Why Relevance is Irrelevant
Abstract:
And, at some point, even those who are too cool
for school will be able to hear King Lear with new ears, even if they have to
wait until their son-in-law takes away their car keys and puts them in a nursing
home.
Body:
It used to be easy for me to get caught up in
arguments about "relevance" in preaching and teaching the Bible. As preachers,
do we make the Bible relevant to today's listeners, or, as Barth argued, do we
make today's listeners relevant to the Bible? How do we bridge the gap between
cultures?
I'm weary of it. It's a stupid discussion.
I sat in English class in high school and I listened, transfixed, as my literature professor opened the word - Shakespeare's word, not God's. As old, mad King Lear dashed through the rain with his jester and disguised protector, I, a teenage student who couldn't yet grow a beard, felt my heart break with Lear's as he wept over his loss of control, the indignity of ageing, and the death of his daughter. I remember watching Hamlet and smiling at the ironies of life, drama, and how the two intertwine. In college, my English professor sat on the edge of a student's desk and interrogated us about Wuthering Heights. "What is love?" he asked. "Would you trade places with Catherine? Why?" Those English professors taught me more about preaching than a hundred preachers arguing about "relevance."
Is King Lear relevant to today's world? Is Wuthering Heights? Sure, a million students sitting in class text-messaging their buddies about this weekend's keg party may disagree, but for anyone who has been touched by the stories the question is... irrelevant. And, at some point, those who are too cool for school will be able to hear King Lear with new ears, even if they have to wait until their son-in-law takes away their car keys and puts them in a nursing home.
"Relevance" is something that obtains in a listener when there is perceived distance between the listener and the story. When you glance at your watch during the particularly tedious fight scene or boring dialogue in a movie, when something jars you out of identifying with the protagonist, you've reached a place where you make a judgment about relevance. Even if you decide that a story is relevant, you arrrive at the decision because something caused you to step back and look at the work as a whole, then look at your culture, and note that there were more points of agreement than disagreement. If we judge something "relevant," it's because it fits - but just barely.
I saw some news footage of interviews with people coming out of the theater after seeing Star Wars: A New Hope in 1976. The media took notice of Star Wars because science fiction had been considered a niche genre. Two teenage girls came out giggling, saying the movie was terrible, because it was "too make-believe." For whatever reason - they were not able to suspend disbelief, they didn't have the required amount of testosterone, they had tiny imaginations, or they were absorbed in their own worlds of gossip and fashion - the movie did not achieve relevance. For me, of course, it was a picture of the way reality should be. I figured every kid wanted a lightsaber.
Sometimes we run up against the same disconnection with the Bible. Because of the perceived difference between Biblical culture and ours, because of the alien feel, we cannot enter into the story. We stand outside it. To some extent it is good to be aware of the difference.
Yet for some reason I can read The Kite Runner, or Dune, or the Joy Luck Club, and enter into an alien culture and even an alien person. Yes, yes, I know - that's not the same thing as understanding a culture (as if most people even understand their own culture) yet I walk away from these books transformed. Something in me changes. For many people, reading The Red Tent opened them up to the Bible in a way they had never experienced.
If we cannot do the same thing with the Bible - enter into the text and be transformed by it - it is not the Bible's fault. The Bible has transforming power. What's needed is a storyteller or a teacher who will open the Word and interrogate you with it: would you switch places with King David? with Paul? Why? Do you find this proverb convincing? Is this author speaking literally or figuratively? What's going on in this text? To fully enter into a text, to fall in love with it, you have to be willing to ask these kinds of questions. Some Christians won't because they find the questions threatening. But reading the Bible should destabilize our carefully-constructed world.
I loved listening to the commentary on the DVD of The Seven Samurai. The film professor talked about Kurosawa's technique, the anarchic fight choreography, the way the musical themes introduced certain characters, and all the innovative stuff that influenced directors for years after. He clearly loved the movie. I imagine that if you asked him if The Seven Samurai were relevant to today's culture, he might look at you as if you were insane. Talk to anyone about the thing in their life that alters their universe and ask them if it's relevant. I've listened to mechanics that can talk about an engine with such passion that it makes me want to give up preaching and go take apart a car.
I suspect that if some in our culture are "too cool for school," refusing to enter into Star Wars or Shakespeare or Spaghetti Westerns, they will not find relevance in the Bible either. For such people, even if they were to see a movie or read a book about their own life, they would most likely make the same judgment: this story is not relevant to me. Their problem is not with the relevance of the story. Their problem is that their fear of transformation prevents them from entering into the story. They will not become vulnerable.
At the same time I believe there are preachers who know intuitively that people should love the Bible, but they can't quite figure out how to spread the love. So they stand outside of the text, trying to make it fit, instead of entering into it themselves. I've done the same thing, not just with the Bible but with other areas of life. I've tried liking something because I felt I should. Eventually I give up. But when I come back to it later, and enter into it without carrying with me the image of who I believe I'm supposed to be - if, in other words, I can leave behind my baggage - I sometimes find, to my surprise, that this text, or music, or film, really rocks in an unexpected and delightful way. The problem is not relevance. The problem is me.
I think that when some preachers talk about relevance, what's really at stake is their own credibility - but I'm saving that for another post.
I'm weary of it. It's a stupid discussion.
I sat in English class in high school and I listened, transfixed, as my literature professor opened the word - Shakespeare's word, not God's. As old, mad King Lear dashed through the rain with his jester and disguised protector, I, a teenage student who couldn't yet grow a beard, felt my heart break with Lear's as he wept over his loss of control, the indignity of ageing, and the death of his daughter. I remember watching Hamlet and smiling at the ironies of life, drama, and how the two intertwine. In college, my English professor sat on the edge of a student's desk and interrogated us about Wuthering Heights. "What is love?" he asked. "Would you trade places with Catherine? Why?" Those English professors taught me more about preaching than a hundred preachers arguing about "relevance."
Is King Lear relevant to today's world? Is Wuthering Heights? Sure, a million students sitting in class text-messaging their buddies about this weekend's keg party may disagree, but for anyone who has been touched by the stories the question is... irrelevant. And, at some point, those who are too cool for school will be able to hear King Lear with new ears, even if they have to wait until their son-in-law takes away their car keys and puts them in a nursing home.
"Relevance" is something that obtains in a listener when there is perceived distance between the listener and the story. When you glance at your watch during the particularly tedious fight scene or boring dialogue in a movie, when something jars you out of identifying with the protagonist, you've reached a place where you make a judgment about relevance. Even if you decide that a story is relevant, you arrrive at the decision because something caused you to step back and look at the work as a whole, then look at your culture, and note that there were more points of agreement than disagreement. If we judge something "relevant," it's because it fits - but just barely.
I saw some news footage of interviews with people coming out of the theater after seeing Star Wars: A New Hope in 1976. The media took notice of Star Wars because science fiction had been considered a niche genre. Two teenage girls came out giggling, saying the movie was terrible, because it was "too make-believe." For whatever reason - they were not able to suspend disbelief, they didn't have the required amount of testosterone, they had tiny imaginations, or they were absorbed in their own worlds of gossip and fashion - the movie did not achieve relevance. For me, of course, it was a picture of the way reality should be. I figured every kid wanted a lightsaber.
Sometimes we run up against the same disconnection with the Bible. Because of the perceived difference between Biblical culture and ours, because of the alien feel, we cannot enter into the story. We stand outside it. To some extent it is good to be aware of the difference.
Yet for some reason I can read The Kite Runner, or Dune, or the Joy Luck Club, and enter into an alien culture and even an alien person. Yes, yes, I know - that's not the same thing as understanding a culture (as if most people even understand their own culture) yet I walk away from these books transformed. Something in me changes. For many people, reading The Red Tent opened them up to the Bible in a way they had never experienced.
If we cannot do the same thing with the Bible - enter into the text and be transformed by it - it is not the Bible's fault. The Bible has transforming power. What's needed is a storyteller or a teacher who will open the Word and interrogate you with it: would you switch places with King David? with Paul? Why? Do you find this proverb convincing? Is this author speaking literally or figuratively? What's going on in this text? To fully enter into a text, to fall in love with it, you have to be willing to ask these kinds of questions. Some Christians won't because they find the questions threatening. But reading the Bible should destabilize our carefully-constructed world.
I loved listening to the commentary on the DVD of The Seven Samurai. The film professor talked about Kurosawa's technique, the anarchic fight choreography, the way the musical themes introduced certain characters, and all the innovative stuff that influenced directors for years after. He clearly loved the movie. I imagine that if you asked him if The Seven Samurai were relevant to today's culture, he might look at you as if you were insane. Talk to anyone about the thing in their life that alters their universe and ask them if it's relevant. I've listened to mechanics that can talk about an engine with such passion that it makes me want to give up preaching and go take apart a car.
I suspect that if some in our culture are "too cool for school," refusing to enter into Star Wars or Shakespeare or Spaghetti Westerns, they will not find relevance in the Bible either. For such people, even if they were to see a movie or read a book about their own life, they would most likely make the same judgment: this story is not relevant to me. Their problem is not with the relevance of the story. Their problem is that their fear of transformation prevents them from entering into the story. They will not become vulnerable.
At the same time I believe there are preachers who know intuitively that people should love the Bible, but they can't quite figure out how to spread the love. So they stand outside of the text, trying to make it fit, instead of entering into it themselves. I've done the same thing, not just with the Bible but with other areas of life. I've tried liking something because I felt I should. Eventually I give up. But when I come back to it later, and enter into it without carrying with me the image of who I believe I'm supposed to be - if, in other words, I can leave behind my baggage - I sometimes find, to my surprise, that this text, or music, or film, really rocks in an unexpected and delightful way. The problem is not relevance. The problem is me.
I think that when some preachers talk about relevance, what's really at stake is their own credibility - but I'm saving that for another post.
Posted: Thu - February 8, 2007 at 09:52 PM |
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Personae:
All Consuming | Del.icio.us | Last.fm | MySpace | Zaadz
contact: dave at davebarnhart dot net
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Published On: Feb 13, 2007 10:16 PM
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