What We Hold Onto--October 13, 2022

What We Hold Onto--October 13, 2022

"I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you." [1 Corinthians 11:2]

It's been said that "tradition" is the living faith of the dead, while "traditionalism" is the dead faith of the living.  One hopes that makes it obvious which to choose, if you have the choice between them.

Of course, sometimes we can be so worried about becoming stuck in the old, dead routines of traditionalism that we throw the baby out with the bathwater and pitch the living, vital rhythms of tradition that are still valuable and still breathe life into us.  Especially in a time and culture like ours that seems infatuated with newness and novelty, the idea of carrying on a tradition can seem hopelessly out of touch at best or downright repressive at worst.  For good and for ill, we live in a society that is quick to question the decisions and thinking of those who have gone before us.  

Now, to be sure, sometimes that critical approach is necessary--we should, after all, be able to probe down into the reasons that the people of the past did what they did, and we should decide whether those reasons are good enough to continue to do the same in a new time.  There are, after all, some truly terrible things that have been handed down from one generation to another as traditions, and they absolutely needed to be questioned and then brought to a halt.  There was a time when slavery was "traditional," when treating women as the property of their husbands or fathers was seen as "traditional family values," and when blood-letting was a "traditional" remedy for illness recommended by the best medical minds.  So before we just baptize our nostalgia, yes, there is good reason for our age to be a cynical one. And the deep distrust many have for any kind of traditions [especially ones associated with institutions, or religion, or--gasp--institutional religion] comes from having seen so many of those traditions turn out to be disappointments.  

And yet... there are some things we keep coming back to, things we then pass along to our children and the next generation beyond that, because they continue to bring us to life.  We hand on the things we have found to be vital and essential, so that those who come after us don't have to keep reinventing the wheel, and so that others can receive what we have found important enough to give to them.  The word for that is simply, "tradition."

Holding those in tension is the tightrope walk that keeps us from falling off of "tradition" into the disaster of mere "traditionalism." Maybe that's why the famous line from the musical says, "Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof."  Traditions that serve a purpose can be exactly what keeps us steady enough to keep going in life, and they can keep us grounded in what really matters. And I think that's the spirit in which we have to hear Paul's words here.  Paul does indeed commend the Corinthians for holding onto the traditions he has given them, but you get the sense that we are talking about those vital things that keep faith alive and kicking.  This isn't "You must have red carpet in your church building, because every church carpet we have ever had was red before."  And this isn't an instance of passing on old prejudices and bigotry from father to son in the name of promoting "traditional" morality, either.  This is Paul who has just finished talking about his practice of empathy and consideration for others as a way of imitating Christ.  That's the kind of tradition we're talking about here--and yes, that is vital.

So let's take the risk of being a little bit weird in a culture that seems hell-bent on throwing out whatever was popular five minutes ago and going bananas for whatever the Next-Big-Thing is touted to be.  Let's dare to believe that there are indeed some things that have been handed to us as traditions in the way of Jesus that don't automatically need to be thrown away or dismissed as "outdated." Let's consider that tradition can be the wisdom of the past that spares us having to reinvent the wheel, and that it can be what keeps us grounded in the things that truly bring us to life.  That still gives us the breathing room to question things that have been handed to us uncritically or that seem to be dead weight rather than life-giving patterns for life, but it also keeps us from losing babies along with bathwater.  And perhaps if we ask the question, "What things do I want to offer to the future that have helped me navigate life well?" we get a sense of what traditions are worth holding onto, and which ones are just white elephants don't know what to do with.

Maybe to a culture that is perpetually chasing after the new for the sake of its sheer novelty, holding onto vital traditions might just be a surprising breath of fresh air.

Lord Jesus, as others have taught us the way of your love in the world, allow us to continue to hold onto what they teach, and to consider what we will pass on to those who come after us.