More Than Sunday
Whenever a high holiday in the Church rolls around I see the excitement, anticipation, and joy of people spring up to new levels. I see true smiles, I see actual hope, I see peace and patience, and I see more passion than throughout the rest of the year on days like Resurrection Sunday (Easter) or Christmas.
For me, this is both refreshing and saddening. I love being around the body of Christ who is remembering the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. I love lifting voices, hands, and hearts with the unified Bride who proclaims that Christ is Risen and that the Lamb who was slain is worthy, great, and glorious. I love bringing forth more opportunity to get family together to celebrate, to laugh, to cry, to eat, and to simply be with one another in God's presence.
However, I do not enjoy seeing that hope and passion dwindle the next day. I find it difficult to see smiles turn into anger that covers over the peace and patience that were being experienced and given the day before. I can't stand seeing one day of worship and another day of idolatry. And this is not to say that I don't participate in this, but it is to say, that this activity is deeply saddening and I believe it misses the point of the Gospel truth that sets us free.
We live in exuberant praise and abundant life one day, and once we walk out of the four walls of the Church we live in the pits of death and the hopelessness of false identity the next day. I truly believe that this type of activity is what is holding back the Church from the greater things that Jesus promised us (Jn. 14:12). Many want to blame their personal situations and the things of life on the Lord. They use phrases that limit God as a genie who, if we worship and do enough for Him, then we will get whatever we want. It's not God's fault that we end up in this type of living, it's our choices that lead to this brokenness in life, relationships, work, and beyond. This type of lifestyle--connection with God one day a week--is the exact opposite of what Jesus laid down His life for us to have.
The Gospel of John gives us an understanding that God so loved the world He gave His only Son so that whoever would believe in Him would have eternal life (Jn. 3:16). Jesus goes on to define eternal life as knowing God (relationally) while praying later in the garden before His crucifixion and resurrection (Jn. 17:3). I love this because it shatters our mentality that we have created in the Church. It brings us to a place where either Jesus is Lord and Savior all the time or only when we want Him to be. It gives us the opportunity to ask, "Am I only connecting with God on Sunday, or is my life a relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit eternally?"
I write this all to say one thing: Jesus' blood bought more than Sunday.
This isn't to guilt anybody in doing more throughout the week, or striving to be "more" in the Kingdom, or to say you need to go to Church more often. The reality I am getting at is simply that Jesus is interested in every aspect of your life and He intends to bring the fullness of His life, grace, love, truth, and freedom into every part of who you are.
A.W. Tozer puts it this way, "If you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on. Go to church once a week and nobody pays attention. Worship God seven days a week and you become strange!"
Here's the interesting aspect to this: if I were to only be with my wife one day a week and then go find another woman the other six days of this week, this would be considered adultery, wrong, and weird to our society. But somehow something has infiltrated our understanding of relationship with God, and we have it backward. We think it is weird to love God with all that we are every day of the week, to invite the presence of the Lord into all of our lives, or to actually invite the Kingdom to permeate the atmosphere of earth.
The fact is that the power of the resurrection is for everyday and Jesus would have never taught us or modeled to us that connection with the Father is an everyday practice if it wasn't meant to be. The abundance of life is available today, tomorrow, and each day as much as it is when we "feel" like it on a Sunday. The eternity of connection with the Triune God of Love is our source in everyday life, and He is way more interested in all of our lives rather than one day a week.
Beloved, His Blood has bought more than Sunday. His love sustains our every day. His grace empowers our every way. My prayer is that this day and every day, moment, and breath moving forward would be an opportunity for us to receive this life-changing reality and to reveal this transforming love that goes beyond time and space. I believe that when we start to pursue the Lord in every moment, when we begin to invite the Lord into every space of our life, when we continue to become aware of His presence throughout our coming and going, and when we worship seven days a week, we will begin to see the immeasurably more (Eph. 3:20) breaking through in our lives.
Simply put, Jesus is way more interested in all of your life. He's way more intrigued by your every breath than you think. One day is what the cross was. It was a single event, a one-time occurrence, and three days later resurrection flooded the earth with the reality that one day, three days, or even forty days was not enough time for God and humanity to be together. Jesus revealed that the hope and life we experience on Easter and Christmas is our hope and life every day.
Jesus revealed that eternity was always the plan of the Father's heart. My longing is for eternity to be my internal clock, for my life to look strange because I worship with all of my heart and life and for my every day to reveal the truth that Jesus blood has bought more than Sunday. I truly believe this can take place in my lifetime, and I truly believe this can take place in the Church. I look forward to this day when all will point to the glory of God's provision for relationship not just every day, but for all of eternity. Here's to that day, for His blood has bought more than Sunday. Amen.
