Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
Sadness
0.61LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.45UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.18UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.79LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.22UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.76LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.68LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Jesus died penniless.
Roman soldiers cast lots to divide among themselves Jesus' only possessions--the clothes on his back.
*And he looked at his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor*.
\\ \\ Jesus died hungry.
There is no record that Jesus had anything to eat the day of his death.
What we call The Last Supper on Thursday evening may very well have been Jesus' last meal.
He died on the cross Friday before sunset with an empty stomach.
*Looking at his disciples he said, blessed are you who hunger now*.
\\ \\ Jesus died weeping.
After his last supper Jesus headed for the Garden and there in that Olive Grove we call Gethsemane he prayed and he wept.
*He told his disciples you are blessed when you weep*.
\\ \\ Jesus died hated.
*Caiaphas*, the greatest religious authority in Israel at the time, called him a blasphemer.
The crowds wanted Barabbas, a murderer, freed before they would see Jesus pardoned.
And his disciples deserted him.
*Looking at his disciples he said blessed are you when men hate you on account of me.* \\ \\ The beatitudes are a wonderful description of what disciples are suppose to be like.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are you who are poor.
They sound so ideal, so spiritual.
They probably come in fourth in the “*framed scripture hanging on a wall category*.”
Just behind *The Ten Commandments*, *Psalm 23*, and *the Lord’s Prayer*.
But truth be told; few of us ever come close to truly living them out.
Why?
Here’s the reason: *It’s because they are a call to sacrificial living.*
\\ \\ When I think of making sacrifices I think of *E.
Stanley Jones*, perhaps United Methodism’s most famous foreign missionary.
He authored over a dozen books and converted hundreds of Hindus in India to Christianity.
As far as I know, he’s the only person who was voted in abstentia to become a bishop.
When he received the news, he turned it down.
Back in 1966, E. Stanley Jones went to Emory University and spoke to a Systematic Theology class.
One of the students asked him why he turned down the episcopacy.
He laughingly replied that if he became a bishop he would have to retire at age 70.
"*I am now 82,*" he said, "*and I am still going strong.*"
\\ \\ Then someone asked him: *what do you think of the Beatitudes?* Several students picked up their pens expecting something profound and they got it.
Here's what he said: "*At first sight, you felt they turned everything upside down.
At second sight, you understand that they turn everything right side up.
The first time you read them they are impossible.
The second time you read them, nothing else is possible.
The beatitudes are not a chart for Christian duty.
They are a charter for Christian liberty.*”
\\ \\ The Beatitudes: They are admonitions to sacrificial living */and/* sacrificial living is the door to Christian Freedom.
Now what does that mean?
Let’s take a look.
\\ \\ *I First, Jesus puts in a good word for poverty, hunger, and sadness.*
Interesting isn’t it?
We have been conditioned all our lives to work hard, build wealth, and provide for our families.
But these beatitudes turn all of that upside down.
Look carefully at what occurs in this text.
There are two small points that are easily missed.
The first is that Jesus turns away form the crowd and speaks directly to his disciples.
The second is that Jesus does not say, “*Blessed are the poor.*”
Which is the way most of us recite it when we quote it from memory.
Listen carefully, he says, “*Blessed are YOU who are poor.*”
He is talking to his disciples.
They are the ones who have become poor.
They are the ones who have worked day after day without food.
Remember the story about Jesus and the disciples walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath.
Matthew (12:1) tells us this story because he was there.
He said, the disciples were hungry so they began to pick some heads of grain.
Have you ever been so hungry that you ate your bread right off the stock?
\\ \\ The disciples, I am sure, wept on occasion and they were hated by many because of their allegiance to the Christ.
The Beatitudes then are not instruction on how to live.
They are commendations for how the disciples are already living.
They left family and home to serve with Christ and he is proud of them.
He says to them: *Blessed are you 12 for you have given up your careers and become poor to serve with me*.
\\ \\ For this very reason I have always found it difficult to preach on the Beatitudes.
If anything, these words */seem/* to be for the clergy and not the laity.
I feel that I need to turn away form you and speak to the clergy but there are no clergy here this morning.
There are so few clergy, myself included, who do a good job of living out the Beatitudes.
\\ \\ If there were an example of a modern day disciples sacrificing their life it would be Mother Teresa.
Some years ago before her death, a television special depicted the grim human conditions that were a part of her daily life.
There was a gentleman, a pastor I believe who was watching that special and wrote down what he saw.
He said, “*It showed all the horror of the slums of Calcutta and her love for these destitute people.
The producer interviewed her as she made her rounds in that dreadful place.
He said that throughout the program, commercials interrupted the flow of the discussion.
Here is the sequence of the topics and commercials: lepers (bikinis for sale); mass starvation (designer jeans); agonizing poverty (fur coats); abandoned babies (ice cream sundaes) the dying (diamond watches).”*
\\ \\ The irony was so apparent.
Two different worlds were on display--the world of the poor and the world of the affluent.
It seems that our very culture here in the United States, and any other place that has a great deal of commercialization to it, is teaching us to live rich.
We are occasionally presented with the images of the poor but we never are tempted to assume that life style.
\\ \\ It is shocking to read Luke’s Beatitudes as an admonition to live unencumbered by worldly wealth.
But as soon as we are reminded that Jesus calls us to sacrificial living we are immediately reminded of the next car we ought to by and the next meal we should eat.
We are slowly and methodically told it is O.K. to live our life of luxury while others live their life of poverty – it’s not our problem...
But it is not so in the Kingdom of God!
This is not the attitude of disciples.
\\ \\ How can we reclaim the Beatitudes?
How can we hear them over the Super Bowl halftime shows and million dollar commercials?
It’s not easy.
I am a small voice here and there is only you out there in the pews.
But Jesus had fewer still.
He turned away from the crowd and spoke only to his disciples.
So I speak to you: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who give, who do without, who sacrifice.
Let’s put in a good word for being poor, hungry and sad.
Let’s put in a good word for sacrificial living.
\\ \\ *II Second, Jesus cautioned his disciples against riches, food, and worldly happiness.*
The story is told of Frederick William IV of Prussia who once visited a school and quizzed the students.
He held up a stone and asked the children: to what kingdom does this belong?
They responded: mineral.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9