The Relevance of Jesus

I have to give credit for the seminal idea of this blog to Dr. Tom Lawson of Ozark Christian College.  In a recent post on his www.adorate.org website, he wrote a great article on the issue of relevance.  As Dr. Lawson is a dear mentor and fabulous writer, I thank him for the inspiration for this creation.  I, on the other hand, will gladly bear the burden of any negative effects of this blog today or in the future. 

I am struck by the notion of "relevance" as we understand it in ministerial and congregational terms today.  Relevance seems to be the intentional act of discerning someone's background, values, interests, dislikes, bigotries, biases, and inner angst and formulating a means by which to connect to that person.  While intuitive, I wonder if this was the approach of Jesus?

Jesus certainly dealt with people "where they were."  His approach though does not seem concerned with his personal attachment to their situation but His personal call for them to join Him in the life of God.  While he appropriately communicated with sinners, He did not employ the "I know where you are coming from" startegy that we seem so quick to use today. 

I don't think the point of the incarnation was that Jesus could better understand our fallenness as a human.  I believe the incarnation demonstrated the Kingdom of God in the life of a human.  Jesus was like us in every way but sin.  This seems to point to an incarnational model that connects us with other humans through our initial creational position with God, not our fallen secondary position.  We were created as the highest order of God's creation, and we are redeemed in order to regain our appropriate place in that order.  Why should we find our community bonds in the lowest part of our reality?  Jesus' life serves more as a judgment upon our weakness than a sympathetic embracing of our fallenness.

Jesus called people out of the darkness into the light.  He did not go into the darkness to drag them into the light.  He took the light and disspelled the darkness. 

For me, the relevance of Jesus is found in the reality that I can be everything God created me to be only in Christ.  We may have "all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," but I am the only one who can be what God intended me to be for His glory.  While that is my personal solo, it is our shared anthem.  We were all created for His glory!  Amen!!!  Even the Son came to give the Father glory.

Which is more relevant, our shared past transgressions or our shared future glory?

The Relevancy of Unrelevancy

I am in that age group that grew up memorizing the Bible in the King James version but switched to the NIV at an early enough age that I use the  NIV but have memorizations stemming from the KJV.  One of the KJV words that always struck this young boy with confusion was peculiar in 1 Peter 2:9.  Personally, I liked the idea of being called to be a strange, weird, or a different kind of person.  I fit that description much better than royal or holy.  I always felt like that was where I fit in.  Strange.  Weird.  Different.  It would be many years later when I would learn that the Greek word, peripoiesis, means possession, not strange. 

The issue of relevancy seems to be the new go to subject in Christian circles.  We need to find relevant ways to communicate the Gospel.  We need relevant songs, relevant decor, relevant sermons, relevant language, relevant, relevant, relevant.  To be evangelistic is to be relevant.

The discussion usually goes something like this.  We need to present ourselves to the world in such a manner that we seem relevant.  We need to speak their language.  We need to offer them opportunities that they are interested in.  We need to offer classes that meet their needs.  We need to look like them.  We need to act like them (when appropriate).

To be honest with you, I drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago.  As a youth minister, I offered R-n-R as a program for many years that allowed kids to come and find involvement in relevant activities for suburban teens.  We played basketball and volleyball.  We had snacks and games.  We listened to loud music and dressed like one of them.  As a minister, I have preached on being a Green Christian and surviving breast cancer.  I have listened to music I didn't like, watched movies I didn't care for, and attended seminars I hated with the hope of learning the language of relevance.

While you might suppose that this article is heading into relevance bashing mode, wait just a minute. 

I do not think the issue of relevance is overblown or exaggerated.  I do think the issue has gone off course.  It has gone in the wrong direction.  While peculiar may not mean strange, it does hold the idea of identifying with one the one who possesses us.

I believe in the relevancy of the peculiar.  The issue that is truly relevant to Christianity is our peculiarity, our position as possession.  We are relevant to pre-Christians because we are where they can be.  We live in a place they can live.  We find our peculiarity in our unrelevance to their world.  We find common ground in our shared identity as persons created imago dei.  We find connection, not in where they are but where we can all be.  Our community is not found in their brokenness but in our redemption which is theirs.  Our offer is not to share our tales of horror but the sacred story of hope.  Our language is not of a dying world but a new home beyond the horizon.  In truth, we become relevant by showing our unrelevance to their context.  We certainly understand where they are, but our message is not one of identifying with where they are but anticipating their participation with us where we are.  The message of redemption, not the unity of fallenness.

What fellowship does darkness have with light? 

We should never become so relevant to the world that we become peculiar to the one who possesses us.