What is the first day of the week?
I’m pretty sure I missed the answer to that question in elementary school. For me, Monday was the first day of the week. Sunday was the last. Sunday was football day. Lunch at grandma’s. Play day. A day of relaxation and trying to squeeze that last bit of joy out of a dying week before another one was rebirthed on Monday morning.
Eventually the school system, and all my calendars, drilled it in my head that Sunday was, in fact, the first day of the week. (At least in the US, Canada, and Japan). But old habits die hard. Though I technically agreed with this dating system, my heart was still oriented towards Sunday being the last day of the week. Monday is when the action begins.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that my view of Sunday changed. In fact I would say that it is vital to our health as Christians to view Sunday as the first day of the week and not the last. I’m not saying this because of Sabbath rules and regulations. I’m saying this because it changes the way we think about what we do and who we are when we gather on a Sunday morning.
If Sunday is the end of the week then our gathering is going to be a celebration (or perhaps mourning) of the previous week, where we try to thank God as we put another week to bed. Our Sunday gathering will be the big event of the week—the culmination of all our efforts. We’ll judge the effectiveness of our week based upon metrics attained on Sunday morning.
But what if Sunday is the first day of the week? What if rather than putting a week to rest we are celebrating a new week, new mercies, and new challenges? Our Sunday gathering will not be the big event of the week. It’ll be ground zero. The day when training and equipping and encouraging happens. We’ll judge the effectiveness of our week based upon metrics attained throughout the week.
Do you see the difference?
The way you view your Sunday impacts the way you’ll walk in and out of church. It’ll impact the events you put into your calendar on Sunday’s. Are you trying to squeeze every little bit of life out of a dying week or are you using day one to get every bit of training and charging up for the rest of the week?
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Photo source: here
