As the holidays rolled through, it gave me an opportunity to think about tradition. In my family, we have had various traditions through the years. On my golden birthday (you know, when your age equals the day of your birthday) I got a pocketknife with my name on it. Every Christmas we stay in our pajamas all day until our friends come over in the evening to play cards and drink sparkling cider. On New Years we burn our Christmas tree, the neighbors trees to if we can get our hands on them. These are all traditions that were started by my family, but other traditions are passed down through time.
There are some traditions that we don’t give much thought too. Like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, we know the traditions exist and that they are very important but we haven’t the slightest idea where they came from or why we follow them so vehemently. My good friend Sal told me a story of tradition: one day a woman was teaching her daughter to cut a roast. She got out the cutting board, cut two inches off of both sides of the roast before placing it in the pan. When her daughter asked her why, she only knew that’s the way her mother had done it. So she went to ask her mother the origin of this strange tradition. Her mother directed her to her aging grandmother. The Grandmother replied that the roast had always been too big for the pan so she cut the ends off.
When I left the United States last February I entered a land where all the traditions are different. Nicaraguans celebrate your birthday by throwing an egg at your head. They have an all-night prayer vigil the day someone dies, and they exchange a silver coin when they get married. On New Years Eve they make a mannequin of an old man to represent the old year, then they stuff him full of fireworks and hang him burning in the street. Crazy, huh? I have not had a very hard time adjusting to all the new and strange traditions. What has struck me most has been the unique vantagepoint of viewing most of my own traditions from the outside. I have been gifted the opportunity to question why I do the things I do.
Why do we do church the way we do? Or work or family? Are there unhealthy habits I have inherited just because my culture says that it’s normal? Someday I want to make sure that my children live for a while outside of the United States to gain a broader perspective of the world. I want them to question why we do the things we do, to hold on to what is good and reject the bad.
Because tradition is a powerful thing. It basically tells you to do something without asking questions. Why do we get up on black Friday and shop at four in the morning? Because it’s tradition. Why does the president of the United States pardon a turkey every year?!??! Because it’s tradition. Why do we freak out about the superbowl? Because it’s awesome. And because of tradition.
But Jesus was not about that noise. He got a lot of flak for breaking the tradition of the Pharisees. During one of his most heated exchange of words with them he says “you have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions”. He even came along and made new traditions, turning the Passover cup into what we now celebrate as Communion. What’s up Jesus?
We are called to follow his example. To question everything, to examine and study our traditions, and to make new ones if we have to. Because the main emphasis of any tradition is to communicate to the next generation what is important. If Christ is the center of our lives, let it be evident in every random celebration we have. In Deuteronomy 11 it says to write scripture on the doorframes of your house. What traditions have you grown up with that need to die? What traditions could you invent that would put Jesus at the center of your life? Maybe you just need to get a sweet hood Jesus tatoo.
