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.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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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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Emotion
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Anger
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Incarnate Vaccum
Last week the kids and I setup our Christmas tree.
I love the smell of a real tree… but guess what the room looked like after I was done?
Pine needles everywhere.
So Dylan was supposed to vacuum and I have been working, teaching him how.
Here’s how you go in a careful pattern so you get everywhere.
Here’s how you move stuff out of the way.
All the things.
He is doing it by himself and I go check his work.
It’s like he didn’t vaccuum at all.
Stuff on the floor everywhere.
“Dude, look at that, and that area.
You didn’t miss a spot, you missed the floor.
Do it again!”
He was upset and “Dad, I did that!” and I was like “clearly not”.
So he did it again.
I inspect.
It still looks terrible.
I grab the vacuum to show him how it’s done.
Turns out the vacuum was broken.
Jammed.
I had to take it apart and pull out some socks and some legos and then a wad of dog-hair that had built up behind those.
Gross.
It wasn’t Dylan’s fault… he had done what he knew how to do.
It required skills and strength, knowledge beyond what he had.
If he had started to take apart the vacuum I would have been more upset.
(Mostly impressed, maybe… but not happy).
If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Today we turn to that classic Christmas figure: Samson.
Samson Claus?
Classic Christmas story: for unto us a Savior is born.
And you shall call his name Samson.
This could be his motto: if you want something done right, do it yourself.
He is a one man army against the Philistines, waging war against Israel’s oppressors.... and doing it himself (though super-powered by the Holy Spirit).
Samson the Savior
But now he has been betrayed by Delilah and his haircut.
The Philistines shaved his head, gouged out his eyes.
But then this beautiful note of hope:
We don’t know how long Samson was a prisoner.
Maybe it was many years.
Time for his hair to grow back long once again.
Maybe it was only days and Samson’s was just showing stubble.
But the Philistines are quite pleased over their victory over Samson, and I imagine they celebrate as soon as they can pull together an epic enough party.
Do… you have any weight bearing pillars nearby for no reason?
Hard to picture exactly how this building worked if all those people are on “the roof”.
Perhaps a balcony/viewing area around the outside and Samson in a central courtyard down below them?
In another ruin in this area, a temple is built with two cedar pillars, three meters apart, that bear the weight of the roof.
This is substantial and sturdy construction, a huge and majestic building if it is holding so many people.
And probably the elites of the Philistines, there with the five Philistine lords who orchestrated Delilah’s betrayal.
This is pure Samson.
Even now, Samson is driven by ego and revenge.
Not “O God, that I may deliver your people… or do your will… or even defeat Your enemies...”
It’s “God, help me take revenge for my eyes!”
And God doesn’t speak in any kind of words.
But Samson’s next actions are answer enough.
Perhaps his greatest strength of feet.
An outward press, right hand to left hand, disrupting or maybe even breaking the thick supporting pillars.
Samson did entertain them… he brought the house down!
And there is this final epitaph:
He killed more in his death than in his life
What is the legacy of Samson?
What is his epitaph?
He killed more in his death than in his life.
Question: is that a good thing?
Is that a triumphant note?… or the saddest eulogy you have ever heard?
Samson - he killed some Philistines.
And his death was slightly more useful than his whole life.
That’s rough.
What more can we say?
He freed Israel?
He didn’t.
He saved Israel?
Nope.
But what affect did Samson ultimately have?
Did he deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines?
Nope, he just killed a bunch of them.
The Philistines had ruled over parts of Israel since shortly after the time of Joshua a hundred years earlier, and would still be two hundred years later in the days of David and Solomon.
… and after they are finally defeated by Solomon, new enemies arose.
Because the problem was and is inside humanity.
Samson and Jesus
Several times we have note the parallels between Samson and Jesus.
A miraculous child, announced by an angel.
A child prophesied to “save his people.”
Filled with and empowered by the Spirit of God.
A leader, a judge in the Kingdom of God.
Turned over by his own people to the enemy.
Sacrificial death that destroyed the enemy.
He is a shadow.
But what a messy messiah Samson is.
Samson is a type that looks forward to Jesus.
But more than anything he shows us the failings of a human savior.
The text shows us Samson’s failings again and again.
His motivations are lust and revenge.
His actions cause a bit of trouble for the enemy… but nothing like ultimate victory.
Samson is setup to be this epic hero and Savior… and seems to squander his potential and power.
He doesn’t save Israel, even in the way some of the other judges do.
But all the heros and judges we have seen, none of them save Israel in a lasting way, do they?
None of the prophets do either.
None of the kings do.
Much of the journey through the Old Testament is disappointment and expectation.
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