Sermon Tone Analysis

Feb. 28, 1999

 

ORGAN PRELUDE

ANNOUNCEMENTS                        Psalm 121 (C) -- "My help comes from the Lord" (v.

20).

CALL TO WORSHIP

~*OPENING HYMN                               Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah                    # 442

~*INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER                        O God of our birth, our baptism and all our beginnings, empower us to fully submit our lives to you, that we might experience the joy of being born anew.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever.

~*GLORIA PATRI

PASSING THE PEACE

SCRIPTURE READING                   Genesis 12:1-4a(NRSV)  "Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

{2} I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

{3} I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

{4} So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran."

READER   Foster

MISSION MOMENT

OFFERING                      (Rev 22:14 NKJV)  "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city."

~*DOXOLOGY

~*PRAYER OF DEDICATION Our Father, you have created us; you have watched over us with love all of our days; you have opened to us the gates of new and abundant life.

Grant that in our living and in our giving we may be guided not by law but by love.

CHILDREN'S STORY TIME  Sue Foster        "Seeing God"

CHORAL ANTHEM

PRAYER            O God, to us it seems so long ago that You first called to Abraham, yet Your word is eternal and you call us as well.

Give us the strength, Lord, to build the life of faith we see in Abraham.

~/~/  Lord, so often we have begun our walk of faith only to allow the world to interfere and before we realize it our witness has been very limited.

Forgive us, Lord, and help us set the matters of the world aside that we might become the faithful followers You had always intended and created us to be.    ~/~/    O God, the wonder of Your salvation challenges all that the world would teach is reasonable.

It was Your love that came and offered us new hope and salvation  We praise You.  ~/~/  Lord, so often we see only our sins and failures and not Your mercy and grace.

So often we focus on the destruction and damage in life, feeling hopelessness and despair rather than choosing to accept the healing and hope in life you would give to us.

Forgive us, Lord, and help us accept Your new life for us that our lives might praise You.    ~/~/    O God, You have always been faithful to Your covenants and have blessed those who have been faithful in return.

Keep us mindful, O Lord, of the faith to which we are committed.

~/~/  Lord, so often we have heard the good news of the New Covenant yet when it has come time to keep our part we have been unfaithful.

Forgive us, Lord, and begin to build in us a new strength that will give a clear witness before the world of Your redeeming power and handiwork.

And lead us to new levels of faithfulness, so all will know You are real.

In Christ we pray.

Amen.

~*PREPARATIONAL HYMN             Beneath The Cross Of Jesus                 # 239

 

 

SCRIPTURE TEXT     John 3: 1-17

Leader: Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

He came to Jesus by night and said to him,

 

Congregation: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."

 

Leader: "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

Congregation: "How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"

Leader: "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Congregation: "How can these things be?"

 

Leader: "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

SERMON                    Come from the night into the light

   A debate of sorts was taking place.

Not a formal exercise in a debating team, but a rather intense discussion in a religion class.

It was in a small Baptist college in North Carolina.

The professor had been teaching religion there for a decade and he enjoyed his teaching most when students challenged him.

At the beginning of each semester he emphasized to his students that he didn't want them merely to soak up the official "party line" -- as he called it -- of Christian teachings, but that they would much more appreciate the teachings of the church if they struggled with them and challenged them.

He had a term for it.

"Run it through your own meat grinder," he often encouraged them, "so it isn't just a matter of getting the right answers."

Hence, the discussion and challenges taking place on this day resulted from such encouragement on his part.

They were discussing the dual nature of Christ.

"How could Jesus be both God and man?" one student wanted to know.

"It doesn't make sense."

Before he could continue another student said, "It's just not logical."

"You're both right," the professor admitted.

"One important thing we have to bear in mind is that our Christian faith isn't necessarily logical and it often doesn't make sense.

But you see, religion doesn't have to make sense."

One of the students offered, "I can relate to the hard sciences -- physics, math -- because they follow logical sequences; you can move logically from step to step without causing mental disruption."

The class chuckled a bit at that one.

"I fully agree that you can do that in the hard sciences," the professor responded.

"But one point you might be overlooking is that religion -- and particularly Christianity -- doesn't claim to be logical.

It operates in a different level of our being.

And, by the way, don't make the mistake of thinking the hard sciences are more legitimate and credible just because of logic.

Logic isn't the final judge of all things either."

"But let's get back to the subject of Jesus being both God and human," a student suggested.

"How can that be?"

   "How can anything be?" another asked.

The prof allowed the questioning to go on for a few moments, then asked, "How can baptism bring us into God's family?

How could God create the universe?

But let's follow that question 'How can anything be?' a bit further."

"How can it?"

a student asked.

"It can because God wants it to be ..." he began.

"Oh brother!" the student sighed.

~/~/~/~/~/

The scripture account says that Nicodemus came to Jesus from the cover of the night.

He didn't want to be embarrassed by being seen socializing with Jesus by his friends in the Sanhedrin.

~/ Night or darkness also describes the condition of his soul.

Yet he was beginning to perceive some glimmers of light through the miracles of Jesus.

There were things he didn't understand, which didn't fit in with his theological framework, and that is why he came to the Lord.

The entire conversation with Jesus revealed a profound confusion of mind and soul.