Read Promiscuously

I sent an article I read in an online periodical to my friend Wes last week. It came from a source known to be liberal and Wes rightly noted where the journalist had stopped reporting and started carping. I did not agree with the article, I was just thrilled that in trying to unravel a theological topic the author had at least tried to dig a little deeper than the here and now. Even things one disagrees with tend to have some sort of a backstory. If you are trying to get your story straight, or even if you intend to twist the facts, it might help your readers a bit to dig deeper than the obvious and contemporary. 

As we do, Wes and I had a little back-and-forth (how else would a person learn anything?) about the topic and one of my answers was the following, one of my favorite parables from what has over the last 15 years become one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:47–50 ESV)

Now, I’ve never been a commercial fisherman as the Johnson and Zebedee boys were, but my grandpa taught me how to angle, and the principle is the same, even if the scale is different. You ought not, you cannot, and you will not take home every fish you catch. At some point, if you have had a successful day, you will sort out the “keepers” from the “tossers.” In fact, when fishing some ponds overcrowded with the Blue Gill (proud state fish of Illinois) it was not uncommon to just toss the ones too small to clean aside when caught. At any rate to be a fish catcher, professionally or recreationally involves fish sorting. There will be a time at the end of the day on the water when you must decide that you are not keeping the “trash” fish. And since by definition these fish are “trash” they will be trashed.

The point I was making with my friend, and which I am advancing to you now is that studying to preach can be compared to fishing. You are going to “catch more fish” than you can possibly use and some of them will be “trash” fish. If this is not regularly happening to you, you are not really studying. You are approaching your work and the tools that it takes to do the job with preconceived notions which you are simply looking to confirm. You are not seeking to engage new knowledge; you are seeking to feel comfortable with what you already know. Which is a shame. The world is complex. Knowledge is growing. How people understand the word is evolving. We must evolve with it. That means we are going to have to read deeply, widely, promiscuously. Yes, that word is designed to be provocative. It’s a good word if you react rightly. You dated before you got married. You looked around. You “fished.” Why else when we have our hearts broken would a cagey parent or adult friend say “well, there’s more fish in the sea.” It’s because Grandma, Grandpa, Zeke, or Bud—whoever was trying to comfort you knew that as soon as you got over the hurt you would put the fishing pole back on your shoulder and resume the quest.

If you are not reading things you disagree with, if you are not challenging yourself, you will not grow. If you are not wrestling with fish that you never will fry up for dinner, you’re not really fishing. If you are not walking over to the edge and peering over, you are missing both the risk and the reward of reaching beyond your comfort zones.

And this will impact your preaching. If you never write more than you can say in a particular sermon, if you never edit yourself, if you never look at a point and revise it, if you never have more on the cutting-room floor than you have in the sermon then you are already running on fumes. You are a fisherman who only catches what he can clean and eat right now. That is not a recipe for long-term success. It is the road map for disaster. 

It was not so long ago (call it 50, wait I’m 59 myself—make it 80 years ago) that the most widely read residents in most small towns were preachers. It was common for preacher-training books to recommend something like…

• Read a good daily and a good weekly newspaper.

• Read a couple of good weekly news magazines.

• Keep a novel going.

• Read poetry and criticism.

• Keep abreast of history

• Be conversant in the latest scientific developments.

That’s not even the “work” reading. Bible, Theology, Ethics, Church Administration, Congregational Life—these topics are “professional” reading. What is listed above is just keeping up with reality. In your congregation, you are the Biblical expert. If that expertise is to find some purchase in people’s hearts and minds you need to be well-read. It is never a waste of time to read. Never. You may not enjoy some of what you read. Some of it may insult you or make you angry. I’ve never eaten a Carp in my life. Just because you catch them does not mean you are obligated to eat them, just like you were not obligated to marry every girl you ever dated. 

This is important because informed people are harder to deceive. People who read widely understand that not everyone thinks the same way and that difference of opinion does not always signify moral failure. Some people are wrong, and some are uninformed. It is never good to be both. Catching many fish and becoming a qualified fish evaluator helps you to keep things in perspective. If you are to converge the horizon of the text with the horizon of living in the twenty-first century you need to keep abreast of what is going on socially and culturally. The people in your congregation are. People who work in the real world with real jobs know what’s going on. Do you?