gives. Because He promises to do so.
Many mothers have asked why they bothered to come because the children were just so restless and disruptive. This too shall pass. You too had to learn how sometime in the past. They will get there.
And the truth is, you still received from your Gracious Lord Jesus. You received His Body and His Blood for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of your faith.
This day, the Lord’s Day, was His day given to you and to me. So that He can give us more. Of course we say thank you.
So come, and find your rest with Him and in Him, Jesus your Savior. Savior from all that the fallenness has drained from you.
Oh, and no… it is not found anywhere else. It is where 2 or 3 are gathered in His Name. Now that does not just mean hanging out—well that is good too—Christian fellowship is great and helpful and all that—but gathered in His Name is to be gathered together as church… and then, as it says, He is there in the midst.
To be gathered in someone’s name is to be there for the purposes that the person with that name has purposed.
So as church, we gather to receive His church stuff. Word and Sacrament, and then other things.
Yes, the whole rag-tag bunch of us!
So… yes, it’s Friday… I know…
But Sunday, our Sabbath Day meeting with our Lord, is almost here…
This coming Sunday – Fourth Sunday in Advent – December 21st 2025
It is our – Family Christmas Service
It is a service of Christmas Readings and Singing Christmas Hymns, Carrols, and Songs
Readings: from all over both the Old and New Testaments that tell the story of the coming Messiah
Prayers: For a lasting peace that would be established and would remain between the people of Israel and Gaza as well as for the People of Russia and the Ukraine. For our congregation that it would please our Lord that we would increase in numbers and there remain in this place a congregation that calls upon Him rightly, practicing the faith according to the Scriptures. For those who are being persecuted and murdered because they call upon the name of Jesus—especially in Africa. For the end of violence in our cities and that our schools and congregations would be protected from those who wish them harm. For our families that parents would courageously discipline their children and raise them in the fear of the Lord, teaching them about salvation in Jesus alone.
Reflection on the Sabbath from Luther:
“It has so far been our custom to teach the elements and fundamentals of Christian knowledge and life four times each year. We have therefore arranged to preach on these things for two weeks in each quarter, four days a week at two o’clock in the afternoon. Because these matters are highly necessary, I dutifully admonish you to assemble with your families at the designated time. Do not allow yourself to be kept away by your work or trade and do not complain that you will suffer loss when, for once, you interrupt your work for an hour. Remember how much freedom the gospel has given you. You are now no longer obliged to observe innumerable holy days; you can pursue your work. And besides, how much time do you spend drinking and swilling? You don’t count that! But spending as much time on the Word is boring to you. Woe to you who scorn this treasure on account of your greed! For you will not give your household a free hour to hear God’s Word. Give them an hour that they may come to know themselves and Christ more fully.
But you fathers who have given your children and servants time off and then found that they did not want to come to church, I give you the liberty to compel them to come. Don’t think that you have fulfilled your responsibility for your households when you say, “Well, if they don’t want to go, why force them? I dare not do it.” By no means! You have been appointed their bishop and pastor; take heed that you do not neglect your office over them. If you neglect this office in your homes, we shall fall into public disgrace, as we have seen happen already. For you will have to answer for your children and servants whom you have neglected. If you have neglected their education inwardly or outwardly, see to it that this is corrected! See to it, then, that they come to hear this preaching. I hold the office of pastor and I will preach these sermons. I will do my part—even more than we are obliged to do.”
–Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 27 pg. 444.