The Eleventh Sunday After Trinity Sunday '23
A Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, August 12, 2023
The Epistle, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 - The Gospel, St. Luke 18:9-14
The Rt. Rev’d Stephen C. Scarlett
Tradition in the epistle
Today’s lessons provide a meditation on tradition. In the Bible, tradition refers to beliefs and practices handed down from God to his people through authorized agents. As St. Paul writes in the epistle, “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received.” Then he lists foundational truth about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that are the foundations for the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.
These truths are authentic tradition because those who received them were eyewitness to the Resurrection. St. Paul writes,
[Christ] was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once . . . After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also” (1 Cor. 15:3-8).
Thus, apostolic tradition was received by the apostles from Christ and delivered to the church. This is the origin of what is called “apostolic succession.” It developed to assure the churches that they were receiving the true doctrine and worship. How did you know that the teaching you received was true? How did you know that you were really worshiping the true God who was revealed in Jesus? You knew because the bishop of your church received the doctrine and worship from a bishop, who received it from a bishop, who received from St. John—or another apostle.
This lineage of authentic tradition distinguished the church from what were known as “gnostic” sects. These were religious groups founded by leaders who claimed to have had received a revelation. The church asked, “Where did you get that from?” Teaching and practices that could not be traced to an apostolic source were rejected. This remains the litmus test in dealing with people who claim to have had a new revelation. Doctrine is tested by the apostolic teaching expressed in the Bible and summarized in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. The Creeds set forth the foundational apostolic doctrine to which the early church universally said “Amen.”
Other mention of tradition in Paul’s epistles
St. Paul uses the language of tradition for other practices. In 1 Corinthians 11:23, he describes how he established the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist in Corinth. “I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread . . .” In 1 Corinthians 11:2, St. Paul writes, “I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you” (1 Cor. 11:2). In 2 Thessalonians, he writes, “Brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle” (2 Thess. 2:15).
The importance of tradition highlights that the early church valued what was received from Jesus and the apostles and was suspicious of novelty. In contrast, the typical spiritual error of our time works in the other direction. Churches and religious groups tend to advertise that they are offering exciting new things. Authentic biblical and church tradition is often portrayed as old fashioned and boring by contrast.
Some preference for the new is simply the spirit of the age. But some of it stems from the modern experience of technology in which the new things—the car, the tv, the phone—are actually better. This preference for the better technology can be subtly transferred into the Christian faith as a preference for the latest spiritual thing. There is an important distinction here between technology and truth. New airplanes are better than old ones, but the new planes do not ignore the timeless truths about gravity and air pressure. We don’t read a Bible that is written on papyrus and illuminated by candle light. But we still read the same Bible.
Why Jesus’ criticized tradition
Now, Jesus spoke about tradition in a negative way. In Matthew 15, the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” Jesus responded, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (15:2-3). Some people mistake these comments as a broad condemnation of all tradition, but the criticism is more focused than that. The tradition of the Pharisees that Jesus targeted was not received directly from Moses or the Torah. It consisted of rules that developed between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament—the time between the prophet Malachi and the appearance of John the Baptist. Jesus objected to these developed traditions when they were observed in a way that undermined the true intent of the Torah. But Jesus did not overthrow the legitimate tradition rooted in the Torah, nor did he imply that every developed tradition or local custom is bad. As Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:18).
The Christian tradition has had this same conversation. The English Reformation argued that certain practices and beliefs that developed in the church in the middle ages undermined the gospel. The argument was that this later tradition violated the older and authentic biblical and apostolic tradition. The conversation between tradition and reform of the tradition is nuanced and multi-faceted. There are errors at both extremes of the Reformation debate. The one extreme error is to contend that everything not based on a specific Bible passage should be rejected. The other extreme error is to maintain that every rubric or practice written or developed in a particular period is exactly the way the apostles did it and can never be changed.
Tradition as an encounter with Christ
We are saved from our own personal erroneous tendency by humility. Humility results from knowing Christ. St. Paul provides us with the pattern. He was an argumentative, traditionalist Pharisee until he saw the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus. As he says in the epistle, “Last of all [Christ] was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Cor. 15:8-9). Seeing Christ softened Paul’s hardened heart and led Paul to join the very group he formerly hated. In a similar way, a true encounter with the Risen Christ in the life of prayer will soften our hearts, and cause us to increase in the virtues of humility and charity.
This is the real purpose of the tradition. St. Paul was adamant about holding on to authentic doctrine and worship because he wanted people to know the real Jesus. Apostolic doctrine and practice lead us into the apostolic experience of forgiveness, grace, and union with God in Christ through the Spirit. If we drift from apostolic doctrine and worship, there is danger of drifting into some other experience. The true test of our authentic experience is the humility and transformation it produces in us. That is to say, our faithfulness to the unchanging faith is evidenced by the change it causes in us.
Pride accompanies all errors surrounding tradition. Pride leads some traditionalists to major in the minors as a convenient way to avoid facing the disorders in their own hearts. Pride lead some reformers to reject all tradition in a way that makes them unaware that they are really just running from themselves and from accountability.
This brings to the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in the Gospel. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector enter the same temple to pray to the same God who was known through a common tradition. But only the one who was humbled and changed by his encounter with God went home justified. Apostolic tradition is the means to the end of Christ, and our commitment to it is tested by what it produces within us. As Jesus said, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Lk. 18:14).
