Crushed by Culture

I've been thinking a lot about including culture and society into preaching lately. I attended the Text and Context Resurgence Conference in Seattle earlier this year and the main focus was on contextualizing Biblical principals and keeping them culturally relevant today.

I think I was fixed on the idea of including culture so much that I didn't realize that all kids get is culture. They are surrounded by it and saturating sermons and preaching with it is only giving more and more of an arrogance to youth. As a young man, I felt like old books, literature, movies, songs, etc were outdated and irrelevant. Now, I have an appreciation for them. I realize the originality, authenticity, intellectual capacity, and beauty of the "classics." Where would we be without The Illiad or Romeo and Juliet in our high school English classes? So as I've mulled over this day after day, I think the major point is this...there is nothing wrong with contextualizing Scripture, but we cannot lose it's originality. We cannot view the Bible through such an arrogant and narrow scope that it becomes irrelevant at all. Hundreds of years ago the French philosopher Voltaire said that, "in 100 years the Bible and Christianity will have passed." Unfortunately for him, fortunately for believers, it has not...not even close, and it never will. There is a reason the Bible is the most popular book ever written, sold more copies than any book ever, and is surviving today stronger than ever. It is what it is because of what it is!!! Does that make sense? :D

So as I browse Barnes and Noble and Christian book stores, I get a little frustrated when I see the Women's Inspirational Bible, the Spirit Filled Life Bible, the Bible for new believers, etc etc. We are "idiotizing" (if I can borrow from Ravi Z. for a moment) our consumers. People are becoming lazier and lazier and pretty soon only a handful of people will be able to look into Scripture insightful-ly and it will be spoon fed to the lazy majority of us who think we "don't have the time" to really study the Word.

I don't mean to sound closed minded, because I think it is great to have tools. But if we spend our days outside of the true Word of God, and I mean the Bible in a real translation...not some paraphrase or tell me what to think kind of thing...we get into real trouble. That should be the source of our information. And friends, I'll say this, because of who wrote it (not only the diversity of the 40+ authors, but the fact that it is breathed by God Himself) the book will never be irrelevant. So let us take it at what it is and truly study it, wrestle with Scripture, don't be afraid to branch out with your own thoughts. But find yourself saturated in THE BIBLE please. I hope.