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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Timeless … and Timely
By webmaster @ 12:01 AM :: 726 Views :: 0 Comments :: Dr. Michael Brown

It’s hot. I left for church this morning all neat and clean, freshly showered and wearing a starched shirt. I arrived at church needing a shower, and my shirt looked like it had been wadded up and danced on. I am sure the temperature on the subway landing was about ten degrees shy of Hades.

Of course, upon arrival at the office I remembered that I had to do filming for Marble Update videos for summer. When one is on camera, and when some of those videos hit YouTube, you really want to look your best. Maybe my best is not quite George Clooney, but I still didn’t want to look like I looked. The word that comes to mind is "bedraggled."

I was laughing about it with a friend who is an Episcopal priest, and he said: "Thank God no one comes to our churches because of how we look! But," he continued, "however we look, we sure better have something to say!" Amen. That’s it. It’s about a Word which generations have found helpful and healing and hopeful for three thousand years. That’s why people come -- to hear what The Word has to say.

The fascinating thing about The Bible is that it is both timeless and timely. Karl Barth used to say that a preacher should enter the pulpit with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. His point was that there should always be a bridge between the world of scripture and the world of the person in the pew. Timeless ... and timely.

Good students of The Bible always ask two questions: "What did it say to the listeners back then?," and "What does it say to me right now?" And it consistently amazes me at how timely The Bible can be when we listen with those two questions in mind. Take the Sermon on the Mount, e.g. (I plan to preach a series of sermons about that next winter.) The Sermon on the Mount addresses almost any ethical issue you can imagine. Perhaps the specifics are somewhat altered in our age, but the fundamentals remain intact. No search through the latest manuscripts at Barnes and Nobles can provide a fresher, more pertinent description of ethical living than that one passage of scripture (Matthew, chapters 5-7). Harlequin produces nothing with the deep romantic quality of Song of Songs. Even Chopra or Buscaglia could not top I Corinthians 13 when it comes to articulating the nature of love. Frost’s poems in no way surpass those in Psalms. And on and on it goes -- one book filled with advice and inspiration and poetry and history and romance and vision and faith, all written in other ages and all speaking to our own.

So, let me make a suggestion: On your summer reading list, include scripture. Maybe you will want to work your way through the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, or through the gospels, or the missionary journeys of Paul, or Paul’s pastoral letters, or the other Epistles. Pick a portion of scripture, find a study commentary of good repute, and begin an adventure of learning. And, remember to ask yourself as you go: "What did it say to the listeners back then?," and "What does it say to me right now?"

Whatever your summer holds, I hope it will include relaxation and joy ... and a few good books, including our Faith’s handbook for meaningful living.

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