Text: Dr. Drew Crain’s baccalaureate address to the MC Class of 2021
Maryville College Professor of Biology Dr. Drew Crain delivered the baccalaureate sermon to the Maryville College Class of 2021 on May 9, 2021. Here is the full text of his sermon, titled “Slow Down and Love Others More Deeply.”
Thank you, President Coker and class of 2021 for the invitation to deliver this year’s Baccalaureate address. Know that I am certainly humbled at this honor.
First, a few movie quotes…
“I am speed. One winner. 42 losers. I eat losers for breakfast.” Anybody recognize the quote? Pixar’s Cars.
“I feel the need… the need for speed!”…Again…a quote from a movie from my childhood… That was Maverick and Goose from Paramount’s Top Gun.
Today, I’m going to speak of “the need for speed” … or, rather, the lessons that we have learned over the past year about the perceived need for speed.
To say that this past academic year has been tough is a gross understatement, we all know that. We have lost a beloved professor in Gina Benedict, and we lost student and celebrated veteran Matt Malone; in addition, many of us have lost someone close to us. And we have all lost face-to-face interaction time with so many people. These tragic losses are heavy indeed but, as a Christian, I am convinced that for every rough patch that we go through in life, we should learn something from it and use the struggles to better our local and global community. I pray that today I can give a bit of encouragement and hope.
Let’s go back to the perceived “need for speed.” For the past 7 or 8 decades, our society has thrived on speed. Technology (which is really just the applied use of my discipline, Science) has increased exponentially in my lifetime. For instance, the computational capacity in one of your phones is greater than the capacity that NASA had when it sent Apollo 11 to the moon. But, as poet and novelist Wendell Berry has said, perhaps we need to repent of the speedy technological gains that have led to more harm than good.
As a professor of Biology, you might think that I would at this point turn to some scientific studies that have been done on the plight of technological advances. But if I am to be honest, I must admit that I have learned a lot more about life from my friends and family than from books, journal articles, or Google. For instance, consider a lesson I learned from my colleague and friend Kim Trevathan. Twenty years ago, when Kim was 40, he travelled the entire distance of the Tennessee river in a canoe with his dog! And he wrote a book about it, and it was a good book. But 20 years later, when Kim turned 60, he decided to take his dog on a canoe trip UP the Tennessee river, literally paddling upstream for 652 miles. I think of myself as a very passionate and adventurous guy, but paddling upstream through 4 states? That’s seems pretty crazy.
But Kim’s new book reveals stories of a slower trip going upstream. During his slower trip, he discovered MANY, many more things than he did going downstream. Indeed, his trip revealed that slowing down, noticing things closely, and appreciating those with whom we come into contact are vital virtues.
Trevathan took his trip three years ago, and his book was released during the pandemic. But because of the pandemic, we have learned the same lesson: slowing down can bring good, because slowing down causes us to recognize, reflect and truly connect with those around us. We need true interconnectedness and slowing down can bring that. Using a Greek word, we need philia. Just to reinforce this idea that slowing down is good, I want to do a little responsive game. I’m going to say a word or phrase and you either give a positive cheer or an angry groan through your mask. This is one of those psychology tests where you see if a word has a positive or negative connotation. So, cheer if good, Boo if bad.
The first word: MASSAGE (Think of the relaxation brought by a good, slow massage)
The second: EASTER SUNRISE (As we all know, sunrises happen slowly, and they are beautiful.)
And third: ZOOM. (Enough said). You see, the need for speed is not virtuous.
Jesus taught the need to slow down and focus on others so clearly.
What I would like to do is to take you back to a night 2000 years ago, a night in Jerusalem in a large upper room. This was a night where Christ was sharing an evening with his best friends, the apostles.
Now Matthew, Mark and Luke tell two things about this evening…First, they describe the Lord’s supper where Jesus changed the traditional Jewish elements of unleavened bread and wine to refer to his own body and blood. We know this story well, it’s the story of the Lord’s supper. Second, Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell of Jesus calling out Judas for being a traitor.
But in John’s gospel, the story of this night is delivered very differently, and that is what I would like to focus on. The Gospel of John is certainly different from the other “synoptic gospels.” In Christian iconography, John is depicted as the Eagle, as the one that see’s things clearly from above. Indeed, in the book of John, we see a story of Jesus not focused on events or chronology, but on the “why” Jesus was on Earth. John certainly gives us an eagle’s eye view.
So on this night, John doesn’t even mention the Lord’s supper. How odd is that? Yet, he tells of a totally different event. An event so mundane that it is silly to even discuss…except that John does…and that is heavy… Let me read of this event from the Message translation by Eugene Peterson. This is John 13: 1-17.
Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
“Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
I think there are three key lessons that we can learn from this scripture: (1) Jesus shows us that slowing down is healthy, (2) Jesus cared deeply for his friends, and (3) Jesus cares for us deeply.
First, we recognize that we need to slow down! Jesus took time to gather with his close friends. Think about it, he was never in a great hurry. Jesus ate and sat around campfires with his friends, both before and after his death and resurrection. And I don’t think this is because of the time in which he lived; I think it’s because he was illustrating a trait of someone that has a flourishing life.
Indeed, we need to shed the need for speed, but that is certainly easier said than done. What could this look like? Well, how about this summer, instead of getting in a car and speeding to a grocery store and fighting traffic, call some friends up and ask if they would like to walk with you to a farmer’s market near where you will be living (you’d be surprised how many farmer’s markets are available, even in large metropolitan areas). What is the benefit of this “slow down” activity? Well, you get to walk outdoors, talk to your friends, and you get healthy food! Here’s another “slow down” idea. Next year, whatever you will be doing, make sure that you intentionally take some time every day, maybe a lunch break, maybe a late afternoon activity, to walk and talk with friends, family, or colleagues. I’ve noticed that our own chaplain, Anne McKee, has taken to this practice, walking around campus with people, having slow meetings while strolling. This past year I have as many “walk in the woods” meetings as I have Zoom meetings. Why? Well, I can talk face-to-face outdoors, and walking meetings are slower, more relaxing, and more healthy. This “walk and talk” practice can be done in the heart of Memphis, Knoxville, or Atlanta, or in Madisonville or Maryville. So, the first lesson is…slow down.
The second lesson we learn from this scripture is that Jesus cared deeply for his friends. Jesus would do anything for them, including washing their feet as the house servant would normally do! Jesus served his friends in the humblest of manners. Think of your friends right now. Those that have held you over the last year, mostly metaphorically because of COVID. Cherish them. You will stay connected to some of your college friends, but some you will not. You will now enter a season of your life when you will connect with new friends. I encourage you to be intentional about establishing those new relationships. After I graduated college, I continued my education in Graduate school. That brought a new friend group but being that I was a “Zoology” student thus I was in a “Zoology-focused” friend group, I knew that I needed to also have a “normal-people” friend group, and a “Christian” friend group. So, I joined a local church and after I married my wife, we invested much “slow” time with the friends we made there, and they are still deep, cherished friends.
I mentioned the Greek word philia earlier. This is the word of true love between friends. It’s the word used in John 15, when Jesus says to the apostles “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you…You are my friends.” So, the second lesson we learn from this washing of the feet scripture is that Jesus cared deeply for his friends and gives us an example of how to serve them and others.
I think the third lesson we can glean from John’s account of the upper room is that Christ cares deeply for us. You see, he wasn’t just speaking and giving an example to the disciples; he was speaking and giving an example to us. Jesus is saying to us today the same thing that John records him saying to the apostles (and again I quote John 13):
“I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.”
Jesus’ love for us is shown clearly in what he did just after these events of the foot washing and the Lord’s supper: He went out and prayed for us. The gospel of John records him praying this: “The goal for all of them [he was speaking about us] is to become one heart and one mind…then they will be mature in this oneness.”
Class of 2021, God loves you and he wants you to continue to mature in oneness.
There is so much truth in this. Indeed, why is a biology professor delivering a sermon today (a question I have been asked a few times!). Well because I believe in truth, the truth found through the scientific method, and truth found through God. I believe that God’s truth is for all of humanity. And I yearn to mature in oneness with God and oneness with others.
This truth leads me to see that our society today has so many needs, and we have so many yearnings.
We yearn for equality of all people, and class of 2021 because I know you, I know you will help bring us closer to that reality.
We yearn to promote environmental health, because doing so helps others, and I know that you will bring us closer to that reality.
We yearn to eliminate the suffering of those around us, and I know you will help bring us closer to that reality.
The only way that we will approach oneness is for us all to stand up in our society and be a positive example. And, as Tyler Perry said at the Academy awards a few weeks ago, we need to stand in the middle. We must reduce the polarization in our society. We must achieve oneness.
My prayer for you, class of 2021, is that you will slow down, seek and help others, and be blessed through your relationship with God.
Finally, know that I and my colleagues are SO proud of you!
I began with a few movie quotes, but I leave you, the class of 2021 with one word.
Godspeed…