Why do we, in the evangelical church, fear church tradition?

The reason this question was prompted by me this morning is that it so happens to be the Sunday of Epiphany and the evangelical church we attended had a vision Sunday with no mention of Epiphany. There is nothing wrong with a vision Sunday and similar services would have been held across North America. I guess I wonder why we don’t reach back into church tradition and remember some of the important dates on the church calender – dates the Church has celebrated for hundreds of years, such as the Sunday of Epiphany.

I remember preaching a couple of years ago on this particular Sunday and tackled the idea of Epiphany (preaching on the narrative of the Wisemen acknowledging Jesus as King). Most people in the church commented that had no idea that the Church has celebrated this date for over a thousand years now.

I am not saying that we need to be “traditional” and go back to some sort of ancient Latin service. However, maybe in our post-reformation theology (which rejects the authority of tradition, saying that our authority is in scripture alone – an important distinction), we have moved to0 far in this direction and have rejected tradition all together.

I actually think if we educated the typical evangelical on the Church calender, they would gain deeper meaning and insight. In fact, it may even help us slow down and reflect on the dates we do celebrate that too often seem to surprise us (such as Easter which has Ash Wednesday and Lent leading up to it).

There has to be more room for tradition and the acknowledgment that we, the Church, don’t stand in isolation as but are apart of the Church past, present and future.