Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The hills and mountains burst with your praise; the sun, moon and stars dance at your command

The inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers in your sight, and yet you love us.

We are your people, your sheep, the work of your hands.

It is you that have made us, and not we ourselves.

Our personalities, our talents, our hands and our feet, our tongues, were all fashioned by you in our mother’s wombs and there is not a word on our tongue that you do not know altogether.

And yet we are often distrustful of that goodness and power.

We still live and move as if we have our being in ourselves, as if we have come from chance, rather than designed by your powerful hand.

And so this morning we again offer ourselves to you.

Take these hands and make them instruments of righteousness.

Take these feet and make them beautiful on the mountains – bringing tidings of peace and hope to the world.

Take these lips and let our words be as nuggets of gold and rare jewels falling from our tongues.

May our words breath life and hope and peace.

Forgive us our many sins against you, and cause us again to walk uprightly before you.

Fill us with your spirit and we will shout your praises.

Give us clean hearts and we will serve you in sincerity and truth.

For how can we live unless you give us life?

How can we love unless you give us your spirit?

How can we speak unless you give us breath?

Breath in us new life, Father.

Deliver us from the rage and despair of the evil one.

Take away the evil doer from our sight and destroy the works of iniquity.

Protect us from the lawless and unjust man.

Bless our governor and our president.

Bless our assemblymen and our national leaders.

Give a spirit of wisdom and justice and sound thinking.

May sobriety reign and foolishness be torn down.

We pray for peace – give us peace in our bodies; peace in our souls; peace with one another; peace with creation.

And give us peace going forward.

Deliver us from both tyranny and from anarchy, and may order and justice flow as rivers of water.

May our lives and our words magnify your name and bring peace in whatever circles you have placed us and may your kingdom come – grant that we submit ourselves always more and more to you and to your word until Jesus comes again.

Father we are dependent upon you for our life and breath, and we acknowledge that, and we praise your goodness to us.

Create in us hearts that trust and rely on you, and give us our food today.

Give us the portion that is fitting for us and give us contented hearts that rest in you.

And father, we pray that you would protect us from wildfires, from drought and from heat.

We pray that you would be merciful to us.

You can bring water from the rock and so we wait on you for every good thing.

Bless the crops.

Provide our needs.

Send rain in due season.

Bless those fighting cancer.

Be merciful to those who are sick.

Bring the wandering ones home.

Bless the preaching of your word wherever it takes place today.

Bless my lips in the reading and preaching of your word.

Guide my tongue.

And give us hearts ready to hear and to obey,

(and together)

And may the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

Scripture

Sermon

As image bearers of God, we have a sense of personhood.

We want to know who we are.

We have a concept of ourselves as opposed to others.

I am me - not you.

I am this, not that.

In order to have any concept of myself, I have to be able to discern between this and that.

This is why the term “color blind” is so offensive to people of color.

Who really wants to have their identity erased?

I was born white.

I was born male.

I was born at the tail end of the boomers, but I’m really an honorary gen-xer.

All of this plays an important part of my own self-consciousness.

I am not black.

I am not a woman.

I am not a teenager anymore.

Age, skin color, cultural expectations, sex, relationship with parents and siblings - all play vital roles in who we are as individuals.

I grew up with the Kent State riots, Watergate, hippies, the aftermath of the civil rights movement, All in the Family and Happy Days were on the TV.

We weren’t allowed to watch All in the Family because it was too liberal.

Norman Lear was a communist out to destroy America.

All of these cultural things affected me.

I attended Reagan rallies, wore members-only jackets and dressed like Sonny on Miami Vice.

I was raising kids during the grunge era and missed it entirely.

All of these are facts.

All of these shaped who I am - as well as many other factors.

My knowledge of my personhood is “I am this.

not that.”

I was born an individual, but also with a need for relationship.

This is where talking and listening come in.

If I want to understand women, I need to listen to women.

Their experiences are different than mine.

A black man’s experience will be different than mine.

If I want to know if there is a justifiable fear of the police among the black citizens, I cannot go by my own experience, because I am not black and have never been followed by a security guard in a store.

I’ve never been pursued and question because of the color of my skin.

I have never been pulled over by the police just to see if I was up to no good.

I also am not a woman.

I have never thought about an escape plan while entering into a restaurant on a blind date.

I have never had to think through safety rules when I walk through a garage.

I have never hesitated walking out of Winco after the sun has gone down.

No one has ever stared at my chest while talking to me and I have never had anyone bounce their eyes.

I was too fearful in high school to have ever tried marijuana or alcohol, and no one ever offered it.

I have no idea what I would have done if they had.

The height of wickedness in the culture I grew up in was to be caught listening to rock and roll music, and for the most part I was too fearful of my father’s rejection and anger to have attempted it.

So when I bought my first recording at the age of 13, it was John Denver.

So I also have no concept of what it is to be a rebel.

To be skirting danger all the time.

I have never been arrested.