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Apr 8, 2007
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The Eighth Day
Alleluia! The Lord is risen!
The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
You have heard it said that on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.
On the third day he appeared to his friends and his family.
On the third day, Jesus conquered death…
…as he had promised.
But have you heard about the Eighth Day?
Have you heard its wonders? Have you heard its stories? Have you remembered what was said? For the women at the tomb remembered what was said.For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. On the seventh day, God rested.
But what about the eighth day?
What about that day?
This, brothers and sisters is that day. This is the day that the prophet Isaiah foretold. This is the day when the doors of death have been flung open. This is the day when the Lord makes all things new, when even the economic realities of the world reflect the love of God.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Politics will change. Adversaries from time immemorial will come together, even those adversaries revealed in nature itself, will come to the table in peace.The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox… Alleluia! The Lord is risen!
The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
On that first Easter morning the women came to the tomb expecting one thing and encountered something all together unexpected. They were prepared to anoint Jesus' body. He had died on the sixth day of the week. And on the Sabbath, the women waited. Jesus' body rested in the tomb on the Sabbath. On the day after the Sabbath, the eighth day, the women came to the tomb...and Jesus was gone.
Each Gospel writer tells their own version of this tale. In one Jesus himself speaks to the women. He is mistaken for the gardener in another. Two men in dazzling clothes appear in Luke's telling of the story. They may dazzle the eyes, but their work is to help the women to remember.Then they remembered his words. The women who came to the tomb that first Easter morning remembered the words of Jesus the Christ. They remembered his proclamation that he would rise on the third day. And perhaps they remembered more than that.
Do you remember the other things that Jesus said? “Blessed are the poor.” Do you remember the words? “Blessed are those that mourn?” Do you remember?"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Do you remember? Christians are called to remember.
We are called to walk into the past, to encounter the empty tomb with the women from Luke’s Gospel, and then to witness to the Risen Lord present in our lives and in the lives of others.
We are to seek our and proclaim God revealed in all the various facets of those lives.
When nations go to war, we are to remember.
When the streets are too dangerous for our children,
we are to remember.
When politicians forget
that they are called to serve the people,
we are to remember.
When industry is overcome with greed,
we are to remember.
When people are cast out or cast down by society,
we are to remember.
The Resurrection of the Messiah brings to fruition the cry of the prophet Isaiah.
The Resurrection is more profound, more engaging, more demanding than we can anticipate and we need all of the disciplines that we have encountered this Lent to even begin to understand what is being asked of us. We need the support of community. We need the steadfast love of God found in fellowship. We need prayer and fasting to live into the world promised in Isaiah and fulfilled in the Resurrection of Jesus. We need such strength and grace to live into the call of the Eighth Day.
The proclamation of the presence of the Messiah has real and tangible ramifications. Isaiah understands this.
These ramifications are not, however, simply doled out by some celestial hand to appear suddenly among us. No. They are the fruit of living together in peace and love. They are the fruit of the interaction of God with us, the Redeemed creation.
It is not magic.
It is not illusion.
It is faith.
The Eighth Day is the fulfillment of God’s love made manifest in the faithful lives of God’s own people. It is the revealed fruit of the discipline of the church.
We must make room for God to work within and through us. We must create space…
…within our hearts and our communities…
…that allows us to reveal God’s new creation to one another and to the world.
This is the Eighth Day of Creation.
We are living in the Eighth Day where God has ceased resting.
The season of Easter lasts fifty days, brothers and sisters. It is the feast of all feasts.
It is seven weeks of seven days…
…plus one. One day…
an eighth day…
…a day to proclaim a new age.
Alleluia! The Lord is risen!
The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God.
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