Traditions!

“You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

Mark 7:8

 

The opening sentence of the classic Charles Dickens novel

“A Tale of Two Cities” begins with these famous words:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”

Traditions in our lives can be similar – they can create the best

of times and they can create the worst of times.

Many traditions a family celebrates are vital to connect the generations and to offer some continuity and connectedness through the rough and tumble of life.

Those are traditions at their best.

When, on the other hand, traditions become a strangle hold on an individual or a church to keep it from moving forward in Gods’ best for them – well, those are traditions at their worst.

The toxically familiar refrain of “We’ve always done it this way.” has done more to thwart the plans and purposes of God in a church than any army of demons could accomplish.

I happily embrace many of the traditions my own family has, particularly around the holidays.

You probably do as well.

Those traditions are meaningful and valuable.  

But when traditions are maintained simply as a way to resist any change and in conflict with Gods’ purposes you have created a wall, a barrier between you and God.

Jesus was so direct in His language – He said they had let go of one thing in order to hold onto something else.

They had let go of the commands of God in order to hold onto their sacred traditions.

We would do well to remember the authority of the Word of God and not to allow that authority to be supplanted by our traditions.

When we do that we are essentially declaring our wisdom to be above that of Gods and our traditions become the authority in our lives.

Not a good place to be!

 Let’s flip that around – lets’ be sure to let go

of the traditions of man in order to hold onto the commands of God!!