Saturday, September 6, 2003
Saturday, September 6, 2003
How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living
God!
Tradition is a powerful thing. The Pharisees had learned to substitute tradition, custom, habit for
the presence of the living God. Traditionalism rears its head in many ways, in many times and in
many places.
Tradition can be an important guide for us spiritually, but we must not let it kill God's holy and
living spirit.
(Hebrews 9.14
NRSV)
Years ago Harry Emerson Fosdick told about a church in Denmark where the worshipers bowed
regularly before a certain spot on the wall. They had been doing that for three centuries--bowing
at that one spot in the sanctuary. Nobody could remember why. One day in renovating the
church, they removed some of the whitewash on the walls. At the exact spot where the people
bowed they found the image of the Madonna under the whitewash. People had become so
accustomed to bowing before that image that even after it was covered up for three centuries,
people still bowed.
Dear God, may I do all I can to keep your spirit alive in my community of faith. Amen.
