The First Day of the Week
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 11, 2009--Easter Midnight Vigil
Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

I. BEGINNING

Religion never seems to do things the ordinary way. The days begin at sundown. We all know the day begins precisely at midnight (or in the morning). The year begins in the fall. We all know that it begins January 1. And the week begins on Sunday. We know that the week begins on Monday morning when we go back to class or to work, right? I mean, they call it a "week end " for a reason. In Europe, all their calendars start on Monday. That seems perfectly reasonable.

So, here we have a story with the women going to the tomb "very early on the first day of the week"--on a Sunday. And it seems odd, because to most of us, Sunday seems like the end of something, not the beginning. I know that many of my colleagues, and many folks here who've been very busy helping out with Holy Week plans, are looking at Easter Sunday and thinking to themselves, "Oh thank God Holy Week is almost over ."

So, it seems odd to think of Sunday as the first day of the week.

II. The Sabbath

Now, of course, we are talking about Judaism here. Jesus, the disciples, and the women were all Jews. They would have followed the customs and traditions of Judaism. And in Judaism, there are seven days of the week, and the seventh day is the Sabbath, the day of rest. That day is Saturday. And so, Sunday would be the first day of the week. In fact, all the other days' names in Hebrew are simply "First day" "Second day" "Third day", and so on. The Israelites didn't name their days after pagan gods like we did.

So, from a narrative, historical standpoint, it makes sense that Sunday would be described as "the first day of the week". But does it make sense for us to do so any more? Shouldn't Sunday be the last day of the week? The thing we're leading up to, like the Sabbath in Judaism? Ever since the Emperor Constantine formalized the Christian day of worship as Sunday back in the fourth century, Christians have had Sunday as their Sabbath. Woudn't it make much more sense to refer to it as the seventh day? The Jews can do what they like with their names, but we know what day the week starts on, don't we?

III. THe Eighth Day

Interestingly, some theologians refer to Sunday as the "eighth day" of the week. Now, apart from the Beatles who promised to love you "eight days a week", that seems like a fairly strange term. A week has seven days. Everyone knows that. Four weeks of seven make a lunar month of 28 days. And eight doesn't go into 28 evenly. It doesn't go into 30 or 31 evenly either.

But it turns out that theologians aren't talking about actual weeks of a month. They are talking about God's week. And when they refer to that they are really talking about the days of Creation.

For the Jewish week and the Jewish Sabbath are based upon the rhythms of creation. The first chapter of Genesis describes how God created the universe in six days and on the seventh, God rested. The pattern is reflected in the Jewish week--six days of work followed by a seventh dedicated to rest. In Deuteronomy, the Sabbath day is linked to the Exodus: the people once had no rest because they were slaves in Egypt, now they are given a day of rest every week.

But when theologians refer to the days of the week, they have in mind not necessarily the days of creation--that is, what day the plants were on, etc.--but the process of Creation.

And so they refer to Sunday as the Eighth Day of the week, because on it God began a New Creation. For us as Christians, Sunday is not really the Sabbath. Oh sure, we may refrain from work on that day, but as a technical matter, the Sabbath day still is Saturday for Christians. Sunday is referred to as "the Lord's Day." Because Sunday is a perpetual commemoration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is considered to be the inauguration of the New Creation. The beginning of the Kingdom of God in our midst. The beginning of a new people of God without distinction, a new reality in our midst. A renewal not only of our hopes, our communities, our lives, but of the very world itself. Theologically, then, from the perspective of creation, Sunday is the first and eighth day of the week.

IV. END

But, in many ways for us, Sunday should be the first day of the week. For it is where our faith starts.

All of our faith as Christians starts with the Resurrection of Jesus. In the words of the old Easter carol: "Had Christ who once was slain/ ne'er burst his three-day prison/ our faith had been in vain/ but now is Christ arisen!"

It is really the starting point for us. The gospel accounts all end with the resurrection, but in reality, that is where they all begin. It is the foundation of the faith we profess as Christians. But not simply the foundation--but the starting point, too.

Easter does not mark for us the ending of something, but the beginning. It is the beginning of our lives in faith. The beginning of a lifetime of Christian witness.

We follow a Risen Christ, and so we are called to lives of compassion with those who have only known the rejection of Good Friday.

We follow a Risen Christ, and so we have hope, and are called to share that hope with an increasingly fearful world.

We follow a Risen Christ, and so we work for justice for those who only know the injustice of the cross.

We follow a Risen Christ, and so we live lives of inclusion for those who have only known marginalization.

We follow a Risen Christ, and so we live lives of love for those who have only known division.

Our calendars may take us on a journey from Monday to Sunday. Even our sacred calendars may take us on a journey from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to the Empty Tomb of Easter. But our faith starts us on Easter Sunday.

We like the women at the tomb, have arisen early on the first day of the week. It is here our faith begins. It is here our Christian lives start. And it is the light of this day that shines with us throughout all the days that remain ahead.