God gives thanks [Harvest; Deuteronomy 26:1-11]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

New Land without a Sunday [Trinity 27; St. Matthew 25:1-13]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

So, Jesus speaks to us today in His Ultimate Gospel and says,

“And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.”

As we conclude our “Land without a Sunday” theme, this final Sunday of the Church Year, we first reflect on what we have discovered. That the world wants churches to be silent and to not be able to ring bells, or speak, or gather. We discovered that our “Sunday” is none other than the Lord’s Day, celebrated daily in the Bible.

We must also remember that the Lord’s Day is something old, not new. The Christians were not ashamed of this new Day of Resurrection; that they had to celebrate it AND the Sabbath side by side. They were respectful of both and learned that the Lord’s Day is the actual right way to celebrate the Sabbath, ending Sabbath Day observance.

Neither were Christians afraid of the world, when they offered the Divine Service in houses, instead of church buildings. They desired peace with God and man. They did not wish for evil upon those who persecuted them, neither did they want to disturb the “peace of the empire” on purpose. They wanted a quiet life, filled with the Word and Sacraments.

So once Rome went away and Christianity became free to assemble publicly, the Lord’s Day grew by leaps and bounds into the Church Year we celebrate today, replete with culture-relevant observances and festivities. During this time period, we get our daily lectionary, prayer books, Advent Wreaths, and every other family and village activity associated with the Church year.

Almost every culture had some sort of Christian aspect to its yearly celebrations, even if that culture was secular. From spring dances to harvest festivals, the life of the faithful was replete with physical manifestations of faith in action. And the church bells rang out everywhere.

Until they were silenced by the Renaissance and the Age of Reason, which produced such wonderful inventions as the gulag and the guillotine. However, though we just celebrated the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, have the bells really begun to ring again or have they stopped in the USA?

In our super-saturated American, “Christian” buffet-table, where we can not turn around without running into a “church”, we are turning into another “Land without a Sunday”.

In fact, we are surrounded by bells that are not church bells. We have school bells, ESPN app bells, Wall Street bells, and silver bells. Even though all of these are ringing, constantly ringing, they do nothing for faith and teach us nothing of Christ.

Even the church bells in America that do ring, ring for churches that do not believe that the Lord comes to commune with His baptized people. In a cosmic, devilish twist, this land of Liberty Bells has become a Land without a Sunday.

Since the silencing of church bells didn’t work before, now we will let any and all bells ring as much as they want in order that instead of silence, the deafening, endless noise would drown out all music but its own. The noisy gongs and clanging cymbals of 1 Cor. 13, ring in vanity and corruption and have drawn the people away from Christ to the church of popular opinion.

In this new land without a Sunday, the Bridegroom is delayed and our lamps are going out. As true religion shrinks daily in the US, we who believe become drowsy and fall asleep at the wheel just as the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are lulled into a deep hypnotic sleep by the endless, demonic noise, thinking that we are secure and our lamps are the best.

But Jesus lets peal a new bell. A cry, the sound of a trumpet fires off and sets everyone on edge. And what is this new bell? Is it like the thunder that accompanied Noah’s Flood? Is it the constant blasts on the shofar that signaled Divine Service in the OT Temple?

The significance of a church bell is more than just a call to prayer or an opportunity to play a hymn over a loudspeaker. Its importance and significance is to announce the presence of God in a certain area at a certain time.

Noah’s thunder announced God’s presence as He opened the floodgates of earth and heaven. The Temple’s shofars, jewish horns, signified the approach of God to the Divine Service there at the Temple. The trumpets of the Last Day of all things will do the very same thing: announce the Second Coming of Jesus in the flesh.

Church bells are no different, or they should be no different. In that they are to proclaim to the world, within hearing distance, that God is showing up on the scene. That something incredible is about to happen at this place and this time. That the kingdom of heaven is about to make another breach in the wall of this evil world and preach victory again and again.

All this should be going through your head as you hear a church bell, just as the same thoughts were racing through the 10 virgin’s heads when the bell rang in the Gospel.  At this ringing, they woke from their deep sleep.

Maybe your applications or text messages wake you up too. Maybe you also feel the need to get prepared, whether its your alarm for work or your phone going off and you need to mentally prepare for that conversation.

You must be able to make the distinction, because 5 of the virgins thought they had just received a regular alert on their iPhones and the other 5 heard a true Church bell ringing, announcing that the Bridegroom was going to be there and they better be, too.

What was that cry? “Here is the Bridegroom!” Here. Right here. Not in your lamps, not in your oil, not at the dealers. On this Last Day, you will not find Jesus in your neighbor, or in your life-long ambition, or anywhere else. For He will be in His own Body. But you already knew this, because this is the primary lesson the Divine Service teaches you.

Since the creation of Adam, God has been saying that He is going to take a Body for Himself and there is nothing else in the Bible that God has been so focused on teaching. There is no greater Word of God and no greater representation of the Gospel than the true Body of Christ.

So when the wise virgins hear the cry, they believe a body will show up that will be in this place one second and a different place in another second. The foolish virgins have no regard for this body that God has and instead focus on their own bodies and appetites.

Then the Bridegroom appears in His Body, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, and one minute He is outside the marriage feast and the next, He is behind locked doors.

And what are we to take from this, we who are now living in a new land without a Sunday?

We are to take and eat, believing that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Sunday. And in so believing, come to know that Sunday does not depend on us or our ability to ring a church bell, but it depends on Christ and His coming. For Jesus is the giver of lamp and light and oil, and He is the one to give Faith which trusts the Word of God.

Church bells are no different. Even our organs are the same as bells when they represent and mimic the singing Church; the Church that cries out to God and confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:2). This is why our Hymn of the Day tells us, the watchmen are “singing” their announcement; the only way to get the Church’s message out.

And the announcement is that the Lord of all Creation has come in the flesh to save His people from their sins and bring an end to the heavens and the earth in fire. Not only this though, He has also promised that those standing firm in the faith are to go into the Wedding Feast with Him.

In this hope then, we face the Land Without a Sunday. We continue to gather on the Lord’s Day, continue to devote ourselves to the Apostle’s Doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of the Bread, and the Prayers (Acts 2:42). Nothing done in the Name of Jesus is a waste. It is exactly this tradition that is now radical in the world’s eyes; this Divine Service which is rebellion.

Because it is this Church which the Lord has saved and purified and it is this Church that has the watchmen singing still, and it is this Church, baptized and fed, which Jesus Himself will bring to the Feast to be with Him forever, free from silence and noisy gongs; full of innocence and blessedness.

Righteous war [Trinity 26; St. Matthew 25:31-46]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

So, Jesus speaks to us today in His Penultimate Gospel and says,

“Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Two weeks ago, I mentioned how the Soviets had jumbled the work week for its citizens, keeping them guessing when the next day off would be in order to frustrate gathering on the Lord’s Day and thus suffocating Church. It turns out, life wasn’t so different under Roman Rule either as we will discover today, continuing our discussion on the Lord’s Day.

​​

​​Moving into the second and third centuries after Christ, we find a Church under threats of persecution, not from the Empire itself, per say, but from false accusations of disturbing the peace from the people. People who were easily offended by this “new” religion would start a riot, blame it on the Christians, and, to keep Roman peace, Roman authorities would put the Christians to death.

​​

​​So it is that we come to the holy, roman week consisting of 8 days of work and a 9th day of holiday celebration, or rather, every ninth day was a holiday. The Romans took their national religion very seriously and their “peace of the empire” even more seriously. Since the Jewish, now Christian, week worked in 7’s, you can see how this turns into a point of serious contention and a battle of the gods.

​​

​​Once the Lord’s Day landed on any day of work, it would have been impossible for the Christians to stop working in order to attend the Divine Service. And even if it happened to land on that 9th day, they were not allowed to miss the Roman holy day celebrations, on pain of death. You could have your own religion in the empire, but you must pay homage to the Roman gods or the empire will fall and it will be your fault for not praying.

“You shall have no others gods” is the commandment that frustrates the “peace of the empire” and gets the Christians martyred. See the false, roman gods can do nothing to keep their names holy or do their will on earth. They are idols. They “…are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Psalm 135:15-18)

Since idols are idle, the romans must act in their stead, carrying out what they think is their will, cleansing the earth of any lack of worship. The Christians, in observing the Lord’s Day, had picked a fight with the most powerful nation on earth and declared war to find out which god is the Lord.

​​

​​The Sunday that we so casually and flippantly celebrate was bought and paid for in much blood. Many thousands were martyred for the faith, during these first few centuries, simply because they went to the breaking of the bread, the Apostles’ doctrine, and the prayers, instead of being caught dead in any state religious celebration. Even though most of the Church was “underground”, this did not prevent bloodshed.

​​

​​And that’s another thing: what exactly was this gathering on the Lord’s Day that prompted such ire from the state and such dedication from the Christians? Was it worth it risking life and limb to simply get together for a bit and encourage one another and have fellowship? Ridiculous. These Christians were risking life, property, and liberty all for the chance to commune with Jesus. These were holy masses that were being celebrated, each time, not fellowship time, not carry-ins, and certainly not meditation time.

​​

​​Sacrifice was made and necessitated all in order to celebrate with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven at the Lord’s Table on the Lord’s Day. Why do you think the sheep are so surprised in the Gospel reading for today? Surrounded by sin and evil and death on every hand, when was it that they finally found time to do the works that Christ is claiming that they did?

The world separates, divides, and discriminates. The sheep were fighting a war against the world, a war that they did not win, but got to benefit from its victory. One of the reasons the sheep are so surprised to be praised by Jesus is, because the world would not let them celebrate the Lord’s Day in peace. They were harassed on every side, day in and day out, to turn away, to not go, to give up breaking the bread.

They were not going to make it on their own strength. The real divider between the sheep and the goats is faith. Faith that looks at this horrible, hard life; sees that it is quenched on every hand; finds it a never ending struggle to be a part of church and yet still believes. Believes to the point where it knows that it is not its actions that count, but Christ’s actions.

So the Church and the State engage in war. If we just look at the Roman empire, we know who won that battle, for the Church still stands, but the empire does not. Was it superior fire-power? Was it genius strategy? Was it overwhelming numbers that gained Christians the victory?

Faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:22) and the righteous shall not be moved (prov. 10:30), promises the Lord. Not only that, but the Righteous One shall never see corruption (Ps. 16:10). He Who dies serving the Lord in sincerity and truth, will not make His bed in Sheol, neither will He be cast aside.

As our Introit proclaims, the Lord saves, the Lord hears, and the Lord delivers. He does so through he Word of the Cross of Christ, faithfully proclaimed every Lord’s Day. So, the winning strategy against the empire, the state, and the world is to sit our butts down in the Lord’s Church, believe in His Word, and know that not only is His death and resurrection the ultimate weapon, but they are the ultimate gift for us.

Every other religion in the world must act “in holiness”, never really knowing what the outcome will be. So they are busy making war against everything. The Church is at rest, letting God fight the war, because the war is won, even without our fanfare.

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Being righteous is not how much peace you can keep, or how many riots you can start for God. It is about being righteous. And Jesus says that, in order to be righteous, you must be perfect, and in order to be perfect you must be God.

And in order to be like God, you must be baptized into the Body of His Son. The Righteous One Who knew the corruption of the world’s sin, with all its raging and war, and still claimed it as His own, suffering and dying and descending into hell with it.

The struggle of the Church is the struggle of Christ with sin, death, and the devil. The victory of Christ over these false idols is given to the Church for free. It is handed out in the form of Word and Sacrament. The call to “fight for God” is the call to “take and eat; take and drink”.

Now, in Christ, the Lord’s Day is a celebration of victory won and victory freely given. The world has not figured out that the war has ended, but the Christian knows and thus he is able to sit in a pew and let God work in him, knowing full well the power of Word and Sacrament over and against all others on earth.

You are also a part of this struggle and war, but the Lord has seen fit to bring you into the victory feast to wash you clean of your wounds, to comfort and encourage you, and to feed and strengthen you. Not so that you become a Church-superman, but so that you remember the death your sin has wrought and believe the atonement Christ has made for you.

In the Land without a Sunday, there is no hope for the people. Fully dependent on earthly success and earthly rulers to make anything out of life, their despair when works and state fail them. For on Sunday, the Lord conquers all. The constant remembrance of that fact angers satan and his ilk to no end.

But even if the world was full of devils, all eager to devour us, we would not tremble or fear, because Christ fights for us. The Victor, the Valliant One, the Crucified. He that gains every victory fights for you. He that neither slumbers nor sleeps baptizes you. He Who shows up every Sunday, communes with you, in order that you may believe and out-live all warfare.

Lord's Day Takeover [Trinity 25; St. Matthew 24:15-28]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

On this antepenultimate Sunday, that is the third before the last, our Lord speaks directly to us saying,

“Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.”

Last week, we discussed the importance of Sunday and how at first it was placed alongside the Sabbath day, in Apostolic times, as we continue to consider what a Land without a Sunday would be like in these Last Days that we live in. Therefore, today we consider the fact that the Sabbath is taken over by the Lord’s Day in importance, observance, and place in Church.

As time progressed for the Christians and more meditation was had upon what it means that Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), the Apostles had to face dilemmas regarding new converts, both Jews and pagans.

The challenge these new converts presented was the same for both groups: to what extent do we follow the Jewish laws and require non-Jews to do the same? Of course when we read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the struggles on the point of circumcision, not eating unclean animals, and other such laws, however today we will only be specifically looking at the law of observing the Sabbath Day.

So far in our discussion, the Apostles are still trying to be good Jews and yet exalt Christ above all things. Yet, how are we able to do that when we are still clinging to the Sabbath day in simple, ritual observance? And what does God’s command actually mean when He demands we keep the Sabbath holy (Ex. 20:8)?

In Acts 15, this issue is taken up in the first council of Jerusalem. It is there that the question is asked, “Do believers need to observe the law of Moses?” St. Paul concludes his arguments saying that the law should not be observed. From verses 10 and 11: “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Of course, the “yoke on our necks” is the Law, which is unable to save but always accuses us in front of God. The Sabbath always accuses us, if only for the need to repeat it week after week. So it is that St. James, presiding bishop of Jerusalem, makes a declaration to not trouble those turning to God with these burdens. St. James uses the clear reasoning of holy Scripture which plainly saith that the Gentiles are called by God’s Name.

He quotes Amos 9 saying: “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David hat has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name”

Who also agrees with King David who says: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the Gentiles. I will be exalted in the earth.” (Ps. 46:10)

And with Isaiah who says: “In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance’” (Isa. 19:24-25). Egypt and Assyria, of course being filled with non-Jews.

The Gentiles are fellow heirs of the kingdom (Eph. 3:6). Why would they not be included in the promises of God? Why would something such as the observance of the Sabbath Day prevent them from becoming Christians? They will be blessed by God  in the future, thus saith the Lord, so they must be today, also, and now, in His Church.

So it is, with these passages and many others and the decisions of this ecumenical council, that the Sabbath day be overtaken by the new covenant and a new day be made for the great Divine Service: the Lord’s Day.

Now you thought I was going to say Sunday. Well, it just so turns out that Sunday just happens to be the best day to teach on this subject; to show forth the Lord’s Easter and teach about the Resurrection. But, it is not THE day. In fact, because the Lord’s Day is now an eternal day of Resurrection, it can be celebrated any day of the week; every day of the week.

In the Book of Revelation, St. John says that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10) when Jesus began to reveal to him this book of the Bible. So towards the end of the 1st century, the Sabbath has already been put away as a sign pointing to Jesus and His great work of Resurrection and replaced with the Lord’s Day.

We are not to give up meeting together (Heb. 10:25), but we are to keep the Sabbath Day holy by not despising preaching and the Lord’s Word, but holding it sacred and gladly hearing it and learning it. Which can now be done any, and every, day of the week. In Christ, we do not judge according to the observation of a Sabbath (Col. 2:16-17), but instead keep it holy by hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament.

So it is that the 2nd century Christians encourage us, saying: “…every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.” (Didache, 14) In fact, they considered it monstrous to practice any sort of Judaism altogether (St. Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians 10:3).

Once again we see that the rest of the Sabbath pales in comparison to the eternal life and peace of the Lord’s Day. Not only is the Resurrection promise more important than Ritual, Sabbath observation, but it is even more important than the end of the world, if we are to take Jesus’ meaning from the Gospel heard today.

Jesus says to pray that your flight not be in winter or on the Sabbath. We understand the suffering that can occur on an outdoor trek in the middle of winter, but really how hard can a flight on the Sabbath be in comparison?

You must think about it in light of our new-found affection for the Lord’s Day. Not only would Sabbath become a day of work, violating the 3rd Commandment, but now the Christian would not be communing with his Lord an Savior.

Look at what is important to Jesus in the Gospel reading. It is not the Abomination, He never explains clearly what that is. What is important is what that Abomination interrupts. It interrupts family and home-time, it interrupts seasonal times, and most importantly it interrupts finding the Christ on His Sabbath of sabbaths.

This is what Jesus spends His time explaining to us in this Gospel reading. The horrible and unforgivable intrusion that this Abomination and even the Last Day wreaks on the normal, holy work of Christ’s people is the true danger of these final days before Christ Returns. Especially that it interrupts the seasonal, familial time spent in the Divine Service. 

In fact, this is the real meaning of “Abomination of desolation that stands in the holy place”. It is anything that removes your faith from you. It means being able to be offended by Sabbath Day violations and keep the faith. It even means being able to see Almighty God suffer and die on a cross and yet still believe.

It was eternally important for the Lord’s Day to overtake the Sabbath Day as central to the Faith. The Lord’s Day finally brings the promise of rest made on the Sabbath to fruition. What the Law could not accomplish, no matter how many people or times it was observed, Christ accomplishes for us on the cross, on His Day, and today in His Divine Service.

Every Sunday [Trinity 24; St. Matthew 9:18-26]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel saying:

“Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has saved you.’ And instantly the woman was saved.”

As we approach the End of the Church Year, these 4 Sundays in November, I want to take all four Sundays and take you through what I’m going to call the Land without a Sunday. And Just so you know, this is not original to me. It is actually the title of a short essay that Maria Von Trapp wrote in the first half of last century. But as you will see, the issue has not aged at all.

Her idea behind writing this essay comes from a vacation story from some friends of the Von Trapps, back in Austria. The vacation their friends took was six-weeks to go all over Russia, when it was still possible to get a visa, in that time. Though they were assigned a “tour guide” who never left them for a moment, they returned home safe. Their friends actually wrote the book called: The Land without a Sunday.

For that is what impressed them most on their trip. It wasn’t the siberian concentration camps or the misery and hardship under the socialists. It was the fact that they never heard a church bell ring once the entire time. Socialist Russia had gotten rid of Sunday and was therefore able to commit all of their atrocities.

But you can’t get rid of a whole day. You must fill that gap with something and the socialists did. They replaced it with “a day off”, but not in the same way we would think of a day off. In specific intervals, differing throughout the entire country, a day off would eventually come in the work week. Some would have a 5 day work week, with the 6th off. Some would have a 10 day work week, and still others would have an 8 day work week. Change up the weeks and work, work, work.

And if you didn’t work, you were shot. This is what replaced Sundays. Work and fear and love for Big Brother. Do you know why? Do you know why it is that when any oppressive regime comes to take over a country, the first thing they do is attack churches? It is because on Sundays, the Church preaches Rest, Peace, and Liberty, exactly what Jesus is doing in the Gospel today.

But first off: we are not just speaking of institutionalized Sundays, meaning the Sundays that happen “just because they’ve always happened, so why change it”. I am today teaching about how important Sundays are to the Church and where that importance came from.

Remember, the Church began on Saturdays; the Sabbath day. That Day of Rest that God made holy on the seventh day of Creation. So it was, and to some still is, that the 7th day was the holy day, made so by God Himself. So it is that when we fast-forward to Jesus, in the Gospels, we find Him also attending synagogue on the Sabbath religiously.

So, Biblically we should have been here yesterday and not Today, right? 

Jesus offers us help in this area. In Matthew 28, He gives us an account of His Easter. We hear, in English, that after the Sabbath, that was Saturday, dawned the first day of the week, which we would call Sunday. However, there’s a trick here. In the Greek, in a divine convergence and agreement between all four Gospels, the phrase in question quite literally says, “...the first of the Sabbaths” (Mt. 28:1, Mk. 16:2, Lk. 24:1, Jn. 20:1). 

Now, with this information, we have one of two choices: In the first case, we can agree with the Jews and say that by Jesus’ time the word “sabbath” had come to mean “week” or “day of the week” as some generic term, but this way we run the risk of rendering the sabbath into vulgarity that which God has called holy.

Or, we may take it to mean that, just as Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe (Rom. 10:4), He is also the end of the ceremonial Law which commanded the Sabbath to be observed. Which then means that the Sabbath, the seventh day on which God rested, now has an evening. The sun has finally set on that never-ending 7th day of God’s rest from Genesis 1 and has now arisen upon the Sabbath of sabbaths; the first of the Sabbaths: Resurrection Day. Of course, this was the plan from the beginning.

So we will take the second opinion and find ourselves aligned with the Apostles who also continued Jesus’ tradition of attending Sabbath at the synagogues, but then began the new tradition of remaining after everyone had left, keeping a vigil, and hearing the Gospel the next morning in imitation of the Easter weekend they all experienced firsthand. St. Paul confirms this when he encourages offerings to be taken up on the “first day of the week” (1 Cor. 16:2).

In this way, the first Easter vigil is repeated over and over again. Not just that first Sunday but every other one as well, in order to celebrate. Every Saturday through Sunday becomes a little Easter for the Apostles and they never let a single one go past them. For us too, now every Sunday is a little Easter where we are able to prepare ourselves with Confession on Saturdays and greet our Lord at His Table the next morning, being resurrected to new life, Romans 6:4.

Now, even though Jesus is bringing rest to this little girl’s tortured and grief-stricken family, and even though His presence brings the eternal peace of God, and even though this family and all who believe are set free from death to live a life of liberty, none of that would have come without Sunday; without that Easter Sunday.

Looking at our Old Testament reading, we also hear nonsense from Isaiah if we do not have Easter Sunday. Demanding that God wake up seems silly, especially since He already tells us that He “slumbers not nor sleeps” in Psalm 121:4. However, it may make some sense if the Seventh Day of rest is still in effect. If God is still resting from creating all things, then maybe we must awaken God.

But if God awakens on His own from the slumber of death and shows the entire world what He has done, then Isaiah is not speaking of God sleeping, but God rising again from the dead, never to die again. Then verse 11 of Isaiah 51 makes eternal sense, that the ransomed will eternally be saved in the Resurrection. Everlasting joy, gladness, and comfort can only come from the fact that death is no more, as Jesus showed us by raising this daughter.

But this Resurrection Sunday does not stop there. It comes directly to you to affect you, to change you, and to gift you with the same everlasting peace. For because of Sunday, you have been baptized into the Good Friday and Easter Sunday of God. Your baptism places you in direct contact with this Sunday that Jesus creates and gives to you.

Not just the first day of the week, not just the next day, but a brand new day that has never been seen on earth before. The day where it is possible for the dead to come back to life. Not a day of work or a day of rest, but a day of eternal blessedness that will not have an end. 

This is why this new-old day we call Sunday is now the day of worship, because of all this. Hopefully now, if anyone asks “why Sunday”, you may answer with confidence: “why not Sunday?”