Called to be relevant? Maybe not
I’m preaching this Sunday. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
My topic? Jesus’ desert temptations. Part of my inspiration has been Henri Nouwen’s excellent little book, In the Name of Jesus. In it, Nouwen reflects on his transition from Harvard to L’Arche in Toronto to work with people who have developmental disabilities.
As I sermonize, I’m struggling with the first temptation: the temptation to be relevant. How do I speak about the perils of relevance to a church where the 3rd core value states, “We believe that the church should be relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.”
What if the church wasn’t meant to be relevant?
Jesus was a great example of irrelevance. When his disciples went by boat, he walked on water. When approached by a brilliant, spiritual, leader Jesus told him that seeing the kingdom was messy. “You have to be born again,” he said. “Born what?” If those examples aren’t irrelevant enough, Jesus told people that if they wanted to enter the kingdom of God they had to become like little children. Kids. That’s absurd.
Want to hear more? Why not show up this weekend at one of the three Sunday morning services. I’ll do my best to be irrelevant.
