Rascal Flatts have a song out called Mayberry, about a longing for the world that television show represented. It has a couplet that has always struck home with me:
Sunday used to be a day of rest, Now it's one more day for progress.As someone who is new to thinking about himself in Christian terms, the whole concept of a Sabbath was one I have had to reflect on. I certainly don't spend all of my Sundays refraining from work and studying the Bible, but I have to come to respect the idea of a family and communal day. How often do we complain that we have no time for the people we love? For things we love to do? Who has not rued not speaking to an old friend because "I haven't had time." Who hasn't sighed that the gardening or some other favorite hobby is coming along poorly because "I haven't had time." Who hasn't wondered why their family isn't closer, or that they don't know who their neighbors are? How much could we improve these things by making better use of Sundays? If we all settle on one day for such things, we would have a lot less hassle scheduling time to spend with one another. The Sabbath and what we've done to it were brought to my mind by the first passage in this Sunday's reading, from Amos, a rather scary figure from the old Testament:
"When will the new moon be over," you ask, "that we may sell our grain, and the Sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!"Gutting Sunday shopping laws was passed as a way of increasing freedom, but freedom for who?And for what? If you have money you can go shopping on Sunday. That's a minor perk. But what about all the clerks and other people who now work Sundays, who are robbed of that time? They will have more money than before, it's true, but they've lost something as well. I would never seek to have Sunday shopping banned again. I don't oppose it on church and state grounds because everyone would be free to spend Sunday as they wished. You don't have to go to church. I would oppose it because I think it goes too far in terms of having morality legislated. People have to want to do the things that are good for them if they are to really appreciate them. Christians might get a better reception from the world if they were less quick to try and use government as a lever to produce the society they want. Social change is tougher than that. You have to convince people by argument and by example. But make no mistake, Sunday shopping favours those with the cash. They still have their leisure. Those without loose a day of rest and have their family life diminished. And we all have less of a community to share, in exchange for trinkets. I'm not above criticism on this count.
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