My journey...

There are a lot of traditions and rituals in the church. For example, the way we partake Holy communion, the way we sing our songs, the way we pray. Whether it be something that has been passed on from generations or something that the church have thought of in the past decade. Whatever it is, it defines who they are and the way they do things. I used to be someone who dislike these traditions. I thought they were binding to our christian faith. I always thought that they inhibit a person to be free to worship God the way they want to until oneday some wise man told me that if we are to take away the traditions of old, the church will replace it with another tradition which may be worse than the first.

On Sunday, Sherman came to our church and taught us on the sacrament of Holy Communion. It's meaning and history. He showed us that it is a visual representation of the spiritual truth. That Jesus is in our midst. The partaking of communion is a representation of the community of friendship. The reminder of the past (what Christ did), the present (that His promise to be with us) and the future (the hope that we have). It was a meaningful yet refreshing time for me. It is so much more meaningful to do something knowing why we are doing it. This tradition which we take for granted so many times. Just to think of the number of times where it was just a ritual every month. Something that we as believers come together to do.... just for the reminder of the cross. But I never knew that it was much more than that. I wonder how many of our traditions have been lost. Things that we do not see the need for anymore cause we simply were not told of its implications.

But I wonder, now that we know the meaning of the sacrament of the Holy Communion and it means so much to us, but if we keep partaking of the Holy communion in the same manner, will it slowly become a ritual again. Something that we do every month. The true meaning of it lost. If we do not teach the next generation why we do it, will it then become meaningless again... like many of our christian traditions? Will it then be replaced by something else in the future cause it will be deem old fashion. The way that we do certain things has a reason why it was done that way but as time goes by, that reason is forgotten. It then becomes a tradition of the church. Another thing we do because it has always been done. Rituals that the next generation finds a chore doing. How do we keep the life in these traditions? So that it will not become rituals? How many of our rituals were actually born out of bringing life to the church at the time it was implimented? I just wonder.....