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.
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Lord, into your hands we offer you our thoughts and reflections, may you bless us to hear only your word, and to act on only your ways, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen
On Friday afternoon I came downstairs to the main office after spending some time in sermon preparation.
I came down to get a break, to get a glass of water or whatever - but mainly to get a break
Joanna took one look at me and said - “smile”
I have no idea what I looked like
I didn’t feel unhappy,
I was just off in thought of what the scripture was telling me this week.
you see, I didn’t like where it was going and therefore where my sermon would go
I was trying to get an angle or an approach in the text that would be more favorable
There is an old saying - I don’t know where I heard it, but it goes something like this:
“there are no hard decisions - just decisions that you don’t like”
in facing the gospel reading this week, I was faced with a truth that I didn’t want to preach on
the more I looked into the passage the clearer the message was,
which made living with the decision that much harder
Now of course I could simply by-pass the gospel reading
There are three reading each week - four if you include the seldom read Psalm… so there are lots of choices
I could also look at a fragment of the Gospel and let be a spring-board into some topic of my choosing
But that wouldn’t be honest to you or to what has been reveal to me in my studies this week
And then there is this nagging thought
This “rule” if you like, that my homiletics professor at school used to advocate
“Look for the problem in the text - if it bothers you, you can bet it will bother others and that is the active work of the Holy Spirit - preach on that”
So with all that - here you go
On the surface, the first reading of the passage, seems to be a simple message of Love
A heart-warming message whereby Jesus restates the “new commandment” to love one another as He has loved
In the mix we hear that the disciples have moved up the ladder from servants to friends
Privy to the master’s plans
That we are *of* God’s choosing - he wants us…
And that everything circles back to a that warm message of Love
But when you look at the wording a little deeper there is one key troubling word that keeps coming up
Command or commandment
- it comes up clearly four times
It is a hard word to soft-pedal around - to reduce the impact
It is not *a* negotiable word
There is no flexibility in the word
It’s not “you might want to do this”
Or “maybe you could think of that”
The word is a clear directive
To put the passage in context - Jesus time is running out
It is set in the upper room on the last night before the cross
They have shared in the Passover meal
He has washed their feet - taught them a new way to live in servitude towards each other
and this is part of a series of instructions and teachings - to his closest friends - on his last night
Jesus in passing on this new way of life tells it in a plain and clear way
He commands them to Love one another as He has loved them
Now as an aside - we know the end of the story and we quickly jump right to the end
We all did it in our Bible study on Friday morning - myself included
We think of the full story of How Christ loved
How he died on the cross
And when Christ commands them to /love as He has/
We see this as a really tall order
But there might be a different way to look at this - and it is a subtle variation that makes this commandment both more realistic and more effective
The phrase is … “as I HAVE loved you”
So the focus is in what Jesus has shown them up to this point
We are to love as modeled by the LIFE of service that Jesus has shown
Not necessarily the death he will do
This different perspective changes how we might read the next line
/ “No one has a greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”/
Now we can consider laying down our life, not merely in dieing for another - but *living* unselfishly for one’s friends
It brings into perspective our Lord’s prayer
“On earth as it is in heaven”
living righteously, unselfishly
both more realistic - we can all strive to do things in life
and in the end likely to leave a lasting ongoing impact (we are still around to answer questions) and be more effective
Jesus then presents them with a new offering of status
Friends
But this too has some strings attached
You are my friends… IF… you do what I command you
Friends… if … you follow the Lord’s directive
Friends conditional on obedience
And that is precisely what I found to be the most difficult part of the passage
- Obedience -
We in the west, live in a culture that does not like to be told what to do
And it is instinctual
I can tell you for certain that if I tell my kids what to do
They will do the opposite
(unless of course they sense my reverse psychology)
/they get it from their mother-side…/
truthfully they get it from both of us - and we are no different then most
obedience is a hard pill to swallow
the west was founded on people that didn’t want to stay in oppressive Europe
and we are part of a protestant denomination of Christians
Protest -ants
we don’t need to look very far in the news to see our society’s lack of obedience
Friday was an aboriginal national day of action
The day chosen to coincide with the first day of summer vacation
A report came out of England last week which said that 2~/3 of all people break the law all the time if they think they can get away with it
Only 1 in 10 said that they would give back the excess change if a teller made a mistake
When one knows that they have more then they are due - it is both lying and stealing
but 90% of us are disobedient
disobedient to God and the law of the land
The trend is not lessening over time - but increasing
Our post modern culture motto could be
“I accept you have a opinion, but it is no more valid then my own”
or - “what’s true for you is your truth - and what’s true for me, is my truth”
no longer are our truths a product of community
no longer do we need to be obedient to communional expectations
But Jesus, in our Gospel reading from John today, directly challenges that
Jesus commends us to Love
Jesus says we are his friends IF we do what he commands
No longer servants~/slaves but friends
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