Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

HEB11.

Recently students at the University of Manchester in England painted over the mural of a poem by Rudyard Kipling in the university’s newly refurbished students’ union (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jul/19/manchester-university-students-paint-over-rudyard-kipling-mural).

They replaced it with the poem Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou.

An article about incident notes that in a statement on Facebook, Sara Khan, the union’s liberation and access officer, said students had not been consulted about the art that would decorate the union building.

“We, as an exec team, believe that Kipling stands for the opposite of liberation, empowerment and human rights – the things that we, as an SU, stand for,” she said.

One of my father’s favorite poems was the poem If, by Rudyard Kipling.

I never actually asked him why this poem was such a favorite of his, but he had learned in school growing up in Trinidad.

If is a poem written from the perspective of father to a son.

The father is giving his son some wise words of advice about growing into manhood.

Indeed, the last two lines of the poem are,

Kipling is the author of the poem The White Man’s Burden, which was written to encourage the US to assume colonial control of the Philippines.

That, however, isn’t the poem that was put up in the new students’ center.

The poem they painted over was another one Kipling was famous for, the poem If.

If was actually one of my father’s favorite poems.

I never actually asked him why this poem was such a favorite of his, but he had learned in school growing up in Trinidad, when that country was still a British colony.

If is a poem written from the perspective of father to a son.

The father is giving his son some wise words of advice about growing into manhood.

Indeed, the last two lines of the poem are,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run -Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and, which is more, you’ll be a man my son!

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and, which is more, you’ll be a man my son!

Those two lines a worth talking about by themselves, “filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.”

But our text for today brings to my mind a different stanza from the poem.

In the second stanza Kipling says,

If you can dream and not make dreams your master.

If you can think and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truths you’ve spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truths you’ve spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools.

The father is saying to the son, you’ve got to get up and do something.

It’s cool to dream but dreams can’t be your master.

It’s cool to think, but thoughts can’t be your aim.

In other words, as Sho’ Baraka says, “You can be a dreamer, but don’t live in your bed.”

And the second line is the reality check.

When you get up and do something you’re going to meet with both triumph and disaster.

His advise is, you’ve got to treat those two impostors just the same.

Don’t get too high on the triumphs or too low when disaster hits.

He’s saying, “Son, if you’re going to become a man you’ve got to have the right perspective on both success and suffering.”

That’s a picture that the Pastor paints for us as he concludes this chapter on faith.

He’s been giving them a history lesson on what it looks like for Christians to endure or persevere through life by faith.

Faith endures by seeing the unseen.

Faith endures by obeying God’s word.

Faith endures by holding tightly to God’s promises.

Now he says faith is able to endure well through both triumph and disaster.

He shows us here examples of God’s people who by faith experienced impossible success and those who experienced impossible suffering.

The Pastor instructs us on how to have the right perspective on both success and suffering.

The perspective is this.

The life of faith in Christ involves both.

Dad might not like me modifying Kipling’s poem…

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and understand that God is still the same,” then you’re enduring by faith.

So, in Facing the Impossible, we’re going to talk about Impossible Success (vv.

30-35a), Impossible Suffering (vv.

35b-38), and Impossibly Better (vv.

39-40).

Impossible Success

In his history lesson on faith the Pastor has moved from the early chapters of Genesis, through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

We didn’t look at vv. 17-29, but he also moves on to Moses and the Exodus and the display of God’s power to deliver his people as he parted the Red Sea for Israel to cross.

But there’s a big gap in this history lesson of faith between vv. 29 and 30.

V. 29 is the crossing of the Red Sea.

Then he skips the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

He jumps all the way to the book of Joshua and the conquest of Joshua.

Then he skips the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and

Deuteronomy.

He jumps all the way to the book of Joshua and the conquest of Joshua.

He’s about to start his examples of impossible success, but he skips the whole wilderness generation.

Why?

Because he’s already used them as a negative example in chs.

3-4.

He’s already told them, those are the jokers you don’t want to be like.

They’re examples of those who refused to live by faith.

He’s about to start his examples of impossible success, but he skips the whole wilderness generation.

Why?

Because he’s already used them as a negative example in chs.

3-4.

He’s already told them, those are the jokers you don’t want to be like.

They’re examples of those who refused to live by faith.

The Pastor is about to start his examples of impossible success, but he skips the whole wilderness generation.

Why does he do that?

Because he’s already used them as a negative example in chs.

3-4.

He’s already told them, those are the jokers you don’t want to be like.

They’re examples of those who refused to live by faith.

So he skips 40 years and beginning with the conquest that Joshua lead, he says in vv.

30-32…

Everyone mentioned here faced impossible odds.

Jericho was a city that was fortified by walls.

There was no way that Israel was going to conquer Jericho unless the walls were breached.

But it was impossible for them to do.

Rahab was a Gentile and a prostitute who lived in Jericho.

How was she going to escape being killed when the city went up in flames?

If she welcomes the Israelite spies she puts her own life in danger.

Gideon goes out to battle the Midianites.

He starts with an army of 32,000 men.

God has him reduce the army to 300 men.

In the movie 300, all those dudes died, but Gideon’s 300 were successful.

Barak defeated the Canaanites.

Sampson, blinded and imprisoned defeated the Philistines.

David escaped Saul’s sword to become the king of Israel.

Samuel, the last of the judges and the first of the regular prophets powerfully interceded for Israel at Mitzpah and God broke the stronghold the Philistines had on Israel.

Everyone mentioned here faced impossible odds.

Jericho was a city that was fortified by walls.

There was no way that Israel was going to conquer Jericho unless the walls were breached.

But it was impossible for them to do.

Rahab was a Gentile and a prostitute who lived in Jericho.

How was she going to escape being killed when the city went up in flames.