Rethinking How to Bake a Ham

You’ve maybe heard this little story or some version of it.

As she prepared to put the Christmas ham into the oven, her husband asked her, “Why do you always cut the end of the ham off before you put it in the oven?” She thought about it for a while and realized she didn’t really know! “I’m not sure—my mom always did it. Maybe it makes it juicier or something,” she responded as she put the lopped-off ham into the roaster and into the oven. A few days later, she was thinking about her husband’s question and decided to call her mom. Expecting a culinary rationale for the long-standing tradition, her mother’s response came as a bit of a surprise. “Oh, I always had to cut the end off because my roaster was never big enough.”

I feel that there are so many things we do in the church that are kind of like that. They had a wonderful intention or purpose initially. We do them over and over, year after year. Gradually, it becomes just the way church is done. “We’ve always done it that way.” Over time, indeed over generations, we can forget the original idea behind it, and the spiritual meaning can be lost. The tradition itself becomes more important than the original intent or spiritual symbolism. While the Bible says absolutely nothing about what color the altar cloths should be in any given liturgical season or how long the sermon should be, what order the service should go in, or who can speak from which pulpit, these traditions can become very important to people. Maybe too important. It becomes eerily reminiscent of the legalistic traditions of the Pharisees . . . and Jesus didn’t think too highly of them. He scolded them in Matthew 15:8–9, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules” (NIV).

Even more worrisome, what if our faith itself has fallen prey to the "my mother always did it" syndrome! Sometimes I wonder if we go through the motions just because it’s expected. What if we have come from such a long line of Christians during a particularly peaceful and prosperous era that we don’t even know why we believe. We just believe because we are "supposed to."

God has put some very special people in my life who haven’t "just always believed." I have seen how brightly the light of Christ shines against the darkness. I have seen people literally transformed and become new creations. I have even found myself jealous of these baby Christians and their precious, life-giving relationships with Christ. They have helped me see Christ in a whole new way. They have helped me to not take his precious gift for granted. I pray differently, I believe differently, and I have experienced God in ways I never knew possible.

What about you? Have you taken time to evaluate why you believe? What you believe? Why you go to church on Sunday mornings . . . or why you don’t? Are the traditions and obligations of church wearing you out, or is your relationship with Christ giving you new life? These are pretty important questions that we better get right—God doesn’t have any grandchildren. And somehow, I just don’t think he really cares what color the altar cloths are!

I am not saying that all traditions are bad or that we have to scrap everything and start all over, but we should never let traditions get in the way of true worship and effective evangelism. Sometimes, change can be a good thing. Not always easy, but sometimes a very good thing. Sometimes there’s a better way to bake a ham.

“You have let go of the commands of God and are

holding on to human traditions.”

Mark 7:8 NIV

"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth

of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs,

but you neglect justice and the love of God.

You should have practiced the latter

without leaving the former undone." 

Luke 11:42 NIV

"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in

his name, he gave the right to become children of God

—children born not of natural descent,

nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." 

John 1:12-13 NIV