Sunday service is not a car wash!

…I once heard a friend tell me something to this effect. He explained that while growing up, God was something you did on Sunday mornings and only Sunday mornings. His family would go to church, listen to the sermon, have communion, and be set for the rest of the week. It was like going through an automatic car wash. Jesus cleaned you up, and then you went back into the world and got yourself dirty all over again. But that was OK, there was no need to do anything else, because soon would come next Sunday, and with it that good Christian wash, scrubbing away your sins!

Well, my friend no longer feels that way about church, but I do believe there are many out there who do. You may know the people I am talking about; those who go to church and act as if it is some kind of social club. They go every Sunday, visit their friends, chat about the past week’s events, and feel good because they believe in Jesus and his saving Grace. But once they leave, they fall back into the secular world they live in, not much different than those around them. You would have no idea that they are Christians by their actions and deeds.

I do not think that this is what Jesus Christ had in mind when he started his church. Did he not say, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23&24). This does not sound to me like he planned on starting a social club or car wash.

Martin Luther understood this. His first theses addressed this very subject, because in his day, just like in ours, there were many who believed that going to service was enough, that going through the motions was all you needed. To them, it was the ceremony and not the power behind it that was important. And thus Martin Luther began his Ninety-five Theses, his attack on the institution of indulgences, with: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent,’ He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

His message, then and now, is clear. God does not want one day a week, but all the days of our week. We should be noticeable to those we work and socialize with. It should not be hard to tell we are Christians. It is by our actions and deeds, by showing compassion, charity, and love, that we best spread the Good News. That is, after all, the cross that Jesus has asked us to bear.

Peace be with you, my friends.

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