I’ve been going back and forth with myself on whether to write about the case recently argued before The Supreme Court: Can the Post Office Force a Christian to Deliver on Sunday? The linked editorial, published in the Wall Street Journal on April 17, 2023, covers the details and legal ramifications, not just for Christians, but for people of all religions. Naturally, I don’t want America’s historic commitment to freedom of religion eroded. (And that’s the position of many editorials I’ve read in Christian outlets such as World Magazine and Christianity Today.)

That said, I believe Christians have the right NOT to exercise all of their rights! I don’t want to criticize this particular brother who is a committed Sunday observer, who hired on with the Post Office before there were Amazon-mandated Sunday deliveries, and who even transferred to a Post Office 50 miles away to avoid Sunday deliveries. He seems to be a good man. People are comparing his stand with that of Chariots of Fire hero Eric Liddell. And we have Paul’s clear instruction:

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it…. (Romans 14.5, 6, NKJV)

In a perfect world, Amazon wouldn’t be pushing the Post Office to make Sunday deliveries.

But God has people in all kinds of arenas, many of which are 24/7 operations. No one asked me whether or not I wanted to work on Sunday when I manned a radar site in the Air Force. Hospitals need nurses, Christian or not, on Sundays, and I’m glad we have police and firefighters working on Sundays, protecting our lives and property.

For someone to refuse to work on Sunday requires someone else to work on Sunday, and I can’t imagine that in an organization like the Post Office that anyone wants to work on Sunday. So what is the loving thing for a Christian to do? Fight for all he’s worth to protect his “Sunday purity”? Or lovingly give up his rights so he can do his fair share?

And of all the issues to take a stand on (and we have many options today!), Sabbath keeping might be of lesser importance. Jesus was frequently accused of violating the Sabbath. For example,

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3.1 – 6, ESV)

Jesus equated NOT working (healing) on the Sabbath equivalent to doing harm.

We are blessed with rights in this country that people in other countries can only dream of. But having a right and exercising it are not the same thing. I’m just suggesting there are options.

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. (1 Corinthians 9.12, ESV)