Derek: 00:28

Welcome back to the Fourth Wave podcast. So this episode, when I think about it and, you know, if I were to summarize the topic for you, you might say to yourself, well, this doesn't seem to have anything to do with a season on propaganda. And even if I told you that it's related to discipleship, you might think it's a bit odd, and it is a bit odd. It is it is kind of a an odd kind of connection. Nevertheless, what what made me think that this would be a valuable point to discuss in this episode were two things.

Derek: 01:07

So first of all, it was just discipleship in general, and I think sometimes it's hard to understand what discipleship entails because I it's even still really murky for me, like, what what constitutes as discipleship? Is just going out and eating hot wings with a bunch of guys, like, is that discipleship? It doesn't really seem like it, yet discipleship is about relationship and you don't just have relationships where with people where you just say, alright, let's go talk about the really serious things and only the serious things. Like, that's not doing life together. So maybe hot wings is discipleship, especially if somebody's going through a really hard time and you just go out and have fun and laugh together, and you don't have an agenda and you don't objectify each other, you just go and be together.

Derek: 01:56

So maybe hot wings are discipleship. I don't know. That's that's a whole broader discussion and something that that would be very valuable to work through. But for for this episode, because thinking about discipleship and also thinking about something that Doctor. Galanti said, which was, you know, related to this idea that what we are to do is not so much eschatological as it is what did he say?

Derek: 02:26

Edic? Edic? I can't remember the the term that he used, but if you go back to that episode, you can you can check it out. Ideological, I think. That concept is that we do what we do because of who we are.

Derek: 02:41

And so a big part of what discipleship does is it declares to you who you are. And because declaring to us who we are is is so important, I think talking a little bit about tradition is going to be valuable here. Because I was somebody who grew up without tradition. Like, not only did our family not really have hardly any traditions, but like our church, just a, you know, a Bible church trip in Pennsylvania, we didn't really have traditions. We didn't follow Advent or any of these other calendars.

Derek: 03:16

We just kind of that that seemed really Catholic y and and weird and all that kind of stuff. So we we didn't have tradition that we were connected to and that we were passing on so much. And so I've come to recognize the value of tradition, and and it's something that I want to convey to you by talking about a short little piece that I wrote a while ago, which I'll I'll link if you'd prefer to read in the show notes. But for for this episode, we I really want you to focus on this idea of of tradition as a discipling event that seeks to point you to who you are. You think of traditions revolving around Christmas, and there's there are a lot of things that it could point to, but it it points to the fact that we are mere frail humans, that that we are just like, you know, Jesus becoming a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Derek: 04:17

Right? Easter, right, or Ash Wednesday shows us that we are we are frail humanity. We are we are we are humans who are going to come to a physical end at some point. Easter, right, we have an we are invaluable humans who are loved by God. And what you'll notice about all of these these different holidays is that there are propagandistic mimicries that look very different than the traditions that we as Christians should be trying to implement, and these propagandistic mimicries are not really telling you who you are, but they're enticing you to be something else.

Derek: 05:03

That's one of the big differences that we identified between propaganda and discipleship. Discipleship uncovers who you are, right? This ideology. It uncovers who you truly are and you should act from that. What propaganda does is it tells you who you ought to be and it says, hey, you why don't you do this?

Derek: 05:28

Why don't you become like this? So with Christmas, we get a lot of materialism, right? Don't you wanna be fulfilled? Don't you wanna have more? Right?

Derek: 05:38

It's the end of materialism. Valentine's Day, a lot of that is focused around pleasure seeking or for kids just this this trite affection. So this episode, this article is really going to just be a brief introduction to the topic, and it's something that you should explore in a lot more depth through works like James K. A. Smith's book Desiring the Kingdom, or Drew Johnson's work Knowledge by Ritual.

Derek: 06:04

But hopefully, this brief episode gives you a glimpse as to the importance of ritual or tradition, and how we can start thinking about forming rituals and pushing back against the propaganda that seeks to shape us. Tradition has always seemed really stale to me. It has reeked of thoughtlessness. I mean, doing something over and over again simply because someone before you did it felt like such a waste of time. But as I I've mentioned in some of my other blog entries, I have since that time recognized that tradition is really a glue that holds us together.

Derek: 06:46

It's a thread that connects the beginning to the end. As Chesterton says, tradition is the democracy of the past. Rather than tradition becoming a gift that we give to our ancestors by appeasing them in our actions, which is probably what I used to think tradition was, as an obligatory nod to their archaic practices, like, hey, we haven't forgotten about you. Tradition is really the recognition and celebration of a gift that our ancestors have given to us. Any good lasting tradition revolves around some worldview notion that was deemed so valuable, it was preserved in the form of tradition.

Derek: 07:27

Even seemingly benign or childish traditions like Santa Claus contain entrenched worldview teachings. Santa, for instance, holds central this idea that good works are rewarded with material blessings. Your success is up to you. This is an American dream, work hard and do good and you will rise up sort of mentality, a materialistic sort of mentality. In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos emphasizes the importance of family and heritage, the importance of legacy and being remembered, and the view of the continuation of a soul beyond death.

Derek: 08:05

And while these traditions and others may often look shallow and eccentric, especially in our modern culture with heavy marketing, lasting traditions are often built on very deep beliefs. I really only began to understand the importance of tradition a few years ago. At that time, there was a perfect storm for change in my life. I'd been studying the Presbyterian and Reformed beliefs more deeply, and I began studying Eastern Orthodoxy and their traditions as well. And I began to reflect on what tradition meant for my family as we started to have kids and started raising them.

Derek: 08:41

I quickly realized that my oppositional stance against tradition was wrong. As we began to understand the important role of tradition, we immediately moved towards training our children in some of the vital ecumenical Christian traditions, things like the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, all those things. But while we recognize the value in these traditions, we also wanted to create a unique tradition that resonated within our family. We wanted more than memorizations, we wanted tangible reminders of what we believed, and this was born the tradition of eating the mascots. For one year, on each major holiday, our family ate a mascot of that holiday.

Derek: 09:26

We ate reindeer sausage on Christmas day, we ate chicken hearts on Valentine's day, we ate rabbits on Easter, and we ate whatever we wanted on Independence Day because we weren't really sure what to do about that one. We had pumpkin pie on Halloween, we ate turkey on Thanksgiving. We loved the tradition, and it truly embodied the weird people that we are. And even more than that though, it embodied a deep truth we wanted to convey to our kids in a kind of fun way. The truth teaching that eating the mascot instilled was the importance of being countercultural.

Derek: 10:04

And I don't mean the type of counterculture that simply revolts just to be contrary. Rather, it's the countercultural push at just the place that culture needs to be opposed, at the outworking of its worldview claims. We do not accept as true and celebratory that which society tells us is true and should be celebrated. For instance, society's message at Christmas is often the good prosper and that you too can be good enough to get what you want. But that's not what we believe.

Derek: 10:34

We believe that we are all broken and in need of a savior, and sometimes having integrity actually costs us everything. Many times, the good falter and fail while the wicked are prosperous. We reject the culture's worldview at Christmas and eat Santa's reindeer because his message of moralism holds no power over us. Society's message at Easter is that a cute fluffy bunny brings me lots of little goodies. It's springtime and nature's beauty that's on display.

Derek: 11:04

Get out and enjoy the nice egg hunt and think happy thoughts. But this Easter message is in stark contrast to the true appreciation of Christ's Easter message and what that brings. The secular message is that life is great, so just enjoy a day of beauty. The Christian message is that this broken world is so harsh, it can't help but murder God's son. Yet in this darkness lies our hope.

Derek: 11:29

Our hope is not in this world as it is, but in this world as it is being redeemed. And the sovereign, self sacrificial God that we serve uses the harshest of realities to bring about the greatest of goods. This is not costless beauty, it is a weighty beauty. Such a message elicits more wonder and more awe at the same time that it elicits sorrow and somberness. I am to be thankful for my blessings and content in my circumstances, and never without the tempering of hope that comes from looking at a broken world I know will be restored.

Derek: 12:04

The world's Easter message is too fluffy, so we devour the rabbit. Sentimentalism and naivete hold no power over us. Society's message on Valentine's Day is equally as damaging to our view of reality. The message today is that love is what you feel. It is eros, erotic love.

Derek: 12:24

It is not agape, unconditional love. Cupid may have shot you with an arrow yesterday that attracts you to your wife, but tomorrow he might shoot you with an arrow that attracts you to another man's wife. So be it. You deserve to be happy. If you don't really love your wife, it's not fair to her if you continue in your marriage.

Derek: 12:44

But we reject such notions of love. Love may be felt in the heart, but it is fed in the mind. On days when you don't feel love, you choose it. In seasons when you don't feel love, you build disciplines to foster it. Binging on love is like binging on alcohol.

Derek: 13:01

The experience might be fun and you might be able to ride that excitement from one weekend to the next, but you'll likely never acquire a palette that can distinguish the beautiful nuances and the most magnificent wines. Being a user of alcohol and enjoying drink are two very different things. Being a user of love and taking joy in your lover are two very different things as well. So in Valentine's Day, we eat the heart to remind us that our momentary fleshly feelings hold no ultimate power over us in our choosing of what is good. Interestingly, the central Christian tradition, the Eucharist, also involves eating the mascot.

Derek: 13:42

To partake of the Eucharist is to eat the body and blood of Christ. It is a memorial which reminds us of the body that was broken and the blood that was spilled for us. In this sacrament, we are celebrating the death of our mascot, the Savior Jesus Christ. Now that seems an odd thing to do as unlike the Easter bunny or Santa Claus, we actually want to celebrate Christ and His message. What we are celebrating is in the Eucharist is the death of Christ, but only as it pertains to our knowledge of the resurrection.

Derek: 14:16

When we partake of the Eucharist in view of the resurrection, we are acknowledging that just as the death of our savior had no power over him, so it now holds no power over us either. Unlike the reindeer sausage, the rabbit stew, or the chicken hearts that we eat on their respective days of remembrance, Christ's death brings with it a message of lasting hope. Whereas the deer, the rabbits, and the chicken merely feed my body, the Eucharist feeds my body and my soul. It is a remembrance of true sustenance. On the Lord's Day, we partake of the body and the blood of Christ to remind us that death holds no power over us, and Christ works His power through us.

Derek: 14:59

Unfortunately, we only participated in our annual tradition of mascot eating for one year. It just wasn't sustainable for us. The reindeer meat was expensive, we weren't great at cooking rabbits, and the chicken hearts, at least to us, were pretty disgusting. But in the short time that we held on to this tradition, I was able to learn more about the importance of teaching truths through tangible means, and the importance of establishing memorable traditions. Many of the traditions we perpetuate in our culture are not innocuous.

Derek: 15:30

Traditions carry with them very powerful messages. Whether or not we intend for them to train our children, they instill deep beliefs within within them, within us. I learned the importance of evaluating the messages that I intended to send to my children, and the messages I wanted to discipline myself to hear. In the end, I learned that while nearly all traditions involve feeding the body, very few nourish the soul. As we approach Ash Wednesday, I encourage you to consider the truths our ancestors placed so clearly within this great tradition.

Derek: 16:05

There's a humbling mournful message we are to hear that we are dust, and to dust we will return. We are not living as Lacray says, we're just breathing to death. But at the same time, we mourn this broken world and our broken selves, and we also look to the past with sobriety and hope as we await the promised restoration our savior assured us when he conquered death. This is not a fluffy message, but neither is it an empty one. It is a weighty truth of substance that fills our souls and leaves only tombs empty.

Derek: 16:42

That's all for now. So peace, and because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it. This podcast is a part of the Kingdom Outpost Network. Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to non violence and Kingdom Living.