Can you tell, by watching the movie, who was president when Star Wars was released? What do you suppose was the front-page headline when Judy Garland recorded “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”? Do you know who was queen when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet? OK, it was Elizabethan times, but can you tell from the story what Parliament was up to, or if England was at war?
Those thoughts came to mind as I read Daniel Silliman’s obituary of pastor and author John MacArthur, who died Monday. Writing for Christianity Today, Silliman quotes MacArthur as saying a good sermon should still be good 50 years after it is preached.
“It isn’t time-stamped by any kind of cultural events or personal events,” MacArthur said. “It’s not about me. And it transcends not only time, but it transcends culture.”
I think the same could be said of any great work of art or other expression that speaks to the human condition. Continuing a theme from yesterday, “Thunder Road” is one of Bruce Springsteen’s greatest songs 50 years after he wrote it, in part because it tells the same truths that it did in 1975.
MacArthur was a biblical scholar who helped people understand Scripture in the context of the Bible. His best sermons will still make sense and touch people 50 years from now.
Our various means of recording and preserving words, music and art have accelerated human progress through the ages. MacArthur was in our midst for 86 years, but his impact will be felt for far longer.
That technology has even changed the meaning of that phrase, “in our midst.” I never met MacArthur and probably was rarely in the same state as he, but he was “in our midst” because of his recordings and books and such.
We live in a miraculous time. Tuesday was unbearably hot in these parts, but I didn’t break a sweat while writing these words in a climate-controlled household with central air conditioning. I read Silliman’s article on an electronic device that carried his words around the world seconds after he finished writing them.
And we are still moved by work that was preserved for us 50, 500 and 2,000 years ago by people with universal truths to share.
