Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Against the darkness of our lives, against the violence that threatens to overwhelm us, against the lies that make it impossible to know what is and is not true, against the dark cloak of cynicism we wear in the false hope that believing in no one or nothing we will be free from the lies, you give … .

How extraordinary, how simple that people as confused and lost as we are can still choose life.

Amazing.

— Stanley Hauerwas

INTRODUCTION

Context for the Series: Barriers

WEEK 1: Cynicism

Reading of Text

WEEK 2: Pride

WEEK 3: Shame

WEEK 4: Individualism

WEEK 5: Tribalism

While not a comprehensive list, these are postures, behaviors, and ideologies which undermine our experience of the power and presence of God.

Sean and I both are convinced that in our cultural moment the world needs the church to be a people marked by, and known for, the power and presence of God.

There is a deep cultural longing for it!

People, from atheists to Kanye, are creating versions of what they think the church should look like, but they lack the power and presence of God.

I am not throwing shade at these people by any means.

Their longing and desire is so very good, and I pray for people in their lives to encourage them, speak into that longing, and show them the way that will not eventually leave them spiritually bankrupt.

This is why the church must be marked by, and known for, the power and presence of God.

That where God’s people are He is alive and at work giving sight to the blind and setting the oppressed free.

He is at work unraveling the evils of racism and bigotry.

He is transforming the abusive husband into a man of peace and gentleness.

He is bringing healing to issues of mental health.

This is what we are longing for in our church family!

That like Moses we protest, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here!

What else will distinguish us from all the other people on the face of the earth?” ()

“Please stand with me for the reading of Scripture.”

So, these things (cynicism, pride, shame, individualism, and tribalism) are forces of evil at work undermining the power and presence of God, which we are called to reject and resist.

Reading of Text

Reading of Text

“Please stand with me for the reading of Scripture.”

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Mark 6:

Pray

WEEK 1: Cynicism

WEEK 2: Pride

WEEK 3: Shame

WEEK 4: Individualism

WEEK 5: Tribalism

While not a comprehensive list, these are postures, behaviors, and ideologies which undermine our experience of the power and presence of God.

Sean and I both are convinced that in our cultural moment the world needs the church to be a people marked by, and known for, the power and presence of God.

There is a deep cultural longing for it!

People, from atheists to Kanye, are creating versions of what they think the church should look like, but they lack the power and presence of God.

I am not throwing shade at these people by any means.

Their longing and desire is so very good, and I pray for people in their lives to encourage them, speak into that longing, and show them the way that will not eventually leave them spiritually bankrupt.

This is why the church must be marked by, and known for, the power and presence of God.

That where God’s people are He is alive and at work giving sight to the blind and setting the oppressed free.

He is at work unraveling the evils of racism and bigotry.

He is transforming the abusive husband into a man of peace and gentleness.

He is bringing healing to issues of mental health.

We

This is what we are longing for in our church family!

That like Moses we protest, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here!

What else will distinguish us from all the other people on the face of the earth?” ()

So, these things (cynicism, pride, shame, individualism, and tribalism) are forces of evil at work undermining the power and presence of God, which we are called to reject and resist.

Context for the Passage

Jesus has just saved everyone’s life on a boat by miraculously stopping a raging storm, which we looked at last week in , and then gone on a modern day equivalent of a traveling healing crusade.

He healed a man possessed by a demon named Legion, which was actually many demons.

()

Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead.

(; )

Jesus healed a woman who had been suffering from minstrel bleeding for twelve years.

Now He rolls into His home town of Nazareth along with His disciples for more of the same, only to find very different results.

He starts off with teaching in the synagogue and many of those who heard Him were amazed by Him, but then things quickly go south.

“Where did this man get these things?”

they asked.

“What’s this wisdom that has been given him?

What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?

Isn’t this the carpenter?

Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?

Aren’t his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.

“What’s this wisdom that has been given him?”

He is met with a spirit of cynicism!

To such a degree it says, that “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.”

“What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?”

You can just feel the sense of disappointment in Mark’s account of the story, and Matthews account reads almost identical.

“Isn’t this the carpenter?”

“Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?

Aren’t his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.

The power and presence of God was reduced to teaching and a few sick people being healed.

Some people have a really hard time with what Scripture says here.

The fact that Jesus couldn’t do miracles, but this isn’t the only time we see this in the Bible.

Peter walking on water, which goes south, is another example of it.

It’s challenging to think of something God can’t do.

This is why some will resolve to it really meaning God won’t do.

Can’t or won’t is not so much the point of the story Mark and Matthew are telling.

Either way, the result is the same.

The power and presence of God was reduced to teaching and a few sick people being healed.

Cynicism separates the power from the presence of God, making it a magic trick for the sake of novelty or entertainment, and that is not the gospel Jesus was sent to proclaim and demonstrate — the Kingdom of God.

So, this morning I want to look at:

WHAT IS CYNICISM?

CYNICISM IN CULTURE

REJECTING CYNICISM

WHAT IS CYNICISM?

Our modern concept of cynicism has evolved since its conception in the fourth century B.C. as a philosophy / way of life, but not terribly.

I am not going to give an exhaustive history of cynicism, save to say the following, which helps us see what is at the core of it:

This is an excerpt from the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels:

Fundamental to the Cynic vision is the notion that the bounds of nature offer the only legitimate social conventions; whatever violates nature is to be avoided, and whatever is in line with nature is to be embraced.

Thus, Cynics were committed to the values of self-sufficiency, indifference and radical freedom, especially freedom of speech.