Feb. 14, 2016 Fiddler: Tradition Rev. Dr. John Ross Biblical Reference: Mark 3:1-6 (The cast of Fiddler on the Roof sings Tradition as an introduction to the sermon.) Sermon: Dr. Ross: If you haven t taken the occasion to mark your calendars for March 17 th, 18 th, 19 th or 20 th, I d invite you to do that soon. The production is going to be terrific. The whole show, the set is incredible, the cast and crew, Autumn Toussaint and the Good Works Community Theatre Ministry that she leads through this place is going to bless us for the whole season, but the whole show will be on those dates, and we expect good packed houses each time, and you can see why. It s a remarkable effort that they re putting forth, and it s a great gift to us to walk us through this season with such really deep and abiding themes of faith as are in this show. I was not familiar with this show prior to us taking it on for this season, and I have absolutely fallen in love with it. I am so grateful for this chance. Today, we look at Tradition. It is the opening number of the show and it really runs its course through the whole production, and it runs through the life of any serious person of faith. Tradition. Tradition simply defined as the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. You see, there s a big thing going on here, not just from one person to another in one simple time frame. It is the transmission of customs and beliefs from generation to generation. Now, I d be willing to be that you can think of a few immediately from your own life, and I need you to do that. I need you to have in your own mind a tradition or several traditions from your own life because we re going to put those through a filter in the next few minutes to see which ones we should and need to hold on to and observe and those that might need to have another look, those that we might need to even, dare I say, let go of. I asked the whole case and crew if they would send me emails or notes of private messages of traditions that they knew in their own lives, and it was fun to line them all up. There were all kinds of traditions from family meals and things that they do at Christmas, to the annual visitations of a cemetery and gravesites of family members, including one of an infant child - incredible traditions from that group, but also very interestingly, as I asked them to talk about traditions that they let go of, there were lots of traditions that they had to let go of. One indicated that he had grown up in a real agricultural community. Everybody he knew was going to grow up to be a farmer and the kind of standard garb were blue jeans and a white work T- shirt. And he broke that tradition because he wanted to move on to higher education and do different things with his life. So, from about high school on, he broke from that tradition and has never worn blue jeans and a plain white work T-shirt. There are traditions that are important to hold onto and there are those that must be let go. And sometimes it s forced on us, by the way. When I moved up here from Ohio and was away from the multiple generations of my family, we had to let go of some traditions, but we have
retained others because they are worthy of that. They are important to us, they shape who we are, as we are learn to see here in a minute, they also serve the world. Think about your traditions, and if none come immediately to mind, that s okay. We re right in the middle of a tradition, right at the beginning of a tradition, with Lent. You can use that as your example for the morning if you d like, but maybe something even as simple as the turning of that cross. You notice that the dark side is out now, in the season of Lent. We turned that on Ash Wednesday which is another tradition. We re surrounded by traditions, the kind that we should hold onto and those that we need to let go of. We can learn from this show, and we can learn from the passage that is before us this morning. You heard Tevya as he came out, played beautifully by Rick Treece throughout this season. He said everyone of us is a fiddler on a roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. How do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word, Tradition. Now, it s that same Tevya who went on to say, I don t know why we do this tradition, or I don t know where this tradition came from. So, starting with why is a pretty good place. As you ponder the tradition or the traditions that you have in mind, can you answer the simple question of why you do it in the first place? Interesting thing happens to me most times when I write a sermon or craft a message. Somewhere along the line, I find myself wanting to as ask you the simple question: Why did you come here today? Why are you here? Not some cosmic, existential way like why you exist, but literally why are you here? Why did you get all dressed up, come out on this beautiful February day and come to church? Why? Now, very seldom, I actually get to that question in the final version of my sermon, but it s really at the heart of most of what we do. Why? Tevya asks the question why? The Pharisees in the passage ask the question why are they doing that which is not lawful on the Sabbath, and Jesus must be asking himself in his mind, Why are these people so hard of heart? All of these questions and the corresponding answers can help us understand Tradition, traditions that are worthy of holding onto and those that we must let go. Interesting Ted Talk a few years ago came out by a guy named Simon Sinek, and his simple message was: we always have to start with why, particularly in business, but also in lives of faith. Start with why and then you can get to the what and the how. Why? Being able to answer the question why is the start of understanding the difference between tradition and traditionalism. There s a big difference, and if we are going to know what we need to hold on to and what we need to preserve, we need to also know that as tradition, but we need to know the dangers and pitfalls of traditionalism. Let me define it for you, not my definition but Jaroslav Jan Pelikan said, Tradition is living the faith of the dead. Okay, you got that, if it is the transmission of beliefs from generation to generation, tradition in its best sense is living the faith of the deceased, of the dead, of those who have come before us - living that faith. Traditionalism, on the other hand, is the dead faith among the living dead faith among the living. We call that traditionalism, and that s not what we re interested in. We re interested in living - faith, vital faith, life giving faith, traditions. Not only then we can we answer the question of why about, maybe even dig a little deeper in, and that s where this passage that was just read in Mark 2 and 3 is so helpful to us because Jesus is challenging traditionalism. He s not challenging tradition, he s challenging traditionalism, the dead faith that he recognizes in the Pharisees, which is a fancy word for
saying any religious elite person who would lord their authority over other people. Jesus is calling into question traditionalism, not tradition, and in this case it all has to do with observance of the Sabbath. But make no mistake. There were many other traditions that Jesus questioned, many other traditions at the time that Jesus asked the question of the people, Why? Why do you do this? or his actions alone would beg the question of why? But we have to go deeper than Why to fully understand the traditions that we hold, and identify the ones that it might be time to let go of, as hard as it can be, and these words in scripture help us to create a framework, to help us discern the traditions of our lives. So, (pointing at the congregation) do you have a tradition in your head still? You got one? You got one in your own mind or from church? Okay, these are the three questions that I invite you know and in the days to come to put the traditions through these questions. The first one is this: Does your tradition build up your relationship God? That s number one. Number two: Does your tradition hold in high regard the needs of humanity? And number three: Does your tradition align with the ministry of Jesus? Now, let me unpack each of those briefly as we hold it over and against these words from Mark 2 and 3. The first: Does our tradition build up our relationship with God? Does it draw us closer to God, does it connect and reconnect us with the God of the Universe, the very ground of our being? Or, do we follow our tradition because we ve always done it that way? Those are two very different answers, one infused with purpose and passion and the other infused with sort of empty robotics. Now in this case, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about the Sabbath, and they re having quite an argument, I mean it s a heated debate, and we can all agree that history and scripture combine to place the Sabbath as among the most important spiritual disciplines that we know. In fact last year, remember where we spent the entire season of lent? Studying Sabbath. We think it s important, and we have kind of always done it, but does Sabbath and do any of the other traditions that you have in mind draw you closer to the heart of God in your practice of them? Or do you do them just because you ve always done them? The Pharisees have clearly entered into a robotic adherence for things that they ve always done in that way. It has totally disconnected them from the God that they have gathered on the Sabbath in the synagogue to know and to grow closer to. There is a rabbinic saying that captures the spirit of drawing closer to God and the value that tradition has in our lives, the rabbinic saying that says we don t keep the Sabbath, the Sabbath keeps us. Good traditions keep us in right relations with our God. Good traditions connect and reconnect us with our creator. Tradition and good tradition draws us ever closer to the heart of God. The second question for your tradition hold that tradition, keep putting them through this does your tradition hold high regard for the needs of humanity? In other words, does your tradition clarify your calling in the world? Does your tradition draw you into itself for the purpose of being sent out for the good of the world? You see that important move from into a tradition and then out into the world? Does your tradition hold in high regard the needs of humanity, or is it more of a traditionalism, something you do because you re supposed to do? Big difference! BIG DIFFERENCE! Remember what was the root of all the commotion in the synagogue that day? What was the reason for it? Do you remember? I know you only heard it once, but maybe you ve heard it
before. What was the reason for all the commotion in the synagogue that day? Was it just a debate about the Sabbath? No, it was because some guy had a withered limb, some guy had a deformed arm, and he had a real need to be healed of that, and Jesus held that in high regard. Jesus held that as even more important than the traditionalism of maybe not healing or helping someone on the Sabbath. And he healed the man, right up in the face of the Pharisees, doing exactly what they were daring him to do. Seems much ado about nothing to us, you know a guy with a withered limb or deformed arm, you know, but the needs of others seem to matter to Jesus, and they out to matter to us as well. Our traditions should hold high the needs of humanity all around us. In that earlier chapter, that Chapter 2, after the disciples had been picking grain in the field and popping it in their mouths, right? Why do you think they were doing that? Come on, it s simple. Why do you think they were eating the grain as they were walking through the field on the Sabbath cause they were hungry. It s not that hard my friends. They were hungry, and they fed themselves, and the Pharisees said, Oh, no, no, no, no (shaking his finger). What did Jesus say? Put the thing to rest immediately. I love it when Jesus does this. He says to them, The Sabbath was made for human kind, not human kind for the Sabbath. Just trade the words out: Tradition was made for human kind, not human kind for Tradition. The very best traditions among us are those that have a high regard for knowing and meeting the needs of humanity all around us. Third and final question that we can bring to bear framework around our traditions. First is do our traditions build up our relationship with God. Secondly, do our traditions hold high regard for the needs of humanity.? Third, do our traditions, does our tradition align with the ministry of Jesus? In other words, do our traditions seek to follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law? Because that was the kind of ministry that Jesus had, and not just that one time in the synagogue, but time and time again, Jesus was more interested in a spirit of love than in the letter of the law. For crying out loud, the first thing he did after the sermon on the mount was march down the mountain and touch a leper, the most unthinkable, even narrowly illegal, thing to do. Do our traditions align with that kind of love? The Apostle Paul was a pretty good traditionalist guy. The Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the church in Corinth. He said, Our competence is from God who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Boy that s an important distinction, our traditions aligning with the ministry of Jesus to give life, to follow the spirit of love, not the letter of the law. It was Jesus, himself, who said, "Don t think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. Don t get confused, Jesus isn t saying that those laws and those other things don t matter. He s just saying we have to use them to fulfill it. He says, I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have come to fulfill them. Alignment with the ministry of Jesus compels us to embrace lively, living traditions and to put away any dead or deadly traditionalism. My friends, you ll be amazed as you think about traditions, as you bring it to your conscience and awareness how many traditions you have in your life. You may find yourselves realizing that you have them every single day, certainly weekly. And I ll bet more frequently than that. This passage today, this song from the show, the words of Tevya - they are all
begging for us to do the same thing, make sure we understand why we are doing them. And while we are at it, let s go ahead and do the extra work of putting them through the framework. Ask the simple questions. Does this draw me closer to God? Does this serve our world? and does this align with the love, the inclusive love of Jesus? If so, then carry on. Carry on with tradition. Be blessed by it as you bless the world through it. The question today won t be, Why did you come to church? The question today as it relates to tradition is, Why did Jesus come? And a really thoughtful guy names Richard Rohr gave me an excellent answer. I ll close with this quote that just kind of lays a blanket over the top of all of our traditions. Why did Jesus come? Jesus came not to change the mind of God about humanity but to change the mind of humanity about God. That kind of change doesn t just happen once. It happens again and again and again by the transformation of our minds, the renewal of our hearts. (Throws up hands like the cast of Fiddler on the Roof) and says: Tradition. Let s pray: Gracious God, bless us in our discernment, bless us in asking the hard questions about the things we seem to have done for so long, and we just can t remember why. Wrap it all in your love and grace, reminding us that if it takes a long time to do something and to learn something, and if it takes a long time to undo it, we know that you have all the patience in the world for us as we seek nothing more than to get it right. Thank you for seeing it so clearly in Jesus, for inviting us into this season of lent beginning with this word about tradition. Amen.