Debbie and I are playing in the community orchestra for Yreka High School’s spring musical, “Fiddler on the Roof”. The performances will be Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon the next two weekends.
“Fiddler” is a well-known musical about the struggle of one Jewish man in a changing society. Tevye has five daughters, three of marriageable age. All three end up marrying men who stretch Tevye’s understanding of his role as “Papa”, as well as his understanding of the Jewish ‘traditions’ he knows.
As we have spent the last several months practicing our music, the challenges Tevye faced have pushed me to think about our own culture and society. Our society is changing — rapidly. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are faced with pressure to change. Do we adapt and change our ‘traditions’, or do we fight to hold on to them.
The most important element in deciding our course of action must be the foundation of those ‘traditions’. If they are simply cultural, then change is inevitable, maybe even necessary. But if our ‘traditions’ are Scriptural and founded on Jesus, then change will lead us away from Him.
Paul faced a challenge for the church in Colossae with similar issues. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. … Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, 16-17)
Our human, societal traditions may be comfortable, but they are not essential. Those we may need to change. But holding on to Christ IS essential. We need to stay alert and becoming even more discerning as the days grow darker and society pushes us to forsake God’s morality.
