Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

A woman who stalled at the corner watched the traffic light go from red to yellow to green, and again, red, yellow, green.

After several times a policeman went up to the side of the car and said politely, "What's the matter lady, ain't we got any colors you like?"

She didn't have any choice, but when we do have a choice, colors make a big difference in whether we go or stay, in many ways.

Color determines most of our shopping habits.

A meat market which had sold the choices meats for years had its display room repainted.

The management expected an increase in business as a result.

Instead, business began to fall off.

They called in experts to find out why.

A color specialist detected the problem.

It was their color scheme.

They had painted the walls bright yellow, not realizing that when you look at red after looking at yellow, there is a blue after image.

People looked at the red meat and it looked bluish.

This made them think it was spoiling, and they bought less.

After they painted the walls blue-green, the red looked redder than ever, and sales went up.

Studies have proven that color has a very definite psychological effect on what we enjoy in life.

Food must look good to us to taste good.

An experimental banquet was arranged with the most appetizing foods available for all the guests.

Special lights were installed so the colors of the food were changed.

The steaks were gray, the celery pink, the eggs blue, the milk blood-red, and coffee was yellow.

Most of the guests lost their appetite immediately, and those who forced themselves to eat became ill afterward.

The food would have been enjoyed under proper lighting, but the mirror change in color made it unpalatable.

It proved that we eat with our eyes as well as with the sense of taste and smell.

Color effects us in numerous ways.

We are programmed to respond to certain colors in certain ways by our training.

Red can make a bull charge, for it stirs up the emotion of anger.

The same thing use to happen to a zealous anti-Communist when he saw the red flag.

Red is a color that stirs up emotion.

It is a action color.

A man who drives a bright red car is telling us something of how he feels.

He wants to be on the move, and like a red fire engine, he wants to be where the action is.

Nobody ever paints the town green.

It is always red, for red, like fire, is wild and on the move.

Green, on the other hand, is the color of rest.

The quietness of the cemetery is in the color green.

Forest Lawn and Gardens of Rest are names connected with green and grass.

Dr. C. W. Valentine in Psychology Of Beauty, tells of a test in London which revealed that red is the favorite color of youth, but green advances in rank right along as people get older, until it becomes number 1.

The older people get the more they delight in rest, and the more they prefer the color green.

F. W. Borham, the great Australian preacher, said when Mrs. Alexander wrote the song, A Green Hill Far Away, "She displayed a flash of real psychological and spiritual insight.

Calvary allures the weary.

Tried hearts love the lawn."

The Bible is full of color symbolism.

From the rainbow above the Ark of Noah to the rainbow around the throne of God, the Bible is a book of color.

It is like Joseph's coat of many colors.

How we think about color is important, for this affects our attitude and our actions.

It's what you think that makes the world

Seem sad or gay to you;

Your mind may color all things gray,

Or make them radiant hue.

This is especially true for us to day when we think of the color black.

To some, black is beautiful, but to others it is ugly.

In our study of the Song of Songs we will come across many descriptions of the male and female lovers, but it is of interest that the first reference, here in verse 5, is a reference to color.

The Shulamite girl says, "I am black but comely."

She is saying, I am black but beautiful.

What commentators see here all depends on how they interpret color.

If black always means evil to you, then you will see here, as many do, a negative description.

Black has come to be associated with sin and evil.

We have terms like black market, black magic, black sheep, black list, black balled, and on and on it goes with black always as a negative color.

William Pannell, a black staff member of Youth For Christ, says, the very language we use hinders race relations among Christians.

In Sunday school classes teachers will put a row of little black figures, he says, and explain that these are the sinners, and black represents the sinful heart.

It is no wonder that children grow up with a fear of black people, when this color is always associated with what is evil.

John Hefley, who wrote a story of Wycliff Translators, suggests that Christians ought to stop using black in a way that the Bible does not use it, for it promotes prejudice.

The color of sin in the Bible is not black, it is scarlet.

Isa.

1:18 says, "Come now, let us reason together says the Lord: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

The contrast is not between black and white, but red and white.

White is very clearly a color which is symbolic of purity and righteousness.

In heaven the saints will wear the white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.

However, just as black can be both negative and positive, so white also can be negative and evil.

The white spots of leprosy were terribly frightening, and there were many laws to avoid any contact with

this whiteness which was unclean.

Jesus in Matt.

23:27 says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you are like white washed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."

Paul said to the high priest in Acts 23:3, "God shall strike you, you white washed wall."

When it comes t color symbolism, we must recognize that the meaning can very with the context.

Centuries ago St. Bernard recognized this when he preached on this black but beautiful girl.

He said, "Not everything which is black is necessarily on that account ill-favored.

For instance, blackness in the pupil of the eyes is not unbecoming.

There are black gems which are highly prized in ornaments, while black hair contrasted with a pale complexion augments the beauty and charm of the face."

Numerous commentators fail to see this girl is dark because of a deep suntan, and so they see a negative in her black skin.

Today women will lie in the sun for hours to get their white skin darker, because it is a sign of greater activity and beauty.

The Shulamite girl was a farmer girl.

She worked out in the sun, and she was a great contrast to the ladies of Solomon's court, who were sheltered and lily white.

They looked upon her as radically different because of her dark skin.

She does somewhat apologize for her skin.

She explains why it was she got so much sun.

It is folly to read into this that she is confessing that she is sinful, and that her black skin refers to that fact.

However, numerous commentators insist that black is evil and that this is a confession of her sinful nature.

Lebotz, a modern commentator writes, "A true picture of the natural man living in the natural light, not realizing that daily he becomes blacker and more stained with sin."

Matthew Henry also sees here a reference to the church, blackened by sin, failure, and sorrow.

The black but beautiful is a reference to being black by nature, but beautiful because of redemption from that sinful nature.

The poet puts this view-

I'm sinful, yet I have no sin;

All spotted o'er, yet wholly clean.

Blackness and beauty both I share,

A hellish black; a heavenly fair.

The problem with always finding a sinful meaning in the color black is that if you are consistent, you end up contaminating even our sinless Savior, for later on in this love song there is the famous passage which describes the Shepherd lover, who is symbolic of our Lord.

In 5:11 it says of him, "His head is the finest gold, his locks are wavy, black as a raven."

He is tall, dark, and handsome, this lover, who is fairest among ten thousand.