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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Acting Beyond What We Know
!
I. Have you ever been misunderstood?
!! A. I do not know why she~/he did it?
!! B. That was a crazy thing to do!
!! C. I just do not know what they were up to!
!! D. That is what happened in our gospel story
!
II.
Setting
!! A. Jesus had been a visitor at the house she shared with her sister Martha and her brother Lazarus
!!! 1. Their parents were apparently dead
!!! 2. None of them seem to be married
!!! 3. I suspect that Martha was the oldest, due to her behavior
!! B. She had appreciated Jesus’ teaching and how accepted her as a student, although she was a woman – Luke 10:38-41
!! C. Then her brother had gotten sick and died
!!! 1. Jesus had disappointed her in the slowness of his response
!!! 2.
She felt like Jesus had failed them when Lazarus died before Jesus arrived
!!! 3.
But then he had raised Lazarus from the dead and words could not describe her thankfulness
!! D. Now he was on his way to Jerusalem, stopping by their home 2 miles (15 stadia) east of Jerusalem
!!! 1. Martha was being practical as ever and taking responsibility for the serving
!!! 2. Lazarus was a man, so of course he played the host and sat at table
!!! 3.
But where was Mary?
!
III.Mary had this crazy impulse
!! A. She (or they) had this perfume in the house – it was pure spikenard
!!! 1. a scented ointment or perfume imported from the Himalayas in alabaster boxes and opened on special occasions (Song of Sol.
1:12; 4:13, 14).
!! B. It was valuable, perhaps a family heirloom, perhaps their savings, perhaps something from their parents – it was worth $20,000 to $30,000
!! C.
She grabbed the box and slipped into the room and broke it open over Jesus’ feet (he was laying at table)
!!! 1. Perhaps she had not thought to bring a towel, but in any case she let her impulsive love go to the point of impropriety
!!! 2. Perhaps she massaged it into his feet with her hands, but then she let down her hair, which a proper woman did not do except in her bedroom, and wiped off the excess.
!!!! a) Did she not want to waste the excess?
!!!! b) Did she see this as a further act of love?
!
IV.
The immediate response was not positive
!! A. Judas voiced what the others were thinking
!! B. This was a waste – what good would it do Jesus in the long run?
!! C. This could have done a lot of good for others.
!! D. Extravagant!
Wasteful!
And thus evil.
!! E. Mary felt the wave of criticism, even anger
!!! 1.
It would not even help later when she learned that Judas was far from being a man of great love for the poor
!! F. Perhaps Mary had her own self-doubts; was her impulse just a stupid emotional thing, or was it pure love for God and his messenger?
!
V. The Jesus speaks
!! A. Leave her alone.
She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.
!! B.
Here he was defending her again
!! C. But what was he saying?
!!! 1. Burying the dead was a good work indeed, and he was clearly reinterpreting this self-abandoning act as a pious good work.
!!! 2. But he was not dead.
What could that mean?
She did not understand.
!! D. Yet she did understand that he was saying that he would not always be here, and that surely distressed her – but perhaps that would not be for a long time
!
VI. Mary had acted on impulse, and she had acted better than she knew
!! A. The onlookers did not understand the act
!! B. Mary herself probably did not understand it
!! C. But it was divine impulse
!! D. She had impulsively grasped at the mystery that Jesus would soon die
!! E. Her act had meaning that only we the readers could know
!
VII.
What does this mean for us?
!! A. God still moves in the hearts of the people who love him
!!! 1. Notice that Mary had listened to his words
!!! 2.
She had been a follower
!!! 3. Her heart was prepared
!! B. We do not always understand God’s impulses
!!! 1.
The issue is whether we will act on them
!!! 2. But sure that they will cost you, often cost you a lot
!! C. Others surely do not understand them
!!! 1.
They will criticize you
!!! 2. They will reject you
!! D. But Jesus and his Father will understand
!! E. And perhaps in the end we will understand
!
VIII.
Are you willing to join the divine crazies?
!! A. The Mary’s, the Paul’s, the St. Francis’ and the many others?
!! B. Then listen to the impulses of love that God puts in your heart
!! C. And act
!
IX. May you be one whom Jesus defends against criticism, for what you did you did to him
\\
Psalm 126
Isaiah 43:16-21 (NRSV) \\ \\
16 Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
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