“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” It is likely you have heard or used this phrase at some point in your life. It is often said that this phrase developed due to bathing practices in the middle ages. Due in large part to the absence of indoor plumbing and water heaters, bathing took a lot of effort. The process of preparing to bathe was quite the undertaking as enough water had to be transported, by hand, and heated over a fire. Consequently, when one member of the family took a bath, every member of the family took a bath. Not together of course, they started with the father and worked their way down through the family by age. Families were often very large, so by the time the baby of the family entered the bathwater it was a bit murky, to say the least. Thus, before tossing the bathwater out into the street, it was essential to assure that it didn’t contain any beloved family members.
While the origins of this phrase are as opaque as the water to which it refers, the meaning it is intended to communicate is quite clear: Be careful not to discard the good with the bad. As the world continues to advance ever forward, it is easy for us to be consumed with our efforts to keep up, to stay current, and to integrate new, supposedly improved ways of living, doing, and being. As a result, we often summarily and uncritically toss out that which is old, “out of date,” or used up to make way for that which is shiny, relevant, and new. But, there are numerous proverbial babies in the bath water that are worth holding onto.
We must make space for new generations to do new things in new ways for the benefit of humanity and also for the glory of God. But, we also must maintain a firm grasp on the good things and ways that have been formed and fashioned through generations of development and practice.
To be sure, very few would call me a traditionalist. I am a Baptist pastor with numerous earrings, visible tattoos, who plays guitar and writes contemporary worship music. I am a firm believer in the value of innovation and feel a sense of urgency to integrate certain cultural and technological advancements into how we function as both a society and as the church. We must make space for new generations to do new things in new ways for the benefit of humanity and also for the glory of God. But, we also must maintain a firm grasp on the good things and ways that have been formed and fashioned through generations of development and practice.
In Luke 5:33-39, Jesus is questioned about why His disciples don’t engage in the spiritual disciplines of fasting and prayer in the way the followers of other teachers do. Jesus responds with a parable about new and old wine skins. Luke 5:37-39 reads, “And no one pours new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the old wine skins; the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wine skins. And no one after drinking the old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.”
In these verses, Jesus is highlighting the need to value the new. He’s advocating the need to create new structures and systems to contain new ways of doing and being and cautioning against holding too tightly to what was. But, no one would say Jesus is suggesting the elimination of the long held spiritual practices of fasting and prayer. In fact, He specifically states that there will be a time and a place for both in the lives of His disciples. Rather than prescribing the elimination of the old in favor of the new, it appears Jesus is making space for both in their proper place. Jesus is holding onto all the babies while filtering out the bathwater.
We have a bad habit, in the church and society as a whole, of pitting the new against the old… While the two don’t always mix well, as Jesus noted, there are spaces and places for both.
We have a bad habit, in the church and society as a whole, of pitting the new against the old. We are led to believe we can either have old hymns or new worship songs. We can either dress in traditional church attire or comfortable contemporary clothing. We can follow formal liturgies and old orders of worship or we can follow as the Spirit leads or as the moment demands. While the two don’t always mix well, as Jesus noted, there are spaces and places for both. We need to learn to discern the babies from the bathwater; to hold tightly to what is beneficial and useful while letting go of that which has been worn out and used up. May God grant us the discernment and discipline to understand the difference and act appropriately.
