Sermon Tone Analysis

4202 A Beloved Black Pastor

Charles A. Tindley was born into slavery.

Although his slave mother taught him to love Christ, his master forbade him to attend church under threat of the whip.

After the Civil War when he became free, he took correspondence courses and entered the ministry.

He began with a church of only 12 members where he had once served as a janitor.

In time, his compassionate preaching attracted over a thousand people each Sunday, both black and white.

For years he maintained a breadline which fed 500 to 600 people nightly.

Derelicts received warm clothing and hot baths in the basement of his church.

The mayor of Philadelphia visited his church and was so impressed that he gave the pastor a personal check for $2,000.

Charles Tindley died on July 31, 1933, when people were still receiving bread from his church.

There were so many tributes at his funeral that the service lasted five hours.

Downtown streets had to be roped off to hold back the crowds from the hearse that carried his body.

And today, more than thirty years later, parents in Philadelphia are telling their children about the black preacher who was a brother to everyone.

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

About 29 AD.

Jesus begins teaching the disciples concretely about His death and resurrection.

During this time, He takes Peter, John and James up to an "Mountaintop Experience.”

About 15 years later, James is dead.

About 15 years later, James is dead.

About 29 AD.

Jesus begins teaching concretely about His death and resurrection.

During this time, He takes Peter, John and James up to an event that should have marked them from then on.

About 15 years later, James is dead.

About 15 years later, James is dead.

Peter, James and John - three of Jesus’ called Apostles.

One would think that being marked out for special time with Jesus would imply a dynamic and significant future in ministry.

Having a “mountaintop experience” with Jesus, there are a lot of people that would do a lot to be able to claim one of those.

There is nothing that we can say, however, about Peter, John and James in terms of what they had done to make themselves worthy of such an honor, such attention on the part of Jesus.

Nor is there anything that we could say about their lives afterward that marks them out above their fellow-apostles, save the traditions that make Peter the first Bishop of Rome and those that indicate that John was the last of the Apostles to die.

It’s good, right and salutary that we should live in such a way that we are available to God, but we have no guarantee that God is restricting His call to those who do so, in fact, it is the opposite.

Many of those whom the Lord chooses, whether it be Moses who begged God to choose someone else, Isaiah who had "unclean lips,” or Peter who turned from bold witness to cowardly denier in quicker than you could say cock-a-doodle-do, struggled with human failings, just like you or I do.

Could this be the basis of the old saying, “ignorance is bliss?”

Our Gospel text today ends, not with the elation of a revelation, but with the burden of a charge.

They had seen Jesus unveiled, talking with Moses and Elijah.

They had heard the very voice of God.

Now they must keep all of this to themselves.

When the crowds thronged Jesus on Palm Sunday, Peter James and John could say nothing.

When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, they could say nothing.

When they beat Jesus 39 times and put a crown of thorns on His bruised head, they could say nothing.

There is a reason that the Old Testament prophets talked about “the burden of the Lord....”

The ultimate burden, of course, is the burden that kills you.

The burden that crushes the Old Adam with all of his desires for glory, all of his passion for preeminence.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” in .

Blues singer Albert King put it this way when he sang,

“Everybody wants to laugh,

Ah, but nobody wants to cry.

I say everybody wants to laugh,

But nobody wants to cry.

Everybody wants to go to heaven,

But nobody wants to die.”

Baptism is such a simple thing, that it requires you to do nothing - God does all the work - and yet, people resist the waters of Holy Baptism as if it would kill them - because it will.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Some resist God’s gracious call for themselves or for their children, while others resist His gracious gift to them.

Trying to be good for goodness’ sake will only lead to death, [1] because you can’t be good enough to be perfect as God’s Law demands.

[2] because your good name won’t save you.

Only Jesus’ name has that power.

[2] because your good name won’t save you.

Only Jesus’ name has that power.

This work in Gary that we are committed to, it isn’t so that people will talk about how good we Lutherans are.

It’s so that those who sit in darkness might get a glimpse of His marvelous light.

It’s so that those who know only bitterness and struggle might get to discover that -

“tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word.”

Some would say that there is no hope for Gary, therefore there should be no hope in Gary.

Some would say that there is no hope for Gary, therefore there should be no hope in Gary.

There is no difference, in God’s the Father’s eyes, between raising His Son from the dead and revitalizing a community.

The same Word of God that gives life to us can breathe life into Gary.

The same Spirit that caused you to rise up into newness of life through Holy Baptism can cause an entire community to experience repentance and faith.

Christ is risen; we don’t have to keep His secret any longer.

Unlike Peter, John and James, we don’t have to keep His Word to ourselves.

Instead, what God has promised through the Gospel, we are released to declare to everyone who comes our way.

When you realize that you are dead, and you are now living by faith in the Son of God, you no longer have to worry about your reputation.

You no longer have to make sure that your love is not taken advantage of, or worry that your mercy will be misused.

Like breathing is for your natural man, so walking in the Spirit is for your spirit man.

Just as food and drink can sustain your natural life, so Christ’s flesh and blood will sustain your spiritual life.

“Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just to take Him at His word;

Just to rest upon His promise;

Just to know, Thus saith the Lord.

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,

How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er,

Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus!

O for grace to trust Him more.”