Throughout the history of the church it has traditionally celebrated certain feasts in order to commemorate and remember portions of the biblical narrative. Through the years the number of feasts grew to burdensome levels. At the time of the Reformation there were close to fifteen major feast days, plus nearly every day marked a “saint’s holy life.” However, during the time of the Reformation the feast days were reduced to the following: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. These five “evangelical feasts” were retained for their theological and experiential significance to the gospel story. Even so, it was made clear that we do not observe these days in particular, or any church calendar in general, by mandate. Instead, these, along with other seasons/feast days, such as Epiphany, Lent, or Maundy Thursday, are simply aids to help us to meditate upon how the Lord has worked in redemptive history.
After the Continental Reformation, the English Puritans worked for the freedom to gather and worship without “binding the conscience,” allowing churches and denominations to construct their services as they saw fit according to the Scriptures. In that effort many Puritan churches removed all feast days and advocated an austere and simple service. Where I serve at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC we joyfully celebrate and design unadorned services that clearly point to our simple, profound faith. It’s good to appreciate the “still, quite voice.” At the same time, we take joy in major celebrations which point to the majesty and beauty of Jesus Christ and our “so great a salvation” in him. Thunder and lightening is awesome to behold.
Good biblical arguments can be made both for simple, unadorned worship, as well as fanfare and pageantry. In either case, my hope is that feast days, changing seasons, and different approaches to worship from one week to the next would highlight the many aspects of the gospel story.
It has been a joy over the past several weeks to continue emphasizing the resurrection. This is indeed something we should celebrate every week of the year! At the same time I look forward to celebrating Ascension Sunday in particular this week. Thankfully, lots of folks are now saying it’s an “almost forgotten” aspect of our theological framework (so it’s now less forgotten). This week we get to celebrate the fact that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God and “always lives to make intercession for [us.]” His priesthood continues on our behalf!