Is there any meaningful value in tradition? If there is not,
how are we to alter its flow or even stop the current completely?
But, if
there is value to our traditions, how are
we to gain from it?
Having said what I did in the previous two posts
concerning some misplaced emphases on certain perspectives of Christmas, I would
now like to allay some fears that some may have, perhaps thinking that I am
suggesting that we throw off all previous vestiges of our Christmas
celebrations. Cast out the traditions!—no trees, no lights, no presents.
I do not say that, and in this post, I would like to
offer a small defense of the traditions of Christmas.
Adhering to Tradition
If there ever is a time when we are reminded of traditions,
it is at Christmas. Every family has them. At this time of year, it sometimes
seems as if every move is governed by tradition. There are Christmas time
customs that tell us where, when and how we should decorate the tree; where, when
and how we are to have the Christmas meal; and where, when and how we are to
open the gifts.
There is the traditional Christmas program that we all must
attend. We sit in the darkened church, watching the little children recite the
lines that they so laboriously memorized with the help of their moms. Sympathetically,
everyone in the crowd silently prompts these shy performers as they try to
remember the next word. Throughout the hushed audience, unspeaking lips move,
hoping that their silent utterances will somehow help this tender little one
through his or her piece.
Of course, not all the children are so inhibited. Some kids
grab the microphone as if they grew up under the tutelage of Sir Winston
Churchill himself, and bellow out their lines as if they had just learned that
everyone in the church had discovered that their hearing aid batteries had gone
dead. Then, as a final flourish, these little performers finish with a grand
bow.
We sing the traditional hymns. We snack on traditional
munchies. We find great comfort in tradition.
It is not everyone who likes tradition, however. Some find
it boring and unimaginative. Some secretly delight in upsetting tradition. They
find excitement in the new and unique.
Each has his own perspective. But as one who grew up in a
family with many traditions at Christmas time, but who, in my adult years
living with my wife and children in various locations overseas, have found it
more difficult to have one Christmas even remotely like the past one, I would
like to say a few words in defense of tradition.
Rural Life = Tradition
Of course, you must understand from where I come. Growing up
on a dairy farm is the very seedbed of tradition. As kids, we would wish for a
little variety. However, farm life does not lend itself to variety. Cows do not
understand the words “doing things a little differently tonight.” It is the
very sameness of their day-to-day existence that translates into good milk
production. If their schedule is altered in some way, it is noticed in how much
milk the cows give during the evening chores.
Because of this and other farm-life realities, our Christmas
activities when I was a child could never vary too much from one year to the next. Even as if in some made-for-TV Christmas miracle, enough money suddenly
found its way into my parent’s bank account, we could never have winged or
driven our way off to some distant location to celebrate a special Christmas. Who
would do the chores?
So it was that our Christmases were very much the same from
year to year. They were very traditional.
After I had grown and had my own family, the life of my own
children has been quite the opposite of what life was for me when I was their
age. Our Christmases in my own family have usually never the same as the year
before. During some periods of our lives, we were living in a different country
each year: Venezuela, Wisconsin, Guatemala, New Zealand. As our four sons
graduated from high school and left home, sometimes they were able to be with
the family and sometimes not.
In some ways, the changes in routine can be enjoyable. It is
interesting to see how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world and
in other families. But do not imagine that we preferred it this way. What we would
have chosen, if the choice had been entirely our own, would have been the opportunity to build
some family Christmas traditions with the whole family together every year.
In some ways, we could build some traditions, of course, but
one has to be imaginative.
The False Value of Tradition
What is the value of tradition? Is its value only in knowing
that in tradition we are comfortable? Is it that in tradition we are not asked
to change or even to think?
It is true that we often find comfort in doing things in a
traditional way, but this can be more of a danger than it is valuable. If we
cling to tradition simply because we feel it is “the way things ought to be
done,” we have lost the importance of tradition.
At this point, tradition simply becomes a security blanket. We
feel sheltered in our tradition, but we do not know why.
Rather, the strength of tradition is to be found elsewhere. The
true value of tradition is that it can be a means of helping us to remember
what is important. Comfort and security come not only because things are the
same, but they come because we are reminded of what is essential.
What is important at Christmas? As we do things together as a family, we should remember that it is not the family traditions that are critical. It is the family itself that is important.
What is important at Christmas? As we do things together as a family, we should remember that it is not the family traditions that are critical. It is the family itself that is important.
As we attend the Christmas programs and sing the Christmas
songs, we should remember that it is not that all the children performed well
that is important (although every child I have ever seen do their part in the
Christmas program has always done very well—each in his or her own way). It is
not that the choir sang the Christmas cantata flawlessly. It is not that the
pastor had a good sermon.
What is important is that these traditions help us remember
what is essential and true: A King was born to us 2000 years ago. So great was
His coming to us that we still celebrate it.
Tradition Rebuked
Jesus rebuked some Pharisees and scribes who held on to traditions
but had lost all meaning of their significance. …“And why do you break the
command of God for the sake of your tradition?... You hypocrites! Isaiah was
right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but
their hearts are far from me’” (Matthew
15:3-8 NIV).
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the embodiment of the
misuse of tradition. The traditions that they had established to regulate their
daily lives had become so important to them that these customs exceeded even the written
commandments of God. Their own traditions distorted and even altered the
significance of God’s intentions in the traditions that he established. All
meaning and all significance of what was truly important was lost to the
Pharisees. It was only the outward actions and outward appearances that
mattered to them.
This was also the Apostle Paul’s concern for the churches
that he had founded. He warned the church in the city of Colossae that they
should “see to it that no one takes [them] captive through philosophy and empty
deception, according to the tradition of men…rather than according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8 NAS).
Paul spoke from experience, since he had been brought up and
educated in the tradition of these Pharisees who had distorted what was real. “I
was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen,
being more extremely jealous for my ancestral traditions,” Paul said (Galatians 1:14 NAS).
The True Value of Tradition
This is not all that Paul had to say about the value of
tradition, however. He knew that if we retain the true meaning of our actions,
there is actually great value in tradition.
Paul wrote to another church, the one in Thessalonica, “And
it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions
which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us” (2 Thessalonians. 2:14-15 NAS).
In this case, the traditions were not something simply
passed on from one generation to another as the way that things were to be
done, but without any understanding of the reason for it. Instead, Paul was
speaking of traditions that had real meaning and that were passed from one
generation to the next by the process of teaching.
Paul said the same thing to yet another church about the
value of the traditions that held meaning: “I praise you because you remember
me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to
you” (1 Corinthians 11:2 NAS).
In fact, so important had these traditions become that Paul
warned the Christians to “keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life
and not according to the tradition which you received from us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6b NAS).
The Lord of Tradition
Indeed, God Himself is the Author of many traditions. The
Old Testament Jewish calendar is replete with feasts and festivals that
commemorate various acts of God. The feast of the Passover, for instance, was
the first of these festivals on the yearly calendar. God initiated the feast of
the Passover to commemorate the exodus of the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt.
At the time of the Exodus, the Jewish people were instructed
to smear the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the doorposts and lintel of the door
in their homes. The Lord told Moses that on that night, God would go through
the land of Egypt and strike down the firstborn of every household. It was only
those homes that had the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the frame of the door
that God would pass over so that the firstborn would not die.
Then God initiated the traditions involved with the history
of the Passover night. “This day will be a memorial to you,” God told Moses,
“and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations
you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance” (Exodus 12:14 NAS).
God then gave the people instructions as to how they were to
observe the day. The instructions included many traditions, including the
abstention of the eating of leavened bread for the seven days of the feast and
even the removal of all leaven from the houses.
The reasons for such traditions were clear, as Moses later
told the people:
You shall observe
this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. When you enter
the land, which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe
this rite.And when your
children say to you, “What does this rite mean to you?” you shall say, “It is a
Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel
in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes” (Exodus 12:24-27a
NAS).
Certainly, these events were the beginning of strong
traditions, but they were not empty or hollow traditions. They were traditions
that had meanings that were to be passed on from generation to generation.
What is more, these traditions were not to be observed
simply because “it was the way things ought to be done” without understanding why they were done. Instead, they caused
the children of Israel to turn their adoration to God.
After Moses instructed the people in these traditions, we
read, “And the people bowed low and worshiped” (Exodus 12:27b NAS).
Traditions as a Means to Preserve
the Significance of the Events
In the previous advent post, we learned about the
dangers of carrying out traditions simply based on the emotional impact that
they have on us. These traditions of Passover however, were meant to be a means
of keeping the story alive of what happened that eventful night in Egypt; how
God rescued the people of Israel not only from the death of each firstborn, but
how he brought them out of that land of slavery.
Keeping the history alive of God’s deeds is the true purpose
of traditions, and it is the reason that Paul told the Thessalonians, “brethren,
stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of
mouth or by letter from us.”
If our own observations of traditions in our homes lack
meaning for us, it is not that it is the traditions that are always at fault. More
often than not, it is the way that we approach the traditions.
The same is true in regard to the traditions of Christmas. This
year, as you decorate and wrap, cook and eat, sing and listen, remember the
meaning of the tradition. A King was born to us 2000 years ago. So great was
His coming to us, we still celebrate His birth.
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