Sermon Tone Analysis

We will be posting resources here for those who are looking for sermons, prayers, responsive readings, collects, or special news stories.

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We will be working all weekend and constantly updating these resources.

Thank you,

Brett Blair \\ \\ _____________________ \\ \\ \\ *SERVICES*

Homebush Uniting Church, Sydney, Australia, Uniting Church in Australia.

\\ A Prayer Service for Victims of the Asian Tsunami \\ \\ United Methodist Church General Board of Discipleship.

\\ A Service of Holy Communion in a Time of National or International Tragedy \\ \\ The Upper Room Chapel, United Methodist Church General Board of Discipleship \\ A Service of Prayer for Those Harmed by the Earthquake and Tsunamis

* \\ PRAYERS*

Meditation: Counting Sparrows

Tsunami Prayers

* \\ ILLUSTRATIONS*

* *

I thought this illustration especially appropriate.

The application may not be your cup of tea so write your own.

It is from: http:~/~/dialogue.adventist.org~/articles~/14_1_nelson_e.htm

\\ \\ Long ago, a group of poor Chinese settlers came upon a sprawling valley \\ floor, strategically lying between the rocky slopes of a nearby mountain and \\ the salty shores of the China Sea-a flatland of earth that seemed perfectly \\ suitable for the planting and farming of rice.

And so it was decided that \\ the settlers would build their village high up on a flat rocky promontory \\ from whence they could gaze down upon that new farmland in the valley and \\ beyond it to the azure waters of the sea.

\\ \\ The village was built above, and the rice was planted below.

And at long \\ last, life was harvesting for them new promise and hope.

\\ \\ One late summer afternoon when most of the village had trekked down the \\ slope to the fields below, one of the women who remained in the village \\ happened to glance up from her work and squint toward the sea.

Her eyes \\ meandered out farther and farther to the distant sea horizon, when with a \\ start of fear she recognized the ominous surge of the sea-what their \\ Japanese neighbors called a tsunami-a tidal wave.

A faraway seismic tectonic \\ shift in the ocean bed had created this gathering massive wall of water that \\ appeared to be silently thundering toward their shoreline.

\\ \\ For a moment she froze, realizing that nearly the entire village was \\ obliviously harvesting their grain along the shoreline-unaware that their \\ world and their lives were facing impending disaster and imminent death.

The \\ incoming tsunami would obliterate all who were toiling in the farmland \\ beneath the afternoon sun-unless she could warn them.

\\ \\ She cried out to the few villagers who had remained up the mountain with \\ her.

In panic they began to yell and wave and scream to their family and \\ children and friends below.

But it was wasted effort-they were too far away.

\\ With the racing tsunami, there was no time for them to stumble down the \\ rocky slopes to the valley below.

They must get their attention instantly-or \\ all below would be lost!

\\ \\ It quickly became apparent that they needed something catastrophic to arouse \\ their endangered families below.

The woman and her companions knew what they \\ must do.

It would be a terrible price to pay.

But if the doomed villagers \\ were to be saved, the price must be paid.

\\ \\ And so quickly, seizing firebrands from their cooking fires, the remaining \\ mountainside villagers with the woman torched their own thatch-roofed homes.

\\ One by one the houses of the mountainside village erupted in orange flames \\ and billowing black smoke.

And one by one the bent-over heads of the \\ villagers below jerked upward.

Seeing the pluming smoke of their burning \\ village, the entire valley floor of villagers raced back up the mountain to \\ save their burning homes.

\\ \\ When in panting fatigue they arrived above, they were met by the woman and \\ her neighbors, who solemnly pointed back out to sea.

The villagers turned in \\ shock to watch the roaring wall of water obliterate the farmland they had \\ minutes before been harvesting.

\\ \\ It took something catastrophic to warn of an even greater destruction \\ impending.

\\ \\ Now consider the words of the ancient prophet Isaiah: "In the path of your \\ judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul's \\ desire.

My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within earnestly \\ seeks you.

For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the \\ world learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26: 8, 9, NRSV).

"When your judgments are \\ in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness."

Which being \\ interpreted means-when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of \\ the world are pointed to safety and salvation.

Because there are desperate \\ times when it takes something catastrophic to warn of an even greater \\ destruction impending.

\\ \\ Thanks to Jonathan Funkhouser

 

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Don't be mislead as to the Biblical significance of this disaster.

I'm going to read some scriptures in a moment that I hope will help us to view the big picture, not the sensationalism of the moment While the Word does say that in the end times there will be earthquakes - please note that earthquakes of this magnitude have hit the earth for 1000's of years.

\\ In the year 69 an earthquake hit the region of Pompeii - followed by a volcanic eruption that destroyed numerous villages and killing over 20,000 people.

In 476 AD an earthquake hit Rome which all but decimated the city.

In 526 250,000 people were killed in an earthquake in what is now known as Turkey.

In January of 1556 over 830,000 people were killed in an earthquake in China.

In 1703 an earthquake in Tokyo killed 200,000.

History records an earthquake in India in 1737,  that was responsible for 300,000 fatalities.

In 1868 a Tsunami hit the coast of Peru with such force the waves reached 3 miles inland - tens of thousands were killed.

In 1923 Tokyo lost 140,000 people to an earthquake.

In 1935 India lost 50,000 to a quake.

In 1976 in China 240,000 people died during an earthquake in Tangshan.

\\ \\ Throughout recorded history earthquakes and tsunamis have \\ taken hundreds of thousands of lives.

Any earthquake, or for that matter any disaster, in and of itself cannot be pointed to as the fulfillment of any scripture or prophecy.

I was raised hearing how every thing that hit the newspaper was this scripture or that scripture being fulfilled.

And it wasn't.

\\ And people who accept Christ out of fear seldom remain believers.

And they are far more difficult to ever reach for Christ again.

We cannot know with any certainty or accuracy that any earthly event fulfills a certain prophecy.

From a sermon by Ric Freeman, Weatherford, ok.

* *

* \\ RESPONSIVE READINGS – Blessings - Benedictions*

 

Minister: Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

*People: Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love.*

Minister: I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.

*People: In your great mercy turn to us.*

 

Minister: I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.

*People: Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love.*

Minister: I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.

*People: In your great mercy turn to us.*

Minister: My eyes fail, looking for my God.

 

*People: Rescue me from the mire; do not let me sink; *

Minister: Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love.

*People: Deliver me from the deep waters.

*

Minister: In your great mercy turn to us.

*People: Do not let the floodwaters engulf me *

Minister: Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love.

*People: or the depths swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.*

Minister: In your great mercy turn to us.

* *

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com,

Adapted from Psalm 69: 1-3, 14-16.

\\ ~*~*  ~*~*~*~*~*  ~*~* \\ \\ \\

Leader: My God, My God, why have you forsaken us?

*People: Why are you so far from helping us, from the words of our groaning?*

Leader: O' my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.

*People: I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is wilted within my breast.*

Leader: But you, O Lord, do not be far away!

You are our help, come quickly to our aid!

*People: For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted, he did not hide his face from us, but heard when we cried out to him.*

Sent in by Joe Spencer - Adapted from Psalm 22: 1-2, 14, 19, 24 NRSV \\ \\ \\

 

~*~*  ~*~*~*~*~*  ~*~*

\\ \\ \\ A Tsunami Blessing

 

Blessed are those who mourn for the tsunami's victims; may they