Lesson 36: How Do We Determine the Word of God – Custom

Bob and Juan’s comments have led me to change my schedule for examining how we determine if our inspirations are worthy to be judged God’s Word. Bob continues to remind us there is always going to be differences of opinion, especially in our time of radical democracy. Juan, representing thoughtful evangelicals who are pretty much ignored by Mainliners and Roman Catholics, reminds us the center of World Christianity has shifted from us to them, from the Northern to the Southern and the Western to the Eastern Hemispheres. He cautions, “My point is that not all peoples have a positive view of tradition and history, and they have good reason for it”. Lutherans should appreciate this, because their founder said much the same thing when he attacked Roman Catholic tradition, such as indulgences.

While wholly agreeing with Bob and Juan, I want to make sure we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I find studies showing the rise of modern technology coincides with the loss of tradition very disturbing. Some of this comes from the kind of short-sightedness President Kennedy demonstrated his 1962 Yale commencement address that called for educated people to leave behind “clashes of philosophy or ideology” that he labeled truisms, stereotypes, and clichés. He observed, “In our own time we must move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality.” He summed up this “realism” as recognizing all our problems have become “technical and administrative”. In an effort to be pragmatic, he denigrated all the wisdom of the past just as militant atheists do when they blame Christian tradition for all of our cultural conflicts. My son and I find when churches abandon all tradition, they run amok and fall prey to the dictatorial actions and unbiblical opinions of their charismatic leaders.

I think we have to be constantly separating good from bad tradition. We have to appreciate Juan’s reminder that tradition means Roman Catholic to Spanish American Evangelicals, but we must also worry about Americans who think Christian tradition means Americanism. I tremble when Sarah Palin chants, “We are only patriots who cling to our religion and guns”, especially when I hear televangelists echo her hour after hour, day after day. They demonize Obama as a socialist who might very well be the Antichrist. Their argument is being a Christian means you must be a capitalist and bear arms. Where did that come from?

The question becomes then how to separate the good from the bad, the wisdom from the self-serving ideology. While understanding with Bob that we are never going to find consensus, I still argue that we must always continue to use all parts of our tradition as checks and balances on the others. That includes non-biblical customs that have become long-established patterns of thought and behavior regulating our present practice. Sometimes we do these things, because “we have always done it this way”, but often we have always done it this way, because “it works”. These customs have become “habits of the heart” that are essential resources for discerning God’s Word. Often they represent innovations to which the Holy Spirit has led us as Jesus promised in John.

It also includes using the canon and creeds to test these customs. In the past we have done this in the debates over purgatory, the intercession of saints, celibacy, and male priests. We have to continue with customs we take for granted such as everyone of our political and social positions, our institutional organization, our denominationalism, and our liturgy. Often these are what divide the Church rather than our differing biblical interpretations. I still think this demands advocating a strong Theology of the Cross I find in the canon, even though many of you disagree. I don’t know any other way to free Christianity from Western culture.

Next week I’ll look at one of the customs that provokes a lot of conflict in our day, the cult with its liturgy and music.

Tags: custom, tradition