WE WANT TO WORK ON SUNDAYS!

The server at the upscale restaurant on that Sunday afternoon had read about such an event, but had never experienced it himself. He'd had some glory days, days like the time he'd served Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and gotten his picture taken with him at the table, but nothing like this had ever happened before: there it was, his tip, a $100 bill, just waiting for his trembling hand.

He reaches out, takes it, looks at it, and then realizes something's wrong, wrong big time. The bill feels funny and upon closer examination, it looks funny. He turns it over and sees that there's a hand written note on the back, but no engraving like real money, just a blank space with writing on it. The note says: "God says on the last day many people are going to be shocked to find out they are going to hell for not serving Jesus completely. Matt. 7:13 & 14, Matt. 7:21, I Peter 4:18, and Rev. 3:16."

The patron had left behind a fake tip and a "gospel" tract which contained no gospel ("good news") at all. But before we get to the tract, let's examine this method of "witnessing for Christ." No doubt the man who left the funny money departed congratulating himself for his holy boldness, but should he have been patting himself on the back for his stand for Christ?

TALKING BEHIND OUR BACKS

To get an insight into how servers feel about working on Sundays, listen to one of them who told me, "The church crowd ranks right up there with the foreign crowd in terms of undesirable groups to wait on.  . . . they're usually curt, impatient, and rude. They make servers even more 'atheist.'"

THE COLGATE SMILE

It's no picnic. Besides the abuse of the rude, female servers endure the flirtatious comments and braggadocio of local Lotharios and those away from home. Servers work long hours, are on their feet all the live-long work day, and while they do that, they suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous complaints about things beyond their control to correct or mollify. Some, of economic necessity, work double shifts, yet must do so with a smile and a congeniality worthy of a Miss America contestant or a model advertising Colgate.

And then this moronic customer leaves no gratuity and, to add insult to injury, a phony one. How in the world such a person thinks he's serving Christ is a mystery to me. What he's done is an insult.

The server told me, "I try to tell my co-workers, 'They're not all like that.'" Good for him! He tells me that he was raised in church and knows for sure that they're not all like that. He facetiously tells me that sometimes he'd like to ask the rude and demanding Sunday-church-going clientele, "What church did you just come from? I'm looking for a church family to join and if this is your attitude after the church service, I'll rule that one out of my search." But, he confides, "Paying my rent and health insurance are important."

LET'S GO TO THE TRACT

The tract doesn't come close to presenting the gospel. It doesn't define who Jesus is (He's the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity) nor does it inform the reader what Jesus did (He died for our sins and rose from the dead). Nor does the note tell him that forgiveness of sin and eternal life are free when the reader trusts Christ and Him alone, apart from works of any kind, works such as giving up sin, such as being baptized, such as doing good, and general works such as "serving Jesus."

We see on the note that the man has underlined "completely" for emphasis. He's added works to God's free offer of salvation and therefore, this is no gospel at all as Paul says in Galatians 1:6-9. In fact, the Bible says of that rude man who wrote the note, "Let him be accursed!" When you get right down to it, the note writer himself doesn't "serve Jesus completely." No one can or does. Serving Jesus, completely or incompletely is not a condition of salvation, that's an issue of after salvation, not a condition for it.

Forgiveness of sins and eternal life do not come via serving Jesus completely, they come by faith alone without works. (Ephesians 2:8-9)


THE CURT, THE RUDE, THE CHEAP, AND THE IMPATIENT


The curt, the rude, the cheap, and the impatient Sunday diners would better serve the cause of Christ by going home after church. Let them do their damage there to their own families and leave others alone. Instead of doing good to all people (Galatians 6:10) when they dine out, they eat as boorish beasts at a trough.

BEGGING

We who name the name of Christ should so comport ourselves with courtesy, patience, and generosity at various restaurants on the first day of the week that the waitstaff would unite in begging the manager, "Please, we want to work on Sundays!"