PASTORS MESSAGE

Remember the folklore about the two feuding families, the Hatfields and McCoys?   They had hated and fought each other for as long as anyone could remember, so long that it had become a way of life!  And when someone asked what they were fighting about…well, no one could quite remember how it all got started.  

A similar conversation has been going on in the greater church regarding the sacrament of Holy Communion.   A handful of decades ago, any good Lutheran could tell you when we commune (once a month and limited holy days) and at what age children are allowed to commune (at confirmation or perhaps after 5th grade…depending on what year you asked).  The problem was that these answers were often just based on tradition, not on Jesus' command or theological interpretation.   Tradition can be a beast in the same stripe as the feuding Hatfields and McCoys.  If we don't know why we do something, we better take the time to figure out why or stop doing it lest tradition become the god that we serve.