No one keeps the Christian Sabbath fully or maybe even all that well; we can all do better. Planning to profane it by supporting activities that require many to work and which are guaranteed to distract us is probably not the best course.

THIS MATTER HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION: Some NFL teams now have (or now have more) effeminate male cheerleaders…or dancers—who can tell these days? This fact has prompted weeping, teeth gnashing, and angry social media posting. However, we have discovered in the depths of the Reformed confessions a novel way to largely avoid exposure to these new and other more established, “acceptable” outrages associated with these weekly (though seasonal) quasi-religious spectacles/cultural sacraments. Inasmuch as most NFL games are played on the first day of the week, the exposition and application of the Fourth Commandment in Westminster Larger Catechism questions and answers 116-121 can help:

Q. 116. What is required in the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment requireth of all men the sanctifying or keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole day in seven; which was the seventh from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week ever since, and so to continue to the end of the world; which is the Christian sabbath, and in the New Testament called The Lord’s Day.

(We have previously written on how Sunday became the province of the NFL.)

Q. 117. How is the sabbath or the Lord’s day to be sanctified?
A. The sabbath or Lord’s day is to be sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; and making it our delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship: and, to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day.

If the “works” are sinful, there is never an acceptable time for them; if the works are not of “necessity and mercy,” there are better days for the works…and the workers thereof.

Q. 118. Why is the charge of keeping the sabbath more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors?
A. The charge of keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments of their own.

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