Notes on Circles in the Stream

(This is a draft of a blog post that will go up on the site in the not-so-distant future. However, because Paul uses this method on a lectionary guide (and a scripture guide), we wanted to make it available for those who are interested.)

For the past six years I’ve been a volunteer chaplain at Haywood Pathways Center, a Christian residential program for people working to turn their lives around from addiction, prison, or hard times. That work began after retirement from teaching Bible, communication, and preaching at North Park Theological Seminary.

I estimate that I’ve delivered somewhere around 300 ten-minute devotions before dinner is served. They are a required part of the schedule, but I make it a point to thank the listeners for their attention and try to make it worth their time. Some but not all of the residents identify as Christians.

Instead of starting with a life issue, putting application before exposition the way some speakers recommend, I choose to tell the biblical story. I’ve told my way through the books of Genesis, Mark, and Luke, and now I’m telling The Book of Ruth.

The story attracts and keeps their attention as it creates anticipation. What will happen next? What life lesson will emerge? I also try to engage the group with questions: Why do you think this character acted that way (or, what do you think the character will do next)? What might the character be thinking or feeling? Have you ever been in a similar situation where you had those thoughts and feelings?

For example, in telling the opening chapter of the book of Ruth, Naomi is traveling back to Israel with two Moabite daughters in law. All three are widows looking for a way to survive. Naomi doesn’t give them much hope and tells them to go back to their land, people, and gods. Then she tells the women of her home town to stop calling her Naomi (pleasant), but Mara (bitter), “for the LORD’s hand has turned against me.”

I asked the group if anyone has felt that their story is over, that there is no reason for hope, that God’s goodness is no longer a reality for them. I added that the two widows have come to Bethlehem (which means “house of bread”) and that Ruth (whose name means “friendship”) has promised to live with her as an Israelite for the rest of her life. The story is not over, I said, we still have three more chapters to tell. So too, our stories are never finished but ever unfolding (even when they seem to be unraveling).

I speak this way because I believe in the power of stories to hold attention and transform, but also because I believe the connections we hope to make with listeners are there in the stories of Scripture, waiting to be discovered. As I’ve explained in my book Circles in the Stream, preachers and teachers rightly rely on illustrations from contemporary life to bring out the life principles of Scripture, but why couldn’t a good telling of the biblical story do the same? I’ve urged students in preaching classes to try it out, first by letting the life lesson emerge from a simple telling of the story, then by integrating that kind of telling into a sermon. Often a good telling can replace the teaching part, where many drift off as they wait to hear how it speaks to their lives. It comes down to letting the reading shape the telling.

Here's how I prepare to do it. As I read the Scripture:

1. I’ll make an index of repeated and important words and images in the story. It helps me slow down and notice what the biblical writers thought was important. For example, repetition of the word hesed to describe human kindness throughout the story of Ruth becomes a reflection of God’s loving kindness.

2. I’ll look for points of identification where the story intersects with our own. Stories engage us by depicting common experiences and our reactions to them. I’ve mentioned Naomi’s despair; so also, the joyful conclusion of the book reminds us to both act and wait, trusting in God’s good intentions for us.

3. I’ll search for intertext connections with other stories and poems of Scripture, especially in the other testament. The New Testament often alludes to what has gone before, so even if I’m working in the Old Testament, there is usually a connection to be discovered. Ruth becomes an ancestor of King David and the King of Kings Jesus (along with another foreign woman in this lineage, Tamar, see Gen 38). Also, Ruth is called an eshet chayil, a woman of valor, worth, and competence. The only other occurrence of the term is in the concluding poem of The Book of Proverbs, which comes before the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew canon. Ruth is an example of the hard-working woman who models a life of wisdom.

I’m convinced that each step is a way of discovering the connections in Scripture that will connect with our hearers. I call it a literary-rhetorical approach that brings together those two streams of biblical study (think Robert Alter meets Walter Brueggemann). My primary inspiration has been the writings of Kenneth Burke, whose Rhetoric of Motives claimed, “wherever there is meaning, there is persuasion.” He saw his work as extending the rhetorical tradition of Aristotle, Cicero, and Augustine to all forms of communication, oral and written. Just as they knew that speakers make connections with audiences when they “teach, delight, and move,” Burke saw the same trio at work in Shakespeare’s plays, Thomas Mann’s novels, and Keats’s poetry. I’ve adapted that way of reading to assist our own biblical study.

Why do I believe this is important? My “why” is that giving more attention to the way we read Scripture helps us teach and preach it. If we look for connections as we read, we move closer to writing messages that connect with those who hear them.

Here’s a link to an excerpt from Circles in the Stream where I lay out this approach in more detail. The title alludes to the concentric circles of index, identification, and intertext that move out and guide us as we hone our skills of reading. The book explains the ideas behind the method and offers examples of my own study and sermons on the story of Judah, the neglected character of Genesis 37-50.

–Paul E. Koptak

We plan to post a link to the first chapter with the blog, so stay tuned!