Billy Crystal wrote a play called 700 Sundays which is about the 700 Sundays he got to spend with his dad. This play got me thinking about how central Sundays have been to my life.
As a pastor, Sundays have always been special to me but the meaning of why it is special has changed over the years. Here is what Sundays have meant to me over my lifetime:
2, 392 Sundays...
Ages 1-12 (1970 -1982)
Sundays were all about family. Wake up early, and it was Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Carteret, New Jersey, or Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Union, New Jersey, sometimes both churches (aghast!) Old Eastern Europeans in babushkas pinching my cheeks. After Church, it was straight to grandmother's house (another old lady in a babushka), where you would walk in the front door and be confronted by the aroma of homemade soup, pierogis, kielbasa, or galumpkes (cabbage rolls). The children would head outside to play, or into the family room, where the t.v. would be playing an old Abbot and Costello or Three Stooges Movie, while the adults remained in the kitchen cooking or playing cards and talking. The call went out for Supper and you sat at a long table with 3 to 4 generations of family.
Ages 12-21 (1982 to 1991)
Sundays were about the New York football Giants. Within these years the Giants won their first of four Super Bowl titles. I gathered with family and friends early on at home to watch the game with food (there is a theme to my life). Occasionally we would actually go to games at the Meadowlands with my family. Then at College, we would watch with friends, sipping tea and eating crumpets.
Ages 22-26 (1992-1997 Seminary Years)
I was assigned a Field Education site for 3 of my 4 years in Seminary at Calvary Lutheran Church in West Philadelphia. A field education site is a church the seminary assigns you to work and learn at on Sundays while you are studying. Calvary was an all African American Congregation in West Philadelphia. 2 hour worship services, food every week, youth basketball leagues, and the love of a community that embraced me as their own and raised me up to be a pastor.
One of these years I spent in Camden, New Jersey at Grace Lutheran Church on my internship. At the time, Camden was the poorest and most violent city in the nation. For me, it became one of the most amazing communities I have ever seen, where people shared all of their lives together, the good and the hard.
Ages 27-46...(Years as a Pastor)
I have been blessed to serve as a pastor for 19 years and counting at communities that have been as diverse as the day is long. These people have been an amazing cloud of witnesses to me as we walked together grieving losses and celebrating milestones, all the while proclaiming Good News of God's love every Sunday and beyond.
Over the years, my Sundays have moved me from routine and obligation to a true witness to the love of God. From standing with those who think that Sundays need to be separated and protected, to one who has witnessed the wildness of God's inclusive love for all people that shatters all that my mind and world could hold. Sundays have redefined my tribe, and continues to make me uncomfortable as to who is included and who is not. Every Sunday I encounter God in community and my bent view of reality is reshaped to include myself and others.
How have Sundays shaped you?
