Why do you have a Christmas tree? Why do you give presents on Christmas, and why do you put lights on your home? Why do you put up a nativity scene? Why do you hang stockings and fill it with goodies? Why do you hang a mistletoe? Why do you read from Luke Chapter 2 in the Bible? Why do you sing certain songs, or drive around looking at neighborhood lights? Why do you decorate cookies shaped like snowmen, candy canes, wreaths, and holly? Why do you or don't you do any of these things?
Some may seem more obvious, while others you honestly can't really say. Something I'm going to teach my children about traditions, is to think about them, and honestly ask "Why?". Think about what they want to make their own, think about the ones they want to take with, think about others they want to leave behind, and in all their thinking to be honest about it before God and others. After years of thinking about these things myself, I've come to a few conclusions and also find I am still settling on others.
1. It's okay to have traditions that don't have a direct Biblical origin, and can still be meaningful.
Some things are just fun and for pretty. They bring back good memories shared with friends and family. It's okay to have an annual bean bag toss because it's fun. God has given us family, and friends, and all good things come from Him. It's okay to remember the things He has given in our past, and to replicate them in a spirit of thankfulness. While this can be droned, it doesn't have to be. It's okay to bring pretty flowers in annually that are representative of the changing seasons. All things God has made bring glory to God, because He is glorious and He does all things well.
While our traditions don't necessarily have to have a direct Scriptural reading explanation directly from the Bible, we should do all things with thanksgiving and give glory to God in them. We should thank Him for the experiences and what He has given; may those things encourage us to do the really necessary work of sharing the Gospel with others, because we know that He is good and we should all delight in Him by His grace. These things, while not having a direct command, should be wrapped up in the command to give God glory and thanksgiving for all the things we enjoy. We should give Him glory for all the things we have, and also the things we don't have. We know that the ultimate good and perfect gift was given to us in Jesus. All of our experiences in this life, should be experienced through the knowledge of that grace. To strive in tradition and enjoy the fruits of our labor apart from the knowledge of God, is vanity and chasing after the wind.
"There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)
"Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:16-18)"
Just as "all things work for the good of those who love Him...", all good gifts come from God,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits. Everything you have up to this moment, or will have, has been given as part of the story whereby God brought forth in you a faith that gave Him praise to call Jesus Lord and Savior. For the unrepentant sinner all of their gathering is all vanity in the end, sadly. However, for those who are born again, it isn't vanity at all for you but is reason to give God glory--namely and chiefly, for giving all good things that we would ultimately call upon His Name, and give Him glory for all things and thank Him in all things. Our traditions of all kinds don't have to be in vain, because we know the One Who gives good gifts. I'm thankful for the cookies I make yearly with the family God has given me, not just because of vanity, but because I know that God has saved me and is working all things for my good in the end (eternal life, in heaven). In all that we do--including traditions we may make up or assume--we should be mindful of that.
2. Don't reverse-engineer spirituality into a tradition that you didn't originally start for that reason.
This will be my longest point, because I think it's one we are often guilty of, and because of its tricky nature it requires greater explanation. While it's okay to have traditions that don't have direct Biblical origin, I think it is dishonest and a mistake to be pretentious about our reasons for keeping said tradition. That is after a tradition is already set, later on reverse-engineering into that tradition as a root cause, some spiritual origin that wasn't really there in the beginning. This gives an appearance of spirituality, but ultimately is insincere and false. Sometimes we do this in order to feel better about doing something we were already doing anyways and want to have a "good spiritual reason" to keep doing it. I believe a lot of this kind of spiritually-false behavior, results from an obligation to solve a problem that isn't there because we feel guilty for having traditions we can't necessarily point to the Bible on (my first point above). However, that's just dishonest. I would rather be honestly selfish than dishonestly pious. The good news is, however, we don't have to be either.
For example, maybe you did a bean bag competition for years, but later on wanting to be more spiritual in your yearly tradition, you say that the hole represents our souls need for God; tossing the bags in is like trying to fill it with stuff and ultimately it will never be filled. We need Jesus. While that's an okay picture, it's still insincere. You just like playing bean bag toss and you reverse engineered into it a spiritual cause that allows you to feel better about what you were already doing. It's not necessary. See point 1 above. Enjoy what God has given you and give Him glory for the times you have shared with others. Give Him glory in all things. That is spiritually good behavior. The attempt to spiritualize all of our behaviors
we are already doing is just dishonest and we shouldn't do it. Better to just eat cake, because cake is good, you like cake, and you're thankful to God who gave you the taste buds to enjoy it. When we start trying to make our traditions into "spiritual" observations that didn't begin there, we are taking the path of the pharisee who starts to make his traditions equal to the commandment of God, and in a vain attempt to become more spiritual, we have become less. We may impress others with our piety, but God sees the heart. This is a very tricky thing, and we often deceive ourselves or are deceived in this way to reverse engineer spirituality into actions we were going to do anyways. We shouldn't do that.
Another example is you might have grown up putting lights on a tree, or on your house and you don't really know why. You know that it's fun and pretty, and you have good memories doing it with friends and family growing up. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Nobody ever really told you why you did it, and maybe they didn't even really know. You never questioned it. You just thought it was neat, you remember doing it, and you wanted to do it too when you were older. Later on, however, we started to think about why we do what we do and we found out from someone that the lights are representative of Jesus being the light, and we are to be the light of the world, so you take that and run with it. Assuming this is historical fact, now you say that this the reason you keep on doing it when really, there was no signs of stopping and it was being done long before this knowledge ever entered. Can you see where the root of our tradition may be disingenuous when we tacitly apply a spiritual cause to the things we were already doing beforehand?
Okay, so what. Maybe that *really is* where the tradition started, and you just didn't know about it. Should you stop it and not talk about it because you didn't know? I agree there is no sense stopping doing something because we didn't know the root cause really was spiritual to someone, at some point in the past. You could hold onto the tradition because of point one alone, which I expressed above. Now knowing where it comes from, you have a special appreciation for it. We can keep a tradition for a variety of reasons, but we should be honest about how it came to us, and how it became
our tradition. We should always be honest, and not pretentious. Who can say where these things really started? Do you really know? I mean, really? Did you read a book, or see it on the Internet? How do we know? History can be a very subjective thing. Not all the time, but who can really know where this stuff came from? Often times, all we can know for sure is why we do things today. For the day has enough to worry about in itself. Who has time to really confirm concretely what the true origins of some tradition is? My point isn't to argue against sincere spirituality, but to encourage it with honesty before God and others; to think about it and to put out the false and pretentious kind.
Consider Ananias and Sapphira who gave less sacrificially than they let on. The origins or fruit of their sacrifice was disingenuous. They pretended to give all that they had, of their own will, but really were holding back for themselves. Their offering was tainted by a disingenuous spirit. They are the ones who chose to give what they gave, but then made it appear spiritual by tacking that on at the end. God calls them on the carpet, or the ground at least... as it were. Give what you give, but really give what you say you give and don't make it seem more sacrificial than it really is. Just be honest. It seems like such a small thing to us, but at that time, God actually killed them for their dishonesty in it. If we think it's such a small deal, consider their story. It was recorded for us.
Maybe we realize we are guilty of "reverse-engineering" spirituality into many of our traditions. That doesn't mean we have to stop those traditions, but I would at least recommend acknowledging how they truly began in our practice, and just be thankful for the good God has provided. Thankfulness to God in the Name of Jesus, is spiritual.
"But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him (Acts 5:1-6)
3. It's okay to change or just remove traditions for the sake of doing something better--doing good.
Some traditions may need to go for the sake of spiritual growth. It is easy to make traditions, and often hard to take them down. It takes a very spiritual person, to take apart the meaningless securities that have provided familiarity for so long, but in which there is no substance. It's possible that what was once good has been lost. You find it hard to even be thankful for it. You don't know why you do it, and to keep doing it just seems like a chore. Cutting out traditions can make you seem like a real weirdo in your culture, and even spiritual family. For example, dare you not get a Christmas tree? We haven't gotten a Christmas tree for years, and it occasionally gets us a blank stare. We must be careful that we do not take pride in confounding others with our peculiarities in traditions. That is not the goal. Nevertheless, it happens.
That's not to say we never will get a pine tree in our home and decorate it up all pretty, but it isn't something we currently put time and energy into. For us, we were only able to arrive at that tradition by disingenuous leaps, and it just seems like a lot of work we didn't need. I'm glad others do it though, because I like observing their Christmas trees and knowing I didn't have to do any of that work myself (haha)! While a tree didn't hold any significant value to us in memory or wanting to make memories, maybe it does for you. That's okay, so long as we are being honest about why it is we do what we do, there isn't blatant sin in it, and we give God thanks for what He has provided. I like pretty things--pretty is fun. In our personal attempt to make the holidays simpler and truly about Jesus, we saw the Christmas tree as a distraction
for us that we weren't able to reconcile some spiritual call for. Back to point 1 and 2, there doesn't need to be in my opinion, but there also weren't any memories so fond that we couldn't see replacing them with something simpler that was, us. I do stress the,
for us. It doesn't have to be a distraction, and maybe there will come a day when we put one up.
Heartfelt obedience in loving God and loving others, must not be overthrown by our traditions, or our traditions are indeed in vain. If they ever get in the way of obedience, they need to change--either our view of them, or the thing entirely. Consider: is it possible the things we do because of tradition have actually become an inhibitor to obeying God? Has all of this cleaning up for ceremonial traditions and celebrating just become business and caused us to grow deaf to the voice of God? Are we too busy? Have I over spiritualized things dishonestly, or have I just been going through the motions thanklessly? Have our traditions actually become more important to us than sincere obedience to the Living God? These are questions we must ask God, and nobody else can answer for us. May our lips not honor God while our hearts are far from Him.
"Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:1-9)
4. Don't judge others if their traditions are different from yours--or completely absent.
This is an ironic point, you might think, given all of what you've read here. This is of course assuming these "traditions" don't actually involve sin, because that is another matter. We should realize that we are all trying to figure this stuff out. We should seek to live with one another in an understanding way, and encourage one another to sincerely seek God, and walk circumspectly. Nevertheless, it is before Him we rise or fall, and we can only be accountable for our own actions. Traditions can be fun, but in tradition there can be a sense of "knowledge" of the past, and knowledge can puff up, while love builds up. Do not be puffed up in the knowledge of your traditions, or the lack of your traditions! Seek to love one another, be merciful to one another, and maybe we can figure this all out together.
Making new traditions and cutting out old ones can be hard for a number of reasons, and it poses a problem as we become "different" to others in some of the things we do. Difference, however, does not have to be indifference. We can become indifferent with others when we abstain from certain traditions they do not, or visa-verse. We can become embittered towards those who do not abstain like us, or who don't do the same things we do. While it is important to encourage others into thoughtful behavior that gives God glory (as I hope this blog will do), it is unfruitful to judge our brother ignorantly. This too, is a sign of spiritual immaturity we will need to address as we cut out certain things from our own practice.
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:4-6)
Final thought...
It may be that whoever is reading this will find some contradictions in some of my thoughts, and that is very possible. Sometimes in attempting to honestly navigate our own reasons for why we do what we do, we run into many conflicting feelings and thoughts for sure. I have not finished making our traditions or making sense of the ones we already do. As I honestly seek to form them in an understanding way to give God glory, and to be thankful to Him in them... I know that in the end, it is God and not my traditions that will save the day.
