I have read Dr. Seuss' classic allegory titled Green Eggs and Ham a few dozen times in my life and each time I have read it I assume the reason that Sam-I-am refuses to eat green eggs and ham is because it is new. We talk about how we do not like new things and even how the plate looks a little odd to try green eggs and green ham. (I confess I am not sure if 'green' also modifies ham in addition to eggs.) Who like to try new things? Especially food.
Then I began to listen to my Church tradition, United Methodism, and I began to consider that perhaps green eggs and ham was not a new dish at all. Perhaps green eggs and ham was a dish that has long been around but Sam-I-am is resistant to the past, not the unknown future.
It makes me think about the green eggs and ham of the Church are not limited to the "new" ways of doing things but very much a resistance to try the recipes of the past.
When was the last time you sat in silence? Fasted? Contemplated on one thing for longer than 15 seconds? Journaled your thoughts? Engaged in Bible Study that challenged you rather than just affirm you? Divested of your material possessions? Practiced simplicity? Consider worship as something that is offered rather than something to be judged and assessed? Allowed the Scripture to read you rather than you read the Scripture?
I wonder if we in the Church might be the Sam-I-Am's not by turning our nose up at the "new" but at the very ancient?