"Traditions are useful. They are useful the way bark on a tree is useful, to protect the life within. They preserve truth, but they are not the truth: all truth must be lived firsthand, from the inner life. Why are traditions dangerous?
Prayer: O God, let me never suppose that because I have inherited a few traditions, I therefore have the living truth. Keep me in touch with the immediate acts of faith that respond to your living word in Christ, so that I am resilient and growing in grace, not stiff and fixed in old ways.Amen.
Jesus reorients people's sense about tradition. Tradition is good when it embodies the truth about GOD's reign. When it doesn't, tradition needs to be reformed or rejected. I suspect that much of what gets churches stuck is this adherence to tradition that has been dislocated from the truth to which it is meant to point or to which it once pointed. Traditions change. That may sound like a contradiction, but isn't it true? I have rejected some past family traditions in favor of new ones that convey meaning in our place and time. Marriages often require that former traditions replaced in order to create a new, lasting, meaningful bond.
To what traditions are we clinging that need replaced? Can buildings become traditonal in a way that becomes dangerous? What happens when a place or a site that was holy in one time or to one people is no longer considered holy? In a sense, the current context assigns meaning to traditions or context constructs traditions out of the fibers of significant meaning that weave the story of a people's identity. Traditions must be personal and cannot be imposed. So, a Lutheran church that continues to sing hymns that tell a story of triumph, strength, and Germanic identity may not be singable in a congregation of African immigrants. Or what about traditions that make claims of authority that no longer ring true? We struggle with this reality with respect to the biblical narrative and the office of ministry. Who interprets? By what criteria? In whose name?
Hence, uniformity is not achievable among Christian groups, even Lutheran groups. Nor is uniformity desirable.
So what does this mean with respect to the observance of Christian traditions, like feasts, saints days, Sunday? These things are powerful conveyers of truth when they form the inner life of a community of people who recognize collectively that those stories are our stories. Stories located in premodern culture seem to convey meaning in postmodern contexts. What traditions are emerging in postmodern context that relay the tuth of the gospel narrative for us? What traditions no longer preserve that truth?
Monday, May 18, 2009
Friends of Justice Blog
"Friends of Justice is a nonprofit organization that works to uphold due process for all Americans. Our goal is to build a public consensus behind equal access to justice and respect for human dignity in our criminal justice system."--from the home page. Click on the title to link to this website/blog and learn more about their ministry of advocacy on behalf of those adversely affected by the criminal justice system; A system in need of reform in the U.S. Brian McLaren's blog linked me to it. I think "Friends of Justice" may become resource or source of inspiration for the Prison Ministry Task Force recently initiated by our synod to connect our churches to the Criminal Justice System. Might we also blog the stories we hear? I'm off to visit at LCP now. May Jesus the savior be with all who are wrongly imprisoned and unjustly treated.
May 16: Easter 6 2009
Acts 10 is the story of Cornelius and Peter. Cornelius is this Roman soldier living in a strategic sea port town, Caesarea. he is part of the occupying foreign military force sent to impose Roman imperial rule on the Jewish and gentile populations of this territory we call the Middle East. We also know that Cornelius had earned the respect of some of his Jewish neighbors as a God-fearing worshiper. He was open to the possibility that a GOD other than Ceasar might reign. As the captain of 100 men he had influence over the lives of these Roman occupiers and their relations among the populace. He was also spiritually aware and open to visionary experience.
In Acts 10 a vision commands him to send men to find Simon Peter in the town of Joppa and escort him back to Caesarea for a meeting. He sends three men.
Meanwhile, Peter is staying with a Simon Tanner. He has healed a paralyic there and raised a woman named Tabitha from the dead. She was known for her textile business. One day Peter is hungry and meditating. You know how that goes: You're supposed ot be focused but your stomach is grumbling. (Mine is right now, its time for lunch). Peter experiences a vision, a picnic of foods he will not eat. They are foods restricted by a kosher diet. He is hungry but will not eat what he sees. Even though what he sees is a gift. The a voice says, "Do not call food dirty and inedible what GOD says is clean and edible."
Simon the Rock is then moved by the Spirit to go with these gentile Roman Soldiers. Is his life in danger? I'd freak out a little if three soldiers came to my house in requested that I go with them. But he goes because they claim they are following orders from their captain, who fears God and had a vision.
Peter goes. Upon meeting Cornelius and hearing from him about his vision, Peter makes a theological assertion that we must recognize as a paradigmatic shift for Peter and the church. He says, "God is impartial."
This revelation of divine impartiality opens a gateway for the message of the gospel to a universal audience. What Peter discovers, Paul will embody in His ministry to Gentiles. Unity in Christ, baptismal identity, will trump all other claikms of ID; racial, ethnic, linguistic, national, imperial, sexual. No other ID claim will be as significant as the one God makes on us at Baptism.
I suspect that this identity assertion is still what strangles most people. I'm an American. I'm a Lutheran. I'm Irish. I'm a man. I speak and read exclusively in English. I'm Cherie's husband; my son's father, my father's son. Think of all the ID claims we make about ourselves and how they limit us relationally. I am who I am and I am not who I am not. And yet, the church in Pentecost and beyond is a church that is freed from the narrowness of our constructed identities to be identified by our primary relationship with GOD the creator through Jesus the Son. And in that relationship we come to experience others in the same way. Diversity, though honored and cherished, does not in any way separate or segregate.
Acts 10 lays the claim on the church that God's Spirit is at work in and thorugh our faithful telling of the story to people who are not yet aware of their identities as God's children. If a people are aware of this identity, then the claims of the gospel can begin to shape that identity in a way that is pleasing to GOD and consistent with God's reign of justice, reconciliation, and life.
What I'm saying is this: The church is the church when we are boundless in our desire to build relationships with people who see themselves beyond the borders of identification with Jesus' followers. We are sent to non-members and not-yet Christians with an openness that includes the possibility that we will be changed in some ways too. Think of the blessings of sharing the gospel with people whose cultures, foods, music, etc are different than our own. Think of the belssing of experiencing their gifts too. Did Peter understand that the implications of his proclamation to Cornelius may have broadly impacted the Roman military in Caesarea? Who knows?
In Acts 10 a vision commands him to send men to find Simon Peter in the town of Joppa and escort him back to Caesarea for a meeting. He sends three men.
Meanwhile, Peter is staying with a Simon Tanner. He has healed a paralyic there and raised a woman named Tabitha from the dead. She was known for her textile business. One day Peter is hungry and meditating. You know how that goes: You're supposed ot be focused but your stomach is grumbling. (Mine is right now, its time for lunch). Peter experiences a vision, a picnic of foods he will not eat. They are foods restricted by a kosher diet. He is hungry but will not eat what he sees. Even though what he sees is a gift. The a voice says, "Do not call food dirty and inedible what GOD says is clean and edible."
Simon the Rock is then moved by the Spirit to go with these gentile Roman Soldiers. Is his life in danger? I'd freak out a little if three soldiers came to my house in requested that I go with them. But he goes because they claim they are following orders from their captain, who fears God and had a vision.
Peter goes. Upon meeting Cornelius and hearing from him about his vision, Peter makes a theological assertion that we must recognize as a paradigmatic shift for Peter and the church. He says, "God is impartial."
This revelation of divine impartiality opens a gateway for the message of the gospel to a universal audience. What Peter discovers, Paul will embody in His ministry to Gentiles. Unity in Christ, baptismal identity, will trump all other claikms of ID; racial, ethnic, linguistic, national, imperial, sexual. No other ID claim will be as significant as the one God makes on us at Baptism.
I suspect that this identity assertion is still what strangles most people. I'm an American. I'm a Lutheran. I'm Irish. I'm a man. I speak and read exclusively in English. I'm Cherie's husband; my son's father, my father's son. Think of all the ID claims we make about ourselves and how they limit us relationally. I am who I am and I am not who I am not. And yet, the church in Pentecost and beyond is a church that is freed from the narrowness of our constructed identities to be identified by our primary relationship with GOD the creator through Jesus the Son. And in that relationship we come to experience others in the same way. Diversity, though honored and cherished, does not in any way separate or segregate.
Acts 10 lays the claim on the church that God's Spirit is at work in and thorugh our faithful telling of the story to people who are not yet aware of their identities as God's children. If a people are aware of this identity, then the claims of the gospel can begin to shape that identity in a way that is pleasing to GOD and consistent with God's reign of justice, reconciliation, and life.
What I'm saying is this: The church is the church when we are boundless in our desire to build relationships with people who see themselves beyond the borders of identification with Jesus' followers. We are sent to non-members and not-yet Christians with an openness that includes the possibility that we will be changed in some ways too. Think of the blessings of sharing the gospel with people whose cultures, foods, music, etc are different than our own. Think of the belssing of experiencing their gifts too. Did Peter understand that the implications of his proclamation to Cornelius may have broadly impacted the Roman military in Caesarea? Who knows?
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