On the last day of August of this year, a world record has been put in the Guiness book of Records by 1’006 Swiss Alpenhorn players on the Klewenalp in Nidwalden. If you missed it, you can find a news item here from the Swiss new service SRF.
It is an impressive accomplishment. The Alpenhorn is a rare instrument and to get so many of them together on the mountain meadow overlooking Lake Lucern and having them play a melody of 5 minutes long is an impressive feat.
This is Swiss heritage at its best and if you have any feeling for pride and honor, you’ll have some chills running down your spine and perhaps a tear in your eye. In general, the Swiss are doing a great job at celebrating heritage. If it is not their church bells, it is their Schwingfests, and if it is not their Alpabzug, it is their Fassnach. And right they are.
When I grew up, we read a piece from the Bible at the end of our family dinner meal. Personal faith was not really a thing, but this piece of heritage was part of my Reformed tradition. It is a good piece of heritage, and I wish we had done the same when my boys were growing up.
Probably you can think of good exercises of heritage when you were growing up. Telling each other what you are thankful for, before you ate the Thanksgiving Dinner. Taking a time of prayer before you kicked off the New Year. Writing poems or rhymes with your Christmas presents, so that opening them was not just an act of ripping off the paper, but a celebration of relationships. Serving at a local soup kitchen regularly as a family, so that you and your kids know that it is not all peaches and cream for all people.
I want to encourage you to think about good heritage, good habits that you need to keep alive or revive. They can be milestones that you will look back on later in life. At those milestones, significant things happen.
This is what Deuteronomy 11:18 tells us: Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
It is not enough to just recite the words of the law for the Jews. They have to wear them as symbols on their hands and bind them to their foreheads. Of course this indicates it should determine their deeds and their thinking, but it sure helps if you are reminded of these things by actually wearing them.
The Lord’s Supper is also an important piece of heritage, which the Lord Jesus commanded us to keep on doing: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes 1 Corinthians 11:26.
Take your example from the Swiss people today and think about which heritage you should keep on celebrating or reinstitute.