Advent, Christmas, and the Reformed Tradition
Lord's Day Exhortation
As Advent marks the beginning of the church year and the liturgical calendar, I thought it would be helpful to explain our approach to Christian holidays here at King’s Cross Church.
In the time of the Reformation, the inherited Roman church calendar was an unedifying burden to the people of God, bloated with 40–60 holy days and dozens of fasting days each year.
The Reformers’ approach to this problem varied.1 Some largely discarded the calendar altogether, while the majority retained what became known as the “five evangelical feast days” focused on the life of Christ, consisting of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost.
What is interesting is that both groups of early Reformers used largely similar criteria when deciding whether to celebrate these holy days. They both acknowledged that Christians are free in Christ to observe or not observe special days or seasons. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5).
But as pastors, the question then was concerning edification – will this practice largely help or hurt our people in their faith (Rom. 14:19)?2 Each congregation has different needs, different contexts, and this takes wisdom. As Martin Bucer put it, “Since we are free from the observation of days and seasons, more festivals ought not to be instituted than we may hope will be truly sanctified to the Lord.”
In our congregations in Moscow, our pastors and elders encourage the celebration of these evangelical feast days, and also believe a celebratory season of Advent to be spiritually beneficial to the people of God, as we anticipate the coming of Christmas.
We want our whole lives to be centered on Christ, and therefore it is fitting and right for the church to “keep time” according to Him—the One in whom “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), the One who all things were created through and for, and the One who faithfully continues to hold it all together (Col. 1:16–17).
So let us joyfully celebrate Advent in our families and together, reminding one another of our salvation secured by the incarnate Christ, the Savior of the world, and the Lord of time.
This exhortation was given on November 30, AD 2025, at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.
“Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”