Craddock on Preaching

I try to read a book on preaching about once a year, just to see what other people are saying, and to re-energize my own preaching. This year, though, I'm watching a set of videos I scored from the Presbytery office. They were among the leftovers from when we maintained a resource center.

Anyway, the videos are a series of lectures the legendary Fred Craddock gave in 1986. The first was "getting into the text," and the second, "getting out of the text." In the latter, he talks about something I had never considered: the fear of interpretation. He noted that there are some preachers who say, "I don't interpret the Bible, I just tell people what it says." And of course we should be legitimately concerned lest we substitute our interpretation for the meaning of the text. But Craddock emphasizes that interpretation is an essential part of our calling as pastors and preachers, as it is of many callings.

Parents, for example, interpret to their children all the time. "What's that noise?" "It's just the wind making the tree branch brush against the window. Go back to sleep." Doctors interpret all the time. "I've had this pain in the small of my back for about two months now. What is it?" Craddock says that an uninterpreted pain is the worst pain of all. If I know it's cancer, I can deal with it. It's not knowing that's the hard part, and we need the doctor's interpretation.

In case we're not convinced, Craddock goes on to point out that Scripture interprets Scripture. It's the living text of Scripture, and the work of the Holy Spirit, that keeps us from substituting our own interpretation for what the Bible actually says--at least on our best days.