I do Not Think That Word Means What You Think it Means…

Author's Note:  Most of my recent sermons have not been preached from manuscripts, but from a loose outline of notecards and storytelling.  What follows is very close to what I preached at the Thanksgiving Eve service after our soup supper, but may be somewhat different.

Call to Worship:

Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!
Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 
I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.


Gospel Lesson:  Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 33-34a, 38-45a

Anger

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Lust

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

Oaths

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all

Retaliation

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

Love Your Enemies

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

I do Not Think That Word Means What You Think it Means…

You have heard it said… you have heard it said… you have heard it said… but I say…

Jesus loved to swoop in and challenge a good tradition and make people think about why they held onto it and whether or not it drew them closer to God and his people or away.

A parish got a new priest. During his first service, when a certain prayer was said, half the congregation stood up and half remained sitting. The half that was seated started yelling at those standing to sit down, and the ones standing yelled at the ones sitting to stand up. The new priest did not know what to do. His congregation suggested to consult a 98-year-old man, who was the oldest inhabitant of the village. The priest hoped the elderly man would be able to tell him what the actual tradition was, so he went to the old people's home with a representative of each fraction of the congregation.

The one whose followers stood during the prayer said to the old man, "It is the tradition to stand during this prayer!"

The old man answered, "No, that is not the tradition."

The one whose followers sat said gladly, "Then the tradition is to sit during this prayer!"

The old man answered, "No, that is not the tradition."

Then the priest said to the old man, "But the congregation fight all the time, yelling at each other about whether they should sit or stand!"

The old man interrupted, exclaiming, "That is the tradition!"

In my family, the joke was always that if we did something once, now it was a tradition.  And my sister would be sure we followed it, especially at holidays.

We have traditions of thanksgiving, like our soup supper that supports the youth in mission and this evening worship services, advent traditions, and Christmas Eve worship services. We even have a weekly “TRADITIONAL” service.

If you’ve ever seen the movie or read the book, The Princess Bride, you know there’s a character who spends much of the film greatly frustrated.  Whenever he vents about his frustrations, he cries out, “This is inconceivable!”  After a few dozen times, one character turns to him and says, “I do not think this word means what you think it means.”

And so it goes with “tradition,” with “traditional.”  What do they mean?

What makes thanksgiving traditional? Meals? Shopping? Not shopping? Food? Family?

What makes values traditional? Old values? How old? Pre-civil rights? Pre-women's suffrage? Pre-revolutionary? Traditional ideas about owning property and people and the superior intellect of a given race or gender are not ideas most of us now accept. And aren’t we glad?

What makes marriage traditional? For most of history, across many cultures, it was marked by mutually beneficial family arrangements, transactions of goods. For thousands of years, it was not just tradition, but custom and law to marry your in-law if the spouse died. Look it up… Deuteronomy 25.

The notion of picking a spouse based on personal affection or attraction or some concept of romantic love is radically new and modern as a cultural norm. 

How many of you would be married to your spouse if your parents had done the choosing? How many of you would have additional wives or be married to an in-law, if those old customs of traditional marriage still held?

So many of our biblical heroes had multiple wives, concubines, and even stranger arrangements. 

What about traditional worship? What makes the traditional service traditional?  Is it what came first? The music? The style? The instruments? The space?

The Organ was conceived of 300 years before the birth of Christ, but its modern design, which is electric, wasn’t created until 1934.  The piano we used tonight?  That wasn’t around until the 1700s.  In our call to worship from Psalms written 600 years before Christ, it mentions stringed instruments, drums, tambourines, flutes, trumpets… All instruments we are very likely to see in our “contemporary” services more often than the “traditional” one.

What about the use of a pulpit? Jesus and the prophets weren’t often to be found on one so much as a hillside.  Sunday worship? Are you kidding?  The Jews worshipped, and still do, on Saturday.

Now, I'm not saying we should rename the Sunday services or even suggesting that one service is more traditional than the other.  It might be.  ;-)  Rename a service?  We’d have an uproar like that young priest.

Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, to challenge us.  When we get comfortable with the way we use the word tradition, we lose our actual traditions. Traditions like faith, belief, one true God, a savior who loves us.  Our best traditions are hope, peace, love, and joy.  Our best traditions aren't turkey/tofurkey… they're thankfulness.  Our best traditions aren't shopping or even capitalism, they're generosity.  Not worship style, but who is worshipped, and where we go when we leave, and what we do.

I challenge each of you to consider your own traditions and the meaning they help you create, if they draw you closer to God and your brothers and sisters of this world.

I want you to consider two things when you look at each of your traditions.  One – does it create meaning?  Do you gain greater understanding, appreciation, memory, some sort of meaning from it?  Two – does it encourage love?  The kind of love that Christ first showed us.  If the meaning is lost or twisted.  Or if your tradition doesn’t look like love to someone else looking in… that tradition no longer holds value.  Throw it away.  Create a new one.

I challenge yourself as you gather around table tomorrow on Thanksgiving, as you make the journey through advent and plan for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, examine every tradition and ask yourself… Does your tradition create meaning?  Does your tradition encourage love?  Does it create meaning?  And encourage love?  Amen.