As “Palm Sunday” (AKA Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord, etc.) and Holy Week approaches, so also approaches the looming reminder of the church’s decline in piety and church attendance. of course, we all know this is true even without Holy Week. We know this simply because we can look around us at the empty pews on any given Sunday, or by looking at attendance lists and membership lists and notice the blatantly obvious discrepancy between them. The fact of the matter is that as we have it now in the western church (especially for “traditional” protestants, and even more so for those of left-and centrist orientations) most of our people no longer come to church every week on the Lord’s Day. The idea of days of obligation for our churches is long gone. The concept of holy times and holy days has been thrown out along with traditions, hymns, confessions, etc, you name it.
And we all realize how awful THAT is. But we often forget that it didn’t start there. It started with something deemed much more acceptable. For different churches and different contexts the way this began may look different. For many centrist and leftward “Reformed” churches, this began with the abandonment of the weekly Sunday Evening Service, and the abandonment of the midweek Bible Study or prayer meeting. But for those of our ilk, this started with the decline in attendance for Holy Days that fell on the other 6 days of the week. That is, for example, that before people started coming to church on Sunday “when they felt like it,” or “when it suited them,” or “when they didn’t have something better to do,” it started with people no longer coming to church those feasts which fell on weekdays. It began with the so-called “smaller” ones. Perhaps it was Michaelmas, or the apostles feasts. Perhaps then after that it was the so-called “lesser” Feasts of our Lord throughout the years, such as the annunciation of Our Lord. or Epiphany. But soon after that, no doubt, their abandonment of holy days dipped into the so-called “big” Evangelical feast days (and indeed truly every single evangelical feast is massive) such as Ascension thursday. And then somewhere along the way, of course, Holy Week itself was attacked. And I don’t only mean Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Holy Wednesday, but even the so-called “big and important” part of Holy Week – Maundy Thursday – Good Friday – and the Saturday night Easter Vigil. EVEN THESE took a hit, until we got to the point today, when churches have so fallen that these days are almost a joke to churches and ministers alike, who have oftentimes simply just given up trying to hold these services because nobody comes.
But all that considered – I want to encourage you to turn away from what is, to turn away from what has been happening is happening and has happened, and instead, turn back to what was. Turn back toward what should still be. And instead of despairing of those other people you can’t control not going to them, focus on doing them yourself. Practice them, love them, appreciate them, and through your prayers and worship sanctify them, and make them holy in the sight of all who see you and know you.
Let’s start right here where we are and go backwards toward where we started and should strive to stay.
Beginning with the root and centre of Basic Christianity, Sunday is not just “Sunday” but it is the Lord’s Day. It is the day of our Lord’s resurrection, and it is the day that the church has always since the very earliest times of the apostolic era met on. That isn’t to say that the didn’t meet other days. It did. And for most of its history it met every day. Biut the main point of emphasis here is that for whatever days that it did not meet, Sunday was never one of those. And why? because Sunday is not merely Sunday. It is the Lord’s Day. And arguments about Sabbatarianism aside, the practice of the church has never moved or shifted in regard to the universal practice of meeting on this day to receive the Lord’s Gifts and to worship Him, praise Him, thank Him, and adore Him. Simply put, regardless of your congregations position on sabatarianism or the holiness of Sunday as a specific day, the matter of fact is that St. Paul commands us in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake the assembly of the brethren which, in your case, regardless of what church you go to, and what it believes about the concept of sabbath – that is the day that your church has declared the assembly will be held. To simply not go is to be unfaithful not only to God’s law, but is to abandon the unity of the church and the collective agreement to be as one body, to meet regularly at the agreed upon date and time, and to together seek the Lord in prayer and receive from Him all of His holy gifts. For even though one might say there is no Law stating that we must meet on Sunday (which is true), the only reason that one would purposely not go to gather with the church on this day is that they consider God’s Word and sacraments less important than any of the other things that they might be doing at that time. And while in some very rare cases there may be an excuse, if you live in a country where you have freedom of religion to have this day off, “work” is not one of them. For all the talk of Sunday service not being a “law,” it remains unchangeable true that however obligation is factored in, it will always be utterly necessary for you to attend and to participate. Simply put you need to hear the Word read and preached, you need to receive the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Eucharist, and you need to be a part of a living and worshipping community. You need this MORE than you need to eat food and drink water, and let me also remind you – no LAW commands you to do those things at certain times or certain frequencies either. Yet nobody is protesting the language of necessity when it comes to food and water, becuase as is factually true and certain, if you do not have these things you will DIE. in that very same way, let me tell you plainly and truly, you need to come to church weekly. Not when you feel like it. Not once a month. not when you can make it. not when you’re not working. Not when you don’t have hockey. Not when its convenient. Not when you want to. You need to come to clear your schedule and form your schedule around the Lord’s Day worship. It’s that necessary.
Now, with that covered, once we have understood the necessity of being where the Lord promises to be for us when the church universally as one body goes to meet Him, let’s turn our eyes toward those big “Evangelical Feast Days” that land on days other than Sunday. Now – let me first say that the only reason this term and category exists is because of the downgrade itself. Traditionally we list 7 Major feasts and several minor or lesser feasts. But this list or category of Evangelical Feast days (so-called) holds only 5 days. Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. And while those who only do these like to call them “Evangelical” over and against the others, they are all “Evangelical” in that they all come from the Holy Gospel (except for the non-apostolic sanctoral cycle), are about the Gospel, and proclaim the Gospel. Nevertheless, these are the feast days that several “protestant” churches (not Lutherans) have decided are actually cool, over and against the others which are supposedly not cool , or, less cool. And granted, these days are extremely important. Yet, even though this list is extremely small (5 days out of a 365 day calendar), because 3/5 of these often land on days other than sunday, they get skipped. Of course, we didn’t start there either. Here also it began with a skipping of Ascension day. To the point of course now today where, when discussing this day, I find myself often hit with the question “what’s that?” or the response “I’ve never heard of that,” or “we’ve never done that.” But it didn’t stop there, it spread to Good Friday, and then eventually even to Christmas, as we saw especially since covid. Ironic as it is, becuase not that long ago Christmas and Easter were often the only two days that many people went. But now in these latter times, these are two of the most common days for people to not come, even for those who normally would. BUt the fact of the matter is – as you probably guessed it, that these days are extremely important. I was met semi-recently with the concept that Christmas is “adiaphora” that is “indifferent.” Meaning not really what it sounds like, but meaning actually that it’s neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture, and, following up that statement, I was then met with the statement that we are in fact free to not celebrate Christmas and that we should never depose pastors who don’t celebrate it. To which I simply pointed to AC 24 which states that we administer the Eucharist every Lord’s Day and every Feast. Simply put – we confess that we do this. Our Pastors took vows to do this. But beyond that, what kind of pastor worth his salt would not do this? What kind of Pastor who cares about his flock, who cares about teaching and embodying ad inculcating within his congregation the faith of the church in the incarnation, life, suffering, passion, death, and ascension of Christ would drop any of these days that the church has been universally celebrating for nigh on 2000 years? What reason would they have to break such a healthy, crucial, important, and vital celebration of the church’s faith and life? these feasts, along with all “major feasts” (as well to a lesser extent of the “lesser/minor” feasts) tell the story of the creedal faith that we confess. Is the faith we confess important? Then so also should be the practicing and embodying and inculcation of the faith that we confess. Is the incarnation important? Then Christmas is important. Is the ascension important? Then ascension day is important. And on the other side of this, when we purposely miss out on these feasts, of course the most relevant to today’s article, good Friday, then what we are saying is that the passion and crucifixion and death of our Lord for the forgiveness of our sins is not that important to us. Of course, people often don’t think of it that way. But let me put it to you this way, you go to the things that are important to you. If you were obsessed with Hockey, and had a favourite team, and I told you that there was a hockey game from your favorite team playing in your town on this one day of the year, every year, and I’ve given you free tickets, are you telling me that a real fan would not go? If you are crazy about the passion, crucifixion, and death of Our Lord, then you will go to church on Good Friday. Yet the reality is that for so many in our culture and even in our churches, the desire is not there. And why, I ask, is the desire not there? Have we not preached this in a compelling way? Do the people not realize how crucial this is for their salvation and for the Christian religion? For Good-Friday to become an oft-skipped Feast day in the church year is tantamount to Football Fans skipping the SuperBowl.
Following these 5 Evangelical Feasts, we can then begin to talk about all of those other big feats. Whether we call them “Major” or “Minor,” they are all about the gospel, they are from the gospels, and they all preach the gospel. As such, they are all important to the life, faith, and prayer of the church. We can look simply at holy week as a test case. As with all of these feasts they include readings not heard on any of the Sundays of the church year, with concepts not preached on in the sundays of the church year, and come together to form whole seasons of the church year, and those seasons fit together to for the whole message of the cohesive church year. That is, texts, concepts, and seasons, which form into the whole life, prayer, and practice of the church. Some notable examples are Epipahny, The annucniation , Holy cross, Ash Wednesday, and of course, holy week. Which of these days is not important for the life, prayer, practice and faith of the church? Which of these sets of texts do you not want to hear? Which of these themes and topics and concepts do you not care about, not think are necessary for the church, or simply aren’t more important than whatever you had planned that evening? Truly, they all are. NOt a one of these is unimportant. not a one of these is dispensable. But all of these come together to form the life, the prayer, the faith, and the practice of the church and her celebration and preaching of the Gospel of Christ. We can talk also about individual feasts and their importance, as for example was done last year for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, or for this year on Shrove Tuesday, and for Ash Wednesday, but the over-all message here is that each and ever single one of these feasts has a crucial and deeply important role to play in the church year. And, contrary to the notion that church is a place you drop in sometimes when you feel like it, the church year, and the lectionary function as an unbroken cycle to tell a cohesive story. It’s not meant to be read or hear in bits and pieces here and there and its not meant to be take in without the crucial feasts that arent on sundays, but it was always meant to be had, heard, and understood with them. For Easter without Good Friday, not only makes no sense, but has no power, and no effect on your salvation. and if the church year has any ability to express our theology in the days we snactify and set apart, then that too needs to flow into our non-sunday feasts.
And that brings us to the topic really for today’s piece. Which is that becuase of this down grade and this abandonment of weekday feasts, the lectionary committee decided to smash the entirety of the passion story (the second half of holy week) into the same day as Palm Sunday. Now, this isn’t an entirely bad idea. And in fact, historically, this was done already on the 5th Sunday of Lent (now the Lazarus day, little easter). So its not that smashing several days into one day is itself a problem, except for the fact that back when that was the case, people still went to services for Maundy Thursday and good Friday. But now… well now churches have straight up deleted holy week form their church calendars, and i don’t only mean Holy Mon-Wed, which are themselves important and not to be abandoned, but they have unabashedly stopped holding services on one or both of those aforementioned days, and focus on them (poorly and without sufficient time to do so) on Palm Sunday, which has no basically become “passion suday” more than it is palm sunday. In other words, Palm Sunday, has for so many churches now basically become little more than lazy minimalist church calendar day. It has, if you will, become conceptually synonymous with “don’t go to church more than once a week day.” And that’s simply not acceptable.
So what should we do about it? Well here’s what I’m suggesting to you. Instead of allowing peoples lack of attendance hinder you, remember firstly that you do not go to church because other people go, but because there you find the promises of God. If you’re a pastor, then remember secondly that although the former statement is no less true for you, that yo have also the responsibility and command of delivering those promises and gifts to the sheep of God. And you must therefore remember that shepherds don’t ask the sheep when to feed the sheep, where to lead the sheep, or how to care for the sheep. It is your calling and vocation to serve those people and administer those gifts. And, if you’re a Lutheran pastor, you already took vows confessing that you will administer the sacrament on these days. So above all we must reclaim these days. We must celebrate these days. We must go to church on these days. And if we are pastors, we must hold church these days, and invite our people to come, and educate them and encourage them to come, by way of the gospel. By way of showing them the importance of them and the grace found i nthem and the wonderful gifts found in them. Onnly then, when we recover the sanctity and importance of God’s Word, and God’s Sacrament, and God’s service then can we hope to ever really expect to find our Holy Tuesday services full. But – the way to do that, begins with holding services on these days.
And let me just end by again reminding you of something that I personally think is of chief importance for us to remember as the church of Word and Sacrament. And that is this:
The task of the ministry is not primarily found in counseling, or in friendship, or in “relationship building” or in things done by the corporate body of the laity. The task of the ministry is found in things that are particular to it. That is in the conducting of the Divine Liturgy, of the preaching of God’s Word, and the administration of God’s sacraments. That is the task of the ministry. That is the mission of the church. And that is the whole job description for the Christian pastor. if that is not the bulk, bread, and butter of our ministry, then we arent doing the ministry that Christ gave us to do, but one we invented to replace the one He gave us to do. And that means that daily we are to be in that work. Whether it is for one person or for 100 at one time. Our work is primarily comprised by preaching, by praying the Liturgy, and by administering the absolution and the Eucharist. And for those who claim to be a part of that church, remember that the church is seen and found and defined by those who believe gathered (regularly) around the administration of Word and sacrrament. Is that what we are about? Is that who we are? Is that our identity, our focus, our mission, and our passion? becuase it’s supposed to be.
So as the world and the church at large makes fun of you for holding a Good Friday Service I implore you to hold a Maundy Thursday service too. And when they make fun of you for that, hold one on Holy Saturday too. ANd when they make fun of you for that hold one on every day of holy week. And when they make fun you for taking holy week too seriously, then push it forward and move toward more frequent services. Reclaim the weekday feasts. recalim the gift of the Liturgy and the Word, and the Sacraments. Reclaim Christ. Reclaim His Gifts. Reclaim His Worship. Reclaim the life, the prayer, and the faith of the church. FOr these are your mysteries to steward faithfully. And these, you are called to use. To fan into flame. And to exercise. Let us be known as the church that worships. Let us be known as the church that preaches. Let us be known as the church that gathers and that celebrates and that observes and meets and gathers. Let us be known as a people who are passionate about the passion of Chirst. Let us be known as a people who shape their life and their schedules around the promises of God and the worship of the church. Let us be known first before anything else, as Christians.
The Didache(c. 90 A.D.)
On the Lord’s Day of the Lord gather together, break bread, and give thanks.
St. Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200 – 258 A.D.)
And we ask that this Bread be given us daily, so that we who are in Christ and daily receive THE EUCHARIST AS THE FOOD OF SALVATION, may not, by falling into some more grievous sin and then in abstaining from communicating, be withheld from the heavenly Bread, and be separated from Christ’s Body…
He Himself warns us, saying, “UNLESS YOU EAT THE FLESH OF THE SON OF MAN AND DRINK HIS BLOOD, YOU SHALL NOT HAVE LIFE IN YOU.” Therefore do we ask that our Bread, which is Christ, be given to us daily, so that we who abide and live in Christ may not withdraw from His sanctification and from His Body. (The Lord’s Prayer 18)
St. Basil the Great (c. 330 – 379 A.D.)
To communicate each day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and beneficial; for He says quite plainly: “He that eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life.” Who can doubt that to share continually in life is the same thing as having life abundantly? We ourselves communicate four times each week…and on other days if there is a commemoration of any saint. (Letter of Basil to a Patrician Lady Caesaria)
St. John Chrysostom (c. 344 – 407 A.D.)
What then? Do we not offer daily? Yes, we offer (Homilies on Hebrews 17, 2[4]; 17, 3[6])
St. Augustine (c. 354 – 430 A.D.)
He willed that the SACRAMENTAL SIGN of this should be the daily Sacrifice of the Church, who, since the Church is His body and He the Head, learns to OFFER herself through Him.” (City of God 10:20)
