Traditions

DateLine (11/15/06 – Nanuet, NY)

The Thanksgiving season will be received with mixed emotions in the Neal household this year; a tradition will die. For as many years as Harriett and I have had children and then grandchildren, the day after Thanksgiving was a given. To an outsider it may seem trivial. In fact, in the overall scheme of things, it is trivial. But to us it was a cherished tradition. The tradition has nothing to do with Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year; it has nothing to do with eating leftover turkey from the previous day’s Thanksgiving celebration.

The day after Thanksgiving for us was a trip to the Spartanburg Christmas parade and a trip to the Beacon drive-in. For almost 30 years, we parked in the same place, stood in the same place, bought the same “pop balls” to throw on the pavement at the feet of anyone who came near, and enjoyed a cherished tradition. We did not set out to establish a tradition years ago when we first decided to take our young children to one of the first regional celebrations of the Christmas season; it just happened. It wasn’t just the parade. For the first 20 years or so it was the chance to rub elbows and shake the hand of a living legend, Strom Thurmond. Every parade day, he and his entourage would make their way to the Beacon for lunch and he’d work the bulging lines with the zest of a rookie politician even as he slipped into his 90s.

Traditions are comfortable. They usually remind us of good times. They are predictable. They are safe. To break a tradition, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, reminds us of the uncertainty of life. The parade organizers in Spartanburg, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to move the day of the parade to a weeknight closer to Christmas. For us it will not be the same. So this season, our family has a dilemma. Our choices are to spend the day in mourning over a lost tradition, ignore the passing altogether, or seize the opportunity to start a new tradition. It is not yet clear to us what it will be; hence the mixed emotion of the season.

Christians have traditions as well; so do churches. There is nothing wrong with traditions per se, but there is a certainty. At some point the tradition will be no longer. For some we will tire of it. For others it will be wrestled from them as it was for us due to actions and decisions of others. For some we shared the tradition with others who no longer wishes to be a part or perhaps has passed on to eternal life. On occasion we will decide that the tradition is no longer desirable, relevant or healthy.

Jesus spent a lot of time during His earthly ministry combating religious tradition; the tradition of the Pharisees and Sadducees. We should take a clue from Him and have a healthy distrust of religious traditions. The problem with religious traditions is that they tend to become our “servants” instead of God’s “vehicles.” We should do everything humanly possible to insure that traditions do not become impediments to the advancement of God’s kingdom. We should be prepared on occasion to sacrifice traditions that are comfortable to us for the overall benefit of the body of Christ and all of humanity. The warning is sounded from the very mouth of Jesus when he stated, “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." Mark 7:13

A tradition lost for whatever reason is an opportunity to begin anew.