One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.

Indeed! You raise some good points... Who could argue with N.T. Wright's analysis!? Not I, to be sure.

I wonder if the truly counter cultural thing to do, then, is hold worship services Monday mornings, since - as you point out - that would fit closely with the context of our early Christian sisters and brothers. For, in our day and age, even Sunday is considered the weekEND. Monday starts the new week, at least for those who work or go to school.

To do that, however, would be to truly live into our new "cosmic reality" (as you brilliantly put it), instead of grasping for the "market shares" in an increasingly post-Christendom culture.

And, I doubt many of us could have the courage to do so. Does that mean our convenience trumps our theology? Maybe so. DRAT! Foiled again, by hyper-modern consumer capitalism!

Thanks. Great thoughts.

Wow, this made me feel old. I've always gone against the grain, and I tend to question tradition, but I had never thought to question what day we should worship. I mean are we going to go against almost two thousand years of tradition because we don't want to get up on Sunday? I was taught that every Sunday was a feast! A time every week to celebrate the resurrection in community. Another thing to look at in the scriptures... look and see what day of the week it was when the risen Lord appeared to people. When it says, it is always on the first day of the week. Wednesday just doesn't hold the same significance to me.

"Why it matters when we gather for worship."

Why should it matter altering when we meet when for centuries the church has given up very specific instructions on how we meet, which is itself an expression of our understanding of Christ's sacrifice in opening up a "new and living way" and can "enter the Most Holy Place". It's all in Hebrews 10

19 "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Entering this "Most Holy Place" is NOT the church building. It is our 24/7 walk with God, even in the marketplace. We WILL "draw near" 24/7. We WILL "hold unswervingly to the hope we process". We WILL "consider how we can spur one another on to love and good works". None of this is so we can line up in pews to spectate a platform driven gathering by experts. It is so WE, the assembled "royal priests" can express the results of our "new and living way", our "entrance into the Most Holy Place" ALL WEEK LONG under the leadership of "the great high priest over the house of God".

When there is zero expectation from anyone that the saints "spur one another on to love and good works", there is zero need to meet at all. Meeting that is void of "spurring one another" and "encouraging one another" is not meeting at all. This all comes with a stiff warning.

"26 If we deliberately keep on sinning (following men's traditions rather than God's Word) after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay, and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For,

“In just a little while,
he who is coming will come
and will not delay.”
38 And,
“But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Many saints have heard 1500+ professionally prepared sermons (even the old 3 point "Lettuce" sermon outline) and still don't have a clue what God's Word says they are supposed to do before they gather and when they gather.

One Question:
What difference does the day of the week matter when such ignorance is in play?

The only assumption that it seems that you make is that the gathering needs to be in the morning. Is there scriptural reasons why it needs to be in the morning?

I really don't have a dog in this fight, but if this were debate amongst what we as a church should be thinking/being...well, I may not agree politically, or socio-culturally with Tim on a great many things, but his...

"Entering this "Most Holy Place" is NOT the church building. It is our 24/7 walk with God, even in the marketplace. We WILL "draw near" 24/7. We WILL "hold unswervingly to the hope we process"...[along with the rest of the paragraph]."

...pretty much echoes how I read the bible and Y'shua's commandment of how we are to be...we're, as a faith in consideration of the entirety of the bible and our placement in history in regards to Y'shua's church...wholly unto the Lord..."like" the Levites in how they were to be regarded in all of Israel so too we.

It ain't a Sunday, or a midweek day thang...it's 24/7 with us for all eternity.

I really appreciate your thoughts on this. We were searching out whether to add a weekday worship for those who, and I use this loosely, weren't "able" to make it to corporate worship Sunday morning. After searching and praying, we believe God made it very clear from His word that the one in need of transformation in our relationship with him fell to us, His redeemed. It appeared backward to begin adjusting God to our culture and habits rather than adjusting our standard of living and schedule for Him. So we canceled our plans.

I agree with you, the choice falls in the hands of those leading His sheep and there is a paramount need that the shepherds diligently search out the depths of corporate worship before changing pastures.

I would open up my schedule and my Church 7 days a week If that's what it took to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my community!

It is not a morning or afternoon or evening thing. It is a first day of the week thing, scripturally, to gather and worship and break bread together, meaning to partake of the Lord's Supper or Communion. It is edification of the saints (that's us Christians).
We can worship anytime. I worship before I start work in the morning. I worship by singing praise to God, sometimes while driving, sometimes with other Christians, sometimes all alone, but worship anytime does not replace the scriptural guidance on gathering on the first day of the week.

Since Sunday was a work day, what makes us think they worshipped on Sunday morning. Sunday actually started at sundown on what we call Saturday night. It could be that they worshipped together then, which was, to them, Sunday.

One of the best "provoke one another..." Heb. 10:24 Sunday 'X3' by Skye Jethani, that I have read. As one of the thoughts in the comments indicated that by moving our main worship to any time or any place we are moving Christians out of "God's green pasture..."
That move may be carnal, however there is a more evil move within Christian family. That is the about 100 different Bibles (do we have 100 different gods?) that are pushed by businesses and the salesman with the biggest bribe to the church leadership can 'flood' the church and the membership with a version that makes the most profit for that business. Most new Bibles are a thought for thought translation just like the J.W. Bible so whose thoughts are the people to believe.
It is sad that many 'Christians' use Bibles with the following verses taken out when in fact they have been in the canon of Scripture since the first century: i.e. Matt. 17:21, 18:11; 23:14; and a very important part of Matt.6:13. These Bibles were corrupted first by Clement and Origen, agnoists from Africa in the 4th century, and no Believers would use those MSS, however Hort and Westcott (who where Markist and Darwinist) in the late 20th century popularized them, because the new versions are modernist and R.C. friendly.