As a pastor, I get a lot of requests from our college and high school students to assist them with projects that demand a pastor's point of view. This week one of our students, Rashell Reese, asked if I would provide a pastor's analysis of one of Emily Dickinson's poems she is studying, Some keep the Sabbath going to Church. Since I'm sure that many of you know people who choose to keep the Sabbath the same way Dickinson did, I thought my thoughts might be helpful to you as well. So below is the poem with my comments. And Rashell...if you get a bad grade, then my wife wrote this!
A Pastor’s Response to
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church
by Emily Dickinson
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --
I keep it, staying at Home --
With a Bobolink for a Chorister --
And an Orchard, for a Dome --
Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice --
I just wear my Wings --
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton -- sings.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman --
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last --
I'm going, all along.
As a Christ-follower and a pastor, I firmly believe that the first day of each week is the Lord’s Day. For Christians, it commemorates the Lord’s resurrection from the dead and is a time to worship God, both privately and publicly.
Dickinson’s poem expresses an objection that we often hear from those who claim to know God, but feel no obligation to make a commitment to a local church and worship God publicly on a regular basis. If a person has truly made a personal commitment to the Lord, there are several reasons that corporate worship on the Sabbath is vital.
Corporate worship powerfully expresses a sincere love for God and His people. Dickinson saw nature as the setting in which her worship took place. We can certainly worship God in the midst of His wonderful creation, but it was not birds and trees for whom Jesus, the Son of God, died. Jesus died for people; the people that would choose to trust Him and become a part of God’s family. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35, ESV). Authentic Christians are committed to corporate worship because we love one another deeply and want to be together.
Corporate worship is observed on the day by which all other days should be judged. The Sabbath for a Christian is the one day when we express our affirmation that every believer should obey Christ, not only with private devotion, but with a corporate devotion. We are to be actively involved in the affairs of our community each week, but on the Sabbath, we are commanded in God’s Word to assemble together: “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25, ESV). As Christians, corporate observance of the Sabbath is not an option. It is a commandment in Scripture.
Finally, corporate worship emphasizes the priority of Christ-centered friendships. The Bible teaches that God has given each believer the responsibility of encouraging and exhorting one another in the faith. “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV). In this sense, we believe that the eternal security for every believer is a congregational project.
History tells us that in 1845, Dickinson made a commitment to Christ during a revival in Amherst. The commitment did not last. She never made a public confession of her faith and it was years after this that she wrote “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church.” One wonders if she would have ever penned these words had she had strong relationships with other Christians to model the value of accountability in our relationship with Christ.
For an authentic follower of Jesus, there is no doubt. Observing the Lord’s Day each week is a vital element of a healthy and growing Christian faith. For this reason as believers we join in affirming the declaration “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psalms 122:1, ESV)
Keith, I have referred to this poem more times than I can name over the years. Thanks for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteSt. Paul, in Romans chapter 1, tells us that nature can tell us three things: 1)there is a God, 2)this God made the world, and 3)the God who made the world ought to be worshiped. Even with that knowledge, St. Paul says, people suppress the truth about God that they discern through nature, and worship the creature rather than the creator, thus "exchanging the truth of God for a lie."
But even if people lived up to the light they have been given by nature (and St. Paul says we don't), the general revelation we get from nature can only tell us these three things: there is a God, this God made the world, and the God who made the world ought to be worshiped. General revelation in nature tells us nothing about HOW this God desires to be worshiped. Otherwise, why would God need to say "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," etc.?
Emily's church can tell us nothing about how to worship God in a way that pleases God, nor can it tell us about grace or the means of grace (the Word, the sacraments, and prayer). These things are found in the church.
IN summertime on Bredon
ReplyDeleteThe bells they sound so clear;
Round both the shires they ring them
In steeples far and near,
A happy noise to hear.
Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.
The bells would ring to call her
In valleys miles away:
‘Come all to church, good people;
Good people, come and pray.’
But here my love would stay.
And I would turn and answer
Among the springing thyme,
‘Oh, peal upon our wedding,
And we will hear the chime,
And come to church in time.’
But when the snows at Christmas
On Bredon top were strown,
My love rose up so early
And stole out unbeknown
And went to church alone.
They tolled the one bell only,
Groom there was none to see,
The mourners followed after,
And so to church went she,
And would not wait for me.
The bells they sound on Bredon,
And still the steeples hum.
‘Come all to church, good people,’—
Oh, noisy bells, be dumb;
I hear you, I will come.
A.E Housman by the way...
ReplyDelete