"It's love, It's love, GOD's love that makes the world go round..." is a happy song to sing. Our planet rotates on it's axis from west to east, as we can tell by the horizon from which the sun "rises." Though it may vary northward and southward as seasons change, it aways comes up in the east, never in the west (though inhabitants of polar regions may just see it circle in the sky instead of rising and setting). Thus, the EAST has made an impact on our consciousness by being a point of beginning or origin. The Bible says that GOD planted a garden (oasis) eastward across the plain in Eden, where a creature He made from dust and named Adam was placed. That should be joyful news, but our still greater celebration is of GOD's re-creating mankind through Christ Jesus. That opening account in Genesis says that all was finished in six days, so the Maker rested on the seventh. Some of us would consider those figurative days/eons of time. Then it's the second chapter of Genesis that recounts creation begun off in the east. Thus history emerges from the orient and runs till the end of old time, when new time begins. The point that divides it is that BIRTH through which the Creator came into this universe He had made by way of His only begotten Son. He did so to restore our fallen condition to the original righteousness of that sixth day on which He had pronounced it "very good." But with Adam and Eve there came a fall into sin and death, because of disobedience. Man's nature was corrupted by sin so that only a divine re-creation could remedy it. Thus the Almighty ceased resting after that seventh day and began work again. What Christians call their "first day" worship might also be considered the eighth day; a new beginning. Each year it's the morning when so many rise early to watch in the east for sunrise, and when we rejoice that Christ's resurrection has proven death to be defeated through faith in Him. Also, to know that the whole world will soon see Him coming back from heaven in the clouds and finishing that new heaven and earth GOD began on earth when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Thus every Lord's Day (day of the Lord) is an eastward look toward the Kingdom coming, just as Communion "shows forth the Lord's death until He comes" from out of the EASTER-N sky. Hosannah and Hallelujah!
I've been privileged to visit the Temple mount in Jerusalem a couple of times in my life and was impressed on both tours by the eastern gate that has been sealed shut with stones. Our guide told us it was Islam's idea to close it. Of course there's a huge Mosque of Omar built where the Temple once stood (also` called "dome of the` rock"), and Israel has allowed Muslims to retain the control of the mount that they had for centuries (though Ariel Sharon took Israeli troops up there a year ago last Jan. in his successful bid to be elected prime minister). Thereīs another even larger mosque also on the mount, El Aquasa, just south of that famous one I mentioned. The first is mostly for tourists (who must remove their shoes) but the El Aquasa is where Muslims regularly worship on their prayer rugs. No synagogue is located on the mount. Rather, the lower West Wall, left from Solomonīs great Temple, is the worship site used by Jews. So just as east Jerusalem is mainly Islamic, so the Temple area remains still divided east and west by mere custom, despite Israelīs rule over it. If the Arab League can work out a land division with Israel at their meeting now in Beirut, it just might knock a few stones out of that eastern gate for the Prince of Peace "so to speak." But from reading in the Bible again how GOD promised the land to Abraham, Iīm inclined to feel that it will yet be Israeli property regardless of man-made arrangements even though gaining world-wide approval. And the stones sealing that eastern gate wonīt stop Jesus from returning any more than the boulder, which had been rolled in front of Joseph of Arimathaeaīs tomb after he placed the Lordīs lifeless body there on that Friday evening after Christīs crucifixion.
Maybe the reason I have "east" so much in mind this year is that the house we are redoing is located on Eastgate. Anyhow, the thought came to me that cathedrals and cemeterys traditionally both face the east. And my past notions of that region of the world being a sort of dead end has to be altared. Oriental religion had seemed to me atheistic and circular, from nowhere to nowhere. In fact I've considered it as less than religion, or mere philosophy: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confuscism, etc. But now I'm making a reassessment. Just as the sun comes up from the east with each new day, so this stream of existence looks forward in facing that direction. I guess too much of Rudyard Kipling's poetry was in my soul. That line from "Road to Mandalay" comes to mind: "Bloomin idol made of mud, what they called their great god Bud. Pluck lot she cared for idols when I kissed her where she stud." What an arrogant attitude toward the orient. Maybe that's a part of the hatred that seems to be eminating now toward the west, even through Islam. Though it's not truly and eastern religion, Kipling must have thought so when he wrote "Oh east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgement seat. For there is neither east nor west; border nor breed nor birth, when two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth." Well, back to thinking about sunrise. It brings newness out of the east, instead of same old same ole. Just as creation began there, it continures from that point. Looking west is to cling to the past. Sunsets are so sad because it's all over. Just like the words to "taps," that pronounde a benediction on the hours now gone. Still, they are gone. But looking beyond the west, there is the east where things begin. Thus congregations might face east not only each Easter, but at every worship service. I should have headed the column given to the paper, "Putting East into Easter." That would be a switch from trying to switch the name to Pasch or Resurrection Day, as I've done before. And all the worry about Sunday being a pagan name could be refuted by a quote from Malachi that I read this week, "the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings." I like the way some have called it Sonday to claim the true meaning. This morning I read in Hebrews 4 about entering into the eternal rest. That was the meaning of Sabbath keeping. Now it's Sonday, an even greater Sabbath day, for Jesus said "the Son is also Lord of the Sabbath."