weekdays

Today’s Sermon: Everyday as the Sabbath

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all His works God began to make.

Genesis 2:3

Fr. James Purdie of St. Basil pointed out that the first full day after God made man, He rested.  I am sure, at least, one of the great church fathers or mothers pondered this and came up with something far more meaningful than what I am about to preach this morning.

Monarchs (© John Gresham)

EVERYDAY AS THE SABBATH

Genesis 2:1-3

(thesis)  We are all familiar with God resting on the seventh day of the creation story

(antithesis) Since God didn’t use a modern or ancient man-made calendar, who knows what that seventh day was

(propositional statement)  As the Lord is merciful to allow us to see another day, let us count each day as a Sabbath whether or not we attend church that day.

(relevant question)  How do we make each day a Sabbath?

(points)  no matter what day it is (v.2):

  • bless it
  • sanctify it
  • rest in God in it

(conclusion)  May God find us ready to join him on that day of Christ’s return on any day.

What Day Is It?

Okay, I know it is weird for a life-long Baptist to take up a journey toward Orthodox Christianity.  Yeah, I have put my foot in my mouth (size 13) at least once on this journey.  “Lawd John-John, why are you ‘foolin’ with that Catholic stuff anyway?”  As if I didn’t have enough reasons to seriously consider the ancient faith, here is another.  The origins of the names of the days of the week and what they symbolize are not only opposed to ancient church teachings.  They are destructive to humanity.  Search any website on the topic and these are the origins of names of our weekdays:

  • Monday – honoring the moon
  • Tuesday – honoring Tiw, the Norse god of war
  • Wednesday – honoring Woden (aka Odin), the supreme Norse god
  • Thursday – honoring Thor, the Norse god of Thunder
  • Friday – honoring Frigg, the Norse goddess of love
  • Saturday – honoring Saturn, the Roman god of the weather
  • Sunday – honoring the sun

Notice, of the seven days of the week, four of them recognize Norse gods, two of them recognize created heavenly bodies, and the last a Roman god.  None has anything to do with the Holy Trinity, Christian Faith, nor anything that feeds hope to the soul.  Think about it, the day for the god of war is Tuesday (Tyr’s-day).  Considering the lyrics of “Stormy Monday Blues,” (Tuesday is just as bad, Wednesday is worse, and Thursday’s oh so sad) it is small wonder that we have a bitter and loathsome attitude toward the work and school week.  Needless to say, with a corrupted view of the other days, our point of view of love will also be skewed.  So, what we have is a society of conflict with little love and only hopes for good weather.  What an uplifting spiritual outlook!

Furthermore, how can a society claim a spirit anything other than Norse when four of its week days honor Norse gods (including their supreme god) and only one honors a god of another culture (a Roman one who some Christians were martyred for not recognizing)?  It seems rather odd that modern Evangelicals would be up at arms against the “new age” and occult believers when we have co-opted the Gospel with such commemorations as “Holy Thursday,” “Good Friday,” and “Easter Sunday.”  Yes, I know we Christians regard Sunday as the day of our Lord and Savior.  But, why is it not spelled, s-o-n instead of s-u-n?  Maybe we need to think about this historic form of political correctness before we holler about “liberals” removing the Ten Commandments from state houses or prayer from schools.  Watering down the Christian faith is not a new phenomenon.  Christians have been doing this since the middle ages.

A New Day (© John Gresham)

Change the days of the week on our calendars worldwide?  That will probably happen when Liverpool wins the Super Bowl.  But, I think it may do us non-Orthodox Christians a bit of good to consider the weekly pattern established by the early church fathers:

  • Day honoring the angels
  • Day honoring John the Baptist
  • Day commemorating the betrayal of Christ
  • Day honoring the apostles
  • Day commemorating the crucifixion of Christ
  • Day honoring those who have fallen asleep
  • Day celebrating the resurrection of Christ

Orthodoxy gives us a far more spiritual outlook on the week.  Each day is an indisputable recognition of the faith.  If life and death are in the power of the tongue, it is to our spiritual benefit to mention the Orthodox perspective of the day in our daily prayers.  Compare for yourself; did the moon announce the birth of Jesus or did an angel do that?  Why honor thunder when you can honor the 12 men who led the faith we now practice?  And what, other than the resurrection, is more loving than our Savior laying down his life for us?  For the sake of transacting business and functioning in our world, the names of the days are what they are.  But in the pursuit of spiritual living, let’s honor the days that have been handed down to us by the fathers.

http://www.essortment.com/origins-names-days-week-64840.html  The Origins of the Days of the Week

http://www.serfes.org/orthodox/SevenDayCommemorations.htm  The Seven Day Commemoration in the Orthodox Church