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Saturday, 25 February 2012
Dangers of Tradition

     As the Lenten season comes upon us, I remember my days as a Roman Catholic. There were rules like no meat on Fridays and you are required to fast during that day. There would be discussions on what is truly meat and what constitutes fasting.

     Our reactions to tradition can take on two extremes. Evangelicals sometimes assume that following rituals or traditions are a way to gain God's acceptance, so therefore, rituals are worthless, or at worst, sinful practices because God has already set up faith in Christ as the way to gain "acceptance before God" (salvation). However, there is an error to this thinking. Rituals are not necessarily about gaining salvation. The religiously observant person does not necessarily think that he has a better shot at salvation because of what he does. He may be completely tolerant of other religious practices, or even people who are not spiritually inclined at all. Secularists may frown at tradition because of their bias against the supernatural and ancient wisdom.

    Most of us have accompanying rituals to commemorate transitions in life. We have funeral services when somebody dies. We have anniversary and birthday parties to commemmorate them. Fraternies have initiation rites to commemorate a student's entrance into the fraternity. Members may eat together during set times as a sign of their togetherness. Anniversaries and birthdays are cyclical, they populate time in the same way that the cycles of Lent and Advent populate the Christian calendar. There seems to be something inside of man that pays attention to the transitions of life. Ritual and tradition is a way to pay attention to those transitions. Praying for somebody when something bothers them or reading the bible everyday is also a form of ritual. The point is rituals and traditions are a part of life.  

     On the other hand, there are those who truly believe that what is most important to God is their obedience to traditions and they may look down on others that don't observe rituals and traditions as they do, especially those that are supposed to be a part of their community. This was Jesus' issue with the Pharisees of his day. The Pharisees, rightly so, were concerned about how to live as the people of God. God did command his people to live as a holy people, dedicated to him. However, many of the Pharisees did not understand that God ultimately looks at the heart. They made additional rules that were very hard to obey, and at worst, condoned sin. This was something they should have understood from the torah (circumcise your hearts) and the prophets (I will give you a new heart) and wisdom (seek me with all your heart). Some apparently took Jesus' rebuke to heart and they became his followers.

    Because of Jesus' diatribe against the Pharisees, many people make the error of thinking that our outward actions, or lack of actions, are not important. However, our actions or inactions are usually related to our hearts. Let's take the observance of the Sabbath as an example. A person who does not make an effort to get to know God, always works because he wants to be richer than everybody else, but says that he trusts in God, is either not understanding what he is saying or is flat out lying (God is irrelevant in his life). His actions are not in conjunction with what he is saying. A person who truly trusts God would not be so wrapped up in working all the time, and would pray more. The actions of worship and prayer are in conjunction with the heart that trusts God. Christians are called to holiness of heart. Holy hearts are dedicated to following Jesus, and holy hearts lead to holy actions, not driven by cultural expectations but by the Spirit of Jesus. 


Posted by eeviray at 9:23 AM CST
Updated: Saturday, 25 February 2012 9:26 AM CST
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