Unclimbed Mountains

If you want to behold the glories of the summit, you must be willing to undertake the climb.

Seminaries long ago used to teach that the ideal sermon should have three points and end with a poem. Who knows if they ever really taught that, but it’s been something of a joke among preachers ever since: a byword for a pedestrian and uninspired sermon. “Three points and a poem.” Ho-hum.

Maybe we ought to shake things up and begin the sermon with a poem, not end with one.

This poem by Robert Frost is a little long, but it’s a dialogue between two people, and enlisting someone with dramatic talent to read one side of the conversation could make for an interesting introduction to the sermon. It tells the story of a chance encounter with an old-time New England farmer. Because it was published in 1915, it’s now in the public domain.¹

 

          The Mountain, by Robert Frost

          The mountain held the town as in a shadow
          I saw so much before I slept ...