{"id":29387,"date":"2020-12-17T03:30:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T11:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=29387"},"modified":"2020-12-13T14:25:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T22:25:10","slug":"december-17-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2020\/12\/17\/december-17-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"December 17, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cFor laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men\u2026 All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.\u201d <\/em>Mark 7:8-9<\/p>\n

New Traditions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Christmas is the time of traditions.<\/p>\n

When my mother was a girl, she recalls being given an orange in her stocking every year as a special treat.<\/p>\n

My father\u2019s family was poor, so every year his mother would reuse Christmas toys as gifts in his stocking. He and his brother would get to play with the special Christmas toys on Christmas Day, then the toys were returned to his mother, who would save, rewrap them, and give them back in their stockings again the next year.<\/p>\n

And for three generations now, every child in our family opens a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve to wear to bed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about traditions recently. Traditions are wonderful. They build common memories and bonds and create feelings of being anchored. But not all traditions are created equal, and this year especially, some traditions might need to change.<\/p>\n

In Mark 7, Jesus confronts the Pharisees about their traditions. The Pharisees were rigidly holding fast to every tradition handed down from their fathers, loving their traditions to the point that they found their identity in them.\u00a0 But in their pursuit of maintaining the familiar, they lost sight of the heart of God, adding culture to God\u2019s laws, until they were blind to the difference.<\/p>\n

And when their long awaited Messiah came\u2014ready to act and change the world, ready to answer their prayers\u2014they couldn\u2019t see Him. It threw them that Jesus wasn\u2019t keeping all their man-made traditions. Focused so much on maintaining their\u00a0<\/em>normal, loving their\u00a0<\/em>life, wrapped up in their\u00a0<\/em>way of doing things, they missed that God Himself was moving among them, acting in power, answering their prayers, saving the lost.<\/p>\n

Some traditions are good. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says, \u201cStand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Jesus Himself kept many cultural traditions (Luke 4:16, for example), but He didn\u2019t get so caught up in the details that He missed the purpose.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve been thinking about traditions. I\u2019ve been asking myself: Are there some traditions I need to let go of? Which should I keep? Are there any traditions where I\u2019ve lost sight of the Father\u2019s heart? Are there new traditions I need to start? Have I gotten so wrapped up in the \u201chow<\/em>\u201d of my traditions that I have missed the \u201cwhy<\/em>\u201d?<\/p>\n

This year, some of our traditions might look different. Let\u2019s use this time to check our traditions against the heart of God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cYou were not redeemed with corruptible things\u2026 from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(1 Peter 1:18-19a).<\/p>\n

Lord, thank You for teaching me flexibility. Thank You that You don\u2019t leave us how You found us. Show me which traditions I need to change, which I should keep, and which I should start. Help me not to miss Your moving, and to focus on the \u201cwhy\u201d instead of the \u201chow.\u201d In Jesus, Name, Amen.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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