Years ago I watched a lot of sports. Baseball season overlapped beautifully with football season, and both were carried along by basketball. To my shame I would watch games every single day. My wife was so understanding. But she was also clear about her desire that I would unplug a bit from the world of sports. Over time we talked about what was reasonable. Soon priorities began to shift, and I watched less and less sports. On occasion, I would get hyped up about a game and attempt to get her on board by saying, “It’s a big game!” I remember her smiling and saying, “Isn’t it always a big game?”
She was exactly right. Every game is considered consequential. Some are more anticipated than others but all are big. To the players and the fans, there is no such thing as unimportant games.
I was thinking about this paradigm for sports the other day, and I wandered down a similar path about ministry. It seems to be a trend to talk about certain Sunday gatherings as “big days.” Giving people the benefit of the doubt, I think I know what they mean. They are saying that this Sunday is big because people are getting baptized or because we have an announcement about church planting or we are going to have a special guest. All of these are good things that should properly be anticipated and celebrated. However, I have a couple concerns with casual elevation of certain Sundays over others.
What are we saying about the other Sundays? So let’s say there is nothing happening except an ordinary Sunday gathering at a Christian church. There are no big announcements, just the regular stuff. You know, people show up at a place, the Word of God is read and people are called to worship, people sing hymns that exalt God and stir hearts in praise, people pray and confess sin, the gospel is applied, people give sacrificially to the work of the gospel, a man stands up and proclaims the very Word of God, and the Lord’s Supper is shared in the community of believers. This is normal stuff. But, it’s also big—isn’t it? It’s a big day when the light from the new humanity shines into a fallen world. It is a big day when the flag for King Jesus is planted in a foreign land.
What are we teaching people? Even in our proper excitement of good things we can unwittingly cast a shadow upon other good things that may be a bit more familiar. Pastors and church members should rightly be excited about surprising developments and demonstrations of grace, but they should never become unimpressed or familiar with the ordinary means of grace that God has ordained for us. God means to feed us with these ordinary means of grace over the course of our lifetime. Let’s be clear: there is a reason for the Christian to get out of bed and come to church every Sunday. It is far better for us to go to church than to watch the NFL pregame shows. It’s always a big day.
And, let’s never forget, when the church gathers Christ is there in our midst. He is the Lord who walks among the lamp stands (Rev. 1:13). It’s always a big day when Jesus comes to church! God comes to church and serves us the Word. We feast upon his promises and unite our hearts together in worship. This is a big day. Let’s never forget it. And let’s be careful to never minimize it.
