Toga Party For Jesus (and other thoughts on traditionalism)

Imagine that a group of believers said to themselves, "we want to be Christ-like and Christ wore a toga (really a robe) and sandals, so let's start doing the same". Aside from this being really weird, these well-meaning folks could be said to have totally missed the point regarding the essence of Christ.

Traditionalists, please forgive me or enlighten me.... maybe I haven't been listening well but I'm not so sure you guys have been communicating well either... but traditionalism seems like throwing a Toga party for Jesus.

Yes Christ wore a robe and sandals.... and while you're at it, he had a beard.... but to dress like Christ totally misses the point of His teachings. In the same way, to say that Christian worship has to be expressed with 300 year old music, pipe organs, stained glass windows, a 'table of the Lord', and all the other 'smells & bells', seems to miss the point just the same in my mind.

For both traditionalists and the ancient/future folks, I hear them talking about wanting to connect with the rich history we have inherited as believers. I can appreciate and even value that within the context that G.K. Chesterton explained tradition as the 'democracy of the dead'. The Holy Spirit has spoken to not just our generation, but to generations of believers past.... the historic church.... but I would contend that what He said had nothing directly to do with 'smells & bells'. If we REALLY want to connect with what the Holy Spirit has done historically through the church, I would contend we should affirm the BELIEFS and VALUES that the Holy Spirit has passed down to us through Christ and the Apostles. Those beliefs and values are in the form of loving our neighbors as ourselves, loving God with all our hearts and souls, and expressing worship as the community known as the church chiefly in the form of loving one another but also in the forms of partaking of communion, baptism, and singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to one another.


So if I truly value tradition, tradition isn't found in stained glass windows, choirs, hymns, bells, incense and the like. Christian tradition is found in loving one another, turning the cheek, walking in the Spirit....



The rest can be helpful but shouldn't be our dogma. So if you're a traditionalist and you prefer a toga, that's fine as long as you hold on to your toga loosely. If it helps you express worship, functioning as a symbol, that's great but we err to ever mistake the symbols/styles for the substance, mistaking the medium for the message or mistaking the sign for the truth to which it points.

The greatest tradition of a Christ follower should be to love God and love one another. THAT is how we connect to generations of believers past.