3. Holy Days ?

Holy Days ?

 

 Not long ago a well-meaning person asked if I was busy with plans and services for "Holy Week."  It wasn't the time or the place to get into an extended discussion on matters of worship.  But since that brief conversation, I have often thought on the reality that every week is a holy week!

Obviously, the person who inquired about my schedule had in mind the week of Easter, a week that is referred to by many as "holy week."  But I still stand on the truth that every  week is holy unto the Lord!

Now, granted, some days are set aside by the Lord to be holy unto Him in a special manner.  Sunday - the Lord's Day - is the day set aside by the Lord in such a way. But the fact that Sunday is the "Holy Sabbath" is a reminder that all seven days are to be lived unto the Lord and that a life consecrated to the Lord cannot be done by neglecting the priority of the Lord's Day.

In 1835, Dr. Samuel Miller, at that time the Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Seminary, wrote an essay entitled, "Presbyterians Do Not Observe Holy Days."  I'm not sure he could say that now, as some in the Presbyterian tradition have become more focused on the observance of such times and seasons.

("Holy Days," as I use the term, refers to days designated by the Church to commemorate and remember events in the life of Christ or special seasons of  "the Christian Year."  Among  those days listed by the Roman Catholic Church as "Holy Days of Obligation" are Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, Dormition and Apostles Peter and Paul, in addition to Sunday.  The Protestant "church calendar" includes Easter and Christmas at the  very minimum, though such times are usually recognized by special services but not by setting apart the entire day for worship. The sports calendar, of course, includes "Super Bowl Sunday" as a day to be commemorated - perhaps more as an "Unholy Day" - but I digress......) 

Can special attention be drawn to events in the history of redemption during the calendar year without violating the principle of worshiping God only as He has commanded?  I think so. A Christmas Eve service of worship with Scripture and biblical Christmas carols can direct our hearts toward the Lord and be a way of focusing our heart on Christ at a time when we struggle against the secularism of the day. But it does serve us well - and it may even come as a surprise to some -  to remember that the Lord did not command a Christmas Day, or an Easter Sunday, etc. And, Scripture itself contains no references to the actual dates of events such as the birth of Christ, His death, etc.  One rule of interpreting and of following Scripture is to speak where Scripture speaks and to be silent where Scripture is silent.

Included in The Directory for the Public Worship of God, a part of the orginal Westminster Standards adopted by the English Parliament, was this declaration:

     "There is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath.
      Festival days, vulgarly [commonly] called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued."

A liturgical calendar of "holy days" diminishes the importance of the day that the Lord has commanded us to keep holy, the Sabbath.  God has ordained that our worship should be centered around the Sabbath and that our godliness should be nurtured through regular worship with a local congregation of believers on the Lord's Day.

And as I love to remind people on Easter Sunday that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus EVERY Sunday. So join us every Sunday to remember that our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  It's what He commanded us to do. We can't honor Him and our spiritual life cannot be healthy by neglecting the day that the Lord has commanded us to keep holy!

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Dr. Samuel Miller's essay can be found here.