Rats in a box were taught that a green button gave them food, whilst a red button gave them a cold shower.
When some were replaced, the remaining rats taught the new ones to avoid the red button - and so it continued until there were only new rats, who then had children, none of which dared to touch the red button, not because of experience, but "because it had always been that way".
Tradition serves a place in community dynamics, but when what we do becomes a law unto itself and is no longer justifiable to those who follow, we run the risk of excluding God, truth or dynamic revelation from what effectively becomes the Linus-blanket of false faith.
I love some traditions and have cultivated them in my family. Jude also urged us to hold to the faith once delivered to the saints and biblical lore is full of recurring festivals. However, when traditions acquire a life of their own and exist for no other reason, they inhibit the purpose of God and become as mindless as not rescuing a donkey from a pit on the Sabbath.
A woman always used to cut off the top of her roasts before roasting them, until her daughter asked why? She replied that her mother always did it, but when asked, the grandmother said, "Oh that is just because our ovens were too small" - thus ending years of trite irrelevance - so much for tradition.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment