Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Botham Shem Jean is from the nation of St. Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean.

He got his undergraduate degree from Harding University, a small Christian college in Arkansas.

Following college he got a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Texas.

His 26 years of life came to an abrupt and tragic end on September 6, 2018.

A white, off duty, Dallas police officer Amber Guyger mistakenly entered Mr. Jean’s apartment thinking that it was her own.

This past week she was convicted of murder and sentenced to ten years in prison.

During the trial former officer Guyger said that she feared for her life when she entered Botham’s apartment.

However, she also admitted to not following proper protocol in assessing the situation at the beginning.

There was also text message evidence presented in the case that indicated some racial bias on her part.

There was a mix of emotions, particularly among African Americans this week.

First, there was a sense of disbelief, but also a satisfaction that the judicial system had found a white police officer guilty in the killing of an unarmed black man.

Then, there was a feeling of disappointment and anger at the ten year sentence, knowing that she could be out in five.

On radio talk shows you had African Americans call in and share how they’d been given the same sentence for far lesser crimes.

People wanted to know, what if the situation were reversed?

What if an off-duty Black police officer had shot and killed an unarmed White woman sitting in her own apartment?

Would the sentence be so light?

But the conversation around this trial became even more intense following the hug that went viral.

Botham’s 18-year old brother, Brandt gave a victim’s statement and then asked the judge if he could approach Amber Guyger.

He said, “If you are truly sorry, I know I can speak for myself, I forgive you...I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want for you," he told her. “I love you as a person, and I don't wish anything bad on you.”

"Can I give her a hug, please?"

Brandt Jean asked.

"Please."

When the judge said it was OK, Guyger rushed over to Brandt and wrapped her arms around him.

They held each other in a long embrace, while sobbing could be heard in the courtroom.

African American State District Judge Tammy Kemp wiped away tears from her eyes during the moment.

The visceral reaction to that moment is captured in two comments I heard while listening to an African American radio talk show the other day.

One African American man called in and said, “What is wrong with that boy?

If I were a member of his family in that courtroom, I would’ve reached over and punched him in the face!

Maybe forgiveness later, down the line, but right now I want to see her suffer!

I want her to experience some pain!

Why are you running to forgive so fast?”

The next caller was another African American man, and he had a different take.

He said that justice had been done with the conviction.

Then he talked about Brandt Jean’s hug and the fact that the judge hugged her as well and gave her a Bible.

He said, “What I witnessed was a caring courtroom.”

He was implying that justice and mercy are not mutually exclusive or necessarily contradictory.

Now, let me be clear.

This is a complex issue.

We’ve been engaging it in our own family.

There is an ease with which our society will celebrate Black expressions of forgiveness towards whites and use them as model pictures of reconciliation.

And there is also an ease with which our society will deplore Black expressions of public protest against systemic injustice.

So this isn’t a neat and tidy issue.

It’s a messy one.

And I think our text helps us to wrestle with what is good and just and right, particularly for people for whom Jesus Christ is Lord.

I got the title for this message, “A Caring Courtroom,” from that caller I mentioned earlier.

It fits the context, which is dealing with lawsuits, fairness, equity and justice for God’s people.

Legal matters are presented in this passage, but it’s not a proof text for American jurisprudence.

It is a passage that helps us to grasp the implications of what it means to obey God’s command to love our neighbors.

I have three P’s for this message.

The purpose of this passage.

The predisposition of the human heart.

The promotion of justice.

Purpose

Our passage is situated in the second section of the Book of Exodus.

Chapters 1-18 focus on God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt; saving them.

Chapters 19-24 focus on the giving of the Law, and chapters 25-40 focus on worship.

Here’s the point.

The purpose of this passage is wrapped up in its context.

The Lord is explaining how his people are to live in light of the fact that he has saved them.

They are situated at Mount Sinai.

God told Moses in , “I have come down to deliver my people out of the hand of the Egyptians.”

Then the Lord says in v. 12,

“True justice must preserve the humanity of the convicted and the victim.”

- Rev. Dr. Mike Higgins

And three months after their exodus they come to Sinai and the Lord speaks to them with poetic tenderness,

EX19.4

The Law always comes in that context.

God has demonstrated his power to save and deliver.

Now that they belong to him, they need to know how to live.

Now that you’re a liberated people, how are you to live?

We hear the ten commandments in chapter 20.

Commandments 1-4 are about our duty to love God.

They’re summed up in the command to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and might.

Commandments 5-10 concern our duty to love our neighbors as ourselves ().

And here’s the beauty of it.

God doesn’t just give them these terse commandments, he begins to flesh out what they look like in practice.

Our nine verses are working out the implications in a legal setting of commandments 6,

8,

EX

9,

and 10.

And here’s a connection for you.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

The Christian life doesn’t start with a list of do’s and don’ts.

It’s rooted in love.

It’s rooted in an undeserved love from God to us.

It’s rooted in God’s love directed towards rebellious people who are his enemies because of their rebellion.

And when, by faith our eyes are opened to see and receive that love, we respond by confessing and repenting of our sinful and rebellious ways.

And we put our hope squarely in him.

Then we’re able to grasp the fact that his law is a gift, not a vice.

We’re able to say like the psalmist in

Predisposition

God works this way when it comes to people because he understands the predisposition of the human heart.

He understands what our tendency is.

He understands that our tendency is to love those who love us back.

You have a sandwich structure in these nine verses.

Verses 1-3 and 6-8 give us simple commands, “You shall not,” language that apply to giving testimony in a court.

Verses 4-5 in the middle are situational laws.

If, or when, this situation takes place, then this is what you must do.

We’re going to talk about the bread bracketing the sandwich in a minute, but listen again to vv. 4-5,

If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you will surely return it to him.