The Tradition of Transition
Tradition is the backbone of any community, especially the Church. It gives structure to our practices and shapes our hearts and minds in profound ways. More than that, tradition connects us with our past and reminds us of who we are – and who we are called to be.
These are a just a few of the reasons that John Wesley valued tradition so much, even in a time when seemingly everyone else was tossing it aside for personal freedom and individual choice.
He understood that we are like kites: If we are not tethered by tradition, our freedom becomes erratic and we crash to the ground. True freedom is a freedom to be who we are called to be in Christ, without hurdle or hesitation, and not the freedom to choose the frenetic inclinations of our hearts.
But, Wesley also knew that if a community is to flourish and not grow stagnant, their traditions must move and shift with the experience of those in the community. Tradition is not written on immutable stone tablets, but rather on the fluid lives of us who are shaped by it.
Like a river bending around a willow tree, traditions recognize and respond to the concerns and context of the community, and it’s no different for the people of God. Since the day of our birth and baptism in the Red Sea, the traditions of God’s people have shifted and changed many times, meandering through history with the careful guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Transitioning, however, is not often easy or embraced with excitement. When that first generation of God’s people stepped out of the Red Sea, they found themselves in a vast wilderness. They grew hungry and then homesick for the ‘tradition’ and comfort of a structured life, even if that structure was that of forced labor.
We really, really don’t like change!
Both God and Moses knew that if the community was going to survive and thrive, they would need new practices and structures built on the reliable, yet robust, tradition of their ancestors. And so, as odd as it sounds to us now, the Law and the Tabernacle were introduced as innovations to the tradition of God’s covenant – a covenant he had made with this people through Abraham some five hundred years before.
We now find ourselves in a similar situation. Of course, we are not wandering in a wilderness – at least, not literally – but we are faced with great concerns in our current context, asking us to revisit some traditions of our own.
Already we have found new ways to worship, fellowship, and study scripture together as the Church. Refusing to let a virus that has re-shaped the world to re-shape us into an isolated and disconnected people, we have turned to the innovations of the internet and the old-school technology of writing to stay connected and faithful in our call to prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
And now, even as we finally come back together in person as a community next month, we know that life together will not be the same as it was before. Addressing the concerns of our context, while inviting bodies to share the same space, we will likely adopt some new traditions that include wearing face masks, social distancing, and adjustments to our Sunday worship schedule that will help ensure we remain a healthy and flourishing community – a kite flying high in the turbulent winds of our times.
We really, really hate change! I know!
But let us remember: As God’s people, the only tradition that hasn’t changed for us on the long and winding river of our history is the tradition to love God and neighbor, even in the midst of difficulty and…change.
