Standing Firm and Holding On
Amy Jacks Dean, November 11, 2001
There are some traditions one hopes will never change. For all my life, up until the year 1989, I had no intentions of changing anything about our family Christmas tradition. Every year we awoke at 5:30 AM to see what Santa had brought, then we systematically tore into the gifts under the tree - which would take several hours. After breakfast we would shower, dress in some combination of new Christmas gift clothing, and gather with my extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins for the Big Lunch and the Big Tree where we exchanged gifts with one another for several more hours. Gag gifts from “Santa” posed the most fun of the whole day as we made fun of those in the family who are the easiest to poke fun at. Even marriage didn’t alter the Christmas morning and day Tradition. We just got to add to the joy by concluding the wonderful day with Russ’ family for Christmas dinner and a little more gift exchanging. It was all great - until 1989. In 1989, Russ and I accepted a temporary position with the then Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to become chaplains at Big Sky Ski Resort in Big Sky, Montana. We affectionately refer to those 9 months as our “suffering for Jesus” assignment - one that we would not trade for anything! But accepting this assignment meant that we had leave SC on December 17th (that would be 8 days BEFORE Christmas day - for anyone who is counting). The only thing I was dreading about this Montana Adventure was that I would not be home for Christmas. What would Christmas be like without the early morning rituals? How could we spend Christmas day with no gag gifts from “Santa”? How would I survive the homesickness? And I knew my family and how mean they could be. They would call at some point in the day and say, “I believe this is the best Christmas we’ve ever had!” (And they did.) The tremendous fear I had of losing a tradition was lost when our phone rang on that Christmas morning at 5:30 AM with my family on the other end yelling “Merry Christmas.” They had waited until 7:30 AM their time to call us. We got up, opened our gifts from each other and a few other gifts that family had sent to give us a little more to open. We sat under our little, pitiful, cheap tree that was decorated with strung popcorn. The ornaments were bows - the kind that you buy a bag full of different colored ones for $1.39. And the tree topper was an angel made out of a white shirt box. After we opened gifts, we headed to work - Russ at the ski rental shop and me to the Lone Spur ladies boutique. At 2:00 PM we got off work, put on a our skis and headed for Elk Park run - our favorite - and skied the rest of the gorgeous Big Sky afternoon away. We splurged and ate dinner at the Italian restaurant. It ended up being one of the best Christmases ever.
Tradition. Every pastor struggles with this issue. The traditions of each church are important. Last week, I spoke about the importance of memory. I said that our ability to remember was a gift not to be squandered. So we know that traditions of the church are dear to people precisely because your memories are so good. So we pastors struggle with what to change and what should be left the same. What needs to be updated and what would be well enough left alone? Should we keep the old Baptist hymnal or get a new one? (A decision I’m personally glad was made before our arrival. Churches split over that sort of ridiculousness, you know.) Since Russ and I have been picking the hymns many of you have commented on how you’ve liked singing the old hymns. And I do too, but our hymn selections are made mostly out of ignorance - we don’t know many of these hymns in our hymnal! and we don’t know which ones you know. Some of you don’t like the changed words and some of you love the updated language. When Advent gets here, many of us will want to sing the old carols that we know by heart - and we’ll do that on some Wednesday nights because traditions die hard. I want to encourage you this Advent and any Sunday really, instead of being frustrated with hymns you don’t know or that change the familiar words, use that song to really listen to what you are singing. Hymns tell stories and speak theology - do you agree with what you are singing? Though my sentimental, emotional side may still hum “The Old Rugged Cross” and “When We All Get to Heaven” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and one of my childhood favorites “Pentecostal Power” - I appreciate our hymnal’s attentiveness to inclusive language. That is something that is important to me and the way I worship. I challenge you to use the unfamiliar to listen more closely instead of being frustrated or not singing in protest. And remember, for this church’s children, these hymns will be their traditions.
But this is not a sermon about the hymnal. I said that pastors struggle with what to change and what to keep the same. What are the untouchables? Tableau? Missions Sunday? Christmas Eve Communion? The way we do communion? The type of music that leads our worship? Our formal worship style? Let me speak a word of caution here: when any one of these becomes tradition in the way that it seems unchangeable and untouchable, we should carefully look at the tradition. Are we remembering what the program or service was created for? And this goes for new programs and ministries that Russ and Ed and I will implement as well. Traditions for the sake of the tradition have the potential to become idolatrous. And change, just for the sake of change, can be flippant and callous. What is the healthy balance for a church and the church’s pastors?
Here’s where our text for today meets life. In this second letter to the Thessalonians, the writer of the letter (perhaps Paul, perhaps a disciple of Paul) is dealing with a church that has been persecuted. There was a considerable amount of conflict and confusion among this group of believers. The Thessalonian letters make it clear that separation from leaders and alienation from former friends and outside threats of persecution and even death were very much a part of this church’s life. (New Interpreter’s Bible – page 673) The question troubling some of the Thessalonians was whether the “day of the Lord” was already here. Leading up to the verses we read for today, the writer denies the claim that the “day of the Lord” had indeed arrived. This was the day - the point in time when Christ would return and everyone was looking for it, and they believed it would come sooner rather then later. They were looking for the signs and so the writer of this letter gives some of the signs that would have to occur in order for everything to be right and ready for the return of Christ. (Preaching Through the Christian Year – Year C, page 467) (I will quickly add that many Christians today have not made much progress in what troubles them from these early followers of the Way. Some have seen September 11th as a sign. They are so consumed with this “day of the Lord” that they miss “life with God” here and now.) All of that is the setting for our text for today. Today’s passage is a word of thanksgiving and encouragement “Stand Firm and Hold On” - to the traditions.
We’ve got to let go of traditions and think about Tradition. Traditions will come and go (and they will be meaningful and worthwhile while they are here) but Tradition will last forever. Tradition is what keeps the church alive. This is a word that holds so much value in the Catholic church. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the article on “The Transmission of Divine Revelation ,” Tradition is defined as “the living transmission” of the “apostolic preaching” which is “preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time . . . Through Tradition, the church in her doctrine, life, and worship perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that [the church is and believes.]” (page 30) In other words, if I read this correctly, the Pope has the capacity within his role to speak words that will be on the same plain with Scripture. Those spoken words are called “Tradition.” We Protestants have always scoffed at our Catholic brothers and sisters concerning this, but I don’t know why. We preachers believe we can interpret Scripture and perhaps be bold enough to believe that in our words maybe there will be a word from God. Not only do we believe that we can do this, but we believe you can do this as well.
So this day, what do I preach? What will be worth Standing Firm for and Holding On to? It is not the traditions of this church or any other one. I look forward to how we will decorate this place for Advent and Christmas. I can’t wait to hear “Fear not” echo throughout this neighborhood. But that is not worth Standing Firm for and Holding On to. It’s what lies behind all of the traditions that I say “Stand Firm and Hold On.” You see, the decorating tradition in this place is wonderful because the community comes together and works together to make worship important and reverent and worshipful for the Advent season. That’s what Decorate the Church Day is for. It happens on the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent. Thus far, it is my single most favorite day of this past year. I hope that this tradition is known for bringing this community of faith together to prepare this campus for worship during the holy season of Advent. If it is just another thing on our December calendar “to do” then it needs to be stopped. “Fear not” is important not because this year will be the 50th year it has been blared over the loudspeaker for the Tableau- “fear not” is important because it’s the message of the Good News - don’t be afraid because there are good words of great joy which are for all people. If Tableau becomes anything other than that, we will be doing it for the wrong reasons.
Stand Firm and Hold On to this: God is Love and that God created us to be partners in community with one another and that same God taught us mostly effectively perhaps through a man named Jesus in whom we have an example of how to live and how to respond to life in this world and therefore we’d better follow him. That is the Tradition worth passing on and teaching to others. That is this church’s 51-year tradition. It started with the preaching and teaching of Charlie Milford and it has survived these many years, through good times and bad, through pain, through the comings and goings of staff and members - the Tradition of the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has lasted. Does is get any better than that?
So we can talk hymnals and we can talk worship style and we can talk Tableau and Christmas Eve Communion, but the Truth remains: these are but traditions (plural with a lower case “t”), and as important and meaningful as they are, the Tradition (upper case “T” and in italics) – that which we should Stand Firm for and Hold On to is a seeking of the Truth of who God is and how God works in this world – that is an on-going journey that will take us a lifetime. The hard part of this sermon is I have no definitive answer – no hard and fast rule of what traditions we keep and what traditions we revamp and what traditions we do away with and what traditions we create. I know that those are but things, programs, and events that point to Truth. Hear this as one pastor’s faithful struggle with how to lead a congregation toward Truth. And the Truth is “God is Love” and everything should flow from that.
In 1989, when I lost my family Christmas Tradition, Russ and I gained some new ones. If you come to our house this Christmas you’ll find about 20 blue, red, green, gold and white cheap bows stuck throughout our tree and on the top you see a yellowing, slightly bent, shirt box angel. Since 1989, we have learned to mix the old way with a new way – but the Tradition remains (even if one day that shirt box angel does not): we celebrate the birth of a baby named Jesus and his way changed our way and that has made all the difference. May it be so for us all.