Walk north in Cambridge, England upon the stone streets on King's Parade past King's College. Continue as King's Parade turns into Trinity Street as then it turns into St. John's Street. Look to your left and you will see a black, wrought iron gate and an old red brick building of antiquity. Or take the local double-decked tour bus and the guide will instruct you about the faded red-brick building behind the gate: St. John's College. She will brag on St. John's as hosting one of the famous Bible scholars of the ages: Erasmus.

Erasmus' birth date and name appear sketchy. Born between 1466-9 as Herasmus, in his later adult life he took the adopted Latinized version of Erasmus, "Desiderius." The tour guide spits out this information in the microphone as you ride the bus with the wind blowing in your face. She passes out information like an instructor in a classroom, detailing Erasmus' outstanding achievement: his celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516.

Erasmus' life, while characterized by intellect and linguistic expertise, might find his best description as wanderer. While Erasmus taught theology in the divinity school of Cambridge and served as its first Greek teacher, he had already been to Oxford, Paris, Bologna, Rome and other places before he arrived at Cambridge around 1509. He left Cambridge in 1514, most likely completing the depth of his work on the Greek New Testament while at St. John's.

I imagine Erasmus working late into the night by candle light, leaning over an old wooden desk with papyri, paper and his feather quill eagerly splashing into the ink blotter. I imagine him pouring over manuscripts, Greek words leaping off the page as he completed his New Testament edition. One might ask in this modern age, "How did Erasmus accomplish his task without Bible computer programs, fax machines and research resources like the Internet and a cell phone no further than an arm's length away?"

"And what," you might ask, "does Erasmus in Cambridge have to do with my preaching here in the freshly charged new millennium?"

Ancient Text?

Preaching today often finds its substance in story or approach or personality. A preacher searches all week to find a moving story to connect with the people. Or a preacher uses an approach like narrative preaching to keep the hearer's interest. Or a preacher's personality overpowers the Gospel message so that you remember the preacher but not the sermon. Each method maintains biblical merit.

As one who also likes a good story, who uses a narrative preaching style at times and who likes a preacher to speak with the passion of personality, I do not critique such methods in the round table discussion of preaching. What I fear, though, is that the story or the style or the personality become the starting place of preaching. Why not start with the ancient text?

For preaching to increase in substance and for the Gospel to create light in the dark crevasses of souls in this new century, preaching itself welcomes a return to preparation where preachers dig deep into the ancient texts by candlelight, Erasmus fashion.