As we prepare to re-open our churches Ann Benton gives us some thoughts about making the Sabbath a delight for the whole family
Recently reading Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers I was reminded again about how the fourth commandment and its observance has come into such bad repute. In that book, remembering the Sabbath Day is a cause passionately espoused by the hypocritical (what else?) evangelical chaplain, Mr Slope. The cause is also championed by the bishop’s wife with a kind of malicious fervour which is the very antithesis of the joy and liberty it was supposed to proclaim when first given to Moses on the mount.
Since, in the late 20th century, Sunday officially became the day for sports, shopping and other recreational activities, the Christian family can feel under great pressure about the use of Sunday and be tempted to reduce it to merely turning up at church, once, as it were to get it over with. It is all too easy to cave in and compromise with cultural norms, thus rendering the fourth commandment meaningless. The opposite extreme would be to present Sunday to our children in purely negative terms.
