Aint It A Shame

by Tyler Young

There is an old Stamps-Baxter hymnbook which was used by our brethren called, Heavenly Highway Hymns, compiled by Luther G. Presley. On page 181 there is one selection which, hopefully, brethren did not sing. It’s called Aint It A Shame.

The first verse is fine: “Aint it a shame to work on Sunday, Aint it a shame, a working shame.” Then the chorus: “When you got Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, And you got Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aint it a shame.” Point well taken. It’s a shame to miss worship for work on Sunday if you could work during the week instead. The second verse is interesting: “Aint it a shame to joy-ride on Sunday, Aint it a shame, a joy riding shame... When you got Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday....” Younger folk reading this have no idea what joy riding was, but it was back in the day when people would get in the car and just drive for sake of enjoying a drive, or when kids would pile into a car to drive about. (We’ve come a long way from the days when parents’ greatest concern was kids going off “joy-riding.”) In the old days, it was common for Christians to treat Sunday as a day of rest, and so it was a shame to be out joy riding on the first day of the week.

But now notice the third verse: “Aint it a shame to gossip on Sunday, Aint it a shame a gossiping shame...,” and the fourth: “Aint it a shame to lie on Sunday, Aint it a shame a lying shame....” These verses are followed by the same chorus: “When you’ve got Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...Aint it a shame.”

It’s a bit comical that the implication (unintended, we would hope) is that it’s a shame to lie or gossip on Sunday, when we could do our lying and gossiping the rest of the week, rather than on the Lord’s day. Of course we know that, even if Sunday is a special day, it’s as wrong to gossip on Monday as on Sunday or any other day.

There are some, though, who don’t seem to realize that being a Christian isn’t something we do just on Sunday. There is no such thing in the Bible as a Sunday-Christian. We are to follow Christ and honor God every hour of every day, not just when we assemble. I might seem godly to my brethren at church services, but if those who see me on a day to day basis do not see  Christ in my attitudes and actions, my words and my works, all of the time, well...aint that a shame-—to me, to my brethren, and my Lord?