Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Jesus And The Disinherited by Howard Thurman

“The solution which Jesus found for himself and for Israel, as they faced the hostility of the Greco-Roman world, becomes the word and the work of redemption for all the cast-down people in every generation and in every age.

I mean this quite literally.

I do not ignore the theological and metaphysical interpretation of the Christian doctrine of salvation.

But the underprivileged everywhere have long since abandoned any hope that this type of salvation deals with the crucial issues by which their days are turned into despair without consolation.

The basic fact is that Christianity as it was born in the mind of this Jewish teacher and thinker appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed.”

Oppression Gets the Attention Of the LORD God

(And When His people pray…)

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.

Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭2:23-25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/exo.2.23-25.esv

The LORD God gets the attention of those whom He Calls (such as Moses)

to go back and do something about the oppression of His people

“Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned."

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!"

And he said, "Here I am."

And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭3:1-4, 6-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/exo.3.1-4,6-10.esv

And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭3:1-4, 6-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/exo.3.1-4,6-10.esv

Don’t forget where you came from

but many of us do want to forget from where we came.

Go back & bring somebody else out alongside you.

The Politics of Jesus:  Rediscovering The True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus Teachings And How They Have Been Corrupted by Obery Hendricks

“In the final analysis, the seminal importance of the Exodus event is that in God’s response to the class oppression of the Hebrews, God firmly posited justice and liberation as the very foundation of biblical faith.”

Transition:  Our LORD God is a just and justice seeking God

But sometimes seeking justice can seem political

The politics of our present time seem to be very toxic, negative, & divisive

And what happened to the public servants?

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:3-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/php.2.3-8.esv

Illustration:

What happened to Abraham Lincoln’s government of the people & by the people?

Gettysburg address

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Those words were spoken by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

USA founded on July 4, 1776

First slaves arrive in 1619

Transition:  Where are the prophets of our day?

Where Have All The Prophets Gone?

Reclaiming Prophetic Preaching In America by Marvin McMickle 

“Within congregational life, there is a tendency for the preacher to become preoccupied with such pressing matters as new members’ or confirmation classes; the maintenance or renovation of the church building; whether or not the annual budget will be met; and how to maintain a feeling of intimacy in the face of a rapidly growing or shifting membership.

What may be lost in the rush to respond to these issues is that congregation’s responsibility to respond to an escalating problem of homelessness in the community, or overcrowding in the jails, or the abuse of drugs and alcohol by youngsters in the local school district.

It is the preacher’s job to remain watchful, to use the image of and 33, and to sound the alarm about the injuries that are being inflicted upon people as well as about the injustices that are taking place.”

Transition:  Politics of God

Who is the author of Ecclesiastes?

Where is the author at this stage in his life?

Why does the author write the way he does?

What is impacting his perspective?

Ecclesiastes.

n. c.1300, name given to one of the Old Testament books, traditionally ascribed to Solomon, from Greek ekklesiastes (see ecclesiastic), to render Hebrew qoheleth "one who addresses an assembly," from qahal "assembly."

Transition To Body

Body- The Politics Of God

Maintain Proper Perspective

On Present

On Future

Seek Justice For The Persecuted (Dispossessed)

past tense: dispossessed; past participle: dispossessed

deprive (someone) of land, property, or other possessions.

"they were dispossessed of lands and properties at the time of the Reformation"synonyms:divest, strip, rob, cheat out of, do out of, deprive, relieve, bereave; informaldiddle out of;

archaicreave

"the peasants have been dispossessed of their land"

dislodge, oust, eject, expel, drive out, evict, turn out, cast out, throw out, throw someone out on their ear, put out in the street, show someone the door;

banish, exile;

Why does God seek juice for the dispossessed?

Because they experience bitterness (The heart is filled with bitterness instead of joy when it comes to the experience of life ) in life due to persecution/injustice!

Ecclesiastes 3:

See Injustices Towards The Defenseless Poor

(Who Are Plundered In Places Where Their Rights Ought a To Be Protected)

Illustrate:  Solomon ruling wisely & justly

Illustrate:  Scapegoating the poor

Unjust policies towards the poor in housing, policing, education, healthcare, employment, grocery store healthy food options vs. high prices of corner stores, neighborhood liquor stores, neighborhood smoke shops following legalization of Marijuana, immigration policy that separates parents from children, & trauma of neighborhood violence., immigration policy that favors rich & wealthy over poor asylum seekers)

Moved In The Heart For Righteous Judgement & Vindication

Transition To Close- A Fool says...

Close- But Jesus Christ Said

Proclaim The Year Of The LORD’s favor!

Luke