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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Waiting
Are we there yet?
When are we going to get there?
When are we going to get there?
You've heard it.
I've heard it.
We've all said it way back when.
Millions of kids have said it.
It speaks to an impatience that all of us have.
It’s almost natural.
It also speaks to our ever present need to be the center of attention.
A famous Florida music philosopher once said that the waiting is the hardest part.
Waiting is hard.
Waiting tests our patience.
I have a sister who can’t wait to open her presents on Christmas.
Still.
At this age.
She likes to guess, she likes to talk, she likes to shake the box (which is a no-no at our house on 7th street).
Anticipation at Christmas kills her.
The family has tried various games with her, knowing this.
One year we had opened all of our presents and it looked like we were done and she made the comment that I hadn’t gotten her anything for Christmas.
However, I pointed out to her that, giving light to the chair she was sitting in was a lamp on the end table.
Brand new.
Even had a bow on it I think.
She had spent the previous couple of hours sitting next to her Christmas present, right there in front of her and she never knew.
She can’t stand to wait.
How many of you like to wait?
Very few of us.
Waiting is hard.
Especially if you can smell the potluck that’s at the end of this service.
But waiting involves not knowing, and that kills us.
I’ve been in situations where I felt like I was going to die because I didn’t know what was coming next, but all I knew is that it probably wasn’t good.
And I was right.
I had to wait, and at the end of the waiting was bad news.
Anticipation becomes anxiety and anxiety is driven by fear.
And all of that can become absolutely unbearable if there is no hope.
We are all waiting, this morning.
But the waiting is not in fear.
It’s not in anxiety.
Our waiting involves a promise and hope.
Here’s a glimpse of what is coming at the very end of time.
Revelation 19:7-9 “Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself.
She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.
For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!”
He also said to me, “These words of God are true.””
A marriage awaits the church.
A feast awaits the church.
The marriage supper of the Lamb in which Jesus and his people sit down for a meal and enjoy the presence of each other’s company forever.
No feast will ever compare to that feast.
That feast is what we wait for.
We are waiting for that day when we get to eat and drink and celebrate and enjoy the presence of the One who saved us.
That’s our future.
But we’re not there yet.
We wait.
And we wait and we wait.
And the waiting isn’t any fun.
We wait for that day in a present world that is filled with war and violence and heartache and suffering and fear and anxiety.
This day doesn’t look anything like that day.
So much so, we may begin to doubt whether or not that picture we’re given in Revelation will ever get here.
Are we there yet?
We’re not.
But Jesus is gracious.
Jesus is kind.
He’s not going to leave us hanging without hope.
He’s not going to let us fend for ourselves in this world until some time in the future.
Jesus in his grace has given us hope that can be seen.
It can be tasted.
That hope Jesus gave in a promise.
We read it moments ago.
Jesus gave us the gift of The Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper.
That gift is a promise.
We believe in this gift so much, we’ve stamped it onto our community here.
The Table of Los Fresnos.
If there’s anything that the Table is or does, at the very least we are going to always have this hope and this gift front and center.
That night we read is not simply a nice story.
It’s not even a night at that table where Jesus gives us something to remember him by.
Jesus goes much further than that.
Jesus is at meal with his best friends.
He knows this is their last night of whatever it is they consider normal.
After tonight, things are never, ever going to be the same again.
The road trips, the miracles, the conversations, the arguments, the public preaching, the hanging with best friends shooting the breeze… all that is coming to an end.
Will their baptism be enough to get them through the next few hours?
The next few days?
Months?
Years?
All the betrayal?
All the heartache?
All the suffering?
Jesus is about to usher in the Great in-between.
The Great In-between
We all live in this Great in-between.
So did Jesus’ best friends.
In-between baptism and that great feast with the Lamb at the end of all time in the New Heaven and New Earth.
We live between what Jesus has done for us in the past, giving us salvation and forgiveness, and what He will do for us in the future.
And so that night that Jesus is headed to the cross in that upper room with his best friends, Jesus gives them a promise of what He will do for them during the Great In-between.
He gives them a meal, a meal that looks very much like that last meal with the Lamb and the church.
Only this meal is in the present.
Jesus gives them the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s Supper
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