Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to Hear

This morning I want to talk about knitting.

In a NYTimes article from 2018, Alanna Okun encourages people to give knitting a chance.

However, she points to the fact that there are a few reasons for why people try, fail, and never try again.

One such reason “...new knitters give up is that projects can sometimes drag on, so try to give yourself a deadline for your first....” Also, she says “accept that it’s O.K. to be bad at something when you’re first starting out.

As adults we so rarely try things we’ve never experienced before, and there’s truly something liberating in sucking for a week or two before finally getting the hang of it” (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/smarter-living/how-to-start-knitting.html).

Another reason new knitters give up is that projects can sometimes drag on, so try to give yourself a deadline for your first: maybe you’ll want to wear the completed item on an upcoming trip or to give it to someone for their birthday.

Have any of you ever tried to take up knitting?

I haven’t, but it’s something that I’d like to try my hand at someday.

Now, depending on who you talk to you’ll either be encouraged and inspired to take a crack at knitting or you’ll give up before you ever start.

And according to a NYTimes article written by Alanna Okun there are a few reasons for why people try, fail, and never try knitting again.

One such reason “...new knitters give up is that projects can sometimes [take too long to complete], so try to give yourself a deadline for your first [project]...” Also, she says something that is counterintuitive to our success-driven culture.

Okun says that we should make failure an option.

She says that “as adults we so rarely try things we’ve never experienced before, and there’s truly something liberating in sucking for a week or two before finally getting the hang of it” (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/smarter-living/how-to-start-knitting.html).

Last, accept that it’s O.K. to be bad at something when you’re first starting out.

As adults we so rarely try things we’ve never experienced before, and there’s truly something liberating in sucking for a week or two before finally getting the hang of it.

Listen to these words from the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesian believers.

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11 And He Himself (Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers…Paul tells us that there are three reasons for why Jesus did this.

This morning I want to talk about knitting.

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

for the equipping of the saints

This morning I want to talk about knitting.

Have any of you ever tried to take up knitting?

I haven’t, but it’s something that I’d like to try my hand at someday.

Now, depending on who you talk to you’ll either be encouraged and inspired to take a crack at knitting or you’ll give up before you ever start.

for the work of ministry,

Alanna Okun wrote an article for the NYTimes on the subject of knitting where she states her reasons for why people try, fail, and never try knitting again.

One such reason “...new knitters give up is that projects can sometimes [take too long to complete], so try to give yourself a deadline for your first [project]...” Also, she says something that is counterintuitive to our success-driven culture.

Okun says that we should make failure an option.

She says that “as adults we so rarely try things we’ve never experienced before, and there’s truly something liberating in sucking for a week or two before finally getting the hang of it.”

for the edifying of the body of Christ,

Listen to these words from the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesian believers.

Not only does he tell us why Jesus did this, but he also tells us how long He intended for this to be in effect.

13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; If you have looked at the Church at all today then you know that we still have work to do in these areas.

Now, why does Paul bring this up?

14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, instead Paul says, we must 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love ().

11 And He Himself (Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers…Paul tells us that there are three reasons for why Jesus did this.

There it is!

Knitting!

“Knitting is a process of using long needles to interlink or knot a series of loops made by one continuous thread.

Each loop or knot connects to another one...” (https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-textile-knitting-process.html).

That last part is so important.

The connecting of each loop to another loop.

The Bible also speaks about knitting, not the connecting of loops, but the connecting of lives.

When we talk about being joined/knit together we are talking about forming real and lasting community within the Body of Christ.

So how can we be this kind of a community?

How can we form bounds with each other that knits our hearts together for the sake of the Gospel?

I believe there are a few ways this can happen.

for the equipping of the saints

Invited

In order for us to be knit together in community, first we must be invited.

The invitation we extend to others must be inspired by the invitation we have received from the Lord.

In Jesus invites us with these words, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

That’s exactly what He did for a lady named Sofia Quintanilla.

In Jesus invites us with these words, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

That’s exactly what He did for Sofia Quintanilla.

Sofia Quintanilla is a survivor of sexual abuse and now a Bible professor in San Jose, Costa Rica.

She came to faith as a little girl and credits the gospel for helping her heal from the trauma of sexual abuse.

In her doctoral research, which focuses on Biblical theology of hospitality, Sofia says that she discovered God’s heart.

“He has a kingdom and He invites humanity to come into His kingdom” (BSM, p11).

This is exactly what we find in the parable of the marriage feast (, NKJV).

In this parable a king invites people to the marriage feast of his son and the ones who were originally invited rejected the king’s invitation.

They even went so far as to kill the king’s messengers.

Well, the king retaliates by having those murderers killed and then he invites a second group.

He invites people from every walk of life and they gladly accept the king’s invitation and the wedding hall is filled up!

The people whom the king invited, they had nothing to offer the king.

They had done nothing worthy of being invited.

The king graced upon them an opportunity to have fellowship with Him and His Son.

Now here’s the thing, this type of real community is Holy Spirit – led.

“Efforts to organize community artificially can only result in ugly, lifeless, caricatures.

Only when we are empty and open to the Living One – to the Spirit – can [He] bring about the same life among us as [He] did among the early Christians” (Arnold, 1995).

Being invited into a fellowship, to have our lives knit together in Biblical community is an act of grace.

It’s the understanding that we, sinful and imperfect as we are, have been asked by the Most Holy and Perfect Lord of all creation to come into His kingdom and have community with Him.

That is what we celebrate at this table every week, that we have accepted the Lord’s invitation to have our sins completely wiped away and now we live in community with our Lord, but this isn’t the end of the story for us.

“The welcome a community offers to visitors is an extension of the welcome its members offer each other.

If our heart is open to our brothers and sisters, it will also be open to others” (Called to Community, p309).

God is calling us into community with each other, that our hearts and lives would be so knit together that it would cause spiritual maturity in us and that the church would edify itself in the love of God.

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles (, NKJV).

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So listen, before we can have community with each other we must first have communion with God.

That is what we celebrate at this table every week, that we have accepted the Lord’s invitation to have our sins completely wiped away and now we live in community with our Lord, but this isn’t the end of the story for us.

God is calling us into community with each other, that our hearts and lives would be so knit together that it would cause spiritual maturity in us and that the church would edify itself in the love of God.

Like Sofia Quintanilla says, “We have to transmit God’s welcoming heart to our congregation” (BSM, p11).

But remember, ultimately knitting lives together, building community is the work of the Spirit of God.

It was God who appointed leaders to equip the saints who would do the work of ministry so that the Body of Christ could be edified.

“Efforts to organize community artificially can only result in ugly, lifeless, caricatures.

Only when we are empty and open to the Living One – to the Spirit – can [He] bring about the same life among us as [He] did among the early Christians” (Arnold, 1995).

You can’t live in community by yourself.

You need other people to come alongside of you and share your life.

It’s the way that we are designed.

You

Involved

Second, in order to be knit together in Biblical community we must be involved in each others’ lives.

Now for some us that might be a scary thought.

You might be saying to yourself, “But I don’t like people in my business.”