The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Four country churches in a small Texas town were having a terrible problem with squirrel infestations. Predictably, they all had different ways of dealing with the problem. The Presbyterians determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will.
The Baptists, since the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery, decided to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week. The Methodists trapped the squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.
The Episcopal Church came up with what they thought was the best and most effective solution: they baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter!
How many days are there in a week? Everybody knows the answer to that question is seven. The number of the days in the week is dealt with in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. God created everything in six days and on the seventh day he rested. In thanksgiving for the work of creation and in remembrance of God resting on the seventh day, Saturday, the 10 Commandments tell us to remember that we are to keep holy the Sabbath Day.
Yet in the first century A.D. something happened that changed the whole reckoning of time. An eighth day was added to the week for Christians and it was so important that it required a reinterpretation even of the 10 Commandments. For on the eighth day God completed his redemption of the world through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Of course, the actual days of the week remain the same, starting with Sunday and ending with Saturday, but Sunday now becomes not just the first day of the week, but also, and more importantly, the eighth day. Thus, the new way of reckoning time is that God created the world in six days, rested on the seventh day, and on the eighth day the work of redemption was complete.
It seems a small thing really. It’s largely symbolic, since we still only have a seven day week. But for the Church, from ancient times, it means everything. The holy day each week for Christians has changed from the Sabbath, which is Saturday, to the Lord’s Day, which is Sunday. Why? Because the Lord’s Day is the day when Jesus rose from the dead, the greatest miracle which has ever occurred.
There is no more powerful reality in all of life than that reality. The Lord of life, through whom all things came to be, took flesh and came to live among us. As we have recalled this past week, Jesus was made to suffer unspeakable humiliation and torture, and finally execution on the cross. The leaders of religion were against him, the justice of a civilized government eluded him, his friends deserted him, one even having betrayed him, and another having denied ever knowing him, not once but three times.
When he died on the cross, his last words were, “It is finished.” He meant that his work for all of us was done. All who had known him, however, who had put their trust in him, thought it was finished for him in terms of defeat. Nothing could have been further from their minds than resurrection.
Then, early Sunday morning, some women sorrowfully went to the tomb to anoint his body, one final sign of respect for one who had meant so much to them. But they didn’t find his body. Instead, the tomb was empty, and a young man told them of the resurrection. “He has risen, he is not here.”
He told the women to go and tell the disciples, but St. Mark tells us that they “said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Later on he appeared to many in his resurrected body. All who saw him believed, and their witness is recorded in the accounts of the Gospel, in Acts, and in the writings of the apostles.
One thing is certain—there could be no Church, no Christian faith, no Christian Scriptures, and no Christians, if there had been no resurrection. We are here today not to remember our dead hero, but to praise the living, risen Lord, whose Spirit is with us, and who continues to nurture and to nourish us, to guide us, and to bring us ever closer to the Father.
Diettrich Bonhoeffer, the 20th century Lutheran theologian who was executed in Nazi Germany for being involved in a plot to kill Hitler, and whose writings have become especially popular currently, says this: “We must come to grips with Goethe and Socrates. On this our education and ethos depend. But on our coming to grips with Christ depend life and death, salvation and damnation. This cannot be appreciated from outside. But in the Church it is the principle on which everything rests. ‘And there is salvation in no one else’ (Acts 4:12). The cause of the encounter with Jesus is not the same as that of the encounter with Socrates and Goethe. It is impossible to avoid the person of Jesus because he is alive. If need be Goethe can be avoided because he is dead.”
Almost everyone here today has been baptized, and if you have been baptized, St. Paul tells us that you have been baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection. You have been buried with Christ and you have likewise been raised with Christ. Thus, the resurrection is not just Jesus’ reality, but ours as well.
And so he can say, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.” Paraphrasing the blessed Apostle liberally, “We must become what we are.” We must live every day in the resurrection being signs of God’s love to this sinful and broken world, being persons of prayer, who give of ourselves of the gifts given us, visiting the sick and the lonely and the unloved, forgiving others, incorporating our faith into our homes, our businesses, our leisure. We must make the reality of the resurrection, into which we have been baptized, a part of every thought, word, and deed.
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead changes everything. The bottom line is that it gives ultimate meaning to our lives. You know, the eight day week of which I spoke earlier is even enshrined in this church. The baptismal font, like so many other baptismal fonts, both ancient and modern around the world, has eight sides. The eight sides are to recall for us six days of creation, God resting on the seventh, and the completion of the redemption of the world on the eighth day.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Easter Day
5 April 2015