We often talk about people that "have" to work on Sunday. Either because they are short on money and they have no choice but to take a job on Sunday or because they are in a profession that is critical to have available to people on Sunday (doctors, firefighters, police).
I don't believe that professional sports fall into either of these categories, but I wanted to get some other opinions on this. If I was someone starting out my career life is Professional sports a justifiable "work on Sunday" career?
The second piece of this that I am interested in is watching pro sports on Sunday. A) Is it a valid use of our Sabbath time to watch sports? B) Are we causing others to work on Sunday (the players) by us watching? We would not go out to eat on Sunday and cause someone else to have to work on the Sabbath, but does watching sports commercialize the Sabbath as well?
The point of this post is not to be judgmental, but to expand each other's knowledge of the Sabbath.
4 comments:
I believe watching TV sports on the Sabbath is definitely counts as both frivolous and a waste of time, and violates the spirit of the day. I also believe playing for money (i.e. pro-athletes) is an obvious no-no. But I must admit that I don't personally see how playing a game for fun with friends and family is inappropriate for the Sabbath; after all, we are commanded in scripture not to work, and to keep the day special and set-apart from other days. There is nothing saying "Thou shalt not have fun." The Sabbath is a day of rest from work, a day that scripture tells us was intended for man's enjoyment, to refresh him and prepare him for the next week of work. For some people that means relaxation; for others it means recreational activity. Physical activity for the sheer joy of it is surely just as good a way of expressing to Heavenly Father our thankfulness for this life as singing or any kind of purely mental activity. As long as one is not making money in the pursuit, and participates with a spirit of joy and thankfulness, I really don't see why playing games on the Sabbath should be forbidden.
Mark 2:27
(27) Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
This is a very good point. The Sabbath was made for man. All of the commandments are to make us stronger.
Christ was letting the Pharisees know that he had given them the sabbath and they had added to his commandment to the point of hindering being able to good on the sabbath.
Here are some of my other posts dealing with the Sabbath.
http://latter-daysaints.blogspot.com/2008/09/remember-sabbath-day-to-keep-it-holy.html
http://latter-daysaints.blogspot.com/2008/10/characterists-of-worthy-career.html
Isaiah 58:13-14
13 ¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
The Lord never said that he was removing the requirements He previously gave about the sabbath. He was removing the changes that the Pharisees and reminding them that He gave the sabbath and that He says what is appropriate and what is not and not them.
We should not take Him rebuking the Pharisees as an excuse for us to swing to the extreme in the opposite direction and make it a day that is about doing what we want. "Not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words"
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