I was getting ready for Easter Sunday, preaching on ''The Eighth Day,'' and re-reading from my seminary professor, Gordon Lathrop's book, Holy Things. I always end up with the Beetle's song, ''Eight Days a Week,'' running through my head when I use this idea:
''The [Church] meeting is called a meeting on the eighth day because it opens toward what cannot be reached simply by more days like those of the seven-day weeks... There is an opening toward the day beyond days, toward the last day of God. It is the eighth day because Christians have met 'eight days later' (John 20:26, RSV) down through the ages. That meeting has always meant for them an encounter with the risen one and so with the end of death and the endless cycles of loss...things that have been promised for the last day when God's dwelling is to be with humankind and tears are to be wiped away. Christians believe the eighth-day meeting is already the dawning of that day. The eighth day is the beginning of a new creation'' [pages 39-40].
