This past weekend at Eastbrook, we contimued our preaching series, “Fractured,” drawn from Genesis 4-11. This is the second part of a two-part series on Genesis 1-11 that will stretch from January through Lent up to Easter. You can access the first part of this series on Genesis, “In the Beginning,” here. This third week of the series I preached from Genesis 6:9-8:1, walking through the first part of the flood narrative with Noah and his family.
You can find the message outline and video below. You can access the entire series here. Join us for weekend worship in-person or remotely via Eastbrook at Home.
“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” (Genesis 6:11-12)
A New Generation (6:9a)
The story of Genesis as a story of God working across the generations
The ten toledot of Genesis
The generation of Noah and his family
Leads up to 10:1 with the generation of Noah’s children
The Tension Between Noah and His Generation (6:9-12)
Noah as righteous, blameless, and walking with God
Noah’s generation as corrupt and full of violence
The Tension Between God and a Disordered World (6:13-22)
God’s heart vexed by what God sees
God’s judgment on corruption, violence, disorder
Two asides
about comparable ancient stories of a flood
about dates, times, geography, and expansiveness of the flood
The Tension Between God’s Judgment and God’s Mercy (7:1-24)
The Cataclysmic Nature of God’s Judgment
The Generative Nature of God’s Mercy
Dig Deeper
This week dig deeper in one or more of the following ways:
Memorize Genesis 6:18 or 8:1
Draw, ink, or paint this first half of the story of the Flood in Genesis 6:9-8:1. As you do that, consider what God is speaking to you about your own heart. When you finish, consider sharing your prayer reflections and/or artistry with a friend.
Read through other references to Noah in the Bible: 1 Chronicles 1:1-27; Isaiah 54:8-10; Ezekiel 14:12-23; Matthew 24:36-41; Luke 3:23-38; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:19-22; 2 Peter 2:4-10.
This past weekend at Eastbrook, we contimued our preaching series, “Fractured,” drawn from Genesis 4-11. This is the second part of a two-part series on Genesis 1-11 that will stretch from January through Lent up to Easter. You can access the first part of this series on Genesis, “In the Beginning,” here. This second week of the series I preached from Genesis 4:17-6:8, walking through the expanding cycle of disorder from Adam and Eve up to the life of Noah.
You can find the message outline and video below. You can access the entire series here. Join us for weekend worship in-person or remotely via Eastbrook at Home.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5)
The Internal Conflict of Humanity (4:17-26)
Cain and future human accomplishment: a city, technology, the arts
Lamech: a representative of vengeance beyond Cain
Seth: a new beginning and the worship of the Lord God
The Generations (5:1-32)
The story of Genesis as a story of God working across the generations (toledot)
The generation from Adam to Noah
Examples to explore:
Enoch who walked with God
Lamech and his son, Noah
The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men (6:1-4)
Who are the sons of God?
Godly descendants of Seth versus descendants of Cain?
Angelic beings of some sort?
Dynastic tyrants descended from Lamech?
The absolute contamination of even the best humanity
The Response of God to the Expansion of Evil (6:5-8)
God sees
God grieves
God acts
God extends favor
Dig Deeper
This week dig deeper in one or more of the following ways:
Memorize Genesis 5:1-2 or 6:5
Consider reading the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapters 1-7, as a helpful background about the expansion of evil in the human race
When I conclude a sermon series, I usually share the resources I used to help me study and prepare my sermons. Here is the second of two bibliographies for our recently completed series, “The Kingdom of God” (you can find the first one here). This bibliography has a backstory.
Before the pandemic we had a two-week series entitled “Faith and Politics” on the schedule with guest speakers NT Wright and Vince Bacote. As an extension site for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School we worked on a wraparound class for that series and I helped develop the first bibliography and reading list for that class, which was the genesis for what I’m sharing below.
As the pandemic accelerated, NT Wright was unable to travel in April (we rescheduled him for 2021) and we delayed the series on politics. I eventually re-worked the two week series on faith and politics into a broader five-week series on the kingdom of God. Thankfully, we were still able to have Vince Bacote join us and you can watch his lecture, as well as a follow-up Q&A, here: “The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life.”
It should go without saying that I do not agree with the perspective shared within all of these works. However, many of them which I disagree with are still important for any discussion of faith and politics.
Bibliography for “Faith and Politics”
Augustine.City of God. Edited and translated by R. W. Dyson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (1278 pages – Augustine’s magisterial exploration of the relationship between the city of God and the city of earth)
Robert Benne. Good and Bad Ways to Think About Religion and Politics. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010. (120 pages – written out of frustration with current failures of thinking, Benne offers some core convictions about Christian political engagement and how that should shape public policy and political action)
________, ed. Five Views on the Church and Politics. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015. (240 pages – part of Zondervan’s Counterpoints series, this book offers outlines of political thought from Anabaptist, African America, Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed perspectives, with responses to each outline by others)
Gregory A. Boyd. The Myth of a Christian Nation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. (207 pages – written around the 2004 election, Boyd’s central thesis is “a significant segment of American evangelicalism is guilty of nationalistic and political idolatry”)
John Calvin. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007. (1059 pages – Calvin’s treatment of law and government were defining for Protestant theology since his time)
D. A. Carson. Christ and Culture Revisited. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012. (255 pages – an evangelical New Testament scholar offers a revision of Niebuhr’s typology of Christian cultural engagement with a chapter on church and state)
William T. Cavanaugh, Jeffrey W. Bailey, Craig Hovey. An Eerdmans Reader in Contemporary Political Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012. (836 pages – a collection of 49 readings from key thinkers on political theology in the past couple centuries)
Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. Jesus for President. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008. (355 pages – the authors offer a progressive evangelical theology that critiques American Christianity’s subjugation to empire)
Andy Crouch. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013. (284 pages – while not strictly about politics, Crouch offers a modern approach to broader cultural engagement for evangelicals)
Patrick J. Deneen. Why Liberalism Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. (264 pages – an evaluation of why liberalism – in contrast to communism and fascism – is the only remaining viable ideology of the 20th century, but also how inherent features of the success of liberalism are generating its own failure)
Jacques Ellul. The Subversion of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986. (222 pages – Ellul was an influential and iconoclastic 20th century thinker, and this book specifically looks at the deviation between the life of the Church and the teachings of Jesus)
________. Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018. (238 pages – a historian’s evaluation of factors, particularly a politics of fear, that contributed to 80% of white evangelicals voting for Donald Trump)
Frances Fitzgerald. The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017. (740 pages – a Pulitzer-prize winning historian offers an insightful history of how evangelicalism has shaped American culture and politics)
Greg Forster. The Contested Public Square: The Crisis of Christianity and Politics. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008. (254 pages –introduces the history of Christian political thought traced out in Western culture—a culture experiencing the dissolution of a long-fought-for consensus around natural law theory)
Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon. Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, expanded 25th anniversary edition. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2014. (198 pages –a prophetic vision of how the Church can regain its vitality, battle its malaise, reclaim its capacity to nourish souls, and stand firmly against the illusions, pretensions, and eroding values of today’s world)
Willie James Jennings. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. New Haven: Yale U. P., 2010. (384 pages – a look at the concept of race and the way it shapes our theology and approach to many issues, including politics)
George Kalantzis and Gregory W. Lee, eds. Christian Political Witness. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014. (240 pages – a collection of essays on biblical, historical and theological proposals for thinking responsibly about the intersection of church and state in the contemporary cultural situation)
Martin Luther King, Jr. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2003. (736 pages – a collection of the most important writings and speeches by the premier leader of the American civil rights movement, including his invaluable “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”)
Richard J. Mouw. Political Evangelism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973. (111 pages – Mouw reflects on the inadequacies of separatism and activism, while also pointing to an alternative of appropriate political engagement as part of the evangelistic – outward – activity of the church)
Reinhold Niebuhr. Major Works on Religion and Politics. Library of America. New York: Library of America, 2015. (850 pages – Niebuhr was one of the premier thinkers of the early 20th century and his political thought continues to influence writers and practitioners, including Barack Obama)
H. Richard Niebuhr. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. (259 pages – this classic work provided the most enduring typology for evaluating Christian engagement with culture since its publication)
Richard John Niehaus. The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984. (280 pages – long-time author and founder of the journal First Things, Niehaus offers a conservative evangelical vision of political engagement)
Mark A. Noll. God and Race in American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. P., 2008. (226 pages – the premier historian of American evangelicalism evaluates the way that religion and race have factored into American politics)
Oliver O’Donovan. The Desire of Nations: Rediscovering the roots of political theology. New York: Cambridge U. P., 1996. (304 pages – a work of systematic Christian political thought, combining Biblical interpretation, historical discussion of the Western political and theological tradition, theoretical construction and critical engagement with contemporary views)
________ and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan.From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999. (858 pages – a reference tool that provides an overview of the history of Christian political thought with selections from second century to the seventeenth century)
C. C. Pecknold. Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2010. (196 pages – a brief guide to the history of Christianity and politics, showing how early Christianity reshaped the Western political imagination with its new theological claims about eschatological time, participation, and communion with God and neighbor)
Elizabeth Phillips. Political Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: Continuum Boos, 2012. (208 pages – This is a concise and accessible advanced introduction which distinguishes various approaches to political theology, and which explores several of the central issues addressed in political theologies)
Ronald J. Sider and Diane Knippers, editors. Toward an Evangelical Public Policy: Political Strategies for the Health of the Nation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005. (380 pages – a collection of essays from a broadly evangelical perspective, ranging from theological to practical; Nicholas Wolterstorff’s essay, “Theological Foundations for an Evangelical Political Philosophy” is a highlight)
James K. A. Smith. Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017. (256 pages – the third part of Smith’s cultural liturgies series offers an Augustinian model for engaging the current political situation in our culture that is rooted in worship)
Howard Thurman. Jesus and the Disinherited. Boston: Beacon Press, 1976. (128 pages – demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised because of Jesus entrance into the pain of the oppressed)
Tom Wright. God in Public: How the Bible speaks truth to power today. London: SPCK, 2016. (190 pages – a little known work of NT Wright that, while somewhat English in application, offers an approach to biblical theology that throws fresh light on political and ethical problems of our day)
Miroslav Volf. A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2011. (192 pages – Volf writes a lot about human flourishing and the common good, and this book serves as a good introduction to his line of thinking and practice on these issues)
Jim Wallis. God’s Politics. New York: Harper Collins, 2005. (384 pages – long-time author and editor of Sojourners, Wallis offers a progressive evangelical vision of political engagement)
John Howard Yoder. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1972. (260 pages – Yoder’s classic outline of an Anabaptist view of cultural engagement has shaped many thinkers up to this day)
After many of my preaching series, I enjoy sharing a bibliography that I used to help prepare for that series. Sometimes they are wide-ranging, such as the series on the life of Joseph, while at other times they are more clearly bounded by one specific topic, such as the series on prayer.
Here is the resource bibliography that accompanies my recent preaching series, “Daniel: Apocalyptic Imagination and Exile Faith.” Although I utilized many books or resources for specific messages within this series, I did not include all of those in this bibliography. Instead, I limited it to books I utilized through the series. The books I found particularly helpful are marked with an asterisk.
Bibliography on the book of Daniel:
Joyce Baldwin. Daniel: An Introduction and Commentary.Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1978. [This volume in The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series was recently replaced with a new volume by Paul R. House, which was released this November. Baldwin’s commentary is still a wonderful resource.]
*John E. Goldingay. Daniel. WBC. Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1989.
W. D. Tucker, Jr. “Daniel: History of Interpretation.” In Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets. Mark J. Boda & J. Gordon McConville, eds. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012.
Apocalyptic literature takes its name from the Greek word ἀποκάλυψις (apokalupsis), which literally means ‘uncovering’ or ‘unveiling.’ As some of us may already know, the last book of the Bible, translated with the title ‘Revelation,’ draws its name from the first word of the book, which is this very word ‘ἀποκάλυψις.’ Unfortunately, our reading of Revelation as speaking of the future often confuses us about apocalyptic literature in general.
Andrew Hill describes apocalyptic literature as:
‘crisis’ literature, typically conveying specific messages to particular groups of people caught in in dire situations. . . . Visionary literature announces an end to the way things are and opens up alternative possibilities to the audience as a result of God’s impending intervention in human affairs. Three types of messages are usually associated with the visionary literature of the Bible: (1) a message of encouragement to the oppressed; (2) a warning to the oppressor; and (3) a call to faith for those wavering between God’s truth and human ‘wisdom.’[1]
Reality is often hidden from our ordinary perception, so apocalyptic literature unveils what is truly happening with the simultaneous aim of encouragement, warning, and exhortation. Apocalyptic is not primarily about the future; it is primarily about the cosmic reality underlying all of human history. This is why Daniel Block tells us that “the intention of apocalyptic is not to chart out God’s plan for the future so future generations may draw up calendars tub to assure the present generation that — perhaps contrary to appearance — God is still on the throne (cf. Dan 7:18, 21-22, 27; 8:25; 12:1-4), and that the future is firmly in his hands.”[2]
What often leads us into the drafting of calendars and the drawing of charts from apocalyptic literature is the dramatic symbolism and the critique that does exist of kings and kingdoms. As adults, particularly in a results-oriented, project-management culture, we often lose our imagination about life. This diminishment of imagination ruins us for hearing the voice of God in the midst of apocalyptic. With apocalyptic literature in His hands, God wants to blow a hole in our stultified imagination so that we can see reality with apocalyptic eyes and consider reality with apocalyptic minds and hearts. Daniel, Ezekiel, and John the Revelator all stand as guides into the apocalyptic imagination necessary to live out our faith as exiles in a world and cultures where we are most definitely not at home.
Tremper Longman, in his commentary on Daniel, outlines six key themes of Daniel’s apocalyptic visions, found in the second half of the book:
the horror of human evil, particularly as it is concentrated in the state
the announcement of a specific time of deliverance
repentance that leads to deliverance
the revelation that a cosmic war stands behind human conflict
judgment as certain for those who resist God and oppress his people
the equally certain truth that God’s people, downtrodden in the present, will experience new life in the fullest sense[3]
Those themes spin around like the wheels of Ezekiel’s visions in the metaphors and images, the dreams and the visions, of Daniel, chapters 7-12. As we read through those chapters we want to keep these themes in mind and let God enliven our imagination through what we encounter. While we should rightly grapple with what each symbol or metaphor represents, we also do not want to become rigorously attached to either outlining plans that are not clearly in the book or woodenly interpreting symbolism that intends to destabilize our ability comprehend. Instead, let us, to borrow a phrase from C. S. Lewis’ description of how George MacDonald’s fantasy writing in Phantastes affected him, allow Daniel to “baptize our imagination” into grasping exilic faith with a force and freshness we have not yet known.
[1] Andrew E. Hill, “Daniel,” in Daniel-Malachi, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Rev. Ed., Vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 131.
[2] Daniel I. Block, “Preaching Old Testament Apocalyptic,” CTJ 41/1 (2006), 52.
[3] Tremper Longman III, Daniel NIVAC (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), 178-179.
Renovate 