Worship and Traditions

Chuckle: "The sole purpose of a child's middle name is so he can tell when he's in trouble."

Quote: “Just because something is tradition doesn't make it right.” --Anthony J. D'Angelo

Jesus replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. . . For you ignore God's specific laws and substitude your own traditions" (Mark 7:6-8 NIV).

I once heard a sermon entitled, "The Tyranny of Tradition," which did not minimize the value of traditions, but emphasized the danger of traditions becoming too important to us. You can sense the disappointment and impatience in the words of Jesus when he criticized the Pharisees for their obsession with traditions (rules) of men at the expense of drawing near to God (Mark 7:1-13). Traditions can become diseased when:

1. They focus on the external. In verse 5, the question about why the disciples didn't abide by tradition was answered in this paraphrase of verse 6 - "because your keeping of traditions was a means of external praise to God without an internal commitment of the heart." Being overly concerned with the externals will cause us to focus on the negative. "We don't do it that way in my church." Being overly concerned with tradition can cause us to put on an external facade (mask) which does not reflect the content of our hearts. We mistake rituals and traditions for righteousness. The way we worship becomes more important than why or who we worship.

2. They dwell on the past. "I've been a member of this church for 40 years, and that's the way we've always done it around here!" Some say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But the problem may be obsolescence, not brokenness. Our traditional methods may no longer be effective. It is God's desire that His kingdom within us be worked out through us. We must never change the gospel message, but we need to change our methods to reach today's generation. As instruments of God, we should be willing to change our approach, eager to share Christ with them through their preferred media, in their language, and at their level of understanding?

3. They become personal. When tradition becomes crystalized in our minds, it causes us to say such things as, "That's just the way I am and always will be!" "I'm too old and set in my ways to change." This attitude may blind us to the possibility that God may be wanting to change you and me and our attitudes. Like the Pharisees, we may take it as a personal attack when our traditions are challenged. Because they were personaly offended, they were not open to new revelations and instructions from God.

Obviously, Jesus was not saying that cleanliness was wrong, but that the traditions of cleanliness had become too important to them. They had become the personal guardians of traditions. Because of their attitudes, they were trying to make Jesus their target and victim because He dared challenge what they held dear. We must constantly ask, "what is right," not "who is right?" Our primary concern should be to worship God in spirit and in truth rather than being bound by our diseased traditions.

Love, Jerry & Dotse