Small Group Question: Why Do We Have Church On Sundays?

This week I was asked a question that came up in a small group, and thought I'd post the answer here.

Why Do We Have Church On Sundays?

First, I'd like to say that I love this question because it is a foundations question. Why? is the most fundamental question in our thinking. There are a host of explanations that play into the answer: historical, traditional, religious, contextual, and perhaps others. But these are the thoughts I've put together.

1. Historical: The Christian church meets on Sunday because it was the day that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. The first Christians were Jewish in faith. They had been given a command to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. One day in seven that was dedicated to the Lord. It was a day of rest in worship to the Lord. When Jesus ascended into heaven leaving a small following of believers they continued for a short time doing "double duty"; that is, they honored both the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. Later through a conference of the Apostolic leadership they concluded that the law of Judaism had been fulfilled in Christ, and they dropped the Saturday worship and adopted the Sunday worship. In fact, the early church would meet early in the morning on Sundays to watch the Sunrise. It served as a visual reminder of the Resurrection of Christ. That is the central celebration of the Church. Because of this practice of the earliest Christians it has been replicated until today.
2. Traditional: Building on the idea of history we have a more recent period of tradition. When people fled religious persecution to come to the new world, they chose to honor the history of the church with Sunday worship. Sunday became a special day of the week in the colonies of America. In the towns that made up our national landscape Sunday was the day of rest and worship. It was a time in our history where churches played a more central role in community life. These were days without movie theaters and football so the church played host to lunches and service, giving way through history to Sunday School (originally and effort to educate illiterate children). And so beyond history, American tradition has made Sunday the day of worship for the church.
3. Religious: This is probably a bit of a stretch, but I think if we could define religious as the practice of faith, then we can see the problem the church would face if we had floating days of worship. The need for consistent meeting together, something scripture advocates (Hebrews 10), becomes much more manageable when set on a particular day. I guess you could classify this as religious/organizational.
4. Contextual: One of the important questions that I think we should ask is about context. It is context more than anything that guided our decision to start a church that met on Sundays. In the Annapolis-area Sunday is still THE day of Christian worship in the minds of every citizen. We could look to the Catholic church which has led the way with Saturday mass but I would submit even Catholics contextualize Sunday as the day of Christian worship, they just find their schedule fits otherwise. Church and any other time of the week doesn't really resonate with our culture, probably because of major influence Christianity has had in the previous points.

Now that I've said all that let me point to Scripture and give you a biblical answer, Church doesn't have to meet on Sundays. Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge by what you eat or drink, or with regards to religious festivals, or a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day." Paul goes on to explain that the institution of the Jewish law was fulfilled in Christ and therefore no longer served as the measurement of righteousness. Christ was now the measure, and righteous worship is not tied to a day of the week or specific diet. Paul advocated for a first day of the week worship (1 Corinthians 16), but I don't think he tied any spiritual preeminence to it.

What questions/thoughts do you have to add to the conversations? (feel free to leave a comment)

--Ben