Tradition !?!?!

In this evenings gospel reading (Mark 7:1-23) Jesus is having a go at the Pharisees and the scribes. Some of the disciples had been criticised for not washing their hands before eating. This may not be the most hygienic thing today, but at that time it was considered even more important. For the Jews, failure to wash hands before the meal meant that their hands were spiritually unclean, and that all that entered into their mouths would also be unclean.

Washing hands was something that was probably started for good and logical reasons of hygiene, but it had become the law ! People had to do it ! Any failure to do it meant condemnation from the religious authorities. Jesus reacted badly !

He criticised their traditions in no uncertain terms – telling the people that they were more concerned with minor traditions than with upholding any sort of moral code, and even worse than that, they were allowing their traditions to get in the way of any sort of relationship with God.

Now, many of you will know that I often like to criticise tradition, and doing it with Jesus on my side always seems to be little bit more comfortable ! But this evening I want to do something a little strange, and neglect this opportunity to criticise tradition, and actually stand up for it a bit !

The Indian Philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti, said that ‘Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.’ Much of what we do in Church maintains a security which makes us feel comfortable, and that is a very dangerous feeling to have. Comfort is not what the gospel is about, and traditions which have long since outlived their usefulness have no place in the Church.

I’m not doing a great job of defending tradition at the moment I realise, but I’d now like to bring in a quote from Harold McMillan, the former British Prime Minister, who said, ‘Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.’

Obviously this is a much more positive quote, and so for some of the positives of tradition !

The first must be that tradition reminds us of the long standing nature of our faith and of the Church. As we worship we do so with the thoughts in the backs of our minds that we are doing what literally millions have done before us and many more will continue to do. As we reflect on that fact we can reflect on the power and majesty of a God who is unchanging. His desire for a relationship with us is unchanging and his love for us is unchanging.

A second benefit of tradition is that it can serve as a kind of marking point for us. Being a good Anglican I’ve been taught that our theology is based on scripture, tradition and reason. The Bible is an obvious place to look for ideas about God, and then we also use our own reason, but we also use tradition. Much of what we read in the Bible and much of what the early Church did was handed down through tradition, and it has reached us in that way. We often get caught up in a lot of Victorian tradition, but if we go back to the earliest traditions of the Church we find a very lively form of worship with very few rules.

And that moves us on to another benefit of tradition which is that, for some people, tradition actually offers a way back to God. Contrary to popular opinion a lot of Churches are growing today. Some are lively, modern Churches, but another huge growth area has been Cathedrals – there are a number of reasons for this, but it seems that one of these is tradition – people actually enjoy a worship which is traditional, even if much of that tradition only goes back to Victorian times.

For many people tradition also extends to include baptisms and maybe even weddings in Church. People are called back to Church sensing something important, something which they should do. But that fact reminds us of our responsibility to take that tradition and make it alive for people. While people are seeing tradition just as a thing of the past it will have no use in building our future as the family of God, and in fact it will as the Indian philosopher suggested, lead us only into decay, but where tradition reminds us of a past that points to a future then it has value.

Tradition can be good, but tradition must never stand still. Constantly looking to Christ we should be challenging ourselves and other people with the gospel. Traditions can lead us into a closer relationship with God, and when they do that they are useful, but when they get to the point where people have no idea where the tradition came from, and where actually that tradition is now getting in the way of God, or our ability to share the gospel, then we must abandon it.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said something like, ‘we ought to be puzzled when the world isn’t challenged by the gospel.’ The gospel is hugely challenging – it asks us to consider our whole purpose for being, and it asks us to love in a way that the world today often doesn’t even recognise – our tradition must always reflect that calling and that love. AMEN