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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Anger
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So Lame
This was me in 1998.
I was in a band.
I was in a band guys!
So cool!
The internal experience of that was so incredibly cool.
It is only looking back that I can recognize something that probably none of you realized.
I wasn’t that cool.
In fact
Can we get a closer look at that?
Those were the years I went Barefoot everywhere.
Lame.
Those the years I was incredibly Arrogant (the only years ;) ).
Sporting 90s frosted tips.
And is that a fleece vest?
Yes it is, thanks for asking.
So lame!!!
God used me anyway.
So far beyond what I deserved.
What was appropriate to my limited talent, my non-existent experience.
We were broke and inexperienced and kind of dumb.
But God used us again and again to minister to people in churches and camps and parks all over the country.
Healing the Lame Beggar
When I was a kid I learned this one as a song:
Peter and John went to pray
They met a lame man on the way
He held out his palm,
to ask them for alms
and this is what Peter did say
Silver and gold have I none
But such as I have give I thee
In the name of Jesus Christ
Of Nazareth rise up and walk
He went walking and leaping and praising God
He went walking and leaping and praising God
In the name of Jesus Christ
Of Nazareth rise up and walk
Beggar’s Perspective
Step with me into the shoes of the beggar.
For more than 40 years, born lame.
So lame!
Carried everyday to the gate to the temple.
Why?
Because that was a great panhandling spot.
Lots of traffic, lots of people walking past.
And best yet, they are feeling guilty because God tells them they should give alms.
And look at that beautiful gate.
There are some famously beautiful gates in the temple.
The “beautiful” Nicanor gate, huge and covered in bronze… but the beggar may not have been allowed that far.
Perhaps another gate, further out.
Scholars aren’t sure.
But it’s his spot.
And the word “beautiful” here also can mean “happening at the right time.”
And today is the just the right time for the lame beggar.
There he is, asking for alms.
I imagine, like panhandlers today, people avoid catching his eye because then they feel obligated to give.
So, laying by the gate, asking and asking, and having most people walk by without a word.
So when someone does catch his eye, a direct gaze, he thinks SWEET!
I am about to get something.
Eager expectation.
And then the disappointment.
He would NOT get what he asked for.
This guy’s got no money, what good is he to me?
He babbles something about an executed criminal, then grabs his hand and pulls.
Who does that to a cripple?
Without permission?
What is expected next?
Dragging him around by the hand?
Instead, maybe sensation spreading through his ankles, through his feet.
His feat plant and instead of being dragged by the hand he is pulled upright.
Maybe very first time in his entire life he has stood freely.
And then a step.
And then another step.
Atrophied muscles made strong, muscle memory instantly gained.
And then a leap, just to try.
It worked.
Walking and leaping, and what to do with the rush of incredible joy?
What was the name Peter spoke?
Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
He went walking and leaping and praising the God who had saved him and healed him completely.
He got something far better than what he asked for.
Even better than the healing, he received the name of Jesus.
Peter’s Perspective
What was this like from Peter’s perspective?
Walking into the temple.
Another regular time of prayer, every three hours while the temple was open.
Looking for opportunities to teach, going in pairs, probably because that is the way their Master used to send them out.
What opportunity will God deliver today?
At the end of Acts 2 it says the apostles were performing signs and wonders.
We get an example of one of those, not necessarily the first, but a prototypical example.
I imagine Peter: what will God do through me today?
And then, an opportunity.
Someone in need.
Well God commands generosity and caring for the needy.
Look, there is someone needy.
God gives him eyes to see one in need.
The nudge to approach him.
And then, I like to imagine the pat-down.
Oh.
Where’s my wallet?
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