Book Review: Circles in the Stream
Circles in the Stream: Index, Identification, & Intertext: Reading and Preaching the Story of Judah in Genesis 37–50
Paul E. Koptak
Foreword by Rebekah Eklund
Wipf and Stock, 2022, 148 pages
Paul Koptak served for many years as a professor of homiletics and Old Testament at North Park Theological Seminary, and he brings his passion for the scriptures and good preaching together in his excellent book, “Circles in the Stream.” Koptak coaches his readers to follow the pattern of literary critic Kenneth Burke. First, serious Bible readers should start by indexing the text, circling and connecting similar words and writing themes in the margins. Second, they should look for points of identification, finding ways to communicate the story with the felt needs of a congregation or class. Third, they should find points of intertext: similar stories from the scriptures that shed light on the text.
Koptak uses the story of the patriarch Judah to illustrate this method. To define indexing the text, he begins with the troubling story of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar. Then he moves to the story of Judah and Joseph to explain the task of identification. Finally, Koptak uses the story of Judah and his brothers with their father Jacob to illustrate the task of intertexting, studying and explaining the relationship between different texts.
Paul Koptak was one of my homiletics professors at North Park. Reading his book reminded me of wonderful lessons from 30 years ago. I followed Koptak’s pattern of preparation for a recent sermon on Luke 4:14-30. His suggestions helped me slow down my sermon preparation and read the text in greater depth.
The first step was to index the text. I completed the suggested cluster analysis of repeated words. I was struck by the frequency of the words “prophet,” “synagogue,” “spirit,” and “scripture/scroll/proverb.” Second, I looked for contradictions in the text. I noticed the tension between the call of scripture and the opposing themes of hypocrisy and xenophobia. Third, I analyzed progressive form. I noticed how Jesus stirred the pot, alienating his hometown crowd through his mission to save neighbors and foreigners. Fourth, I looked at transformation. I paid close attention to how Jesus became a true prophet, afflicting the comfortable to comfort the afflicted.
The next step was identification, finding ways for divided people to come together in their understanding of the text. When I gave my sermon on January 19, 2025, there was a terrible fear in Chicago. The next day would be Inauguration Day. Chicago had been targeted by the incoming administration as a place to find and deport immigrants. One great difficulty in preaching these days is to find a way to get people of different political persuasions to submit to the text together. Luke 4:14-30 compels the preacher to speak prophetically to the congregation. But, unlike Jesus, preachers are not free from hypocrisy. And preachers cannot miraculously avoid getting tossed off a cliff when provocation goes too far. They must carefully consider just how far they can move their congregations.
I considered appeals to common experience. Ravenswood Covenant Church aspires to be united in our devotion to scripture, just like Jesus’ synagogue in Nazareth. I considered appeals to common interest. Ravenswood Covenant, like Jesus’ synagogue in Nazareth, could use a fresh gust of the Holy Spirit—I hope that we can be more faithful in following the Spirit of Jesus. I also considered transformed identity in the text. Jesus moved from being the hometown hero to an alienated prophet in the wilderness because of his love for foreigners. I looked at how identity is constructed and portrayed in the text. Jesus reminded his synagogue in Nazareth, along with every Christian congregation that reads Luke 4:14-30, that God’s love extends to all people, especially the foreigners living among us.
My third and final step was to pay attention to intertextual connections. Reading similar passages in the Bible helps avoid a myopic approach to the text you are preaching. Luke says that Jesus read the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue, specifically verses 61:1-2 and 58:6. Jesus referenced 1 Kings 17:7-24, preaching that the Prophet Elijah fed a foreign widow, and 2 Kings 5:1-27, reminding his congregation that the prophet Elisha healed a foreign general. And he lifted up Deuteronomy 10:18—the Lord “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you.”
As we read further in Luke, we see that the text is a helpful key in understanding Jesus’ miraculous healings and his outreach to foreigners. In Luke 7:22 he tells us that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” In Luke 7:1-10, Jesus healed the servant of the Centurion, another foreigner. He healed a demon-possessed foreigner in Luke 8:26-33. Jesus healed ten lepers, one of them a foreigner, in Luke 17:11-19. Only the foreigner returned to give thanks. The Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul confirm Christ’s mission was to welcome the foreigner as full members of God’s household.
Koptak’s suggestions were highly useful in the preparation for my sermon on January 19 and for those that followed. I was grateful to change my typical sermon preparation routine, and grateful to reconsider how Paul Koptak and other professors at North Park Theological Seminary continue to guide and teach me.
I heartily recommend Paul Kotak’s book. This slim volume is an ideal textbook for an introduction to preaching. It will be helpful to a Bible study class wanting to go deeper. It is a good resource for lay leaders on how to study the Bible as they prepare for small groups. You don’t need a seminary degree or previous experience with literary criticism to appreciate this book. “Circles in the Stream” is both scholarly and easily understandable.