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

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
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The holidays simply did not go as I had planned.
We had dreamed of a great family gathering.
Only one year earlier we had announced our engagement.
*Mary’s mother* was so excited.
She couldn’t wait to tell all her friends.
Sure, I was only a carpenter.
But that didn’t matter.
She knew I LOVED Mary and I would provide a good home for her.
 
       *Mary’s dad*, the true business man, began the wedding plans for the next year.
His prayers had been answered.
He knew that I feared Jehovah and would bring up his grandchildren in the ways of our God.
BUT that was a year earlier.
THIS holiday *I* should have been the bridegroom setting out to take my bride to the happiest banquet of our lives - *our* WEDDING banquet.
Instead we were trudging towards Bethlehem, tired, dust and sore -- and Mary was due to give birth to her child at any moment!
We had waited in Nazareth as long as we dared - hoping Mary would give birth there.
But the baby waited.
And the government decree wouldn’t.
Once again the Roman government had forced its hand upon our lives.
How we longed to be free: 
       Free to be our own people.
Free to be God’s people.
We looked for that day when God’s Messiah would shatter the yoke of bondage and set us free.
Is it possible that the Messiah was about to be born?
Is it true that the child Mary is carrying is truly our Savior?
Are the Romans pushing us to Bethlehem so that God’s Son would be born in King David’s town?
Once in a while Mary and I would talk about these things.
But we had many more questions than answers.
I simply knew that I loved Mary
     and that somehow *God* was controlling our lives.
I adored Mary for her simple faith.
The past nine months had not been easy!
I was *shocked* into numbness when Mary told me she was pregnant!
I seemed riveted to the spot as my mind raced round and round in maddening circles.
How could you do this to me Mary?!
              Don’t you know I love you?
Who is the man?
I know he raped you.
I’ll kill him!
What will my friends say?
They knew I was supposed to be getting married.
How can you look so calm?
                                  and peaceful?
Even *innocent*?
She dared to say that this was God’s will!?!
 
I had long learned not to make rash decisions.
Quietly I told Mary that I needed time to be alone.
What should I do?
It certainly wasn’t right to go ahead with the wedding - with May pregnant with another man’s child.
But I *love* her so.
How could she do this to me?
All our dreams - shattered.
What would God want me to do?
That was the hard question.
It should have been simple.
The Scriptures say I could even have Mary stoned!!
Not *my* Mary.
How could she say that this was God’s will?
Could it be?
Could God - be(?) - the Father?
*No way.
Mary was simply out of her mind.*
Finally I had decided:  the proper thing to do was to break the engagement.
There simply was no other choice.
And I would pay for Mary to leave until after the baby was born.
That would spare her of some of her embarrassment.
Where should she go?
I decided her cousin Elizabeth would welcome her.
Elizabeth and Zechariah.
Now that’s a story in itself.
They had been wanting a baby for as long as I had known them.
Finally, when they had accepted the fact that they were too old and God was not going to give them a child, Elizabeth became pregnant.
And Zechariah - *strange* - Something happened when it was his turn to serve as priest in the temple.
When he came out, he couldn’t speak.
Everyone believed he had seen a vision.
This type of thing hadn’t happened in years - actually several hundred.
Is it possible, I wondered, is God breaking His silence?
The decision had not been an easy one.
After days of my mind doing battle with itself I had decided.
Now I could sleep.
I would tell Mary in the morning.
I knew she would accept my decision.
That night - the strangest, most exhilarating thing happened.
I don’t know how to say it.
I won’t blame you if you do not believe me.
I sometimes find it hard to believe myself
But in some strange way it seems more real than talking to you today.
An angel spoke to *me*!
I still shake when I think of it.
To a priest, yes.
But I am just a poor struggling carpenter;
                   an “average commoner” you might say.
Yet I tell you, God spoke to me.
I’ll never forget his words:
       /“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name *Jesus*, because he will save his people from their sins.”/
I could hardly wait until morning to tell Mary.
Now *I* *knew too* that the baby growing in her was God’s voice to His people.
Our emotions are hard to describe:
 
Awe,  fear,  wonder,  joy,  bewilderment,  humility
But now we had each other.
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