Hand Me Down Traditions

From what Jesus says in Mark 7 and Matthew 15 I glean that the traditions we have to avoid are those that nullify or invalidate the word of God. If a tradition keeps us from doing what God tells us to do then it is a bad tradition. If the tradition promotes the word of God then it is a good tradition and can be maintained or swapped for one of equal value in upholding the word of God. We cannot avoid traditions. They are simply the way we do things, the way we put a truth or principle into action. You do it a few times the same way and you have a tradition. However, even a good tradition can grow threadbare like hand-me-down clothing. It can loose its meaning over time. It may have served the word well for awhile, but has come to be meaningless ritual. This is a problem because we get attached to worn clothing. Worn clothing is comfortable to those who have worn it. It is familiar and safe. It has worked for a long time and served one well. But, new folks have not worn it and do not necessarily even like it. It might not be their style. The problem is that the church is a body and we all have to wear the same shirt in a local congregation. There may be slightly different hand-me-downs in a youth group from the non-youth group, but since we are a coherent unit, a church with a common fellowship we will wear the same clothing. But what is comfortable for some is merely threadbare to others, see through and in need of some serious mending or perhaps replacement.

But, when someone begins to tinker with the tradition our sense of well-being is threatened. We don't feel right doing it some other way. Now, some traditions handed down are just bad traditions. In my opinion the hand-me-down pope tradition was a bad idea. It might have been meant originally to serve some good purpose, but it actually nullifies the word of God regarding the Headship of Christ and the priesthood of all believers, both pretty foundational truths. Another problem with the hand-me-down papacy is that the pope has the ability within the Catholic system to codify traditions making it mandatory for every good Catholic to follow them, and making them essential to a Catholic's salvation or well-being. So what would happen if the Catholics just decided not to replace Benedict, and do away with the papacy and the priesthood, and place the responsibility for faithfulness back on the priesthood of all Catholics to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling?

Another reason hand-me-down traditions are held on to is because they have become excuses or reasons for disobeying what God says to do. Paul says in Romans 1:18 that the Gentile "holds the truth in unrighteousness." We have to do so if we are bent on sinning. Raw sin is hard for us to swallow. We mix it with some justification and it goes down easier. Any reason to sin is better than no reason other than we just want to. So traditions often serve as a reason to sin or to ignore what God says to do. Someone suggests that we might want to become more obedient to God by doing this or that, and we say, "We can't do that because that is not the way we do it." Case closed. Don't bring it up again. Let's be careful not to nullify the word of God for the sake of our traditions. Occasionally the hand-me-downs need to be taken out and inspected. We might find that they are so threadbare that our tush is showing.