Vestiges of Rome?
OOPS!
As Easter approaches, I thought that it would be appropriate to bring up the topic of “church holidays” as they are called. Specifically, the observance of Lent has been on my mind & heart the last several weeks. Several reformed congregations officially recognize the “Season of Lent” and encourage their members to observe this “season”. I don’t know about others, but I’m very uncomfortable with the reintroduction of observances that were a yoke of legalism on believers, instituted as a natural result of the false gospel that taught (and still teaches) that Christians can and must perform some kind of work to keep their salvation. I can’t help but think of men like Zwingli of Zurich, a champion of the reformation, who openly stood against the oppression of Rome by opposing the observance of Lent, which culminated in the Affair of the Sausages in 1522. While Zwingli certainly wasn’t the perfect theologian, he was one of the earliest reformers who was eventually killed (along with 24 other protestant pastors), quartered & burned by the army of Rome for his cry of Sola Scriptura. Although Calvin & Zwingli weren’t in unison on many issues, Calvin also opposed the observance of Lent and, in fact, called it a corruption. The authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith (the “divines”) would have considered the church sanctioned observance of Lent to be:
“…according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan…” WCF 21.1
Of course, many/most of the reformed congregations with which I’m familiar make the observance voluntary, but the fact that they officially recognize this observance as a “sanctioned” church season seems to be opening the door to the same errors that corrupted the church in the early centuries after Christ’s ascension. I think my father-in-law said it best when I inquired about his opinion of this observance:
“…Paul said it perfectly in Romans 14:5-8 and also in Colossians 2:16-22 and the scathing denunciation of Galatians 4:10,11–YOU OBSERVE DAYS AND MONTHS AND SEASONS AND YEARS. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
May we walk in the grace and freedom that was afforded us by Christ’s perfect sacrifice!
Sola Scriptura!
solafivereformed 
I don’t know where this song came from, but it’s just too funny. (found it in a comment on Doug Wilson’s site):
LENTEN SONG(to the tune of
My Favorite Things)
Sackcloth and ashes, and
days without eating,
Mortification and wailing
and weeping,
A hair shirt that scratches,
a nettle that stings,
These are a few of my favorite
things.
Penitence, flagellants, memento
mori,
Spending nights sleeping on
rocks in a quarry,
The sound of a cloak’d solemn
cantor who sings,
These are still more of my
favorite things.
Tossing and turning and
yearning I’m spurning,
Passions aflame like an
ember-day burning,
Corpus and carnis and
wild drunken flings,
Forsaken are they for
my favorite things!
When it’s Christmas,
When the tree’s lit,
When the cards are sent,
I simply remember my
favorite things,
And then I can’t wa-a-a-a-it
till Lent.