TRADITION: (or not tradition, thatis the question)

Mark 7:8,12-13

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men…then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Yesterday I began a sermon series on the understanding of Christmas. The idea is to focus for the next three weeks, with an Advent sort of feel, on two things: The true Spirit of Christmas and secondly, the true story of Christmas and its impact on the world. In the end, no matter how you paint it, the story of Christmas is the awesome and predetermined expression of God’s love for His people. This was accomplished by the Son leaving His perfect heaven and Father behind to become a man, in every way, just like you and me. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the messages, but you get the idea.

But my point today is that, to the best of my memory, this is only the second time in my nearly 6 years now as the pastor of Calvary Chapel Bonney Lake where I have left the comfort and regularity of teaching exegetically verse by verse through a book of the bible. That’s what we have always done. It’s a routine for me, for our church, it’s what the congregation is used to and longs for, and it is a staple of Calvary Chapels in general.

In the late 1960’s this style of teaching word for word, and precept upon precept was popularized by Pastor Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, CA, and as the church grew, and others were planted, this successful and spirit lead method became what Calvary’s were best known for. And for good reason. It is an effective way to simply teach the bible simply, and to allow God to set the agenda and man to get out of the way of the teaching of God’s Word.

While Chuck was certainly not the first person to use this style of teaching, his charisma and knowledge of the Word, as well as His intimate relationship with Jesus Christ caused this method of teaching not just to grow, but to really bring a light into the church community at large about the importance of everyone, laypeople especially, to know their bibles well. It refocused a generation of people and a generation of churches on the bible as the focal-point for all things related to their spiritual lives. The focus was to be put back on the bible and Jesus Christ,  and taken off of things like liturgical homilies, church tradition, the priesthood itself, the hierarchy of the church, and vainly repetitious prayers.

Calvary Chapel would generally call itself a ‘Protestant’ church. What I mean by that is that its doctrine and theology come out of a tradition drawn from what is commonly called the Protestant Reformation. This was an historic period of the early to mid 1500’s where the Christian church in general began to rebel against the Catholic church in defiance of its maintained authority over man and apparently, the bible as well. The church had to this point deeming itself and its priesthood as being the only men capable of properly interpreting the bible, in spite of the fact that one of their main goals was to keep scripture from ever being printed or made available to the general public in the common language.

Martin Luther, the much lauded (and rightfully so) Augustinian Monk who was a professor at the University in Wittenberg, Germany is most famously assigned as the leader of this movement. What Luther had planned was truly a reformation of the Catholic Church, its doctrine and practices, and not a defection from the Catholic Church. Rather than having his way, the reformation did became a defection, something that not only broke his heart, but much, much more.

While Luther is given such credit for the ‘Reformation’ movement, it should be noted that Luther’s ideas were not nearly as ‘reforming’ as many would have liked. The idea of church reformation was ripe and it filled the air in many places throughout Europe in that era coming out of the dark ages. While he has become the best known reformer, and certainly earned his stripes in a courageous battle against the Catholic Church with his life literally in the balance (the Catholic Church put a price on his head – naughty Pope!), clearly Luther was not the only church reformer. Today I want to bring up the little known Huldrych Zwingli.

Zwingli was a contemporary of Luther, but the two never had contact or correspondance, and it is fairly understood that Zwingli had never even heard of Luther let alone had been influenced by him. What causes me to bring Zwingli’s name to our devotional is that he was the Chuck Smith of his age. Zwingli, like Luther felt there was a clear need for reformation in the church. But Zwingli, fresh off a personal revitalization as a Benedictine Monk in his home country of Switzerland, had an idea for reformation that paralleled Luther’s in many ways, but went even farther.

Zwingli, again like Luther, felt that the bible NEEDED to be available to all people, and in the common language. This was critical. But more than that Zwingli put special emphasis on the Grace and Mercy of God found in the New Testament knowing that for a lost generation of people, God’s love needed not only to be told to them, but that they needed to read it for themselves. So, in part to bring the word to the people, and in part to encourage the people to seek out and demand that the bible be made available to every man, woman and child that wanted one, Zwingli did something awesome, and literally unheard of in its day.

While the exact date has been lost to history, Zwingli showed up to his church in Zurich one Sunday morning in 1519 and made a startling announcement to his congregation: He was prepared to deliver a continuous course of sermons on the gospel according to Matthew. ALL of Matthew! Not only that, but instead of relying on commentaries and tradition to lead his way and guide his doctrine, he would base his sermons solely and directly on the scriptural passage itself. Zwingli may well have been the first exegetical teacher of his age. His success was such the people themselves demanded reform, as they cried out for more of the bible, and less of religion.

The Christian church worldwide could use a great deal more bible and a lot less religion. This season as we look forward to Christmas day, let us all put a focus on the bible and on the real Christmas story and less on religion and religious tradition. Let us seek to know the true baby Jesus, and not only worship Him, but to recognize Him as a man spent a short lifetime breaking church traditions and the traditions of man, to show us that they need to be replaced with a relationship with Him, and a true knowledge of the Father. Let’s make this Christmas more about Christ and our relationship with his than ever. Let us refocus on His word, the bible, and He will reveal Himself to us. Let our reformation begin within.