Throwing Out The Baby With The Bath Water

I know most of us have heard the expression of throwing out the baby with the bath water and yet in a congregational setting, this concept may actually keep us from doing the will of God. In case you don't know the story, the bath water collected and warmed for the family bath was used by the whole family and it was too much trouble to get fresh water for the bath of everyone and so the baby was the last one to have a bath and yes, it was in dirty water!

In my Christian heritage, we have attempted to use the same "bath water" for over 2000 years and those wishing to throw out the water and start fresh are often faced with the statement "we are not going to throw the baby out with the bath water." In other words, "this is the water that has made me clean and if good enough for me, it is good enough for everyone else." I/we have been so blinded by the bath water we call tradition, we can't see how few want to take a bath and the ones who do climb into our bath water are either left un-noticed in the filthy water to drown or they come out of the water stained (this is the way I and others have like them in the past) and bound with the chains of tradition.

Having had the opportunity to celebrate worship time with Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics and many others when called upon to play my horn, I can tell you that this "demon" called tradition plagues all of us! No one wants to throw out tradition and if you know me very well, you know that singing songs with no music notes to follow is more "harmful" to my faith than the use of instruments might be to others and yet I have come to realize Mike is not and should not be the focus of what takes place in our services. In fact it is not my place or the place of any person in God's family to dictate for all what will and will not take place in our services. Instead, we all are called to LEAD spiritually by example of our loving heart placed firmly in the confidence of all that Christ has done!

The problem with my own life in the past and the lives of many today is how we are not willing to place our confidence in Christ since it may mean we have to take our confidence away from our tradition. Since creation, we have been instructed to have only one God in our lives and yet, like the Pharisees of Jesus day, we feel threatened by allowing Jesus to destroy our traditions. In my thinking, I can continue in my attempts to funnel those I can "hook" with my traditional pattern of doing church into my system of brain-washing or I can turn the tub over and make every attempt to become like the apostle Paul in his approach to becoming like Christ. His choice was to make whatever change was necessary to fit in with those he was trying to influence with the message of Christ coming into the world to save the lost. Paul did not say "I can't do this or I won't do that," but even to the point of offering and paying for a sin offering after the death of Christ, he became whatever was necessary to reach out with the message he had been given.

I am thankful each lifegroup in our fellowship has been given charge of periodic services throughout the year, and I would encourage all to follow the example of the apostle Paul and become whatever YOU think might be profitable to all. We all serve the same master and will all face the same master some day in judgment and Romans 14 tells me and everyone else to keep our mouth shut if it doesn't match up to what we believe is appropriate! I would encourage everyone in life not to filter the message of Christ through 2000+ years of tradition or seek permission to become what is necessary for the cause of Christ but rather, bravely select the stones from your nearest stream and step forth to slay the Goliath we all face in our lifes; a sinful lost world!