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
0.21UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.16UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.5LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.78LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.82LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.65LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, our Saviour and redeemer – Amen
What an exciting story we have today from the book of Genesis – our Old Testament reading
It is the climax to the life and purpose of Joseph
Joseph is the focal character for 13 chapters in the book of Genesis
More then anyone else by far
And today in 15 short verses we hear the reason why his story is such an influential one
One could say it is because Joseph had vision
- Godly vision -
But that is only part of the story
and more about that later
More importantly – today, we hear the climax of WHAT God is doing through Joseph and his brothers…
Believe it or not – today’s account is none other then ‘the Gospel’ – ‘the good news’
You might be wondering – Gospel – I thought that was the stories of Jesus from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – or thinking that it is a New Testament concept
Of course those four books of the bible are gospel accounts of the life of Jesus
And Gospel is a contextual word, more fitting to the New Testament times
Whereby the word was used to describe news of Caesar, the Roman ruler and demi-god
And St. Paul (in particular) transformed the word to be a dramatic counter-culture, counter-political statement of the true Lord of all – The Gospel of Jesus who was the Christ
You may have also heard people make statements – like this person is doing the gospel work or that person is proclaiming the gospel – and wondered what that meant
Well the fundamentally the essence of the Gospel is not a book *or* what we do – but the work of the Lord
The manifestation of the Holy Spirit in redeeming and transforming lives towards God
And this is exactly what we are hearing about in our passage from Genesis today
And - this is exactly what all of the Bible is about
All scripture - told to its fullest - speaks the gospel message
There is what some call a Meta-narrative
An over-arching story behind each and every story in the bible
The structure is simple: creation – fall – repentance – redemption
It is a process – a journey:
– from God’s created purpose
– to our misunderstanding or abuse of the freedom given to us
– to realization and turning away from self focus and towards God
– concluding with God redeeming, God transformation of what was misguided to what is noble and good
Beginning with Good and returning to Good
All - is God’s redeeming grace
So let’s back peddle and bring us briefly into the long story of Joseph
Jacob favorite wife, he had four, was Rachel
Joseph was the first born of Rachel and the favorite of Jacob
Benjamin was the second of Rachel and Rachel died bearing Benjamin
Jacob had 12 sons
Joseph was not loved by the brothers for his favored status nor his smarming tattle-tale ways
Joseph also had dreams or visions, which God gave him, and he correctly interpreted, as having his brothers bowed down before this favored son
They hated him even more – so much that they first planned to kill him, and after some intervention by Reuben, the eldest, they sold him into slavery
He prospered as a slave, but after a false accusation was thrown in jail
There he also prospered – there he also had an opportunity to use his God-given gift of dream interpretation to some servants of the Pharaoh
When the pharaoh was troubled by some dreams that no one could interpreted, one remembered that Joseph in jail had this gift
Joseph, given the credit to God, was able to interpret the dreams and to suggest a strategy in which the bad fortune that the dreams forecasted could be averted with some clever management
The pharaoh, seeing the wisdom of Joseph, gave him the task of administering all of Egypt to the strategy Joseph had suggested to deal with 7 years of famine
Joseph prospered, he was a gifted administrator and his strategy worked
His family represented by his brothers, in neighboring Canaan, suffered under the famine and came to Egypt to buy food
they did not recognize their brother – thinking him dead long ago
Joseph leads them through a series of deceptions through which Joseph (in his position as an Egyptian ruler) had manipulated to his unsuspecting brothers, causing them a good deal of consternation
And the final deception led them to point whereby Benjamin is accused of stealing and will be killed or becoming a slave of Joseph
Here Judah steps in, and in a long speech offers to take the place of Benjamin – to spare his old father’s heart for a second favored son lost
Judah will not abandon Benjamin
Now we are at the point of our story today – the climax of the story
This act of love that Judah does for his brother – is more than Joseph can take and he weeps – so loud that even the Egyptians, that have been sent away, can hear him
He reveals that he is their brother and declares …. are you ready for it
/"God sent me before you to preserve life . . . .
/
/It was not you who sent me here, but God."/
The climax of the story is the revelation that God has redeemed the evil that they had done
Note that Joseph does not attribute the brothers' sinful actions to God.
God did not make them sin: "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt"
BUT it is *what* God does – God redeems the situation
This is the gospel – this is the good news – God redeems us,
Even … or especially … in our folly
Through-out the bible we have stories of people that mess up
And yet God keeps His promises
God turns our failings, our falling away from God’s plan, or our situational misfortunes
And transforms it into an opportunity for reconciliation
Redeems what is lost to what is found
Now if you are like me and grew up hearing the story of Joseph as the archetypal story of forgiveness – you have not been mislead
That is an important layer of the story
Certainly Joseph’s actions display incredible forgiveness
His brothers which had sold him into slavery, are being forgiven
Because Joseph is blessed with seeing the bigger picture – the story behind the story
In which by their initial actions Joseph was able to save two nations;
Both the Egyptians and his family
But before we canonize Joseph prematurely
Remember he was blessed with a gift from God
He given the gift of vision and the wisdom to understand it and act in accordance with God
Understanding – living up to one’s potential and fulfilling God’s purpose is all anyone can ever hope to do
and Joseph should be held up as a glorious example of that
But the true human hero of this story is actually Judah, Joseph’s brother
For in the beginning of the story, it is Judah that had suggested that they sell Joseph into slavery
And yet over time he transforms into the one who is willing to lay down his life for his brother
This is what brings Joseph to tears
Judah’s previous actions have been redeemed – he is a transformed person – God has worked a miracle in his heart
Judah is the lesson that we all can likely relate to better
Every person that I have ever met, and of course myself included have failing moments in our lives
Moments in which we fall short of God’s desire for us
God adjusts and over time works in our lives to redeem us – to transform us – to brings us back
and it is a continual process
To illustrate this point: of how God works with us
This past three weeks we have had a GPS in our van
It is a actually a loaner from Kelly’s grandma
A Global Position System is a device which can locate you using a database of maps and a connection to satellites - locating you to within 5 feet
It is a cool gadget to have in the car
Now when I want to go to some place and have this little computer tell me the best route – I type in the location and it calculates the route from where I am
I am then given turn by turn directions – audibly and graphically
But let’s say that I think I know better – maybe one street has less traffic or there is construction or maybe I just think I know better - and I take a different route
The computer takes a moment - in our case says “recalculating route”
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9