Traditionally washed...

This weekend I watched the movie "PleasantVille," it's been a while since I've last seen it! It was definitely better then I remembered it...not that it's superb or anything...but it was alright. Throughout the movie I couldn't stop thinking about how much people hate change, especially when it comes to their traditions. Now, I realize that pretty much everyone hates and loves change (myself included)...but what do I mean by that? Well...change that is brought on by ourselves we like, because we are in control of it. However, changes that just happen to us (death of a love one, getting fired, getting sick, etc.) we hate, I think, because we have no control over the matter.
Enter tradition...traditions can often become our "religion." Traditions can often blind us of the truth and we can become so focused on the tradition itself that we lose sight of why we do that tradition to begin with. Now, I'm not saying that traditions are bad or not enjoyable, I certainly do love different traditions, however I think we are to be wary of them. The most prevalent example that I can think of occurs within churches. I have often found (from talking to various people) that congregations can be at risk when they start taking traditions too seriously. For example, why do we have to go to church twice on a Sunday. Now I know of some churches that it is strongly frowned upon to NOT go to church twice on a Sunday. However, when you talk to some of the various members that go to a church like that and you ask them why they go to church twice on Sunday, usually their response is, "It's just what we've always done!" Now, I'm not saying that there is anything that is wrong with going to church twice on Sundays, and if that's what your getting from this your completely missing the point. But I think that if we lose sight as to why we do various traditions within our church, and start "worshipping" that tradition then we, as a church are on the wrong path.

I used to play for a church band in university and we would sometimes go to other churches to lead worship. I remember in one church that we were playing at we ended the service with a slower song that really emphasized the sermon, and was a contemplative song for people to leave the service with. However, after the service a women came up to some members of our band and said that we should have ended the service with an upbeat song because that's what they always did. I really felt like saying, "really? That's what you got from that? {Enter explicit here}" Instead of focusing on the words of the song and how it related to the teaching she could only hear the tempo of the song, and through that decided that it was a poor song choice. Brutal..

Anyways...that's enough rants for today...have you stumbled across this sort of thing? Or is it just me??