i wonder...

I wonder what will be here
a hundred years from now?

Would I notice the place?

I wonder what people
who were here a hundred years ago
would think of the place now.

The other day
I drove by a truck carrying
fresh bread to the market.

The side of the truck read:
Baked
with
Tradition.

There's a tricky word.
Tradition.

We have a
love
hate
relationship with
tradition.

We need it.
We despise it.

In the world of "doing" church....
tradition
has gotten a bad rap.

Some corners of the church,
it seems,
are deathly allergic to
tradition....
and yet
the way they "do" church
seems pretty traditional to me.

Changing a song here and there...
rearranging the furniture....
meeting in a tin building....

None of these things
have erased
or enriched
the traditional way of doing church.

It is beyond time to move
from the place where we are
stuck.

It is time again
to reclaim tradition
but at the same time
allow
others in.

We have to let other people in!
We need their
ideas...
talents...
thoughts...
doubts...
joys!

Tradition is not our problem.
Control
is the problem.

Like the bread on the way to the market....
the church
too
is
baked with tradition
no matter how many ways
we go about "doing" church.

Before it's too late for
some corners of the church
I hope and pray
we
learn
how to "do" church
with
a heaping dose of tradition
and courage enough
to let go
of our need to
control.