What happens when tradition clashes with
the changing culture? I think that this
is something that we need to consider in our present time.
One of my favorite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof. This is the story of Tevye, the father of
five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural
traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family’s lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed
actions of his three older daughters, who wish to marry for love—each one’s
choice moves further away from the customs of his faith and tradition—on top of
the edict that the czar evicts the Jews from their village. If you have ever seen the musical, you know
that Tevye struggles to do what he knows . . . to live up to what he has been
taught . . . to follow the traditions without question; and, yet, the
traditions are being challenged and pushed to their limits. As long as everyone followed the traditions,
there was control . . . everything was in its place.
I want you to think for a moment . . .
what is one thing that is expected before every meal? Think about what you harped on your children
to do before each meal? Do you
remember? Yeah . . . washing their
hands. Can you remember arguing with
your children about washing their hands before each and every meal? Remember how you answered them when they
asked why? Because . . . because it is
healthy . . . because that is what we are supposed to do . . . just,
because! As parents we thought washing
hands before eating was important, but our children didn’t think it was such a
big deal . . . and, besides, maybe they were tired of all the rules we had as
parents. So, we struggled with tradition
. . . does it really matter?
Well, that is what is happening in our
scripture reading this morning. It is
not just about washing one’s hands . . . it is about the tradition and
authority behind the practice. The
Pharisees mince no words in explaining the problem to Jesus: “Why
don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of
eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” As far as the Pharisees were concerned, Jesus
and his disciples were running rough shod over tradition. Though the question is about tradition, the
implication is about authority. The
Pharisees want to know who Jesus thinks he and his disciples are to flout the
traditions of the elders.
Of course, Jesus is not going to put up
with this hypocrisy from the Pharisees.
Hypocrisy seems to be a strong word . . . maybe a word like
pontification is more suitable. To
pontificate is to “speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic
way.” This is what the Pharisees are
doing . . . they are pontificating about the practice of one’s faith. To be faithful one would wash one’s hands
before eating. This was a sign of the
being faithful.
Jesus states that this is hogwash! He accuses the Pharisees in their
pontification of being hypocrites . . . they would rather pontificate—to speak
and express opinions in a pompous manner than to deal with the commandments of
God. To them, traditions were more
important than doing the will of God. Or
at least that is what it sounded like. What
Jesus wants to know from the Pharisees is how traditions contribute to
fulfilling God’s mission. Thus, it is
that Jesus explains that it is not the rituals and dogma that is practice that
makes one faithful, but how one lives his or her life.
Jesus proclaims to the people: “Don’t
you see that nothing that enters a man from outside can make him
‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his
heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body . . . What comes out of a
man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For
from within, our of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and
folly. All these evils come from inside
and make a man ‘unclean.’”
In other words, actions speak louder
than words. How one lives his or her
live reveals one’s faithfulness . . . not the words that are spoken . . . not
the rituals, traditions, and dogma followed to the letter . . . but how one fulfills
through his or her life the command to love God completely and to love others
as they love themselves. This is what
reveals whether a person is living a faithful life . . . not whether he or she
washes their hands before eating.
As we can all imagine, it was a matter
of control for the Pharisees. Control is
the issue. It is an issue every
congregation struggles with. Yet, the
times they are changing . . . traditions are being challenged. I think that we are all aware of this taking
place. Think about how we do things
today in our worship service as compared to five, ten, or even twenty years
ago. What are we doing that we would not
have done way back when . . . women elders and deacons . . . casual dress from
jeans on men and slacks on women . . . standing at certain points in the
service . . . beverages in the worship service.
Think about the changes to tradition that have happened over the years .
. . and, ask yourself, in the end, did it really matter. As I said, the times they are changing. Are we able to change with the times? I think that is the question before us.
Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof, struggled with traditions being challenged . .
. especially when it came to his daughters and their desire to marry for love
and not tradition. His three oldest daughters chose mates who went against the
tradition Tevye was accustomed to . . . and, he struggled. He struggled to hang on to tradition . . . to
hang onto control over his daughters . . . to have some sort of semblance of what
he knew and understood. He struggled
because he knew that he was on the verge of losing his daughters . . . of
having no relationship with them. He had
to answer the question of what was more important . . . his relationship with
his daughters or tradition. In the end,
he stepped into a foreign situation, he chose his daughters.
Which bring us back to ourselves
considering what it is that Jesus is saying to us this morning in our scripture
reading. He is challenging his listeners
. . . his followers . . . to consider whether they are pontificating their
faith with words and rituals rather than actions that show love towards God and
others. That is a tough question
considering we like our traditions whether they serve the will of God or not. That is the conversation we must enter into .
. . especially as we consider the challenge of dealing with the younger
generations. What needs to change, we
might ask our kids, neighbors, and so forth, in order to make what we offer as
a community of faith more understandable, accessible, useful, and helpful. By asking these questions we begin to put
God’s will ahead of tradition.
As one commentator put it: “That won’t
be an easy journey, of course . . . We love our traditions. I love our
traditions. They have helped to mediate the faith to us in countless ways. But
what if they’re not doing that for the emerging generation? What if we’ve come
close to worshiping the traditions instead of the God they were supposed to
point to? And what if Jesus is calling us to put our mission – whether to care
for our aging parents, feeding the hungry, opening our doors to the homeless,
making our building available to after school tutoring, sharing the Gospel with
folks much of the church rejects, partnering with the community to care for
more of God’s children, whatever – what if Jesus is calling us to put our
mission ahead of even our most cherished traditions? What then?”
Well, I don’t know. But, it is a good place to start . . . to
consider the question of whether we are living spiritual lives of pontification
or spiritual lives that strive to do God’s will. Consider it.
I appreciate your willingness to consider the challenge Jesus puts
before us this morning. I hope that you
will discern God’s presence and will in this conversation, and that you will
not just wash your hands. Amen.
