49 thoughts on “Why Not Great Friday?”

1. Why not elevate the day to Pretty Good Friday?

   Totally.

   As a silicon valley guy, I always found the name of this privacy company, a clever one.

   Enjoy your day off. This greedy capitalist enjoyed the bittersweet light commute. Fastest I get into work. Only because I’m one of the few who must keep the economy going.

   You’re welcome.

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2. I had not known of the position of the Second Helvetic “Confession regarding feasts that celebrate the events of Jesus’ life, but I find myself in agreement with its position. Since these events were considered important enough to be recorded in the gospels, it would seem appropriate for us to celebrate them. Doing so should in no wise detract from the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Day.

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3. What does “thanksgivings upon special occasions” mean in WCF 21.5?

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4. The Westminster Directory for Publick Worship states: “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 called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.“

   RubeR, I’m pretty sure the “thanksgivings upon special occasions” were non-Sunday, one-time special things like the end of a war — usually national in nature.

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5. Thx chuckles, that helps.

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6. The wife and I were just having this discussion. I never enjoyed or looked forward to holy week. Even as a kid. The religious ‘show’ always made me eager for it to be over. It’s always been uncomfortable.

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7. Thanks for the reference, C-Dubs.

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8. Even when I…wait for it…was a dumb Southern Babdist I noted that special events, services, days, etc. were the worst — actually discourage participation and work against all good ends. So, one more thing the old school gets right. Those who get wrong probably have a faulty theology of glory. Expectations are raised, always to be dashed. Embrace the regular, average, not so good, just OK, or that thing that happens when there’s negative pressure on one side of an orifice.

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9. Maybe it’s not “settling” ‘for only good,’ because indeed “no one is good except God alone.”

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10. Darryl:

    A few observations.

    1. This is a post by a PCA Churchman who likes the BCP. In it, he cites Mr. Peter Toon (D.Phil., Oxford) on the word “Good” in “Good Friday.” http://centurions.blogspot.com/2014/04/good-friday-and-easter-even-2014.html.

    2. Funny you should raise the issue about “Good Friday” as “Great Friday.” At noon today, we had our Episcopal service. The Rector said it was not only a “Great Friday” but the “Greatest Friday” in history. And we sang (again, for the 4th time over the last few weeks), “Ah Holy Jesus How Hast Thou Offended” with its old, robust, classical, and biblically rooted theology. We’ve also been singing some Lutheran hymns in the Episcopal hymnal. And with tremendous support from our decent pipe organ. (As a quick aside, I marvel weekly at the consistent clash between the hymnbook and even modernized BCP and liberal theology. Poor liberals just can’t escape the old sermonic hymns, but I digress.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7MpWAKltos

    3. I realize the usual objections to the calendar. It generally arises in Advent, Lent, and Easter. It’s an annual event that pops up. But, it is like your semester syallabi for courses. I trust you give these “ordered” readings to the students? I know you do. Read this, read that, test here, lecture there, etc., semester begins here-ends there. It’s an order devised by the Professor for coverage of the issues. That’s really what the calendar is. Or, to have another context, the old Dutch practice of splitting the Heidelberg Catechism into 52 Sundays with evening sermons on the catechism is another form of a churchly-ordered calendar. It’s about good order, discipline, decency, and coverage of the issues. I don’t pay much mind to those objecting to the calendar.

    4. Glad to go “slowly” through the Easter Week with Maunday Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Eve and Easter services. One doesn’t merely race to Easter Sunday or, perhaps, better named Resurrection Sunday. That is, we don’t race to a theology of glory but also stress the theology of the cross and suffering. (Even the title here suggests that “race” to Easter morn with http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2014/04/18/its-fridaybut-sundays-comin/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+between2worlds+%28Between+Two+Worlds%29).

    5. On this “Good,” “Great” and “Greatest” of Fridays, a good word from the Canons of Dordt.

    April 18, 2014 <—Entirely applicable always, but suitably and seemly so for Passion Week, 2014.
    Canons of Dordt

    The Second Head of Doctrine: Christ’s Death and Human Redemption Through It

    Article 1: The Punishment Which God’s Justice Requires

    God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. His justice requires (as he has revealed himself in the Word) that the sins we have committed against his infinite majesty be punished with both temporal and eternal punishments, of soul as well as body. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is given to God’s justice.

    Article 2: The Satisfaction Made by Christ

    Since, however, we ourselves cannot give this satisfaction or deliver ourselves from God’s anger, God in his boundless mercy has given us as a guarantee his only begotten Son, who was made to be sin and a curse for us, in our place, on the cross, in order that he might give satisfaction for us.

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11. We are not bound before God to any observance of external things which are in themselves indifferent (ἀδιάφορα), but that we are now at full liberty either to use or omit them. The knowledge of this liberty is very necessary to us; where it is wanting our consciences will have no rest, there will be no end of superstition. In the present day many think us absurd in raising a question as to the free eating of flesh, the free use of dress and holidays, and similar frivolous trifles, as they think them; but they are of more importance than is commonly supposed…. For it is no trivial dispute that is here commenced, the point in debate being, whether the use of this thing or that is in accordance with the divine will, which ought to take precedence of all our acts and counsels.

    Calvin, Institutes, 3.19.7

    Interesting point by Calvin, who would seem to disagree with the Helvetic as to their place. I’m with you Chortles on the sentiments towards all these holy-days. Before I even knew what Reformed theology was, I thought it was strange the massive importance put on Easter & Christmas (not to mention the showiness), as if what Jesus was doing on the 50 other Sundays didn’t deserve all the importance these two did. It was these kinds of things that made it much easier to accept Reformed theology – that feeling of “Oh, so there actually is a church that feels this way about all this stuff too? Finally…”

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12. The only way a Westerner can accurately celebrate Easter and “holy week” with date specificity is to pay a lot more attention to Jewish cult than Paul would have been comfortable with. I’ve notice that (mostly) charismatic churches have Seder meals in my area, too. Probably just flavor of the month.

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13. Nice photo of Woody from “Annie Hall”.

    This morning I had Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” on the turntable and was reminded of the opening of Woody’s “Manhattan”.

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14. How do we evaluate having a Pretty Good Friday service but canceling Lord’s Day Sunday School?

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15. I’m not entirely opposed to the idea of remembering holy-days privately. DPV has a point but I would think of it more along civic holidays. Certainly we know that Christ died and rose again on the Friday & Sunday after passover. I think that these can serve as otherwise benign markers for us to specifically remember these events, just as civic holidays do. It can be a profitable thing. It’s nothing particularly special about that day other than to be a time to specifically recall and reflect on the events that occurred that day.

    Maybe this is just a Western/calendar-based-society thing though. I hear that in parts of Africa they don’t keep track of birthdays & such. I remember an African missionary telling the congregation that people in the village didn’t know how old they were, they didn’t keep track of days like that.

    Hard to go that far though since God did ordain a 7-day week

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16. Erik, I didn’t know Old Lifers had Sunday School. I figured you’d think of it as an evangelical innovation.

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17. Terry, DGH on Sunday School

    https://oldlife.org/2013/10/sunday-school/

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18. Terry,

    We do, although the middle-aged folks tell me their parents used to go to someone’s house to drink coffee while the kids went to class. Hard to do in a commuter church.

    The most interesting real life dust ups I’ve witnessed (and been involved in) have been in Sunday School.

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19. The 3 Forms of Unity, I forget precisely where now at the moment, leave room for confessional Reformed churches of continental persuasion to observe Good Friday, Easter, and Christmas, and our churches do call the faithful together on those days.

    But Good Friday isn’t on the Sabbath, so, like a New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day service that doesn’t fall on the Sabbath, or on Ascension Day, it’s one of the few days we can go out somewhere after church, in our Christian liberty! I went to an Irish pub for an Irish breakfast and some pints. 🙂

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20. I think it is often overlooked that the Second Helvetic allows for called worship services on the “Evangelical Feast Days” because of a different view of the Sabbath: “Moreover, we celebrate the Lord’s Day and not the Sabbath as a FREE OBSERVANCE.” In other words, the church is not authorized to call a worship on the Lord’s Day by divine command, but in freedom. I think it is pretty clear that Bullinger and Calvin are in agreement on this matter.

    That we do it on Sunday is customary, and prudential, following the wisdom of the Apostles. That we MUST worship is not option, that we MUST worship regularly and commonly in an orderly fashion is not an option, that we MUST worship on Sunday is a matter of Christian liberty. Worship services called on feast days do not differ in any significant way from worship services called on the Lord’s Day. They are a free observance, called by the local elders in common consent for the benefit of God’s people and good order. “For we do not believe that one day is any holier than any other.”

    This is, I believe, mind blowing stuff for the typical WCF Presbyterian. But it is wholly consistent with Bullinger and Calvin and the TFU on the Sabbath. Practically, the Continental Reformed don’t have a fundamentally different application of the Lord’s Day, as is clear from the declaration of the Synod of Dort on Sabbath observance. But confessionally and doctrinally, there is a kernel of disagreement.

    Read Second Helvetic to see this view explained:

    “a. THE TIME NECESSARY FOR WORSHIP. Although religion is not bound to time, yet it cannot be cultivated and exercised without a proper distribution and arrangement of time. Every Church, therefore, CHOOSES FOR ITSELF a certain time for public prayers, and for the preaching of the Gospel, and for the celebration of the sacraments; and no one is permitted to overthrow this appointment of the Church at his own pleasure. For unless some due time and leisure is given for the outward exercise of religion, without doubt men would be drawn away from it by their own affairs.

    THE LORD’S DAY. Hence we see that in the ancient churches there were not only certain set hours in the week appointed for meetings, but that also the Lord’s Day itself, ever since the apostles’ time, was set aside for them and for a holy rest, a practice now rightly preserved by our Churches for the sake of worship and love.

    SUPERSTITION. In this connection we do not yield to the Jewish observance and to superstitions. For we do not believe that one day is any holier than another, or think that rest in itself is acceptable to God. Moreover, we celebrate the Lord’s Day and not the Sabbath as a free observance. [Note, this doesn’t just refer to the switch from Saturday to Sunday, this refers to a day selected pragmatically, if you will, in freedom, and not by divine command.]

    THE FESTIVALS OF CHRIST AND THE SAINTS. Moreover, if in Christian liberty the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord’s nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and of his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, we approve of it highly.”

    Calvin: “I do not cling so to the number seven as to bring the Church under bondage to it, nor do I condemn churches for holding their meetings on other solemn days, provided they guard against superstition.”

    We had a lovely Good Friday service in DC this evening, in keeping with our confessions and the URCNA church order.

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21. Will, in my 3FU entity the elders reserve the right to announce services throughout the week.

    I’m not a big fan of Christmas and Easter, and don’t celebrate personally, but have no problem going along with it when socially obliged.

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22. Brian, maybe mind blowing but maybe it explains some observations. What in the 3FU supports the Helvetic? And some questions on application – if a consistory calls for a New Years service is it of the same binding force – or lack thereof – as a Sunday service? May a member skip that Sunday, go to the New Years service and it’s equally acceptable? Or should he be obliged to do both as a matter of submission?

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23. Also, could a 3FU church opt for exclusively Saturday worship services?

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24. Erik, you consult the history of Dutch Calvinism.

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25. Nate, but here’s the problem with Easter. Christ died and rose again on a certain day. Let’s call it March 22. But next year we observe Easter on March 7, the next on April 3, the next on March 28. At least Christmas honors the notion that Christ’ birth was on a definite day. Easter? We celebrate the Jewish calendar’s timing. Since we now date our years according to Christ’s birth, why would we date Christ’s resurrection according to a calendar that doesn’t recognize Christ?

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26. Brian, fair enough. But your point misses how the nadere reformatie and Afscheiding folks loved the Puritan sabbath and its justification and practice.

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27. Brian, should we be more eager to add on holy days, which always are adorned with good intentions, or err on the side of keeping superstition and the clergy in check? I think I have a feel for the lesson history compels. But, maybe I just serve my own disposition on the issue. But then maybe that’s all the holy day observers do as well.

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28. Weekday services have less pull, can’t be blamed for working on a non-holiday weekday

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29. We celebrate thanksgiving on a rather arbitrary Thursday (more for consumeristic reasons than anything). I’m not proposing a religious calendar observance per se, but that one particular day of the year, it can be profitable to directly reflect on the events of Easter. I’m not opposed to that arrangement. And if someone wants to mark that day by aligning it with he Jewish calendar, it makes sense since there is much overlap and fulfillment of it. You remember Machen’s birthday on this blog for the reasons that he has profitable things to say and it is a suitable day to do so.

    There is much in the Christian life to reflect upon but the events of Christ’s crucifixion & resurrection are of supreme importance in the Christian life. If an individual wishes to set aside one day a year to reflect on those events directly, that seems a reasonable thing to do. If the church begins imposing these then that’s where I would take issue.

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30. MM: “What in the 3FU supports the Helvetic?”

    BL: HC 103: “First, that the ministry of the gospel and schools be maintained; and that I, especially on the Sabbath, that is, the day of rest, diligently attend the church of God, to learn God’s Word, to use the sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian alms. Second, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, let the Lord work in me by His Holy Spirit, and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.

    Note two things: First, this is a loose translation. The only use of the word “Sabbath” in the answer is with regard to the “eternal Sabbath.” The earlier use is “feiertag,” a term for Sunday, to be sure, but different from the latter use, and different from the word used when the Fourth command itself is taught in HC92. So there is a de-linking from particular jewish days (I’d argue, per Calvin and Bullinger, even 1 in 7).

    Second, and importantly, note the “ESPECIALLY on the feiertag.” I.e., you must “diligently attend the church of God” especially on that weekly day of worship. Other days are implied.

    MM: “And some questions on application – if a consistory calls for a New Years service is it of the same binding force – or lack thereof – as a Sunday service? May a member skip that Sunday, go to the New Years service and it’s equally acceptable? Or should he be obliged to do both as a matter of submission?”

    BL: I’d say that precisely as DGH noted, continental reformed practice is in fact a conflation of 2nd Helvetic and later Puritan teaching. So practice in particular churches vary (and indeed, current URCNA church order says that “consistories MAY call special services.”). But I’d say that since the authority for the calling of the service derives from “choosing of the [local] church” and not the explicit command of God, that the binding force of the called worship service is the same. Just as an OPC church chooses WHAT TIME on the Lord’s Day to worship, a URCNA church may choose as well on what day to worship (though by common consent and wisdom this is limited to evangelical feast days and old and new year’s day). IN PRACTICE, disciplining a member for not attending a special service would be rare in the extreme… as its pretty tough to establish a pattern of neglecting services that are only held annually.

    You can’t substitute, or skip. If the consistory calls two services in the week, indeed, as it calls two services on the Lord’s day, you are obligated to attend if able. It’s the calling of the service, not the day, that compels attendance, “For we do not believe that one day is any holier than another.”

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31. MM: “Also, could a 3FU church opt for exclusively Saturday worship services?”

    BL: In principle, I’d say the second Helvetic suggests that, but in practice it points to the common consent of Christian churches that observing public worship on the Lord’s Day is prudent for the good ordering of the church. This is why HC103 says “especially on the feiertag.” So I think HC would give pride of place to Sunday.

    [Correction to previous post, my non-germanic memory didn’t serve. “Feiertag” is a holiday or festival day, and doesn’t have specific reference to Sunday (I don’t think). So HC is indeed looser on this, but suggests rather that the Lord’s Day is the typical holiday of the society in which one lives.]

    In the URCNA, our church order requires consistories to call the church to worship twice on the Lord’s Day. I would understand this (in the light of HC and less so 2nd Helvetic) to be our common agreement as a church unified under a particular church order to unite around a certain day. I am happy to be bound by that uninspired common agreement.

    Though I could certainly see a mission church in an Islamic land shifting worship to accommodate the work schedules of its members. I believe a number of Christian churches in the middle east do so, holding worship on Friday. I doubt they care that the 2nd Helvetic articulates a justification.

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32. @ Kent: Indeed; Ascension Day and Day of Prayer services occur within continental, 3FU churches I’ve belonged to, though not all.

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33. sean: Brian, should we be more eager to add on holy days, which always are adorned with good intentions, or err on the side of keeping superstition and the clergy in check? I think I have a feel for the lesson history compels. But, maybe I just serve my own disposition on the issue. But then maybe that’s all the holy day observers do as well.

    BL: Calvin thinks we should want to gather for public worship every day. As Bob Godfrey often says, forget about the second service, why aren’t we contending for a third or fourth service?

    I think there’s no doubt that in the back and forth of the Dutch churches, there was a lot of pragmatism in play. The people are going to have debauched feasts on these days, it would be better if they were in church. I know a lot of my fellow URCNA ministers make a similar case. Christmas is a huge deal in our culture, we’re not going to fight that, most people have the day off, let’s sanctify it by gathering for worship. The church is free to worship, we should delight to do so when we are able. [In DC, many in our translational congregation aren’t “from here” so they travel “home” for the holidays, so with a smaller congregation, we don’t call services on Christmas Day, unless it’s Sunday. At least not yet.]

    I think Bullinger would reply that it is superstition to think that worshiping on the Lord’s Day and not any other has the authority of divine command, or that the day is somehow holier than others. So, arguably, the continental view is less superstitious.

    RE clergy, by all means, keep me in check, via subscription and ordination vows. Not sure what that has to do with this matter.

    DGH: Brian, fair enough. But your point misses how the nadere reformatie and Afscheiding folks loved the Puritan sabbath and its justification and practice.

    BL: Precisely. As Cocceius said, “Our opponents [Voetians] are reading too many English books.” I don’t think I actually miss that point, I was just speaking to a different one.

    Both in theory and practice, the continental tradition incorporates most of the puritan thought on this, as is clear from the statement of Dort on the matter (already in 1618).

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34. Nate, really? July 4 on August 18? If we believe the resurrection was a historical event, shouldn’t the date remain the same? Don’t go allegorical on me.

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35. Brian, thanks.

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36. Why aren’t we contending for a third or fourth service? Maybe because two once a week is sufficient. I can’t help but think that what lies behind such questions is a form of religious zeal we need as much rest from as worldly works.

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37. Brian, that seems an extreme measure to curb superstition by contemplating every day services, I prefer mine-where the holiday is already being debauched, let’s beg off in a show of distinction of the cult from the culture. The clergy ‘curbing’ would be on issue of compulsion, such as; lenten services. Which could either result in an unwarranted stratification amongst members or just plain unbiblical cultic burden. There’s subscription and legislation and then there’s how it works in practice(wisdom). Then there’s the whole point of elevating an entire season, never mind the day, over other ‘ordinary’-in this case, less than, days and the subsequent diminishing(rom 14 violation?) of those ‘other’ days. Seems to be a superstitious causing practice or at least an erroneous affirming of the culture in setting aside these seasonal days with cultic signature, much less unduly burdening my pea-picking ‘heart'(another potential rom 14 violation).

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38. Zrim, well said.

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39. Why not three or four services?

    Because prudence and moderation are Christian virtues.

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40. If, Lord willing, we live 80 plus years as Christians there is virtue in pacing ourselves. Anyone who has been in a Reformed Church for a decade or so can share too many stories of flameouts and burnouts already.

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41. Rube-

    I’d agree (for once) with Chortles. For example, our church holds occasional days of humiliation and prayer, to think upon and pray about the great sin and rebellion of our nation. These are customarily held on a Wednesday, coinciding with our weekly prayer meetings. We also hold new year’s services (if New Year’s Day is a day other than the Sabbath). These days are typically appointed by the Synod to be observed throughout the whole church.

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42. Zrim-

    I would say the reason we have two services is because that is the Biblical precedent: worship morning and evening, which is why the traditional Reformed practice is to have private and secret worship morning and evening throughout the week. It’s right there in Creation.

    Moderation and prudence are certainly virtues to be encouraged, but pragmatism shouldn’t really be the go-to justification for theology and ecclesiology.

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43. Alexander, to be clear, my point wasn’t to criticize the daily private worship of Christian persons and families. It was that sometimes the muscular push back on an admittedly anti- or asabbatarianism can go too far and forget the limitations of creatures. That is, it’s not an appeal to pragmatism but rather the frailties of sinners.

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44. DG, keeping track of time with the sun is ok, but not the moon?

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45. Zrim-

    I agree with your sentiments.

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46. Nate, did Christ’s resurrection happen on a certain day? So why “observe” it on different days each year?

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47. Because we don’t know the exact date he rose from the dead. There’s a reason Jesus was crucified and was resurrected during Passover week.

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48. Nate, we don’t know when Jesus was born. Work with me!

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49. All I’m saying is it’s not inappropriate to set aside specific time annually to specifically reflect on the events of Christ’s death and resurrection. Because of the links of the events of Christ’s death & resurrection to Passover, and we know the date of Passover, then it’s a useful way to mark out those dates. Nothing superstitious there. No observance of Passover going on.

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