“THE TRADITIONS OF MEN”

 

 

A post-homiletical discourse delivered by the Rev. Dr. James R. Beebe

Rector, St. Patrick’s Church, Incline Village, Nevada, August 30, 2009

 

 

 

     Ulrich Zwingli was one of the main leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland.  He was also responsible for blockading the food supply to several Catholic cantons, provoking a war.  The Catholics retaliated by attacking the Protestant canton of Zurich and Zwingli died wielding an axe on the field of battle.

     Leonidas Polk was an Episcopal bishop in the Diocese of Louisiana.  He was also a Confederate general during the Civil War, serving as corps commander in the Western theater.  He was killed in action during the battle for Atlanta in 1864.  He was often referred to as “the fighting bishop.”

     I relate these things so that you won’t dub me “the fighting rector” after the things I am about to say.  Let’s go back to the year 1970.  We have been in a state of undeclared war with North Vietnam now for six years.  And the numbers are troubling – we’re barely breaking even in the air war, trading aircraft shot down one for one.  This is astounding, since the ratio in the Korean War was 14 to 1.

 

     We’ve been telling ourselves that we are the best trained, best equipped Air Force in the world.  We’ve added long-range missiles, capable of shooting down an enemy aircraft without ever having to see it.  So what’s the problem?  Well, the problem seems to be that we’ve forgotten the basics of flying in the air-to-air arena.  We’ve become complacent in our reliance on technology to the point that our basic flying skills have deteriorated.

 

     So the program known to the public as “Top Gun” was introduced.  Basic fighter maneuvers – or “BFM” – were now made requirements for all fighter lead-in candidates.  “Quarter planes and zooms,” “low and high speed yo-yo’s,” “barrel roll attacks,” “extensions,” “working the vertical,” “guns jinks” – all those skills our fathers, flying P-51’s and P-47’s, knew and their fathers, flying Sopwith Camels, knew.  And do you know what?  In two years the shootdown ratio went from 1 to 1 back to 14 to 1!

 

     Are we still good in not calling me “the fighting rector”?  Good.  My point is simply that when we forget the basics, we fail.  In 1960 Will Herberg wrote a landmark book entitled, Protestant-Catholic-Jew.  (You can tell it’s dated because the updated version would have to be called, at the very least, Protestant-Catholic-Jew-Buddhist-Muslim-and-Sikh.)  In it, he tried to reconcile why, according to every measurement, the United States seems to be at once the most religious and the most secular country in the world. 

 

     He noted, for example:

 

*   that there had been an astounding 140 per cent increase in the distribution of the Bible.  Yet, when these same Americans were asked to give the names of the first four books of the New Testament, 53 per cent could not name even one. 

 

*   When asked to rate the 100 most significant events in history, first place was given to Columbus’ discovery of America, while Jesus came in 14^th, tied with the discovery of X-rays and the Wright brothers’ first flight.

 

*   97 per cent of Americans believe in God, and 73 per cent said they believed in an afterlife, with God as judge.  Yet, only 5 per cent had any fear or expectation of being in the goat line. 

 

*   When asked, “Would you say your religious beliefs have any effect on your ideas of politics and business?” a majority of the same Americans who had testified that they regarded religion as something “very important” answered that their religious beliefs had no real effect on their ideas or conduct in politics and business.

 

“And Jesus replied, ‘You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men.”

 

     Herberg called this phenomenon, “American Civil Religion.”  By chapter and verse, this religion believes in tolerance and democracy, politically symbolized by the Constitution, economically symbolized by free enterprise, and socially symbolized by equality.  American Civil Religion affirms the supreme value of the individual, self-reliance, merit and character. 

 

     It is, above all, idealistic.  Because Americans are so idealistic, we tend to confuse espousing an ideal with fulfilling it and are always tempted to regard ourselves as good as the ideals we entertain.  What we end up with, then, can best be described as “faith in faith.”  It’s not faith in anything that is so powerful – just the fact that we have faith.  When folks tell you to “keep the faith,” they mean, “stay in control, maintain your self-reliance, believe in yourself.”

 

     Faith becomes a device to get what you want in life – peace of mind, happiness, success, spiritual euphoria.  The sense of ambiguity and precariousness of life is shut out.  The sense of judgment before spiritual holiness is shut out.  So, in the end, God is conceived as our “omnipotent servant.”  I believe this is the sentiment behind most expressions of “God bless America.”

 

“And Jesus replied, ‘You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men.”

 

     What has happened, apparently, is that we have gradually voided our Judaeo-Christian tradition of its historical content until, in the end, it has become an empty shell.  Then we can fill that void with ideas of toleration and democracy and so on.  There are some differences between our faith tradition and that of American Civil Religion, you know:

 

1.         First, Christianity is God-centered.  We’ll find ultimate value only in God.

 

2.         Second, we’ll live authentic lives when we love God with all our heart, soul and mind.  Oh, and love our neighbors as ourselves.  That seems to be a big one.

 

3.         Third, we’ll also know that our actual life is often corrupted by the kind of self-love that disrupts all human relationships.

 

4.         We’ll know that the word of redeeming grace comes only after the word of judgment has shattered all our claims to security and self-sufficiency.

 

5.         And finally, we’ll know that religion per se or faith per se are not virtues (or even causes  of virtue).  The burning question is always, “What is the OBJECT of our worship?”

 

     Getting back to the basics.  If we are to make a difference in this small corner of God’s creation called the Tahoe Basin, we must get back to basics.  And I assure you, that if we get back to basics – if we appropriate the good new of Jesus and make it central to our lives…

 

…there is nothing we cannot do.