Churchgoers will readily agree: in church, we expect a sermon to be relevant and current. However, the agreement quickly ends when we try to determine the precise characteristics of a current sermon. Does the word current here mean the same as the current events with which the media presents us? Is a sermon current, when it deals extensively with political and social issues? Or should we remain closer to home and discover in the sermon all sorts of examples from everyday life? Or, perhaps, should the actual situation of the congregation be addressed in the sermon?

When thinking about the sermon as relevant and contemporary, we find ourselves wondering about questions such as these. On the one hand, these questions should not surprise us. After all, the sermon is not a timeless discourse. Yet, on the other hand, in such discussions we risk that our own feelings and views of the world become the guiding criteria for evaluating the sermon. It will take little persuasion to recognize that this could result in the rejection of much that, according to God's measuring rod, should be considered current and relevant.

The Bible and the sermon⤒🔗

To test our expectations, let us apply them to the Bible. No, the Bible and sermon are not interchangeable, but they may be considered from the same perspective.

When reading the Bible, we do not expect a message which gets its meaning from the actual situation we find ourselves in. On the contrary, we realize that we are reading words which were written more than twenty centuries ago. Yet we do not draw the conclusion that the Bible, therefore, is concerned with a message which is of no importance to us.

Nevertheless, people often complain that the Bible means nothing to them when they read it. It means so little, they say, because its message seems to come from a radically different world. Since our experience is unrelated to what we read in the Bible, we find it almost impossible to relate the two. For this reason, many people find it difficult to acknowledge that God indeed speaks to us today in His Word.

It is an easy and obvious step to desire, on the basis of such feelings, a sermon which translates the ancient message of the Bible into a message for today. A current sermon is thus one which redresses the old message in a contemporary form. In this sense the sermon in fact rewrites the Bible to make its message relevant to the situations today.

Is or become←⤒🔗

We have reached an important question, namely, Is the gospel relevant, or does it become relevant today as it is passed on in the preaching? Without discussing in depth the theological background, it will be clear that the answer to this question is critically important for our understanding of the sermon as relevant and current.

There is no difference of opinion among us concerning the answer to this question. The Bible is relevant for today because in it God speaks to us. He thought of the generations to come, including our own generation, when He caused the apostles and the prophets to write down His Word.¹

The Bible is not a book whose message remained hidden in the time of its creation. Indeed, the gospel breaks through all time barriers. We only need to remember that the life of the whole New Testament congregation falls fully within the expectation of the imminent return of Christ The relevance of the Bible for today has, therefore, always been emphasized.

It will be good to underscore this once again. I have found that many people find it difficult to read the Bible as relevant to their own situation and experience. They wonder in confusion what many Bible passages might mean to them.

Of course, we do live in a time in which people continually demand to know the relevance of what you say. When we try to answer that question from our twentieth century understanding and with our western minds, then we will produce an incredibly meagre answer. Everyone will recognize this, when we think of "tomorrow" which will follow "today." Tomorrow many changes will take place; other things will determine the face of the world and occupy the thoughts of the people. What was current and relevant yesterday seems so much less important today. Considering this, our thoughts and relevance and importance are tempered considerably, and we will begin to speak much more carefully.

The Bible teaches us to acknowledge the riches of its message which encompasses all ages. When we try to speak of relevance and importance within the context of this rich and enduring message of the Bible, we must consider much more than what we see today with our limited human vision. This is not only so because God's Word has sufficed for God's children throughout all the ages, also in times other than our own. The Bible's message is so rich and enduring because in this Word God makes Himself known to His people. His grace is relevant and important in our lives. This relevance cannot be measured in terms of our limited, time-bound understanding; it is determined by God's eternal purpose.

It will not harm us to think about this when reading the Bible or listening to a sermon! It will protect us against the danger of limiting, perhaps even belittling what God wants to give us.

Those who want to hear only a contemporary message will lose sight of that which is for all ages.

The address←⤒🔗

It will be clear that the eternal Word and the actual congregation are not two equals between which the sermon must unfold. The source of the sermon is the Word of God, not the congregation. The relevance of the sermon is, therefore, not determined by the situation within the congregation, but by that Word. For this reason I do not believe in selecting the sermon text on a weekly basis, in response to certain happenings and preceived needs in the congregation.² The minister who selects his text in this way will find his sermon "in the congregation." In this case his understanding of the situation of the congregation determines the relevance of the sermon. The risk is great that minister and congregation become quite shortsighted when they are busy with the gospel in this way.

The question arises: What is the address of the sermon? The sermon is directed to a particular congregation at a specific moment in time. The previous discussion does not imply that the congregation, as the address, is of no importance to the sermon. The Bible shows us how apostles and prophets carefully directed and focused the message which they were called to bring to God's people. However, the relevance of the message is not found in that focusing, but in the Word itself. Only in this way will we find a starting point for a relevant, topical, contemporary sermon.

Here we have found the framework for the sermon, but within this framework the message needs to be directed and further focused. Since a sermon is the ministering of the Gospel, we may expect such focus and direction.

Contemporary←⤒🔗

The question about the direction and focus of the sermon is related to the whole worship service. We believe that the worship service is an important meeting with God within His covenant relationship with His people. Therefore it is most important that this meeting is not a strange, unusual event in the life of the congregation. Further, the God who comes to the congregation with His eternal Word is and wants to be her God today. In this way the worship service becomes a real meeting of the Head of the church and His people.

What happens in the church has everything to do with what happens in the world, because the Head of the church is the King of this world. This means that the worship service cannot and may not be a place of isolation where the congregation withdraws herself from this world. The congregation needs to learn this fact in the church. She must clearly understand that the worship service has everything to do with the everyday life of the congregation. We may expect that within the framework of the relevance of the gospel, the message of the sermon is clearly focused on our own time and situation.

In church, we may expect a contemporary sermon. What is contemporary? This concept demands further explanation. Many things and ideas present themselves as contemporary. However, within the framework of our discussion I may identify at least two aspects: the sermon will have a date and it will have an address.

First, the date of the sermon is important. Of course, not in the sense that a week earlier or later matters. What matters is that the sermon is clearly related to the times in which the congregation lives. The congregation must learn to understand what it means to live as congregation of Christ in the 1990s. She must learn to discern what moves today's world, and in particular what motivates the people of today. Every day the congregation finds herself eye to eye with the world. It becomes vitally important that she will be able to discern clearly what is and what is not from God. She must be enabled to deal with today's questions in word and deed. Therefore we may expect the sermon to provide insights which help the believers to discern what is of importance in their lives before God in today's world. This understanding results in sermons with a date, and that is certainly no disadvantage! It shows clearly the difference between the Bible and a sermon. The Canon of the Bible is complete. However, since every new period places new demands on the congregation to live in the world of that day, our ministers continue to make new sermons.

Not only is the date of the sermon important, also its address needs our attention. The sermon does not direct itself "to whom it may concern," but to a particular congregation. In the sermon, instruction and pastoral care go hand in hand. It is remarkable that the message of the apostolic epistles and the letters to the seven congregations is so clearly addressed to particular congregations. Thus, the message of the gospel is not determined by the congregation, but it is applied concretely to the situation of that particular congregation.

Application←⤒🔗

We came across a word which is often used in connection with the sermon: the application. I realize that this is a topic about which much more could be said. I leave much undiscussed, since it is not my intention to be complete, but rather to provide some assistance when we speak about the sermon. Therefore I can only make a few remarks in the context of these articles.

Many consider the application the most important factor in judging a sermon. In this way the sermon's application becomes somewhat of a hallmark of a relevant, worthwhile sermon. Such reasoning is based on the misconception that the message becomes relevant only if it is applied to our time and our situation. Perhaps certain practices have encouraged such thinking. For quite a long time sermons were often based on the principles of explanation and application.

Such sermons would first explain in detail the text itself. Then they would continue with the application in which the message-for-today was spelled out. In times past these two segments of the sermon were often separated by congregational singing of an appropriate psalm or hymn.

It should not surprise us when such practices lead to a lack of understanding and appreciation of the worship service as a meeting with the Lord. These practices suggest that before the congregation really can hear in the preached Word how the Lord gives Himself; the Word needs to be actualized, applied to the present situation.

The application of the sermons should never be a separate section of the sermon, as if only this segment is important for today. If this is done, the impression is given that sermons are current only in as much as they deal with political, social, or ecclesiastical "current events." Neither should the sermon attempt to "address" the congregation with a wide range of practical examples taken from the life of the congregation.

Such practices do not guarantee the relevance and value of the sermon for today. For a sermon to have a date, it does not need to deal extensively with the issues of the moment. What is necessary is that a sermon builds up a Christian perspective on such current questions and issues.

In order for the sermon to have a clear address, it is not necessary that it deals in depth with the problems of the particular congregation. A sermon with a clear address provides the congregation with concrete help and support in dealing with matters of concern.

Therefore, the sermon's application cannot be a loose-leaf addition to the discussion of the text. We may expect that, throughout the exposition of the text, a contemporary sermon shows how the eternal Word of God must be applied in our situation and in our time.