Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Joy
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Overview:
Overview:
The ingredients in the Christmas story seem kind of random: a decree from Caesar, an engaged virgin, an angelic announcement, three wise men, and no room at the inn.
Doesn’t sound like the narrative we’d write if we were God.
Some of the circumstances we may be dealing with this year aren’t exactly what we’d write for our own story, either.
We need to respond to the seemingly random curve balls in our lives the same way Mary did to God’s biggest curve ball yet.
Scripture: , ;
Visual: Open box labeled “Random”; Christmas tree with ornaments labeled with life events
Introduction:
1. Humans have an unexplainable desire to find meaning and purpose in even the most random events in life.
2. We long for a comprehensive explanation of history and experience.
3. It ensures there’s a purpose to everything—that this is a story that’s going somewhere.
4. We say:
• “Everything happens for a reason.”
• “I don’t believe in coincidence.”
• “You just haven’t met the right person yet.”
• “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
5. Christians connect the dots and call it a “God thing.”
5.
When tragedy strikes, we ask why.
We want to find purpose in pain.
We want suffering to connect to something purposeful.
We naturally assume there is a purpose.
6.
The Christmas story is a reminder that the thing in us that wants the dots to connect is not to be ignored.
The world isn’t as random as we might think.
There really is a story.
Life is connected.
There’s a divine story.
7. From time to time, it’s as if God drops directly into people’s lives in unmistakable ways to give the flywheel a push.
To remind.
To reorient.
To connect dots.
To give us our bearings.
These are some of my favorite verses in the NT.
If you are skeptical about the Bible, this may be of special interest.
These are some of my favorite verses in the NT.
If you are skeptical about the Bible, this may be of special interest.
These are some of my favorite verses in the NT.
If you are skeptical about the Bible, this may be of special interest.
[That’s different than “once upon a time,” isn’t it?
So begins the story of Jesus.]
Verse: 26: Elizabeth was Mary’s relative.
We don’t know the exact relation.
KJV translated the word “cousin.”
[Elizabeth was Mary’s relative.
We don’t know the exact relation.
KJV translated the word “cousin.”]
Verse 27: Just another arranged marriage like before.
The virgin’s name was Mary.
[Think of all that hung in the balance of this choice.
A new religion.
Cathedrals.
Crusades.
Martyrs.
Hospitals.
Christian music.
Bumper Stickers.
Us!]
[We don’t know anything about Mary before the angel Gabriel interrupted her life.
All we know is that she was planning to marry Joseph the carpenter and lead a normal life, like her mother and father before her.]
[She would probably live and die in the same Galilean community she grew up in.
She would be another of the nameless, faceless millions of people who come and go and leave no mark, no memorial, no trace of having even been alive.
She’d be left wondering if life has a purpose or if it’s just random . .
.]
[But the time had come for another chapter in the story of God to be written.]
Verses 28-29: She didn’t know if it was good or bad news.
Verse 30: You’ve been singled out for a purpose.
[God is showing up in human history!]
Verse 31: Kingdom?
They hadn’t had an independent Jewish kingdom in over 500 years.
But she wasn’t concerned with that.
She had another issue to contend with.
[Kingdom?
They hadn’t had an independent Jewish kingdom in over 500 years.
But she wasn’t concerned with that.
She had another issue to contend with.]
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
[Sure enough.
That is what we call him.]
36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.
37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
[Lit: “This word from God is not impossible.”]
[How strange.
It had been over 400 years since God had “done” anything this overt.
400 years of randomness.
Babylonians.
Persians.
Alexander the Great.
The Roman Republic, now Empire.
Now this.
The birth of a King.
God, where have you been?
We were beginning to wonder.]
Body:
I. On occasion, God dropped directly into the lives of men and women to push the flywheel of his plan.
A. It’s like God showed up in history and said, “No.
Don’t you understand?
This isn’t about the plans of man.
This is about the will of God.
Every one of those kingdoms and empires came and went by my declaration.
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