Is the Church Relevant?

Is the church relevant to your daily life?  Does God’s Word have a Word for you?  There have always been those who question the relevancy of churches who peach the stuffy old Word of God and sing old hymns like we sing.  Come to their “relevant” church and you will have fun and it will be relevant because its new, its you, it’s life the way you like it.  There’s a lot of clamor in our world today for something new, a departure from the “same old, same old”.  It’s true when it comes to computers and cars and technology.  You don’t stay in business if you only offer the same old thing.  You don’t stay cool with hand-me-downs and yesterday’s news.  It’s also true when it comes to religion – people want something new.

The new alternatives today really aren’t new.  Other alternatives are merely old heresies with a fresh coat of paint.  In a survey of people today, few would say they practice paganism, Gnosticism, eunomianism, enthusiasm, pharisaism.  But they do – today they go by the name of new age, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, moral relativism, and meditation.  These all share one thing in common: they are all religions of the law.  In other words, every last one of them teaches that you win salvation, gain healing, find strength, secure divine favor and receive eternal rewards by YOUR work, YOUR meditation, YOUR efforts.  It’s up to you to save yourself.  That’s not new.  That’s an old ancient doctrine that’s been around since Genesis 3 and it hasn’t saved a single person yet!

Within Christianity, many sound the call for something new.  They say we should have new worship to keep up with the times and people.  We should adopt new doctrinal positions to become more open and tolerant of other lifestyles.  We must imagine a new vision for reaching those around us. 

In the middle of all this, we gather for worship.  We speak creeds that go back more than a millennia and a half.  We sing liturgy that goes even further back.  We read Scripture lessons that make those creeds and liturgy look young.  And with all of this, we proclaim the same simple but urgent message of sin and grace!

Sin and grace.  It may not sound new to you and me, because we’ve heard it time and time again.  What should be our response to such repetition?  Sheer thankfulness and joy!  The Lord continues to shower this message of salvation upon us.  We come to worship as people with a variety of concerns, worries, and problems.  We come with blessings to celebrate.  As we worship we hear God proclaim that Jesus died on the cross to redeem us.  With that Word, the Lord declares forgiveness of those sins and struggles that trouble us.  By God’s authority, He sends the devil away.  He gives us His Word that He will use all things to our good, and that He will deliver us from this sinful world to life everlasting.

   
Jesus asked the disciples, “Will you go away?”  And Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.”  May we confess with our lives, with our worship, with our mission, that God’s Word alone has the authority to be relevant for us.