Timeless and Timely
I’ve been posting these weekly thoughts on living for Jesus for nearly two years. This week I looked at the reader stats, and noticed that most posts draw 300 or 400 readers. But on the few weeks when I’ve waded into something political, like two weeks ago, the reader numbers doubled or tripled. Interesting.
When I was actively pastoring and preaching every week, I often pondered on whether to address some current or political event. Given the pace of news, one could do so every Sunday. But then current events and politics would be setting the agenda for the congregation, and how we learn and grow as followers of Jesus – not a good plan.
This week I was visiting with Brett Deal, the Pastor at Eternity Church. We talked about this very challenge for pastors, and he offered a distinction I found helpful: timeless and timely. The scripture offers timeless truth, but good teaching and preaching have timely applications.
Having looked back on some of my “timely” applications in years past, I’ve seen some gaps and distortions that I didn’t see at the time. As Paul put it, we see through a glass darkly. It’s not that we’re blind. With the Spirit’s help we can see how to apply the scripture to the here and now. But even with such help, we never see fully, but only through a glass darkly.
Our culture focuses almost entirely on the timely. Many don’t know about or even believe in the timeless. And the 24/7 “Breaking News” headlines have grown so intense that timely has a shelf life of about fifteen minutes, with an assumed urgency for our response. But how? It’s a flood.
A very different sort of event is coming this week. Ash Wednesday and Lent are already upon us. For centuries the church has set apart the seven weeks of Lent as a season for giving extra attention to the timeless. The Lenten disciplines enable us to focus on the timeless in ways that recalibrate our attention to the timely.
Pastors should indeed address some timely matters that are of special relevance to the Christian life. But it’s not just pastors. All who serve Jesus do well to keep an eye on how the scripture’s timeless truth bears in timely ways on our culture’s events.
And we would all do well to watch how we apportion our energies on the timely and the timeless. Think about your daily patterns. If it’s two hours of your favorite news sources and ten minutes of prayer and scripture reading, something’s amiss.
During this Lenten season, let’s give some special attention to praying for our pastors as they try to balance timeless and timely. And pray for yourself as a disciple, that you may serve God well by welcoming his timeless truth to bear on our current concerns. God bless you.