Years ago, I was preaching from the Old Testament book of Joshua in an Evangelical church in Indiana. My sermon tied God’s promises to his people to bring them into the land of Israel through his anointed leader, to God’s ultimate fulfillment of those promises through Jesus Christ. After the service, an older man approached and said he had really been hoping to hear a sermon on judges.
Assuming, of course, that he was referring to the next book in the Biblical canon — the Book of Judges — I immediately started enthusing about the rich Gospel themes in that book as well. The man stopped me, seemingly not knowing what I was talking about, to say, “No, I mean I wanted to hear a sermon on why these Democrats are wrong to be blocking President Bush’s judge nominations.” Oh. After a few minutes, I realized that politics seemed more real to him, more relevant, than Christological themes in the Hebrew Bible.
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