Ritual and tradition. In the broadest of senses,
ritual and tradition control and shape our lives from birth to death and all the years in between. Ritual and tradition encompass more of human life than we realize.
But when you think about it, ritual and tradition pervade the ordinary routines of life to the most profound of sacraments
and ceremonies, ceremonies whether in church or secular.
Take traditions in families. Husband and wife
each bring their own traditions and rituals to their marriage and blend them together, particularly at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
There is a well known story about the feast prepared for those two occasions. In a certain family the tradition was always to have a baked ham in addition to the traditional turkey. But the ritual seemed to be that no matter what, they cut an inch off each end of
the boneless ham and baked in the same pan beside the ham proper. Finally the
newest husband in this extended family challenged his wife and mother and sisters in law to tell him the reason. “We’ve always done it this way in our family,” they answered. “It’s traditional.” His mother in law also
pointed out that her mother, the grandmother of the family, did it this way.
When the grandmother was asked, she replied likewise, “Well, my mother did it this
way.” The great grandmother was in a nursing home at a very advanced age,
but was lucid. When they all visited her that afternoon, the youngest husband
asked her why she sliced off the ends of the ham before she baked it. She laughed
and said, “My pan was too small and so I sliced off the ends to make it fit.”
Hence a traditional ritual.
We cannot even remember our first touch with ritual and tradition. There are rituals of celebration when a mother learns she is pregnant.
There is the tradition of the baby shower. And then usually for Episcopalians
and some other Christians, there is the sacrament of Holy Baptism, followed traditionally a decade or so later by Confirmation.
School years involve other traditions and rituals.
In my day school began traditionally with a devotional and included the
pledge of allegiance. For many the rituals and traditions of life soon included
those of the various scouting or similar programs. Nowadays ritual and tradition
are associated with completion of annual events: graduation ceremonies for the
completion of Preschool to what seemed the most important of all, High School Graduation.
Not to mention other traditions of the high school years: junior and senior
prom, extra-curricular activities, and their rituals. And then visiting and selecting
a college.
And there are military rituals and traditions that have their origins in the mists of antiquity
and are dear to the hearts of many. Rituals and traditions of birth, life, and
death surround us, support us, shape us all our days.
Ritual and tradition like those at dispute between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees
in today’s Gospel remain a central part of the lives of observant Orthodox Jews throughout the world. It is second nature to them -- these daily ritual requirements of Orthodox Judaism, and they feel that
something important is absent when, for any number of reasons, they are unable to comply.
They believe their lives are enriched by their observance – just as we Christians believe our lives are enriched
by the ritual practices and traditions of Christianity.
These rituals of Orthodox Judaism come down from the most ancient of times. They are inscribed – indeed, enshrined -- in the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, in parts of Deuteronomy
and Leviticus. This was the only Bible available to Christians until the adoption
of the present canon of Old and New Testaments in the 2d and 3d Centuries A.D.
Jesus accused the Pharisees and scribes of abandoning the commandment of God
and holding to human tradition. These laws prescribed in excruciating detail
the requirements of human life, from ritual washing to dietary laws, to what
was clean and unclean.
What is important, said Jesus, is who you are and what you do. And those things he enshrined in the great Summary of the Law: You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And
the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment grater than these.
No longer was it necessary to obey the rituals and traditions of a thousand
years earlier for the survival of a small group of tribes in a hostile land. The
Israelites had survived, but they had made the rituals and traditions the object of their worship and not God.
They used human tradition to control themselves and their neighbors and not to love them
and set them free. Enough, said Jesus.
I bring you a new commandment to add to the summary of the law. Love one
another as I love you.
AMEN
