Sprinkling Holy Water
A priest in Mexico sprinkles holy water on the crowd as a Cristo Rey tradition. (Photo by Alex wolf mx on Pexels.com)
Traditionalists think United Methodists like me are the problem. But unfortunately, I think the people who self-identify as traditionalists don’t understand what it means to be a “traditionalist.” For many in our denomination, being a “traditionalist” is holding to one position on human sexuality and marriage. For me, being a traditionalist means many different things. It’s never been about the conflict between my vision of God and the rest of the world. Here’s what I envision when I hear the words “traditionalist” and “traditional”:
- I eat the same thing for breakfast most mornings.
- I watch the Andy Griffith show every day. Mayberry wasn’t perfect. Andy dealt with bigots, addiction, sexism, the place of technology in society, people set in their old-fashioned ways, greed, and hate. And he did it without a gun. I embrace that vision of traditional America.
- I miss my grandmother every day. She died in August 2005. She made great biscuits.
- I read the Bible every day.
- Nutmeg.
- I want “Softly and Tenderly” sung at my funeral. The words “come home” are powerful.
- I believe love is the best tradition of all.
- I believe people are afraid of God’s new plans because they prefer the traditions of slavery in Egypt.
- I believe there are hurtful traditions.
- I believe in the traditions of the Sermon on the Mount.
- I believe Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, is largely absent from our debate on tradition.
- I’m so traditional that I still believe that the Gospel is a Love Story, not a Sin Story.
- I come from a tradition where people didn’t weaponize the phrase “The Word of God.”
- It took guts for the Apostle Paul to walk away from his tradition. I love him for that.
- I’m so traditional and rooted in the past; I remember when going to church was fun and not perpetually teetering on the edge of destruction. I miss that tradition.
- I believe traditions, in their best sense, should give meaning to our lives.
- Traditions should not be used to demean people from being whom God created them to be.
- I say no to the idolatry and false God of manufactured human traditions.
- Our task is not to protect tradition. We are to proclaim the Good News.
- Tradition can quickly become a form of institutionalized violence.
- The divine is bigger than any of us or our ideas for creating new Methodist traditions.
The Rev. Richard L. Bryant serves as pastor of New Sharon United Methodist Church in Hillsborough, N.C. A graduate of UNC-Greensboro and Duke University, Richard has served churches in England; Raleigh, N.C.; as a missionary in Moscow and Northern Ireland; and in Marshallberg, Ocracoke, Burgaw, and now in Hillsborough. His hobbies include piano performance, storytelling, backyard astronomy, and researching his family’s history.