Sermon Tone Analysis

Prelude

Welcome

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa.

4~/4~/05)--American Baptist Churches USA General Secretary the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley has expressed sadness over the death of Pope John Paul II and appreciation for the pontiff’s commitment to interfaith dialog and to social justice.

"Today, with many other American Baptists and Christians throughout the world, I deeply mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II," Medley said Saturday after the news of the pope’s death had been received.

"Although our traditions each are distinctive, we have shared with this great pastoral leader a fundamental commitment to glorify God through embracing the precious gift of new life and reconciliation embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ,” Medley said.

"Over the past quarter century John Paul II inspired millions of Catholics to examine their faith and draw closer to God.

He has been a leading voice for the poor and disenfranchised throughout the world, and a strong advocate for peacemaking and for understanding among cultures and religions."

"My prayer," Medley said, "is that our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers will find God’s peace and comfort at this moment, as the transition to new leadership begins."

Call to Worship           

Leader: Come, let us walk with one another as the disciples did.

Let us journey together as we tell God’s story in song and proclamation.

\\ People: Let us ponder what we have seen and heard; what we know to be true, and what we hope beyond hope is real.

\\ Leader: Let us walk, that our minds might be clear, our hearts open, and our spirits renewed.

\\ People: Behold, God journeys with us; Jesus walks beside us.

May the Spirit give us eyes to see the risen Christ: \\ All: Here and everywhere, now and always.

Let us worship God!

~*Hymn of Praise           # 401               It is Well with My Soul

Invocation        (the Lord’s Prayer) Show your face among us, Loving Jesus, for we are those who walk the road with you now.

Come to us as a presence of wisdom and truth.

Come to us as the one who lives deeply within our life.

Choir                                        Blessed Assurance

*Responsive Psalm 116*

1      I love the Lord because he hears and answers my prayers.

2     Because he bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!

3     Death had its hands around my throat; the terrors of the grave overtook me.

I saw only trouble and sorrow.

4     Then I called on the name of the Lord:  “Please, Lord, save me!”

5     How kind the Lord is! How good he is!

So merciful, this God of ours!

6     The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and then he saved me.

7     Now I can rest again, for the Lord has been so good to me.

8     He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

9     And so I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!

10    I believed in you, so I prayed, “I am deeply troubled, Lord.”

12    What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me?

13    I will lift up a cup symbolizing his salvation;

I will praise the Lord’s name for saving me.

14    I will keep my promises to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

15    The Lord’s loved ones are precious to him; it grieves him when they die.

16    O Lord, I am your servant; yes, I am your servant, the son of your handmaid,

and you have freed me from my bonds!

17    I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.

18    I will keep my promises to the Lord in the presence of all his people,

19    in the house of the Lord, in the heart of Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

Rick Irish                                  I Cannot Tell

Our Offering to God                 Let us bring our offerings to God as though Jesus is at our table to receive them.

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication                 We bring our gifts to you in response to good news.

Christ is risen indeed and abides in us still.

May all that we do be in response to new life.

As you accept who we are, O God, receive what we offer, and transform all of our being to conform with your will.

Extend your grace through us so that others hear of the salvation that you bring.

AMEN.

~*Hymn of Prayer                      # 359              More Love to Thee, O Christ

Pastoral Prayer                         We enter your courts with praise,  we come into your house with thanksgiving.

We are a people of promise, thanks to your amazing grace.

Through the gift of your Son Jesus we are born anew.

You do not forsake us when we stray from your way.

You have sent us the Christ, who shows us your will.

He brings us the light to illumine your desires, in him we have confidence that you will work all things for good.

We pray for those on the journey of faith, we pray for those who fear losing control of who they shall be, we pray for those seeking to cope with the pressures they face.

We pray for help to take that leap of faith.

May we grow together in fulfilling Christ’s call.

~*Hymn of Praise                       # 288               Amazing Grace

Scripture Reading         Acts 2: 14a, 36-41

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, 36Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”37Now

when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Message                                   Instant Messaging

/Start the sermon by giving the congregation 30 seconds to translate and identify:/ if you are not into computer ease or text messaging on a cell phone please be patient this morning I will get back to biblical application.

\\ Dad@hvn, ur spshl.

we want wot u want &urth2b like hvn.

giv us food & 4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.

don test us!

sAv us! bcos we kno ur boss, ur tuf & ur cool 4 eva! k?’ \\ Got it?

\\ For the uninitiated among us, this probably looks like a new form of transliterated Near Eastern hieroglyphics.

For the younger demographic, however, this one’s a no-brainer.

\\ It’s the Lord’s Prayer — or at least a shorthand and text message version of it.

This particular version by York College (U.K.) student Matthew Campbell won a contest put on by the online Christian magazine /Ship of Fools/ in which entrants were encouraged to update the oft-repeated prayer to read in 160 characters or less — the length of a mobile phone text message.

\\ Here’s the “literal” translation of those words: “Dad in heaven, you are special.

We want what you want and earth to be like heaven.

Give us food and forgive our sins like we forgive others.

Don’t test us!

Save us!

Because we know you are boss, you are tough and you are cool forever.

Okay?” \\ Welcome to the world of Generation Txt, where the English language, like most everything else in the realm of communication, has been reduced to the smallest of parts.

\\ Text or “instant” messaging (also called SMS, or Short Message Service) is rapidly overtaking e-mail and voice as the primary means of communication among adults in many areas of the world.

Users can type a quick, shorthand message and instantly fire it off to a friend or coworker’s cell phone or PDA — no need to wait for the phone to ring.

It also enables the sender to know whether the other person is online at a given moment, using indicators that flash or play sounds when the other person logs on or off.

\\ A survey by AOL shows that 59 percent of American Internet users are “texting” each other, with 90 percent of those being in the 13-21 age bracket.

As with most youth culture trends, text messaging has brought a new and, for some, disturbing transformation of the language.

\\ It’s interesting that an apparent de-evolution in language is actually enabling more people, particularly young people, to communicate better and more often.

While the rest of us may not be able to type that fast with our thumbs, there is hope that we can crack the code.

In the post-resurrection experience of the disciples, the world was being turned upside down.

And the first sign of it was that people were hearing and seeing things they couldn’t understand.

\\ The advent of the Holy Spirit was — as it were — the beginning of instant messaging.