For some readers the Liturgical Calendar like the prefix “St.” is scary and reminscent of the Inquisition, Clerical sex-scandals, and everything they hate about religion in general.
However, in years past, more and more people with that initial gut reaction have been rethinking their own positions, and have warmed to words like “Lent” and “Advent”. I remember first encountering all of it in the Church of England, whose history I had learned at that point only from Robin Williams’ standup act. I immediately fell in love with it. The Book of Common Prayer, the kind vicars in clerical dress, the candles, the music, the smells and bells.
However, the Liturgical Calendar is the property of all Christians, it goes back to the early days of the Church, before it was even called a Church. In the Old Testament, God gave his church, Israel, a liturgical calendar with celebrations and rituals to perform. Feasts like Passover, reminded the children of Israel that God had rescued them from bondage, and conquered all their enemies and their enemies’ gods. Since the Christian Church is nought else but a continuation of the true Israel, our own Christian celebrations naturally mirrored these elder feasts. The Gospels and the Book of Acts lay out the main events which the Liturgical Calendar calls to mind.
The main objection that the Reformation brought forward against the Liturgical Calendar was that it wasn’t explicitly commanded in the Bible. Reformed Christians like Oliver Cromwell famously outlawed Christmas, making themselves appear as proto-grinches. The problems they had were not insignificant, and there are times when any tradition can become deadening. However, the disagreement goes deeper than that obviously. For Calvinists and Anabaptists, there is a tradition of their own, known as “the regulative principle” which asserts that nothing can be done in the Church except what is commanded by Scripture. For Orthodox and Catholic Christians who accept Tradition as a norm of faith this is not an issue. Anglicans and Lutherans hold a different understanding, known as the “normative principle” which basically asserts that nothing can be done in the Church that is expressly forbidden by Scripture. But lest this mean innovation, it should be understood historically. Basically these churches took everything they had received from Catholicism, and said we will remove only those elements that are forbidden by Scripture. Judging that the Liturgical Calendar was not forbidden by any scripture, they kept it.
American evangelical churches like contemporary American democracy seem to be less and less devoted to the notion of constitutionalism and so have likewise taken up the Calendar, more by popular demand than any conviction. I wish to have no debate here on such matters, so I will devote my future posts rather to explaining the Liturgical Calendar rather than preaching on it. We will begin – as it does – with Advent, tomorrow.