Topical means “of immediate relevance, interest, or importance owing to its relation to current events”. The suggestion that we “preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other” is attributed to Karl Barth and is, I think, ignored at our peril. But is it a true quotation? Apparently, it stems from Barth saying, in the 1920s, to young theologians, “take your Bible and take your newspaper and read both.”
If we cannot make Scripture relevant to today and its culture, we deny that our Bible contains the living word. And one culturally relevant question to ask is: where do people access their news now? Does Barth’s quotation need to be updated? I learned from an online article headed Top 50 UK news websites these facts: 76% of people get their news from the BBC. The newspaper which sells most copies is The Sun. The third most popular news source is an interesting one: Mail Online. Is this a newspaper or not? Three paper newspapers follow, then Sky News, ITV, while Money Saving Expert is no.11. Regional newspapers appear from 14th onwards; with the Radio Times 18th, Hello magazine 26th, and WebMD 41st.
How interesting! Not only that people consume their news in such a variety of ways, but also that if we are trying to be topical, the fact that Money Saving Expert ranks higher than any regional newspaper should be influencing our church life and outreach, as well as our preaching. This puts news first and asks preachers to find the truths in the Bible. Another approach is to start with the Bible: if we do not link the story of Naomi and Ruth to refugees and economic migration, we miss an opportunity to show that these issues are unfortunately not new but that eventually good will come out of these situations. (Ruth was Jesus’ great, great, etc grandmother.)
Today I listened to the Budget speech live on television and missed one point completely. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was talking about the number of hours of childcare that a working family is entitled to. I was incensed! What about the unemployed and disabled parents? Their children are being denied early-years-education and will grow up disadvantaged. So I checked online: the two-year-olds of people on any one of seven benefits also qualify. Phew! But why assume the audience knew that? Why not stop the political sniping and give us more facts?
The main reason we need to be up-to-date with current affairs as well as studying our Bibles is to influence our prayer life.
O God, our Heavenly Father, the news is so depressing. Was it ever thus? I’m guessing it mostly was, which is why Jesus came to show us a better way: to pray, to act, to be generous, to preach the truth and to rely on your goodness for our salvation.
Jesus our Saviour, you even told those first disciples that you are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Allow what we read in the Bible to be linked in our minds and hearts with the world around us, not set thousands of years ago.
Holy Spirit, as Christians we know the blessings of opening up our deepest feelings to you, whether we are happy or sad, confused or certain, full of life or dread. Be with us as we live our lives for the blessed Trinity, Father, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.
Elaine Kinchin
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