Welcome to all of you joining us this evening by invitation as the Easter Choir! Also, welcome, everyone, to that great time of the year when we begin anticipating and preparing for the most historic week of the church year…Holy Week. I say “church year”, which may be a new concept to some of you. Traditionally, the Christian church has marked certain seasons and dates as worth honoring and repeating every year. So they have made their way into what is universally called The Church Year. Such terms as Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, etc. are all meant to refer to those events and commemorations which represent the core of our faith.
Those not making the “Church Year?” Well, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Halloween (go figure), even Thanksgiving, to name a few. They may get you a day off work, but as part of an overarching outline of our faith, not so critical. And none of those dates was born out of a biblical event. As an evangelical church, most people would not consider Hope traditional, perhaps, but we do have and try to honor certain traditions which we find meaningful.
In our values statements, referred to as our Sweet Sixteen (available on our welcome table), we actually address this issue in Value 11. Here are a few excerpts:
“The tension among different generations or cultures when it comes to honoring tradition isn’t so much about having traditions, but what makes them meaningful? So it is with the family of faith when we seek to pass on what experiences should be universally treasured, as opposed to what is valued by certain individuals. In some churches, traditions are maintained that were, at one time, valued by the vast majority, but now are recycled simply because “we’ve always done it that way.” Contrast that with the fellowships which never do the same thing the same way twice, simply because of the fear that “if it’s not new, it’s irrelevant.”
Coming from a very traditional, ritualistic even, church background, I understand this concern. There is a commonly held axiom in communication that to the extent that something is familiar, it loses its impact. Said another way, the more we know what’s coming, the less intently or expectantly we receive or anticipate it. I still recall singing portions of the liturgy (the repetitious and routine parts of the worship service) as a child while, at the same time, looking around the room, waving to late-comers, or wondering why I had worn one brown shoe and one black. Imagine the impact of the words, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, on my heart, while I am simultaneously winking at the cute girl across the aisle. Talk about your multi-tasker!
But let’s not throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. While Jesus warns us against vain repetition (Matthew 6:7), he does not advocate never repeating anything. Indeed, that is what traditions are: determining those events, occurrences, and corporate experiences which are repeated, whether it is weekly, monthly, annually or otherwise. This is suggested in the Old Testament in the book of Numbers: “Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed feasts and New Moon festivals—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God.” (Numbers 10:10) This wasn’t just a Hebrew thing, it was a people of God thing, suggesting that part of trusting God for our future was remembering our past. And part of retaining the identity as a unique work of God’s hand was to replay, occasionally, our unique story.
If we find, in this contemporary American culture which seems addicted to the new, that nothing we do seems worthy of repeating, then maybe it wasn’t worth doing in the first place. And the day we allow the priority of our fellowship to become the mere perpetuation of empty traditions, we may as well join the cast of Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye’s backup singers. Tradition!!! Perhaps we have merely lost sight of our connection to the story line which God is unfolding as we approach the end of the Age.”
This Sunday, Pastor Stephen will walk us through the incredible faith chapter of Hebrews 11. If the account of the lives that have gone before doesn’t inspire you to keep telling the story, you may want to check your pulse! As we begin again this exciting and sobering season, let’s realize the incredible continuum on which we find ourselves, and do our part to faithfully declare God’s goodness to this generation and the next.
Again, welcome, all you newbies and returnees! We are so glad you have made this choice. We trust you won’t be disappointed.
-tad
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