Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Let People Check You Out!
Romans 15:4-13
Joy, peace, hope — these are the themes of the Christmas season.
At Christmas, we celebrate the gift of
Jesus.
His birth marks a new chapter in God's plan to end our suffering and save us from our sin.
So if you're
discouraged during the holidays, remind yourself that the baby Jesus came to heal your heart, and this world.
Because of Him, one day there will be no more suffering.
That is one joy we can hope for.
God sees all the problems in the world, including ours, and He has promised ultimately to fix them.
To
do this, He sent Jesus to carry out a plan to end all suffering.
The Bible tells us that one day there will be no
more tears.
Revelation 21:3–5 reads, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘… There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’
He who was seated on the
throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”
So one day, there will be no more disease, no more tragedy, no
more suffering - no more death.
That’s a reason for hope and celebration!
At Christmas, Jesus came to deal with the source of our suffering and our sin.
We may have worries
that we do not deserve to be forgiven by God, that our sin is too “bad.”
I’ve known numerous people
throughout the years who would not partake in Holy Communion because they felt unworthy.
It is a holy event
and they felt unholy.
But that is the very reason to embrace Communion, because we are unholy, sinful
creatures; and because Jesus has made us right with God.
His holiness and sinlessness and sacrifice, being
accepted by God, covers us and makes us one with Christ and each other.
No matter what you’ve done, you can be forgiven!
His love goes beyond anything you’ve ever
experienced.
He loves you without conditions; and if we enter into a relationship with Him, we are accepted,
not because of anything you’ve done or ever will do, but because of what Christ did for you.
As the Bible says,
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:5).
“For it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so
that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
So, that’s one side of the story, that’s what the Lord has done.
The other side of the story is what are we
going to do? Imagine going to a library seeking information; but instead of checking out a book, you check out
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a person!
Hear that again… Well, that's the idea behind a project called the Human Library, a place where real
people are on loan to the library users.
Those real people, because of the facts and experiences of their lives,
represent categories such as Muslim, bipolar, single young mother, unemployed, HIV victim, autistic, sexually
abused, convert, brain-damaged, molested, deaf and blind, soldier with PTSD, homeless, alcoholic, ADHD and
so forth.
They are typically available at a scheduled event that might run for several hours over one or more
days.
Borrowers go to the event and select a category they'd like to know more about.
The human "book" then
sits down for 30 minutes or so with the borrower and shares his or her story, and the borrower gets to ask
questions.
Want to know what it's like to be a refugee?
There's likely a refugee in that human library ready to
explain that experience to you, and the same is available with several other topics.
The first occurrence of the
Human Library was in Denmark in the spring of 2000.
It ran for four days straight at a Copenhagen location
and offered some 75 "titles," chosen to inform and to challenge stereotypes.
More than 1,000 "readers," people
interested in other walks of life, showed up, leaving organizers stunned at the impact of the project.
The idea
has since jumped the Danish borders, and Human Library events have now happened on every continent but
Antarctica.
At a Human Library happening in Rochester, New York, for example, borrowers got to hear from a
Vietnam veteran, a martial artist, a British butler, and a person paralyzed in a car accident, among many others.
So what if people "borrowed" us?
What if ours was the life someone wanted to read?
Would they find
in us joy, peace, and hope?
Would they see Christmas alive and well in our story?
This is a neat idea, and it
gives us an opportunity as followers of Jesus Christ to think about what people outside of our experience —
nonbelievers, people of other faiths, the curious, etc. — (what people outside of our experience) would learn if
they were to "borrow" us to "read" for a while.
What would they read?
What would they learn?
There’s a song I heard on my first Emmaus Walk back in 1987 entitled, You’re the Only Jesus.
Hear the
words…
If not in you, I wonder where, will they ever see the One who really cares.
If not from you how will they find there's One who heals the broken heart and gives sight to the blind?
‘Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see and you're the only words of life some will ever read.
So let them see in you the One in whom is all they'll ever need,
'Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see.
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And if not you I wonder who, will show them love and love alone can make things new.
If not from you how will they learn, there's One who trades their hopelessness for joy in return?
'Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see and you're the only words of life some will ever read.
So let them see in you the One in whom is all they'll ever need.
'Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see.
So let Him shine, let Him show, let them see Him in you, you've got to let them know.
'Cause you're the only Jesus some will ever see and you're the only words of life some will ever read
So let them see in you the One in whom is all they'll ever need
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