Posted by: Mark Kruger
I recently had the honor of seeing Fiddler On the Roof at my daughter's high school. I love the character of Tevye. He is the main character - a simple milkman in the small Russian village of Anatevka on the eve of the Russian revolution. Tevye feels blessed because he knows his place. The secret to this special knowledge (says Tevye) is found in the traditions of this little Jewish village where he and his fellow Jews reside in a close knit community. In the opening scene he gives us this particular insight.
A fiddler on the roof... Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof. Trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word! Tradition!
He goes on to say, "...because of our traditions everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do". In his traditions, Tevye thinks he has the answer to the two questions of life, "who am I and why am I here?"
Tevye's sense of identity is rooted in the customs of his faith. Even though He talks to God almost casually throughout the play, when Tevye says that because of tradition everyone knows what God expects him to do, he is not referring to a sense of destiny that flows from a personal relationship with God. Instead, he feels a sense of security in knowing how everything ought to be. Like his father before him he expects to live by a strict code handed down through centuries of eastern European Judaism. The play starts with this poor man struggling with ordinary life, but content with the knowledge that life holds no surprises for him - as long as he does what he ought to do. He is in for a rude awakening at the hands of his three eldest daughters.
As the story unfolds, each of his daughters breaks with tradition and resists an arranged marriage. Tevye is forced to abandon tradition in order to maintain relationships with his daughters. In other words, he has a choice between his daughters' needs and the demands and expectations of tradition. That same choice often faces us as individuals and communities of believers. We wrap ourselves in traditions that comfort us and make us feel secure and then we are forced to make choices between love and acceptance and the maintenance of our habits. Let me explain using my own heritage as an example.
In the Pentecostal tradition in which I was raised we called the worship time the "song service". The "old time" Pentecostal style was a steady four-four beat (emphasis on beats 1 and 3) with a piano, organ, loud male lead and the obligatory pastor's wife singing alto. We liked upbeat songs and we believed in hand clapping, shouting, foot stomping and vigorous praise to God. We raised our hands and spoke in tongues. Pentecostal's are now thought of as traditional and conservative, but back then we were very much anti-establishment. It wasn't just about the gifts of the Spirit either. We derided the stuffy, liturgical Presbyterians, Lutherans and Methodists. Even the Baptists were way too buttoned up for us. We had found the latter reign of the Holy Spirit and we were living in freedom. Even though the style was quite different from the style of Trinity, I recall the same freedom of expression and abandonment that I often sense in our own services.
But strange things happen when you think you have cornered the market on God's outpouring. You start to think that you have discovered the way things ought to be. You forget that God is a creator and doesn't stand still. You turn freedom into habit, habit into custom and custom into tradition. You begin to feel secure, not because of your relationship with God, but because you think that doing what you ought to do will keep you safe. So we Pentecostals got stuffy. Oh, we still raised our hands and stomped our feet - but when folks came along with banners or electric guitars and drums or (shockingly) dance, we harrumphed and poo pooed them away as shallow posers. Having discovered freedom we were determined to institutionalize it.
As Tevye said, "Sounds Crazy No"? I can tell you from experience that this particular issue, a church's style of worship, is very serious to many people. I won't speak to recent history, but years ago I saw many churches split over worship customs. These congregations had traditions that were being "bumped" (to borrow a Beauchampism) by new forms or styles. Often congregations ended up splitting worship behaviors into sanctioned and unsanctioned lists. Things like hand clapping, hand raising, piano, organ and a snare drum (every other Sunday) were all sanctioned. Things like electric guitar solos, un-hymnish choruses, full-fledged drum kits, instruments that did not play the melody, any form of movement below the waist, and any hair cut resembling the Beetles or Elvis were all un-sanctioned. Obviously I'm being facetious - but the fact remains that churches routinely split over music in the 70s and 80s and 90s and they are still doing it today.
I hope the point is clear. Our traditions and customs do not in themselves bring us life. They do not have the power of relationship or the impetus of the Spirit. Like Tevye, if we live by following the "oughts" we find ourselves in the same difficult place as he. Do we sacrifice relationships for the sake of honoring our code? Does our identity come from knowing "what God expects us to do"? Or does our identity come from knowing him and who he is? Instead of desperately seeking to judge ourselves according to a code of conduct, we need to desperately seek after him. Security and stability flow from our connection with the person of Jesus, not from following the law. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:6
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Ah! The letter kills. The letter stifles. The letter brings death. The purpose of the law is to draw us to God by teaching us that we are fallen (see Galatians 3). The law is not a life bringer. The old covenant is a reference library for sin and only a harbinger of redemption. It is the New Covenant of the spirit that gives life.
In my own life I often get introspective about what is genuine about my faith. I know that I can't be even an adequate father or husband without Jesus. My life is full of many things that are centered on my faith. Church, devotions, writing, praying, choir, service, being a father, and being a husband are all things with my faith as a central feature. I wonder if, like Tevye, I have any blind spots. I wonder if there are elements of tradition that I take at face value as if they were articles of faith. Do I think because of my own customs and habits that I know "who I am and what God expects me to do"? Lord, keep my face turned toward your face and not on myself. I want to walk with you, not just live for you.
One of the things I love about Trinity Church is the acknowledgement of the journey. We, as a church, are not pretending to have all the answers. We are not pretending to have arrived. Pastor Les often acknowledges the tension between opposing view points and he always counsels grace and relationship instead of "staking out a claim" in one camp or the other. I don't envy him the task. It's a mine field that I'm sure bumps people every week. But continuing to "do life" together (as he puts it) is one of the things that tranforms Trinity into a life giving church with many disparate folks participating. I tell you it's as shaky as a fiddler... A fiddler on the roof! How do we keep our balance? I'll tell you in one word... Not tradition.... but Jesus.
10:23 PMhttp://www.twchoir.com/blog/_ping.cfm?blogID=61
