February 16, 2014 ~ Intense from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A  sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on February 16, 2014.

I Corinthians 3:1-9
and Matthew 5:21-37

I went to college at a place called Grinnell,

a beautiful, bucolic school sitting on 120 acres of a rural Iowa town

pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

In fact, to the North and to the East you could cross the roads

that marked its boundaries and find yourself in cornfields

and maybe imagine your self in your very own

Field of Dreams movie set.

It was a wonderful place to study.

Not really a great place to get out and party,

as many college kids really need to do, too,

but somehow we made do.

Once I was in an Economics class one spring

and it was suddenly beautiful outside.

The snow from the previous weeks had melted

and the sun was out and the squirrels were frolicking

and no one, no one,

wanted to be in the classroom for class.

And the professor, bless his heart,

didn’t want to be inside either.

So he suggested that we find a comfortable spot, outside

under a tree or something,

where we could have class for the day.

And we did. Twenty five or so of us took a square of grass

and circled around the professor to discuss the lessons of the day.

And I’m not sure if it was the freedom of that setting

or the transition from winter to spring

and the fresh smell of new grass

or the obscurity of the lesson

we were ostensibly supposed to be debating

Whatever it was,

suffice it to say that we got nothing done that afternoon.

Every proposition the professor made—

students would raise their hand

and make contradictory comments.

or you could tell they weren’t listening.

Every effort to explain, another student would crack a joke

or point off to some kids playing ultimate down the hill.

It was maddening.

Finally, after about 15 minutes of effort,

the professor gave up and dismissed us

and we never tried that little experiment again.

We were never able to get serious, and to focus

and instead wasted a wonderful opportunity to learn

                                             and to grow and to stretch ourselves a little bit. [Read more…]