Every family has its traditions. And we all know that these traditions are sacred. You know exactly what I mean. Those, “it’s always been this way” kinds of traditions that seem to take on a life of their own! Well, my family is no different. My mother’s side of the family came to America from Sweden. My great-grandmother was sent to America by her fiancée so that she could learn to do needle work and cook before they were married. And after they were married, she traveled to America by ship to birth each of her children on American soil. My grandmother was her second child, and when she was in the 3rd grade, the entire family made a final trip to America, settling in Ohio. And with them they brought their Swedish traditions of eating pickled herring, sweet bread with raisins eaten on Cinnamon Bun Day in October, and drinking gloog on Christmas Eve… which is made by simmering wine and spices like cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and fruit… and is sipped while still warm.
And then there was the creamy, warm and sweet rice pudding my great grandmother , and then grandmother, and finally my mother made at Christmas. It is called … forgive me Grandma as I slaughter this pronunciation….Risgrynsgröt (ris-grens-goot) in Swedish which is three words joined together that if literally translated, means 'rice grain's porridge'. Rice porridge/pudding has been an important dish in Sweden for centuries. The first it was recorded being served in Sweden was in 1328, at the funeral wake for the father of St. Bridget of Sweden. .. not related to our St. Bridget of Kildare.
Rice pudding can be served at any time of year, but it is nearly always included as part of a julbord (Christmas buffet). It is normally dusted with cinnamon. Often an almond or cinnamon stick is hidden in the rice porridge and whoever gets it gets a task, like giving the prayer of thanks and having to do it in rhyme for the meal. In the old days, if a single young man or woman found the almond, it was a sign that the coming year would bring true love. This was a tradition that always looked forward to!
We had these dishes and others every holiday… because… well, we were supposed to. It was tradition. These family traditions were important. And our parents understood the importance of passing on these traditions… because they represented and held within them family history and truths. The stories ground us in our past. They tell us who we are and from where we came.
We have traditions in our church lives too. Every one knows the joke, that if it is done once in church, it becomes tradition… and we tell the Rector… or the new altar guild member….well we’ve ALWAYS done it that way! We are surrounded by tradition: Traditional colors for the liturgical seasons, liturgical acts that help us to remember and relive important events in scripture, movements and prayers that represent something so much larger and deeper in meaning than the act itself.
Tradition whether in our personal families or in our church life…is very important. It gives us Continuity in our community. It gives us truths. They help us hold on to some sense of stability of truth in midst of a world that is always in transition and change.
Yes tradition is important. But even more important in our church life not just tradition , little t…but also Traditionalism, capital T.. Traditionalism that impacts our doctrine, our Christian Anglican identity. And it is this that our scriptures point to this morning.
Today marks a period of transition in our church season… we are at the end of Our Easter season.. post Ascension which we celebrated at our Wednesday service and we are Pre-Pentecost which we will celebrate with red and great fanfare next Sunday. Our reading from Acts and John deal with this idea of transition as the early church community deals with things that are changing…. And are working hard to hold on to not only tradition but also Traditionalism to maintain faith in their changing world.
Our gospel is set in a time before the crucifixion… and is the farewell discourse given by Jesus. The Apostles are told that they were about to face life without their leader… their pastor… the one who taught them and asked them to believe. As Rev. Jim said on Wednesday, imagine the loss they felt when Jesus was crucified. And then the same loss when he returned to the Father after his resurrection.
And the same is true in our reading from Acts… A scripture written in an earlier time when the apostles were left alone, but now with one short. There are only 11 as Judas was gone…. After betraying Jesus and his followers…. The believers.
While set earlier, these are written a generation later… amid a community that is transitioning to a reality and understanding that there are no disciples left…. No one who personally knew Jesus… no one is still alive who could testify to the truth of the Word.
How are they to continue as a community of faith after such a major change? How are they going to be the bearers of, and the passers on of, their faith? What can we learn TODAY in 2021 from these communities… the earlier and the second generation in 90 to 100 AD that is reading these for the first time about change and maintaining faith?
You know, the irony does not escape me that we too have faced a time of change… of transition… that we are coming out of. And we too, are working hard to decide how to carry on faith and tradition and traditionalism in a time of Covid and Zoom and Facebook. How can we preserve and thrive in the veracity of the past…. Today in the present with the same dedication and commitment as the earliest believers who walked with Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem and to the cross? Who witnessed his resurrection and ascension?
Our reading from Acts gives us three ways we should respond. The first is to believe in and rely on scripture’s fulfillment and Gods sovereign control over what happens. Peter…. Gotta love Peter… tells the group of believers who have gathered that what happened with Judas’ betrayal and Christ’s crucifixion was a fulfillment of what was recorded and taught in scripture. God ordained what would happen, and it did. He makes reference of David’s writing Psalm 41:9 under the guidance from the Holy Spirit. And while David wrote “even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me,” in reference to his own experience, Jesus makes reference to this when he spoke to his disciples at the last supper, making it Messianic prophecy. The take away is that we can trust what scripture says and what the disciples have said as they are also sanctified by the Holy Spirit through Jesus.
Secondly, in Acts, we see the early church’s concern for Apostolic veracity. Peter wants to find another apostle to take Judas’ place. The number 12 has been important throughout scripture: the 12 tribes of Israel… And therefore maintaining the same number of apostles. And Peter knows that it is important to choose someone who will tell the story as an actual witness. They choose two men who fit this criteria… and then cast lots, trusting that God will make the best choice. They acted. Then trusted in God’s response. Still today, the church listens and then chooses her ministers the same way. And your call process in choosing Rev. Jim as your rector followed this process too. You set your criteria. You did your research. You did your Due diligence. And then turned to prayer, having faith in God’s direction. And you made a great choice, by the way.
And finally, our reading from Acts reflects the church today: we recognize the connection to the past but are open to the future. I know many of us would like to see church go back to the way it was.. pre-Covid. But it can’t. It will never go back exactly the way it was. Just like the disciples realized that things would never be the same, they were given the authority from Jesus through God to be the church in this new world and in this new way. We too, then must act and move and change and trust that God is in the midst of that…. And is in the midst of our changes today.
The apostles found themselves in a time of transition. What they thought was going to be their new way of life was suddenly ripped away. And they were left with trying to figure out how to move forward and left with the faith that everything they had been shown and taught and everything that they knew from scripture was true.
And now, here we are. In a time of transition. Moving forward into unknown territory, with only our faith and our tradition and our traditionalism to help us find our way. As our world and our way of life returns to some semblance of normality, it will not ever be the same.
We will now live with the influence of the pandemic: with our collection of face masks and hand sanitizers, and a clear knowledge of the six foot rule. Zoom is here to stay; YouTube and FB are now common words even among those over 25; We have learned that Amazon delivers everything from salad dressing to toilet paper; and we have learned that God and spiritual communion can travel over the airwaves.
But most importantly, like the disciples, we know that in the midst of the chaos and unknown, God is always with us. It is in times like these that We need to trust the organization of the church that Jesus left in place. The apostolic tradition of leadership and sanctification. The written history of our desert fathers and mothers. The stories witnessed by the apostles and told over and over until they were written down as evidence of a truth that at times may seem hard to imagine.
In our gospel, Jesus prays to God the Father about his disciples… and therefore about us: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world…. I ask that you protect them… and sanctify them in the truth.”
And to that I say, we are ready to act! To do due diligence! To spread the Word of Truth! Alleluia!
Sources:
Konig, Ray. 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies. www.aboutbibleprophecy.com.
The Lectionary Lab. Two Bubbas and a Bible. Podcast. Easter 7. two.substack.com.
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