Families change. We sometimes don’t like to admit it, but the elderly die and infants are born and our families just keep changing. One problem is that as our families change so must our traditions.
I was watching the most recent episode of Ugly Betty and it was all about family changes and changing traditions. This episode was very timely for me, as I just spent Thanksgiving with my sister and mother in Madison, WI. My sister was unable to go home due to work obligations and I was going to be in Madison chaperoning a youth event anyway- so we decided to have thanksgiving there. My mother decided to come up and join us and thus our long-standing tradition of family dinners at my grandparents’ houses changed…at the very least we took a temporary break from tradition.
I thought it would be hard on my mother, especially not having dad there, but we all had a wonderful time. My mother insisted on having a full thanksgiving meal, so she packed up turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, pie, cookies, etc. into the car and brought thanksgiving to Madison. It definitely wasn’t thanksgiving as usual around Carrie’s tiny table in a small one bedroom apartment, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t Thanksgiving. This year’s holiday was not deficient of anything, it was extraordinary and special in its own way.
The church is no different: In the church we must stop holding so tightly to our traditions. We must begin, instead, to honor the past as we look forward to the excitement of the future. We must bring a relevant Christ to a new and exciting millennium -and we will probably have to use new methods!
I spent the past week with my sister and mother and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. I won’t look back longingly for “the way things used to be,” but instead I look forward to next year’s Thanksgiving holiday for whatever lies ahead. Perhaps next year will be thanksgiving at Grandma’s house – or my mother’s house – or maybe we will have thanksgiving in Fiji. Who knows what the future will hold.
