In my cynical moments, I like posters like that one.  But not all my moments are cynical, gratefully.

Much of my inner “tradition discussion” has to do with faith and how it plays out in my life or in the life of my faith community.  I struggle from day to day, bouncing from stances that would seem anti-traditional to others that would seem ultra-traditional.  Call me bi-polar if you wish, but that’s where I am.

A reading today brought some valuable thoughts on the subject, from J.I. Packer…

“Nobody can claim to be detached from traditions.  In fact, one sure way to be swallowed up by traditionalism is to think that one is immune to it…. The questions, then, is not whether we have traditions, but whether our traditions conflict with the only absolute standard in these matters: Holy Scripture.”

He continues…

“All Christians are at once beneficiaries and victims of tradition–beneficiaries, who receive nurturing truth and wisdom from God’s faithfulness in past generations; victims, who now take for granted things that need to be questioned, thus treating as divine absolutes patterns of belief and behavior that should be seen as human, provisional, and relative.  We are all beneficiaries of good, wise, and sound tradition and victims of poor, unwise, and unsound traditions.”

And now to know the difference.

And now to act upon that knowledge wisely.