What’s the point of Sunday worship?
Is it really worth it to spend a precious Sunday morning driving to church instead of playing golf, sleeping in, going fishing, mowing the lawn, or getting caught up with work?
Aren’t there better things we could do with our time?
In reply to these questions, I offer this.
Sunday worship is one of the most vital hours in the week of a Christian.
Weekly Chaos
Every day of the week we encounter an onslaught of voices, products, podcasts, services, shows, and humans vying for us—all of us.
These voices want our hearts, minds, votes, and pockets. They’re committed to crafting us in their image and confusing our sense of self, detaching us from the Divine Image and from what the great theologian, Howard Thurman, called “the Really Real.” The presence, person, and being of God himself.
But on Sunday morning it’s a different story.
On Sunday morning we step visibly and viscerally into the Communion of Saints—the Church militant.
We gather with others in an act of remembrance and encounter.
Heavenly Alignment
As we raise our voices in common worship to the Lord of all, we align our hearts to heavenly realities.
As we take the bread and wine of communion, we remember the paschal death of Jesus and find our faith strengthened.
As we hear the word of God preached we’re confronted with Real Reality.
The reality of life and death, resurrection and salvation, sin and grace, belovedness and mercy.
But we can go deeper still.
Divine Reality
On Sunday mornings, we’re confronted with the reality of God himself.
We’re thrust into a divine drama and dance between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and reminded that we have a place in this triune love.
We’re reminded that the Father’s love has been poured out on us through the sacrificial work of the Son and the Holy Spirit has been poured out in our hearts to pray, encourage, equip, and unite us to God.
On Sunday mornings our own selves —broken, fractured, limping, and anxious—are overwhelmed with the love and mercy of the Triune God.
The Reason for Sunday
This is what happens when the people of God gather.
This is what’s happening as we worship.
Sunday’s remind us of this.
Sunday’s remind us of who we are.