Traditiooooon, Tradition.

Yeah I’m a big fan of “Fiddler”. So anyway we attended the Moravian Church where our homeschool group will be meeting every Friday for a while. They were having one of their Love Feasts, which didn’t seem to really be about either love, or feasting. It apparently celebrates a revival that they had in their church history back about two hundred years ago.

How do they celebrate? They hand out strong, milky coffee and some absolutely fabulous Love Feast Buns. According to the pastor, back in the 1700′s a bunch of Moravians were together doing church and they didn’t want to leave worship so someone ran up to their house and brought back a bit of food to sustain the congregation.

He said something interesting that got me thinking. “In the Moravian church if you do something once it’s innovative. If you do it twice it’s tradition.” The Moravian Church is no different than any other in that respect I’m thinking. Every congregation/denomination has their own thing. The question you should ask yourself is, what purpose is this tradition serving? In their case the Love Feast is a reminder of renewal. While that’s useful to a point I suppose, I think they’d benefit from actual renewal.

All of that causes me to want to look at my own traditions and throw out what has become stale and lifeless. Not sure what that would be, yet. What might yours be (religious or otherwise)?

  • Rose

    When does routine become ceremony, ceremony tradition, tradition obligation? That’s something that bothers me.

    My dad used to kiss me good night before I went to bed when I was young, and though it happened every night it was something I looked forward to and missed when it was skipped.

    Prayer, on the other hand, is something that I similarly try to do every night before I go to bed, a communion with a different kind of father, I guess. Only I find myself praying because I feel that I have to and feeling guilty if I don’t.

    I guess I grew out of my dad’s nightly kisses at some point, because I do remember feeling resigned to the silly and babyish tradition, but now that I don’t get to see him every day I sometimes miss that feeling of love and acceptance that accompanied the simple routine.

    So now I’m wondering if I should stop praying and see if I start missing God, or if it’s better to just stick with what is often a boring routine because I know that the benefits are worth the costs?

    Anyway You got me thinking.

  • treed (trreed)

    Religious traditions are there to remind us that God is God and we are not; and our place in creation. When they become static (meaningless) or a tradition simply because that’s the way we do it, it needs to be re-evaluated and looked at more closely. Traditions can be a source of new life or a way we keep others away. Wife has always used traditions of the church as a way of pointing out why we are here and what we are to be doing with our faith and what God wants of us. Traditions should be used as a call for social action and/or an inward searching of truth and enlightenment. I could ramble on more, but …

  • Scott

    Never feel like you’ve got to cut stuff like that short my friend!

  • http://sidfaiwu.com/blog sidfaiwu

    The question you should ask yourself is, what purpose is this tradition serving?

    Traditions often serve to protect traditional ‘values’ and to reinforce group identity and cohesion. At least, these are the effects even if the stated purpose of the tradition is something else, such as “reminding us that God Is God.”

    In the Moravian church if you do something once it’s innovative. If you do it twice it’s tradition.

    In my not-so-humble opinion (are they ever really humble?), this is a bastardization of the term “tradition”. If one person does something more than once (read regularly), then it’s a habit. If a group of people do something more than once, it’s convention. If a group of people do something more than once over multiple generations, then it becomes a tradition. I think there is a “passed down” aspect to traditions.

    As should come as no surprise in this comment, I don’t trust traditions. “It’s always been done this way” is never sufficient reason to do anything. Thus I agree that traditions should be reevaluated – eliminated if no longer useful.

  • Rose

    When does routine become ceremony, ceremony tradition, tradition obligation? That’s something that bothers me.
    My dad used to kiss me good night before I went to bed when I was young, and though it happened every night it was something I looked forward to and missed when it was skipped.
    Prayer, on the other hand, is something that I similarly try to do every night before I go to bed, a communion with a different kind of father, I guess. Only I find myself praying because I feel that I have to and feeling guilty if I don’t.
    I guess I grew out of my dad’s nightly kisses at some point, because I do remember feeling resigned to the silly and babyish tradition, but now that I don’t get to see him every day I sometimes miss that feeling of love and acceptance that accompanied the simple routine.
    So now I’m wondering if I should stop praying and see if I start missing God, or if it’s better to just stick with what is often a boring routine because I know that the benefits are worth the costs?
    Anyway You got me thinking.

  • Scott

    Sid, I think the guy intended it as a joke. ;-) I think we all have traditions that we don’t even realize that we are following and that they’re a sort of social glue/grease (can something be both a lubricant and a whateveryouwouldcallaglue-icant). But yeah they should be up for re-evaluation.
    Rose, welcome! I’d say stick with praying, but not out of a sense of guilt or obligation.

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