“As I’ve mentioned, by the time of the Reformation the ship of the church was absolutely covered with barnacles — saints days, and whatnot. The Reformers scraped virtually all of them off, keeping only what they called the ‘five evangelical feast days’ — Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. All five are related to …
Imprinted on Fudge
“Celebrate the stuff. Use fudge and eggnog and wine and roast beef. Use presents and wrapping paper . . . You do not prepare for a real celebration of the Incarnation through thirty days of Advent Gnosticism. At the same time, remembering your Puritan fathers, you must hate the sin while loving the stuff. Sin …
More Than a Technically Correct Christmas
“I mean much more than that our words should be true and our behavior good. I mean that our words should sound like good news and our lives should smell like good news” (God Rest Ye Merry, p. 88).
On Walking Through Church History Backwards
“Why would the time of anticipation of salvation be so liturgically celebratory, while the times of fulfilled salvation be so liturgically glum”? (God Rest Ye Merry, p. 83).
If the Season is Penitential, You Are Doing It Wrong
“Traditionally, both Lent and Advent are penitential seasons — not times of overflowing celebrations. This is not something we have sought to cultivate at all, even though we do observe a basic church calendar, made up of what the Reformers called the five evangelical feast days. Our reluctance to adopt this kind of penitential approach …
One Way or the Other
“We will define our time by some system. The year is an inescapable year. Who is the Lord over it? How do we mark our days? Because we live in time, the rhythms of that time will either be Christian or not . . . Christians must define the year in an explicitly Christian way, …
Something to Watch Out For
“At a recent dinner my dad said, ‘No sense dying with a good reputation.’ My daughter asked if his was good. ‘Better than it ought to be'” (Rules for Reformers, p. 202).
Or Maybe a Disastrous Undoing
“Spurgeon once said that when God begins to work, it always looks more like an undoing than a doing” (Rules for Reformers, p. 202).
A Polished Staircase
“Carnal ambition is the one sin that step by step, up a long marble staircase, ascends to Hell” (Rules for Reformers, p. 202)
And You Stay That Way
“In one sense, Heaven and Hell have the same definition. They are both places where you become what you have been becoming” (Rules for Reformers, p. 201)