Tradition and Fads

Here we are at the last of four sessions of a training course called "Project Timothy". Laurie and I are both rather old for the Timothy role, but it has been good to be part of the seminar over the last 18 months.
As we chewed over this morning's topic ("systems thinking"), I began to reflect that tradition and fads are really the same thing. If you try to take a set of attitudes and actions across a generational/time boundary, it is a tradition. If you attempt to do the same over a social/cultural boundary, it is a fad. Either way, you are trying to make something fit into a new situation without asking whether it is appropriate or not.
In Matthew 13:52, Jesus said "Every teacher of the Law who has been instructed about the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old". Teachers of the Jewish law had been arguing with Jesus about what is or is not God's Word to man. Jesus answered with 6 parables about God's Word; parables that speak of it's power to transform the lives of those who seek to know it's meaning. The old traditions of the Jewish teachers contained treasures of truth from God. Jesus' Words, too, are treasures from God. It is not a question of old or new, but of prayerfully seeking to understand God's Word, then obey it so it transforms your life; so it becomes your greatest treasure.
There is a lot of argument in churches now. Some want to dump all the old stuff; others reject the new stuff. Forget about old and new- seek the treasure in both.