The Eighth Day

One Christian letter from around 100 a.d., says, "Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead."

While the letter is not scriptural and the designation did not remain a part of the Christian vocabulary, it is one evidence of an early tradition referring to our worship on Sundays as "The Eighth Day." This was because Jesus' resurrection was an act of new creation making a break with the old way of being. There was an expectancy in the term, especially in early Christian communities for whom Sundays were a work day, the first work day of the week. Yet, they gathered on that day to remember Jesus' resurrection from the dead with the sure and certain hope that God was doing a new thing through Jesus Christ. Liturgical scholar Marion Hatchett notes

Eight symbolizes redemption, baptism, the New Age [not in the contemporary sense of that term] the kairos [God's perfect time], the fulfillment of time, the Eschaton [the end of time].

While the term will remain in disuse, the attitude which gave rise to it need not go unheeded. Sunday worship is still to have that same air of expectancy every time we gather. God is still doing a new thing, and we are a part of it through Word and Sacrament.