My family lives in North Bexley …

Not too far from where Pastor Palmerton lives with her family …

So when we go into downtown Columbus, we usually take Broad Street.

And that means that every time we come downtown we pass by Broad Street Presbyterian Church.

And that means that every time we came downtown during the last 10 months or so … maybe longer?  …  we saw your sign.

It’s not there anymore …

But we used to see it … it said.

Broad Street Presbyterian Church.

“Tradition without the Attitude.”

I liked that slogan the first time I saw it.

… interesting.

… thought provoking.

“Tradition without the Attitude.”

But after a while …

I got to wondering:

What do they mean by that?

The two main words, “Tradition” and “Attitude” are wonderfully ambiguous …

I mean … which tradition were you talking about?

Christian tradition?

Presbyterian tradition?

Columbus tradition?

Broad Street tradition?

Gregorian Chant?

Latin mass?

Geneva Psalms?

Westminster Confession?

Long biblical theological sermons?

Ladies in dresses and

Gentlemen in suits and ties?

Or was the word “tradition” just a signal that

Your pastors don’t wear khakis and golf shirts,

There is no projection screen, and

No drum set in the chancel?

I still liked the slogan … I just wondered what you were getting at, exactly.

And what was this “attitude” that you were bragging about not having?

And the more interesting question for me was this:

To whom were you bragging about

not having this attitude?

That’s the really interesting question.

Who thinks you have an attitude?

What attitude do you think they think you have?

And why is that so wrong that you have to tell the world that you don’t have it?

“Tradition without the Attitude”

I have to admit to you …

And I mean no disrespect …

But after seeing the slogan a dozen times or more,

I stopped liking it.

The uncharitable fantasy I had was … that

You were trying to say,

 “We do things pretty much the same way

we have always done things …

and we understand that people who join us

might not share those traditions …

But … unlike other congregations who might get impatient with newcomers …
we will adopt a patient attitude with our newcomers

… until they finally come around

and learn to do things our way.”

Or maybe you just meant:

“We do things pretty much the same way

we have always done things …

but it’s not like, we’re … fanatical about it.”

But then, I thought,

Neither one of those is really the strongest

proclamation of commitment to

the Christian mission.

But of course, the sign is gone now …

… so … let’s not even mention it.

Commitment to tradition is an attitude.

And if the tradition is rooted in the mission of God … then it’s probably good to have an attitude about it.

The book of Galatians is right on point here.

St. Paul is trying to sell an attitude …

… an attitude of unity:

And this unity is a divine tradition …

… that was established before all human traditions

… in fact, it was established before there were human beings to even have traditions ….

This tradition of unity goes to the very heart of God … and it goes all the way back to creation.

And this unity is expressed for Christians in baptism.

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is no longer Jew or Greek,

there is no longer slave or free,

there is no longer male and female;

(See?  That’s how far back this unity goes … back to before we were male and female!)

for all of you are one … … in Christ Jesus.”

It’s not quite an attitude of universal unity … yet

… there is still the qualification of baptism …

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ … are one in Christ.”

It’s not quite an attitude of universal unity …

… but it’s still a beautiful attitude of unity.

And like many of the beautiful visions of unity in the Bible, it arises in direct response to

an ugly battle …

an ugly battle over …

Anyone want to guess?

Yes:  TRADITION

And the ugly battle that inspires this lovely vision

is causing the Church in Galatia to unravel

And it is unraveling in this way:

Over on one side of the county you’ve got:

The First Church of Christ of People Who Have Always Done It THIS Way Before.

These are brand new Christians ...

… who used to be Jews.

Thanks to the missionary work of St. Paul,

They have learned to celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ …

And they celebrate it in a richly Jewish way …

For these Jewish Christians of Galatia,

the Good News of Jesus is preached

as the fulfillment of

spiritual and cultural longings that

go back through David, and

through Moses and

through Abraham …

all the way back to the red dust of creation.

They are:

The First Church of Christ of People Who Have Always Done It THIS Way Before.

 But!

Over on the other side of the county you’ve got:

The First Church of Christ of People Who Have Never Even DONE It Before.

These are brand new Christians of Greek heritage.

And … thanks to the missionary work of St. Paul,

they also have learned to celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ.

But they celebrate it in a richly Greek way …

For these Greek Christians of Galatia,

the spiritual and cultural longings of the Jews might be of some passing interest …

But …

they have spiritual and cultural longings of their own … and it turns out that the same Jesus Christ …

The same Jesus Christ who fills Jewish longings is also able to fill Greek longings.

Even though those longings

are not exactly the same!

Now.

What we’re hoping for is the day when

these two congregations will become

two branches of:

The First United Church of Galatia ...

But that’s not easy.

One day …

(not long after St. Paul has finished his work in Galatia and moved on to Ephesus).

One day … a few of the brethren and sistern from

The First Church of Christ of People Who Have Always Done It THIS Way Before.

A few of them come to pay a social call on their new brothers and sisters in Christ at

The First Church of Christ of People Who Have Never Even DONE It Before

It goes like this:

“Well, ya’ got a pretty nice little church here,

don’t ya’?

 But ya’ know …

I’ve never seen a church that didn’t have a picture of Moses on the wall.

And a poster,

… with all the Ten Commandments listed out so they’re real easy for everyone to follow ...

one through five on the left,

six through ten on the right …

Oh, yeah, those posters are real nice.

Not that I care, but it hardly seems like a real church without a poster with all the Ten Commandments on it, ya’ know?

And who does the circumcisions

on this side of the county?”

“Oh, St. Paul said we didn’t have to do all that stuff.

We don’t have to do the whole circumcision thing …

And St. Paul said we didn’t have to follow the Ten Commandments in order to be Christians.”

“Oh yeah?  He said that, did he?

Well, that’s really somethin’.

[PAUSE]

“But still … you gotta kinda wonder.

Jesus was Jewish … Paul told ya’ that … didn’t he?”

“He didn’t?

“Oh, yeah!

“Jesus was Jewish through and through.

Went to Jerusalem three times a year,

Followed the Ten Commandments,

Didn’t eat shrimp …

Yep … Jewish through and through.

Seems kinda strange that the rules would change just like that.

I mean, I don’t know,

I’m not smart like that St. Paul fella …

I’m just sayin’ ...”

Well, this raises confusion.

Pretty soon, The First Church of Christ of People

Who Have Never Even DONE It Before …

Pretty soon, they are in disarray.

Half of them are convinced that the kindly brethren and sistern from

The First Church of Christ of People Who Have Always Done It THIS Way Before.

Half of them are convinced that they must be right!

And the other half are thinking,

“Wait, St. Paul said we could go directly from being Greeks to being Christians.

“Jesus fulfills our longings … our Greek longings …

Why in the world would we have to go back and learn the Jewish longings, too?”

That’s the confusion …

And from that confusion the ugliness grows:

“You’re not real Christians …

You’re not circumcised … and

you don’t have a picture of Moses!”

“Oh yeah?!  Well, you’re not real Christians …

You don’t even know the Pythagorean theorem … oh … and … by the way?

The New Testament is gonna be published in Greek not Hebrew! … ...        “So there.”

“So there.”

Tradition is an attitude.

And when traditions clash there is confusion …

And from the confusion grows ugliness …

And from the ugliness, grows St. Paul’s vision:

And the vision is this:

When two Christians look at each other,

What they must see first …

And what they must see last …

is a brother or sister coming up out of the waters of baptism, raised from the dead in Jesus Christ …

But even as Paul writes this vision …

The ugliness that motivates the vision is still there,

And under the ugliness is the same confusion.

Take a look at the Jewish richness of Christian worship on that side of Galatia.

Here’s the question:

How much of what they do in public life and worship is Christian and how much is their Jewish culture?

How much of what they do in their personal home life is Christian and how much is Jewish culture?

Who knows?

Or take a look at the Greek richness of Christian worship on the other side of Galatia.

Same questions:

How much of what they do is Christian and how much is Greek culture?

Who knows?

The traditions that you cherish at Broad Street Presbyterian …

Are they Calvin or Knox?

Are they Van Dyke or Palmerton or Buchanan?

Are they functions of social class?

Race?

Cultural heritage?

Demographics?

Are they Christian or are they Buckeye?

And how do you even figure that out?

How do you boil it down?

It’s not easy to boil down the difference
between Christian tradition …

… and all the things we

do,

say,

think,

believe, and

practice …

because of our culture, class, race, and heritage.

It’s not easy to boil down.

But here’s the thing:

WE DON’T EVEN WANT TO BOIL IT DOWN!

Of course we don’t …

We don’t want to give up the rich diversity of the Body of Christ!.

In fact we believe that God INTENDS this rich diversity!

God has chosen to work through our differences …

Our cultures,

Our languages,

Our … attitudes.

From the inscrutability of the Coptic orthodox,

To the liberated, reckless abandon of store-front Pentecostal,

To High Church Episcopalian,

To guilt-ridden Lutheran,

To whatever it is that you Presbyterians are up to …

This is the richness that God intends …

But the richness yields confusion …

And the confusion yields ugliness …

And when the smoke clears …

And two Christians look at each other …

All we can see is our difference.

“Oh, yeah … The New Testament may be in Greek … but the Original Testament is in Hebrew.

“So there!”

“Oh, yeah?  Not the book of Daniel.

“So there!”

St. Paul calls to us …

… pleads with us to see only what God sees …

 “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ …
… you are one in Christ”

Paul’s vision is that the death and resurrection of baptism will unite us!

Except … we’re not even up out of the water yet and already it’s obvious that

some of us have been dunked and

some of us have only been sprinkled.

We’re not even out of the water yet and I can see that while we’re both wearing Christ as a spotless white robe …

Yours is silk, mine’s a cotton-polyester blend.

We’re not even out of the water yet and already I have no idea what part of you is Christian and what part of you is your cultural heritage, your class, your race.

We’re not even out of the water yet and already I have no idea what part of me is Christian and what part of me is my cultural heritage, my class, my race.

And the confusion …

the ugliness …

the attitude … begins again.

But baptism is still the answer …

Paul sees it clearly …

In baptism all that we are …

Our cultural background

(neither Jew nor Greek)

Our social background

(neither slave nor free)

Even our gender identity

(neither male nor female)

What Paul sees is that everything that we are …

… everything that we hold dear will be set aside

All our traditions and attitudes

will be checked at the door

So that we can die and be raised again in Christ.

Here is what will happen …

in fact it is already happening.

The Church will be brought low.

The day will come when we:

The Church of Jesus Christ of People Who Have the Time and Energy To Nitpick …

The day will come when we will be brought low.

How low?

I don’t know.

But low enough.

It may be that some congregations will die

It may be that some traditions will die

Maybe some denominations will die

Maybe some attitudes will die

It’s hard to predict exactly how God will bring us low … but we will be brought low:

In some places the Church will be brought low by persecution …

In some places it will be by marginalization …

Many congregations are already being brought low economically as their traditional donor base gets older and older …

Many congregations are already being brought low as individuals and pastors just get tired of trying to keep the thing afloat …

Or maybe it will happen something like this:

Some day,

Someone who saw that sign you guys used to have out front will decide to test it out.

They’ll come in the door

of Broad Street Presbyterian Church with

their deep existential and decidedly

un-Presbyterian needs and longings …

and they’ll challenge one of your traditions …

Maybe it will be a simple challenge:

Something like, “Why do you do that?”

And you’ll be stumped …

and your pastors will be stumped …

and your organist will be stumped …

and someone will call over to the seminary for help and we’ll be stumped …

And you’ll realize that not only does that particular tradition have no rationale …

You’ll have to confess that you kept doin’ it even after you realized that it might be a barrier to someone’s access to resurrection.

And at that moment you will be brought low.

Maybe your zeal for bringing all of God’s children to the joy of resurrection will empower you to abandon the tradition all together!

Or maybe you and the stranger in your midst will discover together the power of the tradition and you’ll take it up with new energy

But the day will come when we:

The Church of Jesus Christ of People Who Have the Time and Energy To Nitpick …

The day will come when we will be brought low.

We will lay our traditions and our attitudes down …

And we will be taken down into the death-to-self of baptism …

After we are taken down into the death-to-self of baptism …

Taken down … brought low …

After that we will be raised again …

People who have been clothed in Christ …

Nothing more!

Are you clothed in Christ?  That’s all I need to know.

Because if you’re clothed in Christ then I know we are one … we are at peace.

Let me hear your struggle …

Let me tell you my struggle …

And let us weep and laugh with the awesome relief that comes from knowing Jesus Christ …

… who brings life from death.

… and makes us one.

All we need is to share this resurrection with one another …

Share it in song.

Share it in prayer.

Share it in peace.

As I come up from the water …

As I lift up my head from being brought low …

For just a minute …

For just a second …

Let me see only you …

a redeemed sinner … like me.

Let me see only

what St. Paul and Jesus would have me see:

No time or energy to check

whether the robe is silk or polyester …

No time or energy to check

To see if there is a drum set in the chancel …

Or what the ministers are wearing …

No time or energy to check anyone’s credentials:

or sexual orientation,

or marital status,

or pedigree.

No time or energy … for any of that …

The day will come …

When we will come up from being brought low …

And we will be so relieved and joyful that the promise of life from death is true …

That we will all see with joy what St. Paul and Jesus would have us see:

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

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