Why We Gather on the Beginning of the Lordsday (Saturday Evening)

I recently wrote this up for our house fellowship congregation.

First, Saturday's setting sun marks the beginning of the Lord's Day -- or Lordsday as I like to spell it -- according to YHWH's creation ("So the evening and the morning were the first day.").  It's not according to modernity's reckoning, but according to Scripture it is.  For me personally I think this point is quite important.  One of the places this is modeled for us specifically is in Acts 20.7-12. 

        Second, we gather to "break bread" together.  To gather around an agape meal together is the main focus.  This means we have a real, full meal with the celebration of Communion within it, and this is real fellowship and it is fellowship of the deepest kind.  It really is not a time geared to focus on "getting to know one-another", or to seek and expect warm fuzzies and good "feelings", nor is it even to study God's Scriptures.
      Now, while an agape meal is modeled and taught throughout the New Covenant Scriptures as the primary reason we gather together as believers (1 Corinthians 11:18-33), it is -- at the same time -- not the only reason.  Others are integral to the congregating time as well: studying the Scriptures, encouraging one-another, singing and praying together (1 Corinthians 14.26; Acts 2.42); but the coordinating of gathering around a meal is what might be called the "congregating factor". 
        That being the case, then an evening meal at the end of our work day allows us to begin to savor the feel and aroma of leisure that our time together should be marked-out by due to what we confess: That we have assembled together to celebrate and rest in our King's life, death, and resurrection.  An evening meal accentuates and stamps that truth on our hearts more than any other meal because it is at the end of the day when we typically have no other plans to preoccupy or distract us as they normally would if we met in the morning or lunch time (and I've done both, and they do).  And an added bonus is that since the next day is the full Lordsday, which most Christians have off from work responsibilities, it allows us to stay longer and not have our time cut short but rather be peacefully maximized and redeemed.  

         Now, as a counter-example, we could gather for a lunch meal in the middle of the Lordsday and then proceed as we normally do, but often folks have daytime commitments, even on the Lordsday, and they're distracted and time-constrained; or perhaps some folks have a sense that day-light is being "wasted" and they will then endeavor to leave as soon as possible so they can "get some work done".  I've encountered both types.  This though is just another reason why an evening meal works so well because not only is it theologically sound, but it is eminently practical as well.

        To gather in the middle of the Lordsday (i.e. noonish on Sunday) not only makes real body and mind rest nearly impossible, but ultimately whomever is hosting the gathering will not likely receive any rest whatsoever!  In all our pasts, when we all went to McBox Church Inc. we never felt that weight, but gathering as a house congregation is an added weight and responsibility to all of us, host home or not.  At McBox Church Inc. we could just show up (after stressing-out to get there on time!), sit and go home; there were always a few "someones" who bore all the work.  Not in a house fellowship.  

         So, let's say for arguments sake, that we did gather in the middle of the Lordsday and that we'd alternate the host home every time we gathered so that we could spread out the responsibility and work....  well, that still leaves one home/family exhausted at the end of their one Day of REST for the week, and over time this collectively takes its toll on the whole congregation.  Little by little families aren't having a needed rest (even if it's one Lordsday out of four or perhaps six) and it slowly builds and soon the work and exhaustion manifests itself in our lives through a myriad of ways.  And the Lordsday evening (Sunday evening) isn't any better because almost everyone has Monday responsibilities that demand that you cut your time short and head home early to get a full nights sleep; this just has everyone watching the clock which then stifles discussion and the free-flow of koinonia.

         Third, and finally, the Lordsday needs to be a day of sabbath, a rich and true heart and body REST.  Six days we labor and then we rest.  We rest on the first day of the week because it is modeled for us by Yeshua's apostles and disciples (John 20.19, 26; Acts 20.7), but most importantly it is the day He completed all the work that was to be done on our behalf by rising from the dead as the King of the New Covenant, the second Adam of the New Creation by breaking the cords of death and the dominion of Satan.  As I tell my family:  "The Lordsday is for us, to turn away from us."
                 To sum up:  We gather at the beginning of the Lordsday (sun down on Saturday) NOT due to any slavish legalism to Old Covenant Law, but rather to celebrate the reality of Messiah's work on our behalf and the rest He has given.  We do that during an evening agape meal of leisure that impresses that grace upon all of us.  It is an evening of no distractions nor commitments which promotes peaceful fellowship and worship, and then this leads naturally into opening for us -- on the next morning -- the blessing of a FULL Lordsday for rich, deep mind and body rest.