To Be Deep in History . . . [Part 2]

. . . or, 'I am the Water of Life . . . '
. . . of, 'Get off the Tradition Bandwagon.'

http://www.holybiblemosaic.com/

Of course, there is nothing disorderly with supplementing Holy Scripture with religious artwork/ikons, prayers, creeds, etc. - the concept has been employed quite beautifully in many cases - but this particular project strikes me as a continued attempt at sensational selectivism - that is, the dubious 'Catholic buffet' of thirsty protestantism and disembodied/confused Catholics grasping for a thrill mistaken for authoritative substance. It is quite in the same vein with my acquaintance who noted that his local Nazarene church was 'becoming more traditional', insofar as the pastor had begun the practise of having children light candles on either side of the podium before the church service. In both cases, I do recognise the hunger behind the 'traditional' actions taken, and yet at the same time I mourn this as falling short of any real remedy. The acquaintance celebrated the use of candles, as if that were a cure-all or magical elixir, hardly comprehending that candles are an organic part of the Church's historical liturgy whose meaning is wrapped up in the theological reality and affirmation of sacrament. All such ploys are not unlike someone who refuses to drink the full, dangerous reality of 'water' and then, when finally at death's door for such a choice, happily announces that he has begun drinking copious amounts of Pepsi. So close, and yet still lingering in self-imposed exile.

Tradition for tradition's sake is not the answer. What protestant denominations really thirst for is objective authority, which they cannot conjure up (no matter how hard they try) if one of their central war-cries is a sort of gnostic 'believer and Holy Spirit alone' dynamic of 'searching out' the truth. When this is the case (as we've seen), the world ends up with a billion-and-a-half protestant denominations, denominations breaking from denominations and even non-denominations, all proclaiming to have 'some bit' of the truth. Well, that's handy on paper, but these denominations often teach quite contradictory doctrines. A religious group cannot claim apostolic authority if (1) there are no apostles, and (2) they have no authority. Basically, who says so? Just because your pastor dresses up in a liturgical robe and lights some candles does not immediately prevent young people from fleeing your denomination when they begin asking the difficult questions. The Catholic Church does not claim authority because she is 'traditional'. Heaven knows (and so does any honest Catholic of our time), many of the practises in the Church of our day actually threaten the beautiful traditions we've been handed. But the Church claims authority because Christ gave His authority to her, and she goes about saying the Mass, and celebrating the Sacred Mysteries, and making a pilgrimage through history. And to live in this reality is to have traditional elements, candles and all, that we receive from the pilgrims before us and hand on to the pilgrims behind us.

Let us not separate the cart from the horse, or (if we want to separate them) at least not put the candle-cart first and expect a horse-cart reality for our ecclesial communities. If we want the Church, we must accept the Church on her terms, accept her testimony, her witness, and her responsive teachings; if we are a group of protestants simply recognising that we lack any objective claim to authoritative teaching/liturgy/lifestyle and simply want to pad our already faltering ecclesial identity with snippets of 'traditionalism', then we will almost certainly end up worshiping tradition for tradition's sake. Don't waste the money having communion every week if there is no in persona Christi priest who has received the Sacrament of Holy Orders and if there is no understanding of Sacrament or what the Eucharist actually means as the heart of the organic, embodied Church. Don't waste time or money on the candles if they are pieces of sensationalism and nothing more.

--In this case, regarding the Mosaic Bible, until we stop worshiping the Bible, it is only minimally helpful to have ikons and creeds bedecked throughout it. For the creeds and ikons are still only supplements, not gifts handed to us.

-r