Recently, I listened, with growing sorrow, as a kind woman described the traditions that she followed at Christmas time. In minute detail, she described the multitude of rituals that her family must perform in order for Christmas to be celebrated.

It was oppressive.

I wondered if she had any idea how sad it sounded to worship at the altar of the god of tradition.

Tradition can certainly have value and meaning but when it becomes an end instead of a means, it is idol worship. The hymns of such worship include those memorable choruses,

"This is the way we’ve always done it!" and "I’m not changing ‘cuz its just the way I am."

Do you know folk who worship this god?

I certainly do. I listen to their litany almost daily as another marriage crumbles when someone refuses to change.

The false god of tradition is a dead god and following such a god leads only to destruction.

I offer a contemporary example. Several years ago, the Church of England broke with tradition and decided to allow the ordination of women into the priesthood. This decision was met with vigorous opposition from those who worship the god of tradition. The only argument they could muster, however, was that such progressive action goes against tradition. After all, they screamed, Jesus only had male disciples!

The argument loses a bit of its punch when you also consider the fact that Jesus didn’t eat pork and didn’t cut his hair and worshiped on Saturday. And the disciples were uneducated laborers who left their families in the lurch as they went off with this strange rabbi from Nazareth. Few of the traditionalists were in much of a hurry to do any of that.

The god of tradition is often used to oppress and imprison. It is a religion based on fear and the chief fear is that God is actually alive and finding new and disturbing ways to reveal God’s self to the world.