Why Worship on Sunday?

As twenty-four hour workdays and seven-day work weeks become commonplace, Sunday recedes from view as a special day of the week. For some people, Sunday has become one more shopping day, another workday, and another open time in the schedule for youth hockey and soccer league games. For some churches, Sunday worship is primarily for "seekers," while the believing community gathers for worship on another day of the week. Why is it important for the believing Christian community to gather for worship on Sunday? Why is Sunday important?

1. What God Has Done
   It was on the first day of the week, after the Sabbathwas over, that the women and men following Jesus came to the tomb and found it empty. (See Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 23:54-56, 24:1-12, and John 20:1-10, 19-23, 26.) In John's recounting of Jesus'resurrection appearances, the women find the tomb empty on the morning of the first day of the week. On the evening of the first day, the risen Christ appears to the disciples gathered in a house. A week later, the risen Christ again appears to the disciples (for Thomas' sake). In Luke's account, on the evening of the first day of the week, the risen Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Each of these gospel stories tells us that the first day of the week is the day of the Resurrection.

   One reason we worship on Sunday is to celebrate week-in and week-out the resurrection of Jesus, the anointed One of God, the Son, Lord, Savior, Redeemer. Every Sunday is, in some way, a "little Easter," celebrating the Resurrection. On Sunday, we look back to what God has done in the resurrection of Jesus and reconnect with him as an Easter people.

2. What God Is Doing
   The most explicit Scripture reference that reports the early church gathering on the first day of the week for worship is Acts 20:7-12. Paul joins the Christian community in Troas, "on the first day of the week, when we gathered to break bread," and speaks to them at length. This passage suggests that by Paul's time — some twenty-five years after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus — the Christian community had claimed the first day of the week as the day on which the community gathers to tell the story of Jesus and to break bread together. In Luke's story of Jesus' appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), Jesus is present with the disciples, opens the Scriptures to them, and breaks bread with them. The disciple's eyes are opened; they recognize Jesus. The second century martyr Justindescribed the church's gathering on Sunday in a written defense of the beliefs and practices of the Christian community to the Roman emperor. On Sunday, the church gathered for the reading of Scriptures, an exhortation based on the Scriptures, prayer, and the breaking of bread (sharing the Lord's Supper).

   A second reason we worship on Sunday is that "on the first day of the week," Jesus continues to be present to the community of disciples, opens our ears to the story of God's steadfast love for creation and breaks the bread (see "Does Word and Table Signal a Shift in the Way We Worship") of God's nurturing love. As Matthew writes at the conclusion of the gospel, Jesus promises to be with us always, "to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20) On Sunday, we acknowledge the way in which God incarnate in Jesus continues to be present with us.

3. What God Will Do
   Another part of the Christian tradition claims Sunday not only as the first day of the week, but also — because it follows the seventh day — as the anticipated "eighth day." So it is the "day of the Lord" on which God begins the new creation (see Amos 5:18-20 and Matthew 24:3-44 for examples) or "the Lord's Day." On this eighth day of the week, God begins something new in our lives. What we see and experience in our lives today is not the completion of God's hope for us. What we see and experience today is but the beginning of our life with and in God. God's covenant of love is being written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). We will be invited to sit down together and feast on the abundance of God's gifts (Isaiah 55:1-5). We are receiving a foretaste of the fulfillment of God's reign in creation. As the Scriptures are read, we hear that God has a future with and for us. As bread is broken and the cup poured, we taste something of the promised heavenly banquet. (See Revelation 21:22-22:5 and 22:17.) As we are sent forth, we go to live as signs of God's justice and compassion in daily life.

   A third reason we worship on Sunday is that, as the Lord's Day, Sunday is day on which we celebrate God's promised future with us and scatter into the world to point to the ways it is coming among us.

Why Should We Worship on Sunday?

We are called to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), to offer ourselves as "a living sacrifice" of worship (Romans 12:1), and to glorify God in word and deed (James 2:14-26). We are called to do each of these day in and day out as Christian people. But we should worship especially on Sunday because on this day, we remember and celebrate what God has done in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Worship on Sunday is a symbol like the cross or the Apostles'Creed. When we gather to worship on Sunday, it signifies who we are and to whom we belong as those who share Christ's dying and rising. On this day, we experience and celebrate God's abiding presence with us through the Holy Spirit. On this day, we anticipate and celebrate what God promises to do in our lives and in our world.

For Further Reading:

Hoyt Hickman, Worshiping with United Methodists (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996).

Paul V. Marshall, "The Little Easter and the Great Sunday" Liturgy 1.2 (1980): 27-31.

Mark Searle, ed., Sunday Morning: A Time for Worship (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1982).

Laurence Stookey, Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church(Nashville: Abingdon, 1996).

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E. Byron (Ron) Anderson isassistant professor of worship and director of community worship at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a clergy member of the Minnesota Annual Conference, where he has served as a local church pastor, musician, and educator.