Transcending Relevance: An Unchanging God

I had the opportunity to speak to a group of young single adults last Sunday evening and the talk focused partly on this question:

What does being relevant really mean?

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary has two definitions:

a. having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand
b. affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion

Postmodernism's influence has turned "relevance" on its ear to the point that churches have adopted it as mantra, or in some cases part of their very own vision statement. In my opinion, this Christian buzzword has morphed in meaning so much so that it is now code for "a cooler way of doing church." Sadly, what this usually results in is the North American, white, middle-upper class, Gen x-y preference list for doing church.

What I'm not saying is that it is wrong to use updated music or movie clips as part of the Sunday morning worship, or even for our pastors and youth pastors to wear sandals and have soul patches. Let's get that out of the way first--in fact many good friends of mine have soul patches and I believe some of them might actually be saved. But who can really say for sure?

Now, back to the point. It's not that our churches' attempts to appear inviting to outsiders or welcoming to those who may not have grown up in church are inherently misguided or wrong. My view is that they are asking the wrong questions.

If we as Christians say that we are followers of Christ (and the church I attend has a motto that says "equipping fully devoted followers of Christ")and if we believe the apostle Paul when he said countless times in the new testament that we are in fact "in Christ", then our paradigm is not how we "do church better" or even how we appeal to the outsiders in a way that feels welcoming. It also is not about cooler music, more modern clothes, or using recent movie clips as illustrations in a sermon. All of those things are time dependent. They may be cool today, but by the time our kids grow up they will be about as cool as penny loafers and tight-rolled jeans. Some of my readers may shudder to think that one day in the future wearing a soul patch may not be any more popular than wearing an eye patch. May it never be!

So then, what is relevance about? If the preferences named above are dependent on the whims of culture than they shall surely sway like a reed blown by the wind. Our glorious God exists above time and beyond the trappings of whatever today's culture wishes to impose. His truth does not change. Do you believe that God's truth has meaning in the lives of people? Is God growing in knowledge, learning new things or is He all knowing for all times?

J.I. Packer says in Chapter 7 of his classic work Knowing God,

"People sometimes say things that they do not really mean, simply because they do not know their own mind; also, because their views change, they frequently find that they can no longer stand behind things that they said in the past. All of us sometimes have to take back our words, because they have ceased to express what we think; sometimes we have to eat our words because hard facts refute them.

The words of human beings are unstable things. But not so the words of God. They stand forever, as abidingly valid expressions of his mind and thought. No circumstances prompt him to recall them; no changes in his own thinking require him to amend them. Isaiah writes, 'All flesh is grass...The grass withers...But the word of God will stand forever'(Is 40:6-8 RSV). Similarly, the psalmist says 'Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens...All your commands are true...You established them to last forever.' (Ps 119:89, 151-52.

The word translated true in the last verse carries with it the idea of stability. When we read our Bibles, therefore, we need to remember that God still stands behind all the promises, and demands, and statements of purpose, and words of warning, that are there addressed to New Testament believers. These are not relics of a bygone age, but an eternally valid revelation of the mind of God toward His people in all generations, so long as this world lasts."

What a mighty picture of a God who transcends time! Is God still just? Is he still merciful toward sinners? Is his gracious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ still available to men and women? Does the Holy Spirit still perform the mysterious work of convicting sinners and bringing them to salvation? Does the blood of Christ still have effect? Still today?

If so, then what a striking indictment on the popular definitions and views of what it means to be relevant. Does He fit the Merriam-Webster bill of having a significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand? You bet he does. What is at hand are the very souls of men and my friends, they will not be saved by coolness, modern music, labyrinth prayers, candles, or omitting the word "sin" from our vocabularies.

Does he also 'afford evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion' as Merriam-Webster's second definition suggests? Colossians 1:16-17 says "For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together"(ESV). Folks, allow me to say it plainly. He is the evidence of truth. The world was created for Him and by Him. All things exist and are held together by His power. Can we trust Him? Always? If your answer is yes, then He is the only thing truly relevant we need worry ourselves about.

An unchanging God for a world bound by time, He is what is relevant, what matters. Let that be the song of our lives, the cry of our hearts, and the message of our testimony as we walk in a world that desperately needs Him.