As we seek to return to an observance of a Christian calendar, we need to be careful to avoid the mistake that our fathers made. In the course of the medieval period, the year filled up with so many saints days that they had the effect that barnacles have on a ship that at one time was swift. We do not want to make that mistake again. If everything is special, then nothing is special. If everything is set apart, there is nothing left for it to be set apart from.
We are following the example here of the continental Reformers, who returned to a marking of the evangelical feast days. This is Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, which is a high Sabbath.
Two things should be said about this. The first is that we are resisting the idolatries of our age in this (as distinct from the idolatries and mistakes that were made 600 years ago), and that is the idolatry of secular statism. We refuse to measure our days in terms of Labor Day, or Memorial Day, or MLK Day. There is nothing wrong with a barbeque on such civil holidays, but they do not define our year. It is in Jesus Christ that we live and move and have our being. We want to be taught to measure our days aright, and so we structure our annual worship around the major events in the life of our Lord. This is 2007, A.D. not 2007 C.E. We have celebrated Christmas, we have come to the threshold of Easter, we will celebrate the Ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Our religious holidays are fundamental; our civil holidays are not.
But the second thing that must be said is this—we have no right to establish holidays not explicitly required in the Word if that in any way impinges on the one day that God has established, which is the weekly Sabbath, the Lord’s Day. This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. We have no right to set aside the Word of God for the sake of our traditions. Worship the Lord weekly, come to His Supper weekly—this worship service is the foundation. If that is so, then let us feel free to build on that foundation together.