Saturday, April 28, 2007

Treasures New and Old

Whenever Boomers discuss hidebound traditionalists, etc., I get left behind really fast! Sometimes I feel like my life has been nothing but change. This sentence from a recent email my father sent might best serve to illustrate my point: "My memory roamed back over the 160 different cars I have experienced."

What do you think the chances of this man choosing a hide-bound church were?!

A Favorite Hirosaki Scene

"On the opposite pole of trying too hard to appeal to the masses and consequently losing the substance of faith is the idolatry of traditionalism...

This idolatry is not well combatted by throwing everything out, however, for there is a great need for continuity in the human psyche..."

Marva Dawn, "Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down" "


People looking on at us from the outside may see missionaries who have spent 22 years in the same place - but what we do now is not very often much like what we were doing 22 years ago!

Marva Dawn speaks a lot of the need for a dialectic - a balance between old and new, change and tradition. Or as Jesus put it, "...every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

As my husband so often points out, the key word is "treasures" - not "new" or "old!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are hidebound traditionalists and churches?

Laurie Elliot said...

I don't think you know very many examples! Think of leather that can't stretch - now think of someone who's traditions won't let them stretch.

Like I said, I don't think you know very many of these people.

Although you probably know some people who have stretched so much they're like used up rubber bands... I think the hidebound traditionalists are probably reacting to the rubber band people.