Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
We are continuing our series, The Masks We Wear
By way of introduction, I’m going to put up a couple different pictures.
One of these came out a while ago, and it held the title of How to Offend 4 groups of Geeks
Put up the first picture
But when I went to pull up this picture, I found a new one.
This picture takes things up a level.
It claims to target 11 different groups of geeks
Put up second picture
So full disclosure, I’m going leave that one up for a bit, I could only identify 9 different geeks that would take offense to this picture, so I’m apparently not a very good geek if I can’t see the other two.
Question 1: What is your favorite movie franchise?
added bonus, for those online, if you can list off all 11 groups that are represented in this photo, that would be hugely helpful.
I will repost the photo after service, so please don’t pause the livestream in favor of figuring it out, there will be time at the end.
Now that may seem like the weirdest intro to a sermon, but bare with me, it all ties together, you just wait and see.
I’m not afraid to take the road less traveled.
Judah and Tamar
By way of introduction to our next mask, we are going to the very beginning of your bibles.
Head to Genesis if you will.
Just as a side note, I’m a big believer in reading a paper bible.
There is no notifications, there is no distractions, just you, God’s word, and a good journal would be a great practice to get into.
If you don’t have a good paper bible, let me know and I would love to fix that for you.
This book is so important to our development in life and faith that I can’t stress enough you needing a copy of your own.
So if you’re in Genesis, first book of the bible, we are going to Genesis chapter 38 to a story about Judah.
Now there are few interesting notes about this story.
Not a common story to be preached from, and kind of in an unusual place in Scripture.
Joseph has just been sold into slavery and we switch our attention to his older brother Judah.
This is one of those stories that doesn’t get included in the children’s illustrated bible either, it is a little graphic.
If you want to see what I mean, check it out later after the service, but here are the cliff notes.
Judah has two sons, and one of them comes of age to be married.
The older one, Er, takes a wife by the name of Tamar.
Er is evil in the eyes of God, and God kills him.
Now at the time, it was tradition that Onan, Er’s brother, would take Tamar as his wife and raise sons who would take Er’s name.
Onan doesn’t want to raise Er’s sons, so prevents Tamar from getting pregnant.
This angers God, and God kills Onan
Judah, seeing two of his sons now dead, withholds his third son until he is of age, which brings us up to speed with the story.
Tamar Takes Matters into Her Own Hands
Tamar takes matters into her own hands.
She tricks Judah into sleeping with her, which we read results in her getting pregnant.
Now this is interesting.
Judah is living near Canaanites.
Under Canaanite law and religion, prostitution is an acceptable practice.
Even though the law of Moses hasn’t come yet, prostitution is a no no amongst the Jacob’s family.
So Judah goes to a Canaanite town to do something that should not be done.
The other thing going on here is that under Hittite law, if the sons don’t produce an heir, the father-in-law must step in
Double Standard
Now hold on a second here Judah.
You didn’t seem to have a problem walking into town and recruiting a prostitute three months ago.
Why all of a sudden is Tamar’s actions punishable by death?
AND burning her to death nonetheless.
In recognition of Judah’s own failure providing his son to Tamar, he absolves her of her sin, and never has anything to do with her ever again.
The interesting note is Judah’s reaction.
Judah flies off in fury over the fact that Tamar would do such a thing, even though it was only three short months ago he was acting immorally towards a woman who wasn’t his wife.
Question 2: Have you ever been caught holding a double standard?
How did that go?
Unfortunately...
I would really like to say that I had trouble trying to come up with a modern day example of someone holding a double standard.
The truth is that there are no shortage of examples to choose from, and so I’m just going to leave it at that.
You don’t have to scroll through a news feed very long before you see someone holding a standard for someone else, while living a completely different way.
The Deflector Shield
this mask operates the same way the other ones do.
It serves to cover up something that we would like to remain hidden.
There is something going on in our life, a sin that we continue to struggle with; a habit that we just can’t break; an offense we just can’t let go of.
It takes up real estate in the back of our brain.
We beat ourselves up over the fact it is still there, and we certainly don’t want anyone to know about it.
If this got out, it would break trust, it could harm relationships.
Instead of dealing with it, we just carry it with us.
The result is we become hyper sensitive to it popping up in our lives, and by extension the lives of the people around us.
As soon as we hear of someone struggling with the same thing we struggle with, or even a hint of a similar struggle, the deflector shield comes up in an attempt to keep suspicion away from us.
This manifests in one of two ways.
Anger
we see this in Judah.
He was immoral, he hid from people, except his slave that he sent to take a gift to the prostitute, and to get his stuff back.
As soon as word comes out that Tamar is immoral, she must be punished NOW!
He doesn’t ask about the guy she was immoral with, because he is trying to deflect attention away.
By flying off the handle, the hope is that the strong negative response will convince people this isn’t something to associate with Judah.
Humor
we can use humor in much the same way.
If we make light of the situation, we make it seem like it’s not that big a deal, then hopefully no one will associate this struggle with us.
Humor is also a safe guard against opening up about anything.
We can cover up a lot of hurt and struggles by convincing everyone that we are happy go lucky, nothing ever affects us.
The reality is that there are real struggles going on that need the love and support of those closest to us.
Not A New Thing
This is the very thing that Jesus was addressing in Matthew 7.
Paul’s Take On It
Paul would later say something similar in Romans 2.
Take Off the Mask
I can’t help but wonder if the reason we have such a problem with the double standard we see in government or any kind of leadership is because we recognize to some degree with we all hold our own double standards.
When it comes to parenting we do this, at least I do.
One of the girls is screaming at the other; what do I do?
I yell at them to stop yelling at their sister.
Hmmmm.
That’s a minor one.
But it always starts small.
The only way we will ever get rid of this mask is by dealing with whatever is causing us to put the mask up in the first place.
How many people are critical of other parents because the guilt or regret of how they parented?
How many people are hard on those who refuse to forgive, because they are holding onto offense?
How many men are hard on those who struggle with porn because of their secret porn problem?
There is no end to this list, and we’ve got to be the people who are willing to stop the cycle!
Physical and Spiritual
How many times do we pray for physical healing, when the person is actually in desperate need of spiritual healing?
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