Sermon Tone Analysis

We Shall Overcome

It was the most powerful song of the 20th century.

It started out in church pews and picket lines, inspired one of the greatest freedom movements in U.S. history, and went on to topple governments and bring about reform all over the world.

Word for word, the short, simple lyrics of "We Shall Overcome" might be some of the most influential words in the English language.

"We Shall Overcome" has it roots in African American hymns from the early 20th century, and was first used as a protest song in 1945, when striking tobacco workers in Charleston, S.C., sang it on their picket line.

By the 1950s, the song had been discovered by the young activists of the African American civil rights movement, and it quickly became the movement’s unofficial anthem.

Its verses were sung on protest marches and in sit-ins, through clouds of tear gas and under rows of police batons, and it brought courage and comfort to bruised, frightened activists as they waited in jail cells, wondering if they would survive the night.

When the long years of struggle ended and President Lyndon Johnson vowed to fight for voting rights for all Americans, he included a final promise: "We shall overcome."

In the decades since, the song has circled the globe and has been embraced by civil rights and pro-democracy movements in dozens of nations worldwide.

From Northern Ireland to Eastern Europe, from Berlin to Beijing, and from South Africa to South America, its message of solidarity and hope has been sung in dozens of languages, in presidential palaces and in dark prisons, and it continues to lend its strength to all people struggling to be free.

Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/songs/overcome.html)

Are we still looking for something to help us overcome, or have we given up altogether, and are reconciled to watching while Satan plunders us, our families, and our community?

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed.

Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith.

May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Yes, it’s true.

Jesus said every single word that you just heard, and He didn’t say “please.”

These are commands, not requests, from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to His disciples.

More, it is what He has done for us, in His incarnation.

Jesus Christ took no shortcuts to fulfilling His mission of being our Savior.

He “endured the cross, despising the shame” in a culture where honor and shame were as important as money to defining a person’s worth and status.

To ask

“In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established.”

Jesus said it, and Paul echoed it.

I don’t see any way around it.

The question remains, “How do I do this?” “What does this mean?”

He said it.

Jesus does not lie.

We do.

We lie to ourselves, and we lie to others.

We lie about how much we love the Lord.

We lie about how much we love our brothers and sisters.

We lie about our trust in Him.

We do tell the truth when we confess that we are poor, miserable sinners, though.

It’s then that the Lord responds with His gracious forgiveness, and Word of Absolution that blesses those who hear it in faith.

As He blesses that word, He also blesses the Word of witness that we speak to one another and to those who are still outside the household of faith.

Jesus speaks to us, and tells us that there are people who are our “enemies.”

He distinguishes our conduct from the conduct of “sinners.”

He says that this conduct identifies us as “sons of the Most High.”

There is a line of separation, there is a wall of division.

The Lord separates those who follow Him and those who do not.

We don’t like that.

We want to hear about the Jesus who makes no distinctions, who has no commands, who makes no demands.

I can talk to you about that Jesus, but I wouldn’t be preaching the truth as it is in Christ, any more than if I preached about Jesus as a new Lawgiver, another Moses.

Moses gave Israel a Law that could not save them, that remained outside of them and accused them, and condemned them.

Jesus gave us a promise - the Gospel - that can save us, that comes into us in Word and Sacrament and transforms us, and delivers us from the condemnation of the Law.

The Gospel frees us from the shame of our sin:

This same Jesus teaches us how we are to reflect our new lives, our identity in Christ that we have received as baptized believers, united to Chri

st in His death, the death in which he fulfilled everything that He commands in today’s Gospel passage.

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Jesus exchanged our sins for His righteousness.

We no longer can claim that we can’t help it, and that God needs to just overlook our sin.

He couldn’t - He couldn’t look the other way, He couldn’t cut us a break.

He could only take our place.

as objects of God’s wrath and grant us His place in God’s favor.

Now He comes to us and tells us to walk in His steps, the only steps that are truly good, as it is written:

You want to see God do something powerful in your life - that’s powerful!

You want to be a sign of God’s presence - that’s as clear a sign that Jesus is real as there ever will be.

Those who take Jesus’ life-giving Word to heart stand out as lights shining in the darkness of this present evil age, where people strive to satisfy their lusts, treating their neighbors as objects to fulfill their own desires for power, prestige, influence, and satisfaction.

To tell the truth, it is the narrow way, the difficult gate.

It is so narrow, that without Christ it is impossible to enter - He is the door.

If we took Him seriously, we would make sure that we arrived in order to hear His Word of Absolution, rather than getting in time to hear another teaching and then go home like many do in other congregations that don’t recognize the importance of beginning our worship with receiving His forgiveness.

If we took Him seriously, the Lord’s Supper would never take place without our presence:

If we took Him seriously, people would either be drawn by the presence of Christ in our midst, or repelled by His presence.

They would either walk in fellowship with us, or be opposed to us,

When Jesus is in the midst of people, they don’t keep silent about it.

When Jesus is changing lives, healing lives, and making people alive, they don’t keep it to themselves.

They can’t.

You might not know all of what God is doing, just like the disciples didn’t know when He was among them, in fact, I don’t know all that God is planning for Gary, for St. John’s, for the Lutheran Community of Northwest Indiana.

But I know what He said:

The living and powerful Word of Christ, the Gospel of Christ, must be proclaimed by His people, so that it can bring life to the world in which we live.

It’s time, saints, even as the seasons move from winter to spring, as the hours move from night to day, it’s time for us to recognize who we are, and whose we are.

God’s not dead, Christ is risen, and we are children of the King!

We do tell the truth when we confess that we are poor, miserable sinners, though.

It’s then that the Lord responds with His gracious forgiveness, and Word of Absolution that blesses those who hear it in faith.

As He blesses that word, He also blesses the Word of witness that we speak to one another and to those who are still outside the household of faith.

The living and powerful Word of Christ, the Gospel of Christ, must be proclaimed by His people, so that it can bring life to the world in which we live.

It’s time, saints, even as the seasons move from winter to spring, as the hours move from night to day, it’s time for us, for our community , for our people.

We are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!

We are blessed!

We are blessed in this city!

We are blessed in this church!

We are blessed when we come and when we go!

We are His children and with our hearts we confess:

We Are Blessed!

So let the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.