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.
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Anger
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Analytical
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Conscientiousness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Do you remember looking into a microscope for the first time and seeing all the unseen things?
Our cells are teeming with life.
Brimming with things unseen by the ordinary eye.
It’s like these things are so big, so wild that our world cannot contain them.
The words of Jesus in today’s gospel lesson are really something.
He is in this rural synagogue, the one where he came week in and week out as a boy.
The same synagogue where they knew about him going to the temple and the rulers being astonished.
We don’t know if the reading that Jesus read was the appointed reading for the day or if He just went for it but He reads and then sits down.
Now, the tradition in this era was for a volunteer to do some readings while standing and then when they sat down they would begin to preach, to proclaim.
So Jesus reads and paraphrases two verses from Isaiah 61 and sits down.
It’s the most routine thing in the world.
It’s what we see plainly.
In their heads someone is thinking ‘I’m poor- where is my news’ another thinking my vision is still bad.
Another still ‘if this is the year of Jubilee from Leviticus 25, then I have some serious wealth coming my way’
Everyone is likely thinking this is about them.
Except that it isn’t at all.
This passage is about Jesus and rather than expound verbally about the scriptures Jesus forces them to see the Word of God made flesh.
They have just seen the world through a new lens and they must accept or reject it.
The moment Jesus alters their reality they start to question and reaffirm everything they thought they knew about their young boy turned King.
They said, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son’?
Then in an even more startling moment Jesus proceeds to accurately tell them all what they are thinking and what they will do in the future.
He tells them what they will yell at him on the cross.
“Physician Heal thyself.”
He tells them about their famed prophet Elijah who sent not to Israel but to another smaller town even further North from Jerusalem than Nazareth.
He tells them that Elisha, the successor to Elijah healed not an Israelite but a Syrian.
He reminds of them the very worst things about themselves, that they are unworthy of the God that has relentlessly pursued them.
He does this as one of them.
Our reading concludes with great upheaval.
What about us?
What happens in our own hearts and minds when a speaker or article offends our sensibilities?
What do we do when someone mentions the things we wish we never made visible?
Are we any better off than the Nazarenes gathered in a small synagogue looking for something?
Do we know any more than they did?
In a way, they are far different from us.
We have choices.
We can just pick up and move on.
For those viewing online it is even easier to leave, with a simple click you could right now be watching the NFL playoffs.
The small synagogue made the decision to turn and revolt.
The words of their appointed lecturer for the day hurt their feelings and so they sought justice.
Eye for an Eye.
Moses said that.
For us, it is much easier just to quit going or quit trying.
Many situations in our lives seem too far gone or too much work.
We are stubborn and it is easer to watch something burn than heal it.
In our Old Testament lesson the same story unfolds.
The background to chapter 8, our earlier reading, is that Nehemiah has just finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem but not without some dissent.
Look at what happened in chapter 4.
A little context, Sanballat is the governor of Samaria and he is loyal to the Persian Kings.
In general, we balk at the truly good things.
We jeer at the outlandish idea that something very good may be coming into the world.
Why shouldn’t we doubt it, As the saying goes- if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Do you remember why the people were first astonished at Jesus’ words?
They were astonished at His grace.
That is until they figured that it was impossible for Joseph’s son, a mere mortal, to provide it.
We have become so inattentive to the reality that God is unleashing His grace in our midst that we would rather be entertained than washed in grace.
It is astonishing what our Old Testament Lesson records.
After Israel has returned from 70 years of captivity and exile, they rebuild the walls around their city despite the jeering of their neighbors.
Then they gather as one body in the public square - not the temple - and what do they do for six hours.
They listen to Ezra the priest read the words of Moses.
Every man, woman and child stood and listened to the law.
This is the worst church growth strategy in the history of time.
Come stand in the baking sun of a city that was recently destroyed and listen to an old guy for 6 hours.
The thing is, these words were no less true.
They were enthralled by God’s eternal word.
It may not have been entertaining but it was liberty.
Reading the ancient Words of God in a desolate courtyard was more freedom than they experienced in generations.
The prophets and sages of our day may occasionally say something correct, they may even say it in such a way that we pay attention to it, but they will never be able to set us free like Jesus did.
Every time I’ve ever gone to visit someone in Jail I read the same passage.
Every time.
You know what is wild about this passage, is that it is true.
Jesus is the favor of God Among us.
The lesson of Jesus and all the saints is that no matter how dire our situation God can, and does save it.
We believe in the resurrection so no situation is ever too far gone.
We believe in and see hope for the world.
Physician- heal thyself they shouted at Him on the cross.
This is exactly what the Godhead did and then what He in turn does to each of us.
God came to us in human flesh that we as human flesh may meet God.
This makes us happy and hopeful in all circumstances.
GK Chesterton once wrote- The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world.
God knows this- we don’t fit in cells or hospital beds, or even in our living rooms watching the divine service unfold.
They have all grown too small for the liberty of the Kingdom of God.
We do not fit into the world- so God is remaking the world.
Even now God is doing a new thing.
God’s prophetic word for you today is this:
You are new.
You are free.
Amen.
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