la-la-la-la-la Tradition!

Deuteronomy 4:1-9

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that Adonai, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of Adonai your God with which I am charging you. You have seen for yourselves what Adonai did with regard to the Baal of Peor - how Adonai your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to Adonai your God are all alive today. See, just as Adonai my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” For what other great nation has a god so near to it as Adonai our God is whenever we call him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinance as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Psalm 15

Adonai, who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill? Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart; they do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends; they do not cast disc redid upon a neighbor. In their sight the wicked are rejected, but they honor those who fear Adonai. They have sworn upon their health and do not take back their word. They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be overthrown.

James 1:17-27

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your should. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act - they will be blessed in their doing. If anyone think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Mark 8:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked hi, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to tradition.” Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

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Every time this reading comes up, someone in the room starts humming “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof. It’s a common fight fought year after year, whether in the ‘worship wars’ or the ‘spiritual but not religious’ conversation. Why does tradition get such a bad rap? Jaroslav Pelikan, contemporary scholar of the history of Christianity, said that “tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.”

There is nothing wrong with tradition, per se, as much as there is something wrong with losing the heart of its source. For generations, the way that we live, the traditions and practices we hold onto and pass down, remind us of who we are and where we come from. The Sabbath keeps the Jews as much as the Jews keep the Sabbath, they say. When we live in a culture that glorifies overspending and rugged individualism, it’s our tradition of simplicity and community life together that sets us apart, grounds us, helps us make decisions when life gets complicated. That song from Fiddler on the Roof does make me wish for simpler times, when rules and expectations were more clear: Who, day and night, must scramble for a living, feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers? - the Papa! Who must know the way to make a proper home, a quiet home, a kosher home? - the Mama! At three I started Hebrew school, at ten I learned a trade - the son! And who does Mama teach to mend and tend and fix? - the daughter! Oy, vey, if only life were so simple! But for those who’ve seen the musical and know that storyline, tradition and tragedy continue to upset community life when outsiders bring both persecution and new thinking into their village. Who are they, really, without their tradition?

But its when tradition becomes more highly valued than the people who practice it that things get ugly. When, in Martin Luther’s time, the poor mother who cannot afford to feed her sick child gives her last penny to the church for a chance to escape purgatory because it’s been taught as tradition. When, in contemporary times, Lutheran churches hold their Jell-o in higher esteem than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We fight more often over traditions because they give us a sense of comfort, but if we forget where they come from and what they mean, what good are they? When tradition replaces thinking, autopilot takes over in prayer, and keeping the rules means that people go hungry, then we’ve lost the heart of our hope, the reason behind our rituals.

Some would say, for example, that our votive candles are ‘too Catholic’ and shouldn’t be in a Protestant church. But we value the memory of our loved ones who have died, and this is how some of us have learned to pray for them and honor their memory. Because when we have God’s love at the center of our action, tradition becomes life-giving. One of my classmates from seminary is in an inter-racial marriage, which was not an acceptable American tradition until the Supreme Court ruled, in 1967, that enforcing the law of ‘racially pure’ marriage was unconstitutional, even though it had been tradition since before the United States were established as such. Traditions help us remember who we are and where we come from, but sometimes our traditions hold us back from full humanity. Thank God for always reforming us again and again to be so much more than we think we are.

Jesus is rightfully angry with the religious teachers of his day. This interaction reminds me of the First Aid training I received at camp a few years back, requiring us to put on latex-free gloves before helping a child who has fallen and scraped open a bloody knee or elbow. The child needs comfort, and you want me to take the time to sterilize my hands? Now, I know that transmission of disease is important to pay attention to, that those gloves are as much for the kid’s protection as for my own, but the feeling is what I’m getting at. Following the rules only gets you so far until your heart aches to go farther, and then what sort of impasse are we at? Can we break the speed limit if our passenger is a woman in labor and we’re trying to get her to the hospital? How do we make that decision? I mean, calling the police for an escort would probably be a better idea than just flying down the road, but you see how complicated life can get when our hearts and the rules don’t always agree?

Until the rules keep a good hold on the worst parts of our hearts. The anger, fear, and pride which seek to control us need to be kept in check, and we have rules and traditions to try and re-shape those impulses toward less destructive behaviors. We pass the peace in worship as a tradition which helps us learn to reconcile with each other throughout the week. We gather offerings for the poor and hungry each week, as well as to keep the building open and pay for my health insurance, because our tradition reminds us we are connected to and even reliant upon one another for sustenance and blessing. We proclaim resurrection every Sunday, it’s tradition, because we don’t always see or believe that good can come out of evil, that life can return after death. We need the tradition of proclaiming resurrection for and to one another over and over again, whether we celebrate it our doubt it.

Our tradition grows from the promises of God. When we lose that connection, perhaps we need to rethink what we do, what we hold on to. As the letter of James reminds us this morning: “those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act - they will be blessed in their doing.” The law of liberty is the law of love, the law God gives is given out of a desire that we should have life abundant, as Jesus came to give us. We are blessed when we practice that pure religion, caring for widows and orphans in their distress, looking to find God in the hidden places of struggle in our hearts and our neighborhoods. “For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances just as this entire law?”

Because the first tradition was set by God - light out of darkness, life out of nothing, order from chaos and resurrection out of death. It is the tradition of God which holds us, always has, and always will. Over and over again, God comes to us, God lives with us, God lifts us up and sends us to be a light to the nations. And as that tradition takes root in our hearts and lives, it feeds us and shapes us in that Image of God we were created to carry, bringing life and light with us from the God who is always near when we call. “Who made the world and set it all a-spinning, put on flesh to live here, makes us holy, too, and who tells the Story of our liberation, bringing hope to all that lives?” So we continue our tradition of celebrating our faith in song: “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” hymn 631 in your red hymnals.