There’s an old story[1] about a family tradition of preparing festal hams by cutting-off the ends before baking them in the oven. Grandma always prepared them that way and they were always delicious. The tradition was passed down to her daughters and granddaughters, but they never knew why the ends were discarded. Finally, they asked Grandma for the culinary secret behind her technique. She answered, “That was the only way the ham would fit into my roasting pan.”
Traditions provide familiar repeating patterns that remind us of comforting times past and a source of stability amidst a world of rapid changes and altered values. Traditions rooted in truth help to perpetuate a sound understanding of our past, but traditions rooted in unknowns are at best irrelevant, at worst destructive.
Many traditions of the church[2] today appear to be rooted in unknowns that may be detrimental to sound doctrine, while other historic traditions that could promote the retention of sound doctrine have been cut-off.
Consider the format of the church[2] order of service, it has very little resemblance to traditional Christian or Lutheran services. In 19th century Lapland, Pr. Lars Levi Laestadius[3] was a seminary trained ordained pastor and worked in his Lutheran pastoral office performing his official duties throughout his life, while also helping to spread the religious Revival (Awakening) through Lapland and the Sami people largely through the mission schools he created.[5] The format of current church[2] services do not resemble a traditional Lutheran service, but more closely resemble the evening mission school prayer meetings[6] held with the school children and local adults.[7] (Church-State laws forbade unofficial devotional meetings that resembled traditional church services.)[9] Elements of this unique meeting format continues as a church[2] tradition today.
Consider the nature of the church[2] preaching custom, it does not resemble the traditional Lutheran custom whereby the pastor reads the sermon he has written prior to the service. It appears that the current extemporaneous preaching custom used in the church[2] is an inadvertent extension of a custom used in the evening mission school prayer meetings[7] whereby teachers serving as lay-ministers (such as Raattamaa[4]) read and spontaneously explained bible verses[6], not unlike the bible studies they conducted during the day for the school children. This unique custom[8] continues in the church[2] today, and has become an assumed required preaching technique.
Consider the nature of the ecstatic[10] rejoicing sometimes experienced during church[2] services. Nothing like it has been documented in traditional Lutheran history, and seems to be non-existent prior to the Lutheran conversion of the pagan spiritual Sami people.[11] One could argue that such rejoicing is largely the retention of a Sami pagan tradition which closely resembles the trance state practiced by the pagan Sami noaides.[12][19] This unusual rejoicing tradition continues in the church[2] today.[20][21][22]
It is worth noting that Laestadius was sympathetic to Sami spiritual myths and referred to them in his sermons[11] as a way to bridge Sami pagan traditions with Christianity. He accommodated those with the proclivity for ecstatic rejoicing by holding separate services for them.[13] Elsewhere, a fanatical group[14] of enthusiasts in Kautokeino twisted the Revival message by abandoning Bible study and focusing primarily on the “gift” of rejoicing as a sign of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They determined that those who did not rejoice to be in unbelief and sieged a town to exact vengeance on all such unbelievers with tragic results.[15]
Consider the very source of the Lappish Revival, the “Readers”[16] (through their Bible study and the reading of Luther’s works) rediscovered the critical Lutheran distinction between Law and Gospel and the subsequent delivery of the Holy Spirit through the Word[17]. This ignited the Revival faith of Laestadius through his encounter with the Reader “Lappish Mary.”[18] Unfortunately, these sound traditions of Bible study and understanding Law and Gospel have all been lost or cut-off from the church[2] today.
Apostles Paul and Peter urged us to remain in the comfort of the gospel traditions of sound doctrine. (2 Thessalonians 2:14-17), (1 Corinthians 11:2) The traditions they described are rooted in the truth of God’s Word, not in the traditions of men. (Colossians 2:8), (1 Peter 1:18-19) These sound traditions of truth lead to salvation and are the only ones worth repeating, lest we find ourselves inventing or cutting-off (Revelation 22:18-19) traditions just to fit them into our pans of life.
[1] For examples, see Legend of the Ham or What Grandma’s Ham Can Teach Us.
[2] Finnish Independent Apostolic Lutheran Church (I.A.L.C.)
[3] Lohi, Seppo (2019). Christianity of the Heart: Lars Levi Laestadius and the beginning phases of the Laestadian Revival. Loretto, Minnesota: Published by the Laestadian Lutheran Church (279 N. Medina Street Suite 150, Loretto, MN 55357). ISBN: 978-1-7328008-2-3
[4] Ibid., 176.
[5] Ibid., 172.
[6] Ibid., 286-287, et al.
[7] Ibid., 181-182, 238, et al.
[8] This custom was likely reinforced by very talented orators who didn’t need to prepare sermons, such as Pr. Brandell. Ibid., 136.
[9] Ibid. 159.
[10] Ibid., 214, 247-248, et al.
[11] Ibid., 49.
[12] Ibid., 47.
[13] Ibid., 276.
[14] Ibid., 214, 259, et al.
[15] Ibid., 264.
[16] Ibid., 112, et al.
[17] Ibid., 129, 147, 220, et al.
[18] Ibid., 120, et al.
[19] “Similarly, the lihkahusat, or ecstatic trembling, mentioned in the section on Laestadius’ life, was very reminiscent of the trance state that the [Sami] noaides had formerly entered into. These spontaneous and uncontrollable expressions of emotion most often occurred during sermons, the singing of hymns, solitary reading of the Bible, or the Eucharist. Sometimes they were sorrowful, due to feelings of sinfulness, other times they were joyful, when believers felt that Christ had forgiven all their sins. These joyful outbursts consisted of anything from screaming aloud to leaping up and dancing on tables. This extreme religious emotion was at odds with mainstream Lutheranism, but it was the sort of relationship the Sami were comfortable having with the supernatural. Along these same lines, the traveling lay preachers filled one of the roles of the vanishing noaides, as the people called upon by the laity to interpret matters of spiritual importance…”
Source: Matt Perkin’s Blog
[20] Contrast the nature of wild ecstatic rejoicing with the gift of self-control noted in Scripture: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23), (2 Timothy 1:7), (2 Peter 1:5-7), (Titus 2:11-12)
[21] Suominen, Edwin (2012). An Examination of the Pearl. Published by Amazon.com Services LLC. ASIN: B0072MW19M, In chapter 4.1.6 the author includes recollections of a former I.A.L.C. member that witnessed teen-aged girls practicing their rejoicing styles, then watched them exercise those styles during large church services.
[22] Saarnivaara, Uuras (1947). The History of the Laestadian or Apostolic-Lutheran Movement in America. Published by the National Publishing Co. (Ironwood, Michigan 49938). 48: “[With regard to estatic rejoicing] sometimes it seemed that people participated in these ‘liikutukset’ because others did so, and because they were considered expressions of living faith. Therefore the Old-Laestadians sometimes called them ‘cold jumps.'”