Sermon Tone Analysis
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I - Am always looking for that hopefull christmas“ Feeling.”
Snow, lights, egg nog, I eat and do those things looking for that Hopeful Christmas feeling
Trying to RECLAIM that something taht I have lost at some point down the line.
The movies call it “christmas spirit.”
FOSTER
Y
We are all longing for those things, but I think especially HOPE this time of year.
I think we find hope in all kinds of places
We think about hope in all kinds of ways
But what is hope really
Some of are like me We try to do, eat, experience, by things that spark that FEELING of hope in us, that hopefully optimistic feeling.
And when we don't have it we feel hope-less.
Some of us look for hope as a mental state.
Some of us in our feelings.
We try to do, eat, experience, by things that spark that FEELING of hope in us, that hopefully optimistic feeling.
And when we don't have it we feel hope-less.
Some of us look for hope as a mental state.
“I’m feeling hopefull”
Others try to find hope in optimism.
Finding the good in bad situations.
“Look at the bright side...” I know I missed the bus, but I got a nice ride in anyway.
My mom...
Some of us are put our hope in good plans.
The ability to see how a tragedy might be resolved and fixed.
We imagine a solution to our problems, and that become HOPE.
“I hope I have this figured out now”
Other times we look for hope in basically denial of the problem.
We minimise the issue, the worry or the tragedy and say, “This is fine.”
It reminds me of my favorite cartoon.
We think we can just deny the problem
Or we are just optimistic.
We say to ourselves “Everything happens for a reason” or “Im sure things will work out eventually.”
But i dont know about you.
In my life these ways of finding hope of hope so often come up empty.
The hopefull feeling i get from the lights doesnt last, the plan falls through, the problem becomes too big to minimize, the denial leads to more problems, and even the optimism gets old after a while.
And we find ourslves again longing, looking to RELCAIM some kind of hope we imagine we once had...
G - Put your hope in the one who opens the womb, grows the shoot, and raises the dead.
Trans: The bible, the gospel, and the chrismtas story in particular offer a different kind of hope than that.
The story of Zechariah in luke is about that Kind of hope.
But before we look at this we have to understand a little background.
Because the New Testament is a sequel it makes way more sense if you understand a little bit of the story that came before the old testament.
World made Perfect - God Chooses - Human Beings to Rule
They Reject God and abuse there power - Utter brokenness results - The Earth fills with Violence
God Chooses a family and he promises that Through them - The same sickness that destroied paradise and has been destroying lives every since will be cured -
That family becomes a tribe, becomes a people, and settles in the land of isreal and their they become a nation.A nation where God’s chosen King David, rules for a time with Justice, Love, and Peace.
A nation where God’s people, are ruled By God’s chosen king, in his chosen land, while offering sacrifices to that God when they sin.
A nation where, for a time, God’s People seem to be fulfilling his purpose, ruling on God’s behalf, and curing that great sickness.
It’s to that king DAVID that GOd promises one day his descendent will rule the whole world forever in peace and justices and love just like God wanted.
They reject God - and it all falls apart
But it doesn't last.The King falls victim to the sickness, and his descendents, more so, and their descendents more so
They reject God for their own profit.
They abuse the poor, the widow, and the immigrant, they ignore God, The kill and steal and grasp with all their strength at more power and more wealth all while crushing and ignoring others.
Before long the kingdom falls into a civil war, is conqured by many foriegn powers who abuse the people, scatter them all over the world.
But all throughout this time there are people called prophets.
warning against their evil actions, foretelling the trouble that is coming.
But also proclaiming a messages of HOPE, repeating the promises that God made to their ancestors.
Clinging to the hope that God really would one day through is people cure this.
Years and years go by, but people still tell the story.
And every time things look Good for gods people they get exicted they get on tiptoes and they hope.
They HOPE
NIV
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
So they hope.
They hope that the cut off stump can sprout a branch.
That the God that saved them will save them again.
That this sickness this evil that has grasped the whole world since the beginning just might be cured by God’s partnership with his people.
Luke begins by introducing the time, the place, and some people.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.
6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.
7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
By setting the story up this way Luke already has us thinking about hope, or perhaps the need for it.
By setting the story up this way
Starts by mentioning Herod.
Herod was a puppet king that the Roman Empire put in charge of Judea.
He was Jewish but he was not a good man.
He was a constant reminder that God’s people did not control their own destiny, that they were subjects of Rome and not an independent nation.
On to Zechariah the priest and Elizabeth, a righteous couple are childless
The story starts out pretty grim.
God’s people are not being used to bless the world.
Instead they are subjegated by the largest and strongest empire the world had ever known.
An empire defined by the same kind of sin of the Garden of Eden and the Kings of Isreal, an empire that seemed utterly unshakable and empire that grew its power by crushing its neighbors and subjects.
Its Grim for Zechariah and Elizabeth too.
Even though they are faithful, even though they are good, even though they are doing everything right they still have no child.
Crushing.
They are old, so it seems pretty impossible that that would ever change.
I imagine them having given up long ago on that dream and instead trying to make the best of a sad situation, being judged by their peers whispering about what kind of sin they must have committed to be punished in this way.
Z and E long for a child.
Isreal freedom and a king.
All creation rescue from the same evil that has plagued us since the beginning.
Their story sits in that question mark.
Will God’s promise come true, will God work or will he forget us forever.
Well, Zechariah gets chosen by chance to burn incense in the temple.
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