Should a Christian be required to work on Sunday?

As a critical care nurse I worked a rotating shift (2 weeks days, two weeks evenings and 2 weeks nights) as well as working every other weekend.

I personally consider my profession as my God-given gift. So I never had a problem about working weekends.

Early in my career I found that I could not attend Sunday morning services after working night shift.
I’d nod off… so at times I’d skip services then too.

Later I began working in the cardiac catheterization lab - no weekends but it involved being on call and being available when the frequent emergencies occurred.

After a time we hired another nurse who was an Orthodoxy Jew. She expressed that working Friday’s troubled her… so I honored her commitment and worked her Friday evenings. It was a ministry.

Rob

 

Some churches say that you are supposed to keep Sunday holy by not doing any secular work. HOw can you do that if you have a farm?

 

I've had to work Sunday many times. In a group home for Mentally retarded adults. Cleaning the bar my Dad managed. Washing dishes in the Country Club Sunday morning.

 

Your response is harsh. Should a Christian conform to the world? If my conviction is to honor the Lord's day, and I change jobs to accommodate my conviction, how is that wrong? Each of us must give our own account before God.

 

The Reformers understood a distinction between work of necessity and work of convenience. If a Christian is a lead operator at a nuclear power station, it is probably a good idea to show up for work on a Sunday. Likewise, your profession is a work of necessity. First responders, the military, and many healthcare workers are in that category. The larger issue is denigrating the Lord's day. When we turn it into an option, why honor it at all?

 

No, you were not harsh.

 

We live in a secular nation. When you agreed to sell your time, you made a contract. When your employer says you need to give them your time on Sunday, you need to either honor your contract, get your contract amended to not work on Sundays, or end the contract and find a new employer.

The Supreme Court should have thrown the case out and not seen it.

 

1 Cor. 16:1–2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10

Seems to be a bit more than just tradition.

 

For us Sunday is a day where you are to focus on the Lord, and rest, not a day for commerce. I don't work on my dayjob Sunday unless we have an emergency in the financial market.

Our small business and farm is closed on Sundays, and while I feed our livestock, we don't do any sales or commerce-related activities for our farm, unless there's an emergency where my livestock will die otherwise.

As a Fire Department that is Christian-based, we answer calls on Sundays obviously. There's been times I've left my family in the middle of preaching for different calls. I'm not going to be leaving service because someone's foot hurts, but in situations where it's a fire, or heart attack, or CPR, or childbirth I leave and deal with it. Healing on the Sabbath is lawful as Christ himself did it.

@Reformed already brought up works of necessity from the Reformation so I won't belabor the point

In my opinion Christians should not be forced to work on the Sunday Sabbath, nor should pagans, and that should be law being we are a Christian nation.