Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.

• 2 Kings 16:18

Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals of the Lord our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.

• 2 Chronicles 2:4

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The gate of the inner court facing east is to be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day and on the day of the New Moon it is to be opened. The prince is to enter from the outside through the portico of the gateway and stand by the gatepost. The priests are to sacrifice his burnt offering and his fellowship offerings. He is to bow down in worship at the threshold of the gateway and then go out, but the gate will not be shut until evening. On the Sabbaths and New Moons the people of the land are to worship in the presence of the Lord at the entrance of that gateway. The burnt offering the prince brings to the Lord on the Sabbath day is to be six male lambs and a ram, all without defect.

• Ezekiel 46:1-4

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

• Matthew 12:8

On 14 August 2023, I had a post entitled Do We Need a Reason?  You can find the link HERE.  The post was all about manufacturing a “reason” to go to church, like having to teach Sunday school or play in the church orchestra.

But what about the flip side of that?  Have you ever given an excuse for not going to church?  I mentioned in the other post that we probably have all done that.

But about a month after the post came out, a few weeks ago, I found myself thinking of excuses.

On Friday, I had a self-inflicted wound.  That is, I have an IBS problem.  It focuses on the eating of onions and garlic.  Have you noticed that onions and garlic are in almost everything?  Whenever I eat something in a restaurant and then think to myself that this food has bountiful flavor, I then realize that I am going to awaken at about three in the morning with a most excruciating pain.

Well, my self-inflicted wound was that I ate some tacos, using the basic ingredients in the kit, with onion and garlic powder at the bottom of the ingredients list – in other words, very little of a powder added.  I had tacos before, and 3-4 tacos were fine.  But on this occasion, I ate six tacos.  I became obsessed with finishing off the lettuce.  I know, one lousy excuse to create a legitimate excuse.

I awoke at the predicted hour of three in the morning.  I was not in a lot of pain, but I felt ill.  The problem was that in past IBS attacks, I would curl into a ball, or fetal position, and then have to go to the restroom an hour later.  The side effect was to not be able to go back to sleep.  On this occasion, the lesser pain did not force its way through my system.  I was “regular” but nothing made the ill feeling go away for ten more days.  That had never happened before.

So, as I felt ill with my entire digestive system rebelling, I got a headache, and the headache remained for the remainder of the day.  Maybe sympathy pains.  Maybe the lack of sleep.

But with the digestive problems and the headache, I never got around to browning the meat for a slow cooker dish I had wanted to make.  I was thinking that I would set up the slow cooker and then come home from church and chow down.  But I never browned the meat on Saturday due to not feeling well.

So, to recap.  Excuse 1: Lack of sleep, so I wanted to sleep later on Sunday morning.  Excuse 2: My IBS attack was lingering.  Excuse 3: With the IBS attack, I had a headache.  Excuse 4: I needed time to brown the meat for the slow cooked dish.  Excuse 5: All of this headache business caused me to not do a quick reread of the Sunday school material, which I could do instead of going to the early worship service.  Excuse 6: My favorite college team was playing a night game, and I wanted to stay up Saturday night.  (Forget that one as I fell asleep before halftime.)

Yep, I could have thought of some more, but since I fell asleep watching a football game early, I awoke without the alarm going off about thirty minutes before the time for the alarm.  My gut was rebelling, but in a dull fashion.  And my headache was gone.

With all those carefully contrived excuses, I went to the early service.  I then taught Sunday school.  And then, I got home in enough time to brown the meat and start the slow cooker before lunch.  I set the heat on high instead of low, and the food was perfect about supper time.  I had my fill, thinking that would clear the IBS issue.  But it did not.

So, whether we contrive a reason to attend church when we do not feel like it or we contrive excuses to not attend, we forget, in each case, that we go to worship the Creator, our Heavenly Father, the master of all the universe.

I felt a bit ashamed of even thinking about not attending.  And I am starting to feel lethargic.  Will I have another wrestling match with the Devil, or will I put him in his place and claim victory in Jesus?

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

• C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Screwtape, a senior demon who was the mentor for Wormwood, his nephew and junior demon, hit on something.  Sometimes, we just don’t feel good.  At times, we have so much pain, it is beyond “excuse” and approaching something legitimate.

But then, an old conversation that I had with my wife a few years ago comes to mind.

I said, “If you feel a bit off, your off-ness would be roughly the same watching television as it would sitting in the pew.  Your exhaustion could lead to a nap, but if you fell asleep in the pew, you won’t be the only one.  Our excuses, yours and mine, do not add up to very much.  Maybe getting dressed up to go see the king will help us to feel better.”

And off we went, and we slept not a wink until we got home. … Then, we crashed!

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.