We’ve never done it that way before.
We always do it this way!

            How often do we hear these two snippets as an explanation for what we do or don’t do?
            In the Episcopal Church, we often joke about these phrases as a way of alluding to our sometimes over zealous sense of tradition. But, we cannot claim title to being the sole possessors of these sayings. Regularly, we hear this same philosophy repeated in our government, schools, outside activities, and even in our families. 
            I heard it in my own household this past Christmas as I was wondering how I was going to fit in baking our traditional Christmas breakfast stollen. We always have stollen on Christmas morning. At some point, my husband sweetly said, “Well, you know we don’t have to have stollen for Christmas morning this year.” While the statement took some of the baking duty burdens off my shoulders, it also left me with a feeling of unease. Although Mike’s intentions were good, what was he saying about the tradition I had so cherished? Was I not making it right? Was this yet another tradition that we were moving away from as we complete the transition to the empty nest? Had the action of sharing this meal somehow lost its meaning?
            It was of course none of these things. The time had simply come to change the paradigm of our tradition. Although an unplanned change, in the larger sense it allowed us to look at how we were changing - just as everyone does - and how we needed not to live under the old ideas of the past. We needed to look to new ideas and new ways of thinking. And yes, we have moved to a premade Italian pastry.
            During the season of Easter, we find Jesus gently turning those around him to a new way of thinking. As he always does, Jesus challenged his followers, and us, not to get too ‘hung up’ on what was, but look to a better understanding of what can be. He opened the eyes of Thomas to see that death had lost its sting, and Jesus had truly risen. He opened the minds of those on the road to Emmaus to better understand the scripture, and what the scriptures teach about the Son of Man. He tells us that his Father’s house does have many rooms, far more than we can count, and that there is a room for everyone.
           Jesus takes our lives of feeling safe and comfortable in what we have always known, and tells us that while this is always the way we did it, it is not how we can continue. The old laws, especially the law of sacrifice, is superseded by the most ultimate of sacrifices. Jesus rises up out of the cold stone niche he has been laid in, and tells us that life is ever changing - ebbing and flowing like the ocean tide. It is through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are freed from always doing it ‘that way.’ Now we can make the decision to reach out to what seems new and strange to us, and with the knowledge that God’s love is the one constant that never changes, and freely embrace the new life that we find in Jesus Christ.