WHY I WILL NOT MISS CHURCH ON SUNDAY
(Except For One Reason)

A few years back when I was serving my term as an elder in our church here in Denton I had occasion to tell my fellow elders of my view of the Lord’s day, particularly in reference to being at my place in the assembly each Sunday.

We were discussing the subject because as a “freer” Church of Christ we no longer harangued our members about “forsaking the assembling of yourselves together” or browbeat them about being present on Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday night. But as “liberated” souls our folk seemed inclined toward antinomianism, the doctrine that rejects law in the life of the Christian. We now taught our people that love should motivate us to please the Lord and that we attend church because we want to and not because we have to. But now that our folk were “free” they didn’t attend church as regularly as when they had to.

I find this often to be the case among “more open” members of Churches of Christ. Liberation tends to invite license. Now that God’s grace has flooded their lives, displacing a debilitating legalism, they don’t attend church as they once did. Now and again such ones come by to see us and as often as not they are traveling when they would have once been in church. So as to “stay on schedule,” as they sometimes put it, they will leave early on Sunday and travel all day, missing church. In one recent case of folk we had known for a long time, I said to Ouida, “They would not have done that a few years ago, but now they are what they call free.”

I told the elders that I viewed the Lord’s day as a standing date with Jesus Christ and my fellow believers. It is an appointment that I do not break for any reason except an emergency. If I were on my way to the assembly and came upon someone in distress, as in an automobile accident, I would of course stop and render aid and remain as long as necessary, even if it meant missing church. Or if it were necessary I would miss church to care for sick loved ones. I might miss the assembly so as to work and make a living, but only temporarily, for I would prayerfully endeavor to position myself so that I would not always have to work on Sundays or to at least be free from work long enough to attend church, as was the case with the slaves in the early church. And of course we can’t attend when we are ill, but that is not a matter of will. Many of us often attend church when we are not feeling well.

This is a rule I have always followed as a believer. I have a date each Sunday morning and I do not break it (period), wherever I am and whatever the circumstance. I will not fly to an appointment, academic or otherwise, if I have to miss church. A few years back I flew from New York to Geneva with several other ministers for a gathering of leaders from the World Council of Churches. We flew all Saturday night, arriving at our quarters, which happened to be a Roman Catholic facility conducted by nuns, early Sunday morning.

Having been up all night it was understandable that the churchmen all piled into bed and slept that Sunday morning. But I quietly informed one of the nuns that I would be going to church somewhere. The word spread quickly among the sisters, and I overheard one of them saying, “One of them wants to go to church; he must be a Catholic.” Learning that I was other than Roman Catholic, they proceeded to put me in touch with one of the secretaries of the convention, a Protestant, who walked me through the streets of ancient Geneva to her church, a Church of Scotland congregation where John Knox once preached. It was a delightful and memorable experience! I worshiped with believers from several nations and enjoyed a typical British “tea” following the service. Before the day was over I was a guest in the home of the pastor and his wife, old Scots who were proud of their heritage. That was all far better than spending the Lord’s day in bed!

The Lord always rewards us when we are faithful in keeping our appointment with him each week in an assembly of believers, somewhere: and some place. It does not have to be a Church of Christ, though I admit that that is where I start in my search when I am a stranger in a strange land, if for no other reason I believe the Lord’s day and the Lord’s table are meaningfully related. It isn’t often that I am able “break bread” with fellow believers when it is a church outside the Stone-Campbell tradition.

Years ago when I was in faraway Taichung, Taiwan on a Fulbright assignment I had an address of an army officer who conducted a “Church of Christ” service in his home. Aware of both language and transportation obstacles I began my search for his home early that Sunday morning. A pedicab (a two-wheel cart pulled by a man) delivered me to the officer’s home, but he had moved and there was no longer any such service at that place. Dismissing the pedicab, I began to walk up one street and down the other. I was confident that the Lord and I would keep our appointment, and that in that Buddhist country I would come upon an assembly of Christians. The hour was still early.

I walked by Buddhist temples and shrines and I enjoyed absorbing the culture of so strange a land, but no church. At last I heard a familiar hymn, one that has since meant more to me because of that experience, coming from a store front, All for Jesus, All for Jesus, in Chinese of course. It was obviously the tune that I recognized. I walked in and was warmly received by Christian believers. The leader spoke English, and ascertaining that I was indeed a believer, I was invited to remain after the evangelistic service for the assembly only for believers where there was exhortation and the Lord’s Supper. It was an assembly of Plymouth Brethren, and I appreciated the distinction they made, one I believe to be eminently scriptural. They preach to the world in an evangelistic service, and then dismiss them. Then they gather as believers, encourage one another in mutual ministry, and break bread in memory of the blessed Christ. This too proved to be a joyous experience, even though it was all in Chinese. The universal language of love somehow transcends all our confusion of tongues.

On that same visit to Taiwan they scheduled us visiting professors to fly to the British crown colony of Victoria (Hong Kong), from whence we would visit the Portugese colony of Macao, which I was eager to see. But alas, the Macao trip was scheduled for Sunday morning. So I missed seeing

Macao. This time I searched out a Church of Christ mission and ended up enjoying a beautiful fellowship with Ira Rice and other missionaries in Hong Kong. That may be one reason Ira has been reluctant to write me off as a hopeless “liberal,” as some of his associates do. He and I do not write each other up, even if we are editor bishops!

Once I laid this view of the Lord’s day before my fellow elders, one of our members who was meeting with us that night expressed concern over what he considered a strict position. He wanted to know if the other elders agreed with me. One of them said he did. I’ve noticed that that, t brother is one who is always in his place at the Sunday morning assembly, while other of our members think nothing of using the Lord’s day for travel, skiing, hunting or what have you. I am persuaded that our sisters who stay home from church to prepare” for company or our brothers who “sleep in” because they worked late the night before have not yet learned the meaning of discipleship which calls for commitment.

This was one of the true marks of a Christian in a time when it was dangerous to be a follower of Christ, that they assembled on the Lord’s day to remember Jesus in his appointed way. History itself, as well as the New Testament, attests to this. Pliny, called the younger, was governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor when it was against the law to be a Christian. Finding some of these culprits in his province, he wrote to Trajan the emperor as to what he should do with them. In his letter he writes of the Christians that “they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before sunrise” and he refers to their singing and eating together.

Pliny and other authorities forbade such assemblies and demanded that the disciples deny Christ at pain of death. Some did deny Christ and forsook the assemblies, but those who resolved to be “faithful unto death” moved underground and continued their meetings, sometimes in catacombs, sometimes in a back street. The Ichthus symbol, the sign of the fish, in time became a secret marker as to where the believers were gathering. It; is true even today in unfree nations that Christians have to hide out in, order to keep their appointment with Christ and with each other.

Justin Martyr in about 150 A.D. in his Apology gives a detailed account of the Christian assembly, which is relevant to what I am saying in that he refers to “them that are not present.” From the martyr’s narrative it is evident that the absent members were not out golfing or picnicking at the lake, for he tells how “the Eucharistic elements,” of which they all partook in the assembly, were taken by the deacons to those who were, absent — obviously absent out of necessity. This attests to how seriously the early Christians regarded the assembly. Justin begins his description with “On the day which is called the day of the sun there is an assembly of all those who live in the towns or in the country.”

There is an assembly of believers! Here we have a crucial mark of the Christian faith, Christianity being the only world religion, along with Judaism, that has a called assembly of the faithful. A Buddhist or a Muslim or a Confucianist or a Shintoist frequents his shrine as all individual or as a family, but not as a congregation. If he prays he prays alone; if he partakes of ritual food he does so alone. Followers of Christ have an appointment with their Lord on “the Lord’s day” and he is with them as his Body in a special way. If there is meaning in our Lord’s words, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20), there is also meaning in the apostle’s statement, “When you come together as a church” (1 Co. 11:20). It is apparent that Paul took it for granted that they would assemble as a church in corporate worship.

There is no evidence that the early Christians had to be urged to gather as a church. A passage we so often use, Heb. 11:25 (“Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some”) may have no reference to the called assembly on Lord’s day, but to a practice among those Hebrew believers of frequently meeting together and urging each other to be prepared for that impending Day that is referred to, probably the destruction of Jerusalem. The writer wanted them to continue that practice since it was a means of keeping them faithful.

They assembled as a church because they were believers. And that is where I take my stand. When the church assembles as his Body on the Lord’s day as it has for two thousand years, I should be there if I am a part of that Body. Where else could I better be? Except for an emergency or a special case of showing mercy, I should meet my appointment with the Lord around his table and with his people. That is where I belong on Lord’s day.

I am amazed that some of my brethren who talk of “being liberated by grace” refer to this commitment to the Lord’s day as “legalism.” That is why I will not miss church — because I have been made free by grace. I do not go to church because I think I have to or to pick up Brownie points or to perform “five acts of worship” or to work my way to heaven. I do not “assemble as a church” with fellow believers in order to be saved, which I suppose would be legalism, but because I am saved.

We should be at the assembly because our dearest friend, the one who died for us will be there in a special way. We have a date. We should fear that we would disappoint him if we were not there. If we are faithful, he will be even more faithful. One day we will be like John the apostle and “be in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,” or something like that, for He who is faithful will reward faithfulness in his children. He who honors the Lord will be honored, a prophet assures us.

But there is more. We should not miss the assembly because the early Christians would not, even when it was dangerous. We should be with the gathered church because that is where Luther was, and Tyndale and Wycliffe, Calvin and Zwingli, Campbell and Stone, Eliza Davies and Selina Campbell. Ouida tells me that Eliza would walk six miles through Australian back country to gather with “the Little Flock” and six miles back, sore feet or no. She did it because she was a disciple of Christ.

So I join all of them and all of you on the Lord’s day. We should make no exceptions except for mercy’s sake. Where else can we better be? —the Editor
 

The unexamined life is not worth living - Socrates