Sermon Tone Analysis

The Lord’s return

[H]e ascended into heaven,

and sitteth at the right hand

of God the Father Almighty;

from thence he shall come to judge

the quick and the dead.

*** Slide of earth: At least 91 times since 1920 we’ve been told the world’s probably going to end

*** Slide: Y2K.

Chuck Smith, Hal Lindsey, Pat Robertson, all announced dates.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins suggested the year 2000 was

*** Slide: Harold Camping and his followers were so convinced of a date in May 2011 that many simply abandoned their homes, gave away their goods, and drove around the nation sharing the “good news” that the end of the world was at hand

*** No slide: The timing of the end is a mystery.

It’s a fool’s errand to try to compute that which can’t be computed

Normal, then not

*** Street scene: We live our everyday lives under the watchful gaze of God.

How we live here and now, the faith we have here and now, the way we relate to others here and now

*** Hourglass: Our time matters, the years and seasons months and weeks and days and hours and seconds

A suddenness

How are we to live?

A general attitude in life

Watching

Praying

Being sober-minded

Making good use of the time

Increasing in faith, hope, and love

Awake v. Asleep

*** Images of sleeping man/woman

Mark 13:35 (NRSV)

Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn...

1 Thessalonians 5:4–6 (NRSV)

But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief;

for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.

So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober...

A double arrival

For the individual, when life is over

For the whole world, at the parousia (coming) of the Lord

Sleepy?

Or alert?