Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Title
Your God is King
Outline
I have just finished listening to the second half of the biography of Pope Benedict XVI
In the first half I found a man I could identify with
A man who as a boy did not enjoy nor was good at sports
A man who loved his books and walks
A man with two united sides, deep piety and deep scholarship
Of course, he is the giant in these things and I the pigmy, but I understand those perspectives and have lived more or less in his world
In the second half I found a man with a great vision for the church
A man who removed the symbols of secular power from the papacy because his vision was grander and deeply rooted in theology
He was also a man unjustly pilloried in the press (by both right and left) who nevertheless stayed the course of reaching out to the world
Our readings must delight his heart.
The focus of our readings is the Word or the Reason
That Word who always was
That Word through which God made the world - in both John 1 and Hebrews 1.
That Word who reached out to fallen humanity through the prophets - as Benedict insisted, the Bible is not the Word of God, but the record of revelation of the Word, since there is only one Word spoken by the Father
The Word who was rejected again and again in the history of Isreal (including in John the Baptist) but did not retaliate by throwing Israel or creation or humanity in the trash.
“He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.”
But in the climax of history that Word “changed” in that he became what he was not, flesh
As flesh he could reveal the Word in a way he could not while speaking through and into human beings: We could not see God, including the Word, but “The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.”
because he became one of us.
Because he is one of us we cry, “Your God is King!”
Because God “leads the first-born into the world” we know “in these last days, he spoke to us through a son.”
Because of this we can see the unseen, for “we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”
Sisters, our response must be to join the angels, “Let the angels of God worship him.!”
A cosmic event has taken place, and world does not notice
All other kings, presidents, emperors, and the like are relativized, confined to a part of the sphere that the Word created, and they try to think that they are in control.
Even ecclesial groups sometimes think that gaining political power is a way forward when, as Dante pointed out, it is a step down
And even we are at times tempted to see the apparent weakness of the incarnate Word as something less that worldly power, when it is, as C. S. Lewis has said, “Deeper magic.”
In the light of this reality and our poor eyesight, we call out to God at Christmas, “Open our eyes, Lord, that we may see the wonders of your Word.”
Readings
FIRST READING
Isaiah 52:7–10
7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the one bringing good news,
Announcing peace, bearing good news,
announcing salvation, saying to Zion,
“Your God is King!”
8 Listen!
Your sentinels raise a cry,
together they shout for joy,
For they see directly, before their eyes,
the LORD’s return to Zion.
9 Break out together in song,
O ruins of Jerusalem!
For the LORD has comforted his people,
has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has bared his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations;
All the ends of the earth can see
the salvation of our God.
RESPONSE
Psalm 98:3c
3 He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
PSALM
Psalm 98:1–6
1 A psalm.
Sing a new song to the LORD,
for he has done marvelous deeds.
His right hand and holy arm
have won the victory.
2 The LORD has made his victory known;
has revealed his triumph in the sight of the nations,
3 He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
4 Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth;
break into song; sing praise.
5 Sing praise to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and melodious song.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
shout with joy to the King, the LORD.
SECOND READING
Hebrews 1:1–6
CHAPTER 1
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