Baptists, Lent, and the Reformation Rummage Sale

In recent years there have been a flurry of news articles prior to Lent, Holy Week, and Advent about how various Protestant groups and denominations have "discovered" that Catholic and Orthodox beliefs about the liturgical year are not nearly as "unbiblical" as many non-Catholics thought. Quite the contrary, as this Associated Baptist Press piece explains (ht: National Catholic Register):

Many Baptists are seeking to reclaim that pre-Easter focus -- historically called Lent -- which has been an integral part of many Christians’ experience since the earliest years of the church.

“It’s a biblical thing, not a made-up Catholic thing,” says Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens, Texas, acknowledging a robust Baptist suspicion of spiritual practices seen as too closely associated with the Roman Catholic Church or its distant cousins, the Anglicans.

Lost treasure

Some Baptists say they sense those suspicions -- in part a legacy of the Protestant Reformation -- have left them with a diminished spiritual vocabulary.

“There is an uneasy sense that something got lost,” says Phyllis Tickle, whose 2008 book, The Great Emergence, chronicles the blurring of denominational distinctions in late 20th- and early 21st-century American Christianity.

Every 500 years or so, says Tickle, the church metaphorically holds a great rummage sale, “getting rid of the junk that we believe no longer has value and finding treasures stuck in the attic because we didn’t want them or were too naïve to know their true worth.”

The Reformation was one of those rummage sales and the current “great convergence” is another, she maintains. For evangelicals, the long-forgotten treasures in the attic include a wide array of spiritual disciplines -- including Lent -- with roots in the church’s first centuries.

For Sterling Severns, discovering Lent and other seasons of the Christian year was “an eye-opening experience,” which he encountered at the first church he served after graduating from seminary.

“It tapped into something in me that surprised me,” says Severns, now pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. “I remember I almost felt as if I’d been let in on a great secret.”

For many folks who have been Catholic their entire lives, such comments might be a bit surprising. "Secret? How is it a secret? Don't all Christians know about Lent and Advent?" No, they surely don't. I wasn't aware of either Lent or Advent until I attended Bible college as a 20-year-old Fundamentalist, and even then they were spoken of in mostly cautious or negative ways (most of my profs viewed the Catholic Church with suspicion or disdain, but a couple were quite positive about Catholicism). But things have changed a lot in the past couple of decades and an growing number of Evangelical groups are embracing—in various ways and to differing degrees—aspects of the Catholic liturgical calendar.

An excellent book for Evangelicals who are curious about Catholic beliefs about worship, the liturgical calendar, and the sacraments is Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament by Thomas Howard. Also see his essay, "Catholic Spirituality", from the collection, The Night Is Far Spent.

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1444364267]

This is too cool.

[ThirstforTruth]

Yes.." a growing number of Evangelical faiths are embracing..aspects of the liturgical calendar". Recently a friend ( a non-practicing Catholic ) sent me the
bulletin, actually several, from a United Church of Christ she is currently attending. I was
surprised to see each week the same lectionary readings being used there as in the Catholic
Church! This prompted me to check on a couple Protestant churches in my area and again, to my
surprise, the same readings. We must never give up hoping and praying for unity with our separated brethren...as well as our fallen away brothers and sisters!

[BHG]

There is an uneasy sense that something got lost. REALLY? Ah well, it's a start....

[Bill]

The Baptists feel something got lost. Be still my heart. Do you think they will discover that they lost the Eucharist? Nah but a nice thought.

[sparks1093]

One day we will realize that as Christians, regardless of denomination, it is not a case of "us against them" but rather a case of "us against ourselves". Please God soften the hard hearts of your children.

[LJ]

Every time I have a yard sale or make a trip to St. Vincent de Paul, or even to the land-fill, the very next week I need something I had just got rid of.

Being Catholic suits my disposition, I think. We like to hang on to things in case we need them some day.

[Titus]

Horse feathers. The Church doesn't hold rummage sales; it's just that, as Archbishop Sheen observed, the average lifespan of a heresy is approximately 500 years.

[Brad]

What is Lent? I am Julia Roberts eating praying loving my way through Roma, eschewing actually going into a church in favor of literally eating my way through Peter's city. I did eat some wafer things, but they were on top of some spumoni. Then, with Oprah's blessing, yea -- promotion, headin' east, way east, to find the wizzdom of the pagans! Ommmmmm. Centering prayerrrrrr. Fold legs thus...ommmmm. What's this Lent thing? Oh, I know. It's the pLENTy of Catholics who went with me! Why, every parish is just buzzin' with my book club!

[Mike]

Just two days before I read this I had attended a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was organised by some Evangelical Christians. One of the items I was given was a Newsletter from an organisation called “Pray for Scotland”. In it there is an item about another group called trypraying. This is included; “With a 40-day prayer initiative this Lent….”

[MarkAA]

Just two cents here: Not all Protestants are where the Evangelicals are regarding these things. Lutherans didn't lose Lent or Advent, or the Liturgical calendar. Or vestments, candles, or even the Real Presence (viewed differently, but not gone).

[DeLynn]

I would say that Evangelicals doesn't just mean Baptists, either. My family and I (with Baptist background) came to love liturgy and the Eucharist in a Methodist church that was very evangelical.

[LJ]

MAR 2/11 -

Just saw this in Chritianity Today online;

http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/questions/spirituallife/observelent.html

"Can you give me one good reason for why I should observe Lent?" - Bonnie McMaken

Nice little post - I think she gets it.