Don't solve the passage!

 I have been reading a bit more of John Cleese on creativity (A short and cheerful guide, Hutchinson / Penguin 2020) and I think it has further application to bible study and preaching. 

Cleese lauds the power of the unconscious (or maybe semi-conscious) brain. As well as deliberate analytical logical thinking, there is a slower way of thinking which ruminates or plays. This involves an openness and enjoyment which does not feel a pressure too quickly to solve things. 

Cleese suggests that decisions are often best left to the last possible moment. That way you might get new information or new ideas. 

Your sermon of course need to be ready by the time you preach it. And you need to leave yourself enough time to make sure you are really ready. An idea / approach is not enough. You need to think about how you will preach and apply the message. 

But those of us trained in sentence flow diagrams, one main point and headings might be tempted to read the text only in one analytical mode and to solve it too quickly, I think. We might do well to train ourselves to live with some uncertainty about what this text means, how its going to apply and how I'll communicate it. Our sermons may then be more engaging and creative, less formulaic. Perhaps even more true to the whole spirit of the text. 

We all want to get our sermon ready, done. I sometimes go into my day off without really knowing my approach to the sermon and it can be an anxious distraction. But I do find that I can nevertheless do some good thinking about it in the shower, when out for a walk or driving or in bed, even if I might like to put the sermon prep brain to rest for a while. 

All this is one reason why I think its always best to read the text a few times on a Monday (or as soon as possible after your last sermon). Even if you don't manage to do any great work on the text, the mental wheels can perhaps begin to turn and the passage can gestate. A sermon might grow while the farmer sleeps, he knows not how.