Genesis 1:1-2:3

            {Prayer}

            Whether you’re a trained musician or someone who just enjoys listening to music … you can feel when a song is unfinished.

            The melody of a song moves you along. With this movement comes tension. That tension longs for some sort of resolution. And when the final note finally comes, something settles within us.

            We hear this when Barb plays the prelude each week. The song begins, the tension builds, especially if Pastor Ethan and I aren’t up here yet. And when the final note comes, I stand up to welcome everyone and share some announcements and you settle in.

            But sometimes, music does something strange. It resolves … and yet it opens upward at the same time. That’s an octave.

            An octave is when music returns to the same note, but higher, fuller, and transformed.

            Genesis 1, our Old Testament reading, sounds almost musical.

            Creation sings with rhythm and repetition. This melody happens throughout. With the beginning of each day we hear, “And God said.” Each day moves with rhythm: “And God said …”; “And it was so …”; “And God saw that it was good …”; “And there was evening and morning …”

            Within this creation account, there is order. God on days one through three sets the foundations of light, sky, sea, and land. Then on days four through six, God fills the first three days with the sun, moon, and stars. With birds and fish. With animals and humans created in the image of God.

            On days one through five, God saw what He made and it was good. On day six, God says it is tov meod, it was very good.

            On day seven, knowing that God has finished all His work, we would expect a solid resolve. But something different happens. The melody suddenly hangs unresolved. Day seven does not begin with “And God said.” It doesn’t contain God saying, “Let there be…”. There is no “it was good” or “there was evening and morning.” Day seven is totally different than the other days. The song suddenly stops.

            It’s like day seven is just left wide open. If it were a song, we’d be waiting in suspense for the final note, for the final resolution. It’s as if day seven is left unfinished. And somehow, we know it.

            We know it because we feel it, we experience it. We know from Scripture that the world is good … but we also know from Scripture that something is wrong.

            We live in a beautiful world. The creation around us praises her Creator.

But this creation around us also groans. Paul says in Romans 8 that “The creation waits in eager expectation …” as “the whole creation has been groaning in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (8:19, 22).

            As we travel and look around, we see the goodness of creation. The writer of Psalm 19 reminds us that “the heavens declare the glory of God …” (19:1-4). The creation around us echoes the beauty of the Garden of Eden. The world still carries echoes of the original song … except now these echoes are mixed with groaning.

            While there is love and beauty found in creation … there are also cemeteries, wars, addiction, disease, betrayal, loneliness, cancer, grief, and death. The creation obviously groans, as do our bodies. Both are hanging in this suspense of the final note to be played.

            And while the creation and our bodies continue to groan … the darkest moment of all happens. Outside the walls of Jerusalem there is a place referred to as the place of the skull.

            Jesus, the Word made flesh by whom all things were made, is found there. Looking toward the heavens you can see Him … hanging upon a tree, a cross. He hangs upon a tool of death that He created.

            In the midst of the stillness, of the darkness … Jesus speaks a cold and chilling note. “It is finished.” …

            God the Father finished creating all things on day six … but on Good Friday, when Jesus died, that old creation reached its end. The music stopped. Silence fell over creation. On Holy Saturday, the world sat in silence. Silence on the Sabbath. Christ’s body lay in the tomb … silent, motionless.

            The disciples waited. The tomb remained sealed. The seventh day had reached its end.

            “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day {God} rested from all his work” (Genesis 2:2). And now Christ, having finished the work of redemption through His suffering and death, rested also. The tomb became the rest of God. The long seventh day was now complete.

            An octave is the same note, but transformed. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, is not merely the continuation of the old world. It’s the beginning of the new creation! Resurrection is creation returning … but glorified.

            On the first day of the week … or as the ancient church loved to call it … on the eighth day … the music began again.

            The stone rolled away! Breath restored. The new Adam, Jesus, rises! The angelic choirs burst forth into glorious song.

            The resurrection of Jesus is not an isolated miracle. With the resurrection of Jesus comes so much more. Satan is defeated. Death is defeated. Eternal life in the new heavens and new earth where the redeemed and resurrected saints of God will truly live is promised. Life where you will never again hunger, never again thirst. Life where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Jesus, through His resurrection, is making all things new! And He is doing it for you!

            Right now, we live in the tension of seeing the beauty of God’s creation and the groaning of creation. As Christians, we don’t deny suffering. We know there is going to be pain and heartache in this world. We live in this seventh day that still groans.

            But we live as those who have hope. Hope in the resurrection of the dead. The octave has already sounded in Christ. In the fullness of time, with the final trumpet, the dead will be raised imperishable and will put on immortality. You will be raised in perfection and be clothed in the ultimate righteousness of Christ.

            By the Spirit, we begin even now to live the life of the new creation. As you love one another, show mercy to others, forgive others. Every act of mercy you do becomes an echo of the coming kingdom.

            With the melodious music of the Holy Spirit, we also get to rest differently. This morning, we gather and join in with the angels in singing hymns and spiritual songs to God. Praising the Father for creation. Praising the Son for redemption. Praising the Holy Spirit for life. The Triune God who created the world is the same Triune God who refuses to abandon it

            You and I, we have lived so long in the unfinished seventh day that we sometimes think the silence is all there is. But on the morning of the eighth day … Christ rose from the grave, and creation began to sing. The final note has already begun. So make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Amen.