tradition and the status quo

I've been thinking a lot lately about traditions... why we have them, what purpose they serve, what role they have where we're headed. Mind you I'm not totally anti-tradition though that may surprise a few. Traditions have their place in our life and in our faith. The real thing I struggle with is when traditions are simply used to maintain or appear to maintain the status quo. We hold tight to so many traditions that even when they've lost their purpose and meaning we let them define who we are and what we're about.

Granted this is the type of stuff I think about a lot when I think about my faith and my role in the church both bigC and little c. Its also why I like the movie Dogma so much. So the other day I'm reading through the gospel of Matthew which I have read countless times and this one passage really stood out to me:

In Matthew chapter 15 the religious leaders are having their usual cow regarding the actions of Jesus and his followers. So they ask "why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders?"

Jesus comes back pretty harsh "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?" He goes on to hammer his point and says that they have nullified the commands of God with their traditions. He never says that all traditions are bad. All he does is point out that all traditions in the realm of faith need to be looked at regularly with a critical eye. Does that mean we toss them out? Not necessarily. Some may be great traditions that we have simply distorted or lost the meaning of. When we take a close look and rediscover the original meaning and intent we may find that we have a real treasure. Others we may find to have run their course and are no longer, or possibly even never have been, useful or good.

I think really its not that we should be jaded toward tradition(though I often am) but that we need to not be afraid to really dig in and take an honest look at whether they are something that needs to continue and be passed on.