Sermon Tone Analysis

From: Joseph P Burkhardt [spalatin@juno.com]

Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 8:47 AM

To: MKTJONeal-2r1@msn.com

Subject: Sunday Sermon

Jeff:

I was good to hear from you since I lost your e-mail sometime back.

I do no work now for OGI since they have completed the shift from OGI to

OHSU.

They use their own in-house contractors and carpenters.

The sermon below is on a touchy subject.

If you have questions about

it, let me know.

Pastor Burkhardt.

Matthew 11: 16-24

Trinity 10, August 25, 2003

Psalm: 55

OT: Jeremiah 7: 1-7

Epistle: I Corinthians 12: 1-11

Gospel: Luke 19: 41-18

Hymns:

25: "I will sing my makers praises."

(Paul Gerhardt) [Sing to 409]

326: "Lord to Thee I make Confession."

(Johann Franck) [Sing to 421]

324: "Jesus Sinners Doth Receive."

Communion Hymn: 304: "A awful mystery is here."

655: "I pray Thee dear Lord Jesus."

(Thomas Kingo)

Trinity 10 Intriot: As for me, I will call upon God, He shall hear my voice.

He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle which was against me.

God will hear, and afflict them, even He who abides of old.

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you.

Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide Yourself.

Trinity 10 collect: Almighty and everlasting God, by your Holy Spirit You have revealed to us the Gospel of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

We beseech You so to enliven our hearts that we may sincerely receive Your Word and not make light of it, or hear it without fruit, but that we may fear You and daily grow in faith in Your mercy, and finally obtain eternal salvation; through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever.

A-men.

God’s wisdom brings us to repentance.

This fall’s television season may well prove, once again, to reveal the attempt of Hollywood to push the envelope as far as it can.

Not only will Americans be subjected to such "wholesome" viewing as Will and Grace, and God spare us from this, the myriad of the so-called "reality" shows, but now we get to see a dating or mating game show especially for "gay" couples along with another sit-com blasting us in the face with homosexuality and perversion.

As writer Ann Coulter noted in her concluding words in her book Treason, "We live in the world of Jerry Springer."

As many of you know, I went to California to attend the wedding of my Uncle Ray’s granddaughter.

In the sermon, the pastor of the Foursquare Church brought up several good points about marriage.

He stressed the truth to the man regarding his role as the loving head of the home comparing it to the love which Christ rendered to the Church, while emphasizing the need for the wife to remember her role as one who submits in love of God to her husband.

He made an interesting analogy about the rings and how they are made of pure gold to symbolize the purity of love husband and wife have for each other.

He noted that the rings get nicked and banged up and worn down over the years but never lose their purity.

In light of the Jerry Springer world in which we live, this pastor had many good insights to give to those gathered at this wedding.

However, as he proceeded through the rest of the sermon, with great difficulty I held back the temptation to raise my hand in at least three areas that clearly trumpeted the differences in our theologies.

The first had to do with the term "Born Again."

You and I have been taught and Scripture teaches this term in the context of Holy Baptism.

This pastor ignored the context of Baptism and instead used it in the context of the Law as our commitment to God, namely, we must make our commitment if we are to be "Born again."

The second point involved Holy Communion.

I believe he would have served grape juice and bread to the entire congregation if time were not a constraint.

As it was, he gave the juice and bread only to the bride and groom.

Even apart from the fact that he served juice instead of wine, the unscriptural nature of the situation struck those of us at the wedding that held to the words of our Savior and that of the Apostle Paul.

First, the pastor announced that the bride and groom would "Commune" alone.

The very word "Communion" suggests that the Lord’s Supper is meant for the assembly.

It is not to be withheld from the remainder of the assembly unless Scripture itself would exclude such as Paul delineates in I Corinthians 11.

Second, the pastor then declared that the bread and grape juice "represent" the body and blood of Christ.

Scripture teaches that the body and blood of Jesus stand in the most intimate bond with the bread and wine so that we truly receive that which our Savior says, His body and His blood.

As St. Paul says, "Is the cup of blessing which we bless not a communion with the blood of Christ?

Is the bread which we break not a communion with the body of Christ?"

The word for "Communion" in the Greek is koinwnia.

It marks the most intimate bond between two things so that they become one.

Koinwnia is the word used of our faith in Jesus.

We become one with our Savior and his death and Resurrection.

It doesn’t merely represent our faith.

It is our faith.

Thirdly, he noted that the "communion" stressed the commitment of the bride and groom to Christ.

Scripture teaches that the Holy Supper is not our commitment to God, but rather God’s commitment to us; His bestowal of forgiveness on us sinners.

Finally, the words of institution were either never spoken or were spoken so only the ears of the Bride and Groom would hear.

The point is: we never heard them.

The precious Words of institution, the words "This is my body, This is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," are meant for everyone to hear.

These words of our Savior are life and salvation.

We don’t ever want to withhold their hearing in any service of Holy Communion even if a person does not come to the table itself.

The words of institution are wonderful Gospel.

And as Paul says, "The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation."

The final portion of the wedding service that caused a number of us to shake our heads in absolute disbelief involved a new twist on the old concept of the "Altar call."

The "old" method practiced by many churches simply calls people down to the altar to declare their commitment or decision.

During the wedding, with the Bride and Groom kneeling behind him, the pastor asked us all to bow our heads.

He then elicited an "Altar call" by suggesting that those who wanted to make a decision or commit their lives to Jesus look up and he would simply make eye contact with them and give them an acknowledging nod.

When people leave the solid foundation of God’s Holy Word, they become silly.

Someone may now be thinking, "Why is our pastor so critical of another pastor’s sermon and service."

I am critical because this man was a pastor of God’s people.

Of all the things he should have taught, he missed the one thing that pastors are called to do; bring people to repentance with the Word of God.

This is what preaching is all about.

This morning we

consider:

God’s wisdom brings us to repentance.

Jesus has just finished a discourse in which He states, "Blessed is he whoever shall not be offended in Me." Or as we hear in the Beck translation, "Blessed is anyone who does not stumble in his evaluation of Me." Unfortunately, many people were offended or did stumble over Jesus, most importantly, the church leaders.

So Jesus challenges them, "How should I picture the people of this generation?

They are like little children sitting in the marketplace and calling to others, ‘We played a tune on the flute for you, but you did not dance.

We sang a funeral song for you, but you did not mourn.’"

Jesus uses the picture of little children at play.

If you have watched children at play, you know how fickle, self-centered and brutally selfish they can be.

Jesus pictures two groups of children.

In effect, one group says to the other, "We played a game of wedding for you.

But you did not like that because you did not dance like they do at a wedding.

That didn’t work, so we played like we were at a funeral, but you did not like that one either because you did not play along and mourn.

We can’t do anything to please you."

These children were fickle.