Tradition!

Tevya sang it: Tradition...tradition. The things we do that make us "us." They define who we are. In the church, there are traditions and then there are TRADITIONS that make for a congregation's identity. They are the-way-we-do-things-around-here.
I'm a new pastor, working her way around the congregation, trying to find out what are the traditions that are 'sacred cows'. In my meeting with small groups, someone asked about traditions in the church--who decides what they are and when can they be changed. I gave a long and way too complicated answer about Presbyterians and group decision making in prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit. It turns out that the person wasn't really interested in that, just that the last pastor (with probably the most innocent of intentions) left out a tradition during the Christmas season. It seemed like someone's toes were stepped on, and there probably wasn't enough attention to the way the decision was made.
Even so, the question got me thinking...what do we do together, and how does that shape our Christian witness? Jesus was accused of being a hedonist, and someone who didn't pay enough attention to the traditions of the Mosaic practices that had been revived by Pharisee groups in the centuries just before Jesus' birth. The Mosiac law was/is a good way of life. These traditions were good things to do, things that made Jews resilient, ethical, and an effective witness against the forces of Roman oppression and abuse of power. So why did Jesus and his followers criticize them? Jesus was pointing out that the traditions of the ancestors had another pernicious effect--they kept outsiders at arm's length. Jews and non-Jews couldn't eat at the same table, or mingle in worship. The Mosaic law practitioners interpreted them in such a way as to keep outsiders out. This prevented the good that they were intended to do from being spread among the wider world. If God made the Jews to be a witness to salvation for the whole world, the Jews were going to have to figure out how their practices could be interpreted so that outsiders would become insiders. This is what the Acts 15 controversy is about--how could Jesus' followers who were Jews be witnesses to the reconciling and saving love of God TO THE NATIONS, that is non-Jews?
We have a similar situation in the world today. Many of our practices, our Christian traditions are good things to do. They help us define our life together, give us ways to be with each other for love and compassion. But they are also designed to keep outsiders out, barriers to inclusion and a subtle indication that we don't really want to mix with people who are not like us. Some say that Sunday morning is the most segregated time in America, not only segregated by race, but by any other demographic you can think of--ethnicity, age, economic or educational status, political affiliation, etc., and any other litmus test question that we feel passionately about. A "big sort" happens in churches because we all want to be with folks who know "the-way-things-are-done-around-here." We keep out people who don't do things our way, think like we do, or look at the world the way we do. Is this the right way of interpreting the radical hospitality of God?
When outsiders enter our church, what traditions are there as barriers? If a tradition is really a good witness to the gospel, it will serve to show that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. If we can't point to that reality with our tradition, I suggest that the tradition is a barrier, and should be abandoned, for Jesus' sake!