Someone once asked the profound question, “How many [Presbyterians] does it take to change a light bulb?” *
The correct answer is, of course, “Change the light bulb? Why, my grandfather donated that light bulb!” (1)
Well, [Presbyterians] are not the only ones who have trouble with change. Anytime change takes place in any institution, particularly the church, there is resistance.
Pastor Pete Kontra tells about a small-town church in upstate New York. They’d had a rector in that church for over thirty-five years. He was loved by the church and the community. After he retired, he was replaced by a young priest. It was his first church; he had a great desire to do well. He had been at the church for several weeks when he began to perceive that the people were upset at him. He was troubled.
Eventually he called aside one of the lay leaders of the church and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I have a feeling that there’s something wrong.”
The man said, “Well, Father, that’s true. I hate to say it, but it’s the way you do the Communion service.”
“The way I do the Communion service? What do you mean?” asked the priest.
“Well, it’s not so much what you do as what you leave out,” said the layman.
“I don’t think I leave out anything from the Communion service,” the priest answered.
“Oh yes, you do,” the layman replied. “Just before our previous rector administered the chalice and wine to the people, he’d always go over and touch the radiator. And, then, he would . . .”
“Touch the radiator?” said the young priest, “I never heard of that liturgical tradition.”
So the younger man called the former rector. He said, “I haven’t even been here a month, and I’m in trouble.”
“In trouble? Why?” asked the older man.
“Well, it has something to do with communion something to do with touching the radiator. Could that be possible?” he asked. “Did you do that?”
“Oh yes, I did,” said his predecessor. “Always before I administered the chalice to the people, I touched the radiator to discharge the static electricity so I wouldn’t shock them.”
It seems that some of his congregants had been getting shocked slightly when the communion cup touched their lips. For over thirty-five years, the people of his congregation had thought that touching the radiator was a part of the holy tradition. That church has now gained the name, “The Church of the Holy Radiator.” (2)
The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus one day and saw some of his disciples eating food without washing their hands. This wasn’t a question of hygiene, but of tradition. The Jews had a ritual for washing hands as well as for the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. I say it wasn’t a matter of hygiene, but it would be interesting to know how many of these religiously prescribed traditions protected the Jews from an array of illnesses. Anyway, the disciples of Jesus neglected these ancient ceremonies.
So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
Jesus is somewhat harsh in his reply. He says, “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 merely human rules.’You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” Jesus was a practicing Jew, yet he did not want his disciples to be slaves to Jewish tradition. We may wonder, why not?
Tradition is a powerful force in our lives. That is not only true in religion, but in all of society.
We have our family traditions. One woman tells about a banana loaf she was making. The loaf was in the oven when her 16‑year old son came into the kitchen where the family had gathered. “That bread smells about done, don’t you think, Mom?” he asked. His mother told him that she had set the timer and it was fine. A little later he passed through the kitchen again. He said, “Mom, I really think that loaf is done. I think you should check it.” Always quick to her mom’s defense, the woman’s 13‑year old daughter said, “Eddie, Mom’s been burning that banana bread for 20 years, now. I think she knows when to take it out.” (3) Well, Mom’s burned banana bread had become a tradition. We have traditions in our families, some of which are wholesome and some, perhaps not. But tradition shows up in everything we do.
You may have seen on the Internet a little item about how tradition played a role in the design of our transportation system, specifically in determining how far apart rails are for our trains. The official distance between rails in this country is four feet, eight and one-half inches. Why? Because that’s the way they built them in England. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built tramways. Why did the builders of tramways space them like that, then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on old rural roads, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? The first long-distance roads in England were built by the Romans for their imperial legions. And the ruts? Roman chariots made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons and wheels. Since the chariots were made by the Roman Empire, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to our original question. The distance of four feet, eight and one-half inches derives from the original specification for an imperial Roman war chariot. But why did the Romans use that spacing? Their chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the behinds of two war-horses. That’s the ultimate answer to the question of how it was determined how far apart train rails should be spaced the size of the behinds of two war horses. But wait . . . there’s more.
When we see a space shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big boosters attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. These SRBs are manufactured in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was still determined by the width of two horse’s rear ends. (4) That’s hilarious to me, but tradition is important. Tradition has an impact on our daily lives.
Traditions give us our identity and, to a certain extent, set borders on our behaviors. We have traditions according to our cultural heritage. We even have traditions according to the region of the county we live in and which sports team we follow or what hobby we may have. Of course, traditions play a bigger role in some communities more than others.
Dr. G. Carswell Hughs, a Presbyterian pastor, says that people in Charleston, South Carolina pay more attention to tradition that any place he has ever seen. He says they pay particular attention to how long a family has lived in their city. The general assumption is that a family cannot claim to be native Charlestonians until they have lived in Charleston for at least three generations. And that means being born in Charleston and remaining in Charleston until “death do you part!”
He says that at a dinner party, he met a man whose accent was definitely that of Charleston. Never having met him before, he casually asked the man if he were a native Charlestonian. With a sad expression on his face, the man said, “No, I am not a native Charlestonian. I have lived in Charleston all my life. My father and mother were both born and lived in Charleston all their lives. The same is true of both sets of my grandparents, and their parents and grandparents. But I will never be a native Charlestonian.” As the man spoke, Hughes was counting. It certainly sounded like more than three generations to him!
The man explained why he was still not a native Charlestonian like this: “I was born during the Second World War. My father was overseas. My mother visited relatives in Greenwood, South Carolina, and, by chance, I was prematurely born there.” So, he could never be a real Charlestonian, even though his family had been there for generations because, due to a quirk of fate, he was born elsewhere. He said all of this at a dinner party, says Hughes, as if he were confessing his greatest sin. When he finished, Hughes said he was tempted to say, “God be with you. Go, and sin no more.” (5)
That may sound silly to us, but traditions give us a sense of our identity. For the Jews this has always been important. They viewed themselves as set apart by God as a holy people, and their traditions helped them maintain their identity and set borders on their behaviors.
You remember that wonderful line that Tevye speaks in Fiddler on the Roof about tradition. “You may ask, why do we practice these traditions,” he says, “Well, I’ll tell you . . . I don’t know. But they’re traditions!” Tevye is the head of his family living in a small village in Russia. He continually struggles with traditions and values. In his small village, there were traditions for everything how to eat, how to sleep, how to wear clothes. For instance, they always kept their heads covered and always wore a little prayer shawl to show their constant devotion to God. Because of their traditions, everyone knew who they were and what God expected them to do.
Tevye is molded by his adherence to tradition, but he is not a rigid man. He has the capacity to compromise . . . until his last daughter asks his approval to marry an atheist. This he cannot compromise. He loudly declares, “Some things I will not, I cannot allow tradition!” (6)
In many ways traditions are a good thing. They were for the Jews. Considering the persecution the Jewish community has experienced throughout its history, it is doubtful that it would have survived without help from its traditions. However, traditions can get out of hand. In the eyes of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, to eat with unclean hands was worse than how one treated one’s neighbor. The traditions had taken over the religion. And this is the greatest danger of traditions.
Traditions may serve as a substitute for God. Traditions may tell us what was appropriate for our ancestors, but they may not be reliable indicators for how we should live today. Jesus was continually saying to his disciples, “You have heard it said . . . , but I say unto you . . .” Tradition is one guide for our behavior, but only one. Times change. Situations change. Far more important is the living Spirit of God moving in our midst now, guiding us in our present situation. Let me use an example.
Suppose we had a tradition in our church that only people who dressed in a certain way would be acceptable in our church. For example, men should only wear suits. On the surface, we might be able to justify that. We believe that the worship of God deserves our best, so why should we not dress in our very best to worship God? That sounds like a reasonable tradition, but is it where God would lead us?
Cornelia Lehn tells a story of a man, a smelly beggar dressed in rags, who visited a church. The congregation did its best to ignore him. When the usher finally showed him a seat, it was near the door where the breeze could dissipate some of the smell.
However, when the next Sunday came around, the same man came to the church. This time he was dressed in an expensive suit. The usher did not recognize him. Rather, he determined from the man’s appearance that he was someone very important. He bowed to him, took him to the front of the church, and got him settled in a good pew. Indeed, there was a stir in the entire church as the congregation became aware of their distinguished visitor, and after the service the minister and his wife invited this man in the expensive suit to come to their home for dinner.
When they got to the house they made certain that they treated this finely dressed man like royalty. They wanted him to have nothing but the best. Then something quite peculiar happened. They sat down to dinner, but when the meat was passed around, their guest took a portion of meat and put it into his pocket! The hosts quickly looked away, but couldn’t help notice the stain it made on the man’s expensive suit. Then, when the potatoes were passed, the visitor calmly put them in his other vest pocket. And when the gravy came around, he poured it into another pocket!
Finally the host asked, “Why are you doing this?”
“Well,” said the man, “you obviously did not invite me to dinner you invited my suit. So I am feeding my suit!” (7)
Ridiculous story? Yes, but so is our tendency to elevate our traditions over Christ’s love for all people. Suppose it were our tradition to have only people of a certain race in our church? Or a certain theology? Or a certain way of worshipping God? Can you see that there might come a time when God would say to us that it is time for us to move out of our comfort zone to accept people we have previously shut out? This might be necessary for the sake of Jesus Christ.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were deeply religious people, but they had begun substituting their traditions for God. Their traditions told them who was acceptable and who was not. Even if God Himself came to them and tried to change their traditions, they would not listen. Indeed, God did come to them in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. They would not listen. Instead, they nailed him to a tree. Do you see that the same thing could happen to us? It has certainly happened to us in the past. Indeed, we might say one of our traditions is resistance to change. But God is a God of change. Let us open our hearts to the movement of the living God today.
1. http://www.tellicochurch.org/Sermons/990905.html.
2. http://oaklandchurch.org/pdf/sermontexts/OS-04-10-11-If%20You%20Share.pdf.
3. Mark Mail, http://mrhumor.net/
4. From Internet humor archives. Cited in John Mason, Believe You Can The Power of a Positive Attitude (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2004).
5. http://www.fpcknox.org/sermons/25may2003.htm.
6. Robert H. Schuller, Don’t Throw Away Tomorrow (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2005), p. 67.
7. “Show no Partiality,” #68, I Heard Good News Today: Stories for Children. Cited by Don Friesen, http://www.ottawamennonite.ca/sermons/belonging.pdf.
*Change to your denomination, if it fits.