Sermon Tone Analysis
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I speak to you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - Amen
Why do you believe in God?
Why do you think that God exists…?
What is it that makes you believe in God?
When you consider these questions, we all might approach them from different starting places
o To some it might be because our parent’s taught us, and we trust and believe in them and so what they believe must be worthwhile
o To others it might be that Bible says so
o To others … yet another reason or rationale
But I think if we spend some time and really think about these questions, the answer *underneath* it all: …is that we have felt or experienced God in our lives
The faith and reason of others, are in our post-modern culture, simply
…‘their reasons’
and post modernism aside - I think mature faith is when we ourselves claim it personally - some have said “in Christianity there are no grandchildren”
I believe that deep down we have all experienced God in some form
- For some it might be in the prayers of Sunday morning worship
- For others it might be when we deeply connect with the thoughts~/images and power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of Communion
- For some of you it might be in nature - in contemplating the beauty and majesty of all creation and feeling deep inside you that something greater must have made this
- I know myself, four moments when I have no doubt of a divine creator - when I held my newly born children - each one, just moments after they were born
- For others it might be in your own private prayers
- It might be in the healing grace God has delivered to you or a loved one - in which “beyond expectation” God answered prayer and healed someone…maybe it was you
- It might have been in the reading of the bible where you connected with God by the power of the Holy Spirit in a story or psalm
- where you understood what the writer was telling you - and who it was that was really doing the writing
- It may have been when you were feeling that the world was against you, when you have felt like you were a round peg in ‘a world of square holes’ and something in God’s creation reached out to you and told you that you were part of God’s world, part of God’s plan
I could go on and on …
Yet In all these situations or however God reaches you … in all of them, ….you experienced God
God interrupted your life and made himself known to you
And by making himself known to you He told you that He loved you,
You matter to God
In our reading from Galatians today we have a brief account of God’s Calling St. Paul
Calling for a purpose
This passage is a very important one and some scholars have even titled it ‘Paul’s Thesis statement’
Paul reason for believing what he believes and doing what he is doing
St. Paul starts out the passage by saying
“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin.
For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ”
Paul tells us that he believes what he believes, not because others taught him - but that he experienced God
- It is directly from God, that Paul has the message of the Good news that he preaches
He goes on to explain to them how it is ‘free from the teaching of others’ by presenting a brief autobiographical account
In the midst of this account Paul states that:
/ “from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through *his* grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles/
So in this short passage known by some as his Thesis statement we have *Why* Paul believes
And we also have the purpose of that belief…
But as we consider the forest, let’s not lose sight of the trees
It is vital to understand ‘the payout’
- the result of Paul’s calling and for what purpose
but in his story we have another important message
You see God did not just call *anyone* to proclaim that Jesus /the/ Christ is Lord
in the hostile world, where only Caesar was supposed to be Lord
God called Paul to proclaim a message that was upside-down from the world’s expectation - by ‘someone’ which God turned right-side-up
In Paul’s brief account we see a transformation that only God could achieve
We see a great reversal from a zealous proponent of the traditions of Judaism to a proclaimer of the gospel of Jesus Christ
In St. Paul’s story we see God’s power to transform
… transformed for God’s purpose
When I read this passage at the beginning of the week I immediately connected with it.
Now I say this not to make special claims - I am no St.
Paul …
But I was transformed by God
And I believe that I was called by God for a purpose
My story starts out simply enough:
I was born to the care of Anne and Dave Tinker, both of whom were active member their entire life in the Anglican Church - and still are
My mom being a PK (priest’s kid) - my Grandfather was an Anglican priest
And my dad being very active in his own way
I grew up going to church every Sunday, until I got to my teenage years and then like so many others - my parent’s gave me choice - so sometimes I went, sometimes I didn’t
Life went along pretty normally for while
But by the time I was 15, I became increasingly unhappy
I didn’t know it… or have the wisdom to understand it …but I was depressed all the time
Things got pretty drastic and I found myself in Hospital
While in hospital in that first week, on the Sunday I was allowed to leave for the morning and go to Church with my dad
I was very upset, hurting inside a great deal when we went into church that morning
The Minister saw us enter (we were late, during the first Hymn) and he immediately stopped singing and knelt and prayed, he knew of my troubles from my Dad.
I felt he was praying directly for me and I felt what I believe the Holy Spirit wash over me and although I didn’t hear words I felt a clear message that; - God was watching over me,
- that I would be okay,
- and in time God had a plan for me.
I continued from that point on, still with my share of adolescent troubles, I was not healed of my depression immediately, I was in and out of hospital 5 times over the next 2 years
but it was different, I had a sense that I was being watched over, held up - and in God’s plan
My life continued on with many distractions,
I developed a very worldly spiritual understanding
I *thought* that I was a Christian
But I developed a real ‘melting pot of ideas’
In many ways I had a very ‘new age’ or Gnostic set of beliefs
I still went to church - mostly occasionally
Over time - and a lot of college parties latter - I had a large group of friends
Through that I was blessed with meeting and within six months proposing to Kelly, my wife
It was in wanting Kelly to share in a faith, that I often took for granted,
that we started to go to Church more regularly
Life was very busy; I had still had the vague thought (sense) that one-day, once everything was established that God would call me into something more
Then on Madison’s 3rd birthday, April 21st 2002,
which was a Sunday, it all changed!
During the service, I felt the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit calling again.
I felt (I didn’t hear any voices):
- that it was time,
- it was time to stop saying “later”
- and that I was to devote more then a fraction of my existence to God - but my whole self
I was uncontrollably weeping for the balance of the service, overwhelmed and unable to speak.
Kelly on one side and my father-in-law on the other and for the entire service I was completely incapacitated and unable to explain what was going on.
The congregation thinned out at the end of the service but a lady sitting behind came forward after the service and touched me on the shoulder and simply said
“ your lucky… it’s your time”,
she knew and I knew
The rest is history
Within a month we had our house in the country up for sale
To move to Hamilton a more affordable place to live for 3 years of seminary
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