Sermon Tone Analysis

When Roy DeLamotte was chaplain at Paine College in Georgia, he preached the shortest sermon in the college’s history.

However, he had a rather long topic.

It was, “What Does Christ Answer When We Ask, “Lord, What’s in Religion for Me?” ” The complete content of his sermon was one word: “Nothing.”

He explained later that the one-word sermon was meant for people “brought up on the “gimme-gimme” gospel.”

When asked how long it took him to prepare the message, he said, “Twenty years.”

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

While I have preached relatively short sermons, I cannot say that I have matched Roy DeLamotte.

Nor do I intend to do so today.

I intend, to preach this Gospel text however, so that you would be convicted, encouraged, and strengthened in faith, as the Lord sees fit to do with you.

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

To fully grasp what Jesus is doing per Mark’s Gospel, we need to go up a few verses from our text.

The impact of Jesus’ parables had one effect for those who believed in Him, and another for those who did not.

In the case of the one, if they did not understand, they were drawn to ask.

In the case of the other, they thought that they knew.

They thought that they “saw” what Jesus was illustrating and “heard” what He was saying.

Yet, their perceived comprehension did not lead them to come to Him that they might be saved.

Instead, they remained “outside.”

Such is the old saying, “The Word of God will either draw you or drive you.”

Those who have, by faith, been blessed by the preaching of the Gospel to “embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,” have come “to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge” ().

Our lessons today speak of growth.

Each text today gives to us the promise that God’s living and powerful Word will not “fall to the ground void.

As Paul wrote to the Church at Colosse,

Today, your Father in Heaven and His Son Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ have given you His Holy Spirit that you might know that God is working with purpose to fulfill His Mission, and You are an important part of that mission.

God has established His Kingdom, and you who repent and believe the Gospel are the fruit of it.

When we studied this passage at the Bakery House last week, one of the men said concerning this parable that “God acts with purpose - to fulfill His will, and He works through process.”

Can you say “purpose?”

And “

Can you say “process?”

We look at the trials of this life, at the attacks of satan to disrupt us as we walk in our vocations, and we are tempted to wish for a “short circuit.”

We would like the sowing of the seed to lead immediately to the harvest of the fruit.

We want to be able to say that “everything’s alright - yes -

everything’s fine.”

The Lord did not promise us that kind of life in Christ Jesus.

and Paul, after having been stoned by the very people to whom he came to minister in Lystra, returned to them, along with those of Iconium Antioch,

There is a growth process in the Kingdom, a growth process as it pertains to the equipping of the saints and the work of ministry.

The earth produces “of it self,” the Greek word translated there is αὐτομάτη.

In Christ’s other parable about sowing, the sower does nothing other than sow.

The rest is up to the seed and the soil, and the seed never fails.

The soil might interfere,

but the seed never fails.

When Paul addressed the Church in Corinth regarding a cliquish spirit that had arisen, with people lining up behind different ministers, he said,

The work that God began way back in 1863 continues today in 2018.

The Cornerstone of this building says that St. John launched in 1870. in two years we will celebrate 150 years of ministry.

The work began with a circuit-riding preacher from Chicago who brought Word and Sacrament to the people of Tolleston.

In time, there was a sanctuary and a school, there was growth and change.

Changes in language, changes in population, changes in pastoral leadership and care.

Yet through it all, there was the certainty that the seed continued to grow and bear fruit.

Today, some would tell you that we need new methods, a new message.

Some believe that it isn’t the Gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation for all who believe” in Gary, IN.

No, they want you to look, not to the Lord, but to the halls of politics, to the halls of back-room deals and political posturings.

They would tell you that it isn’t our prayers and faithful proclamation of God’s word that bears fruit, it’s the work of political maneuvers by people who operate, not in the fear of the Lord, but in the quest for power.

They say that you have to get a little dirty, you have to compromise, make deals with the devil.

The devil is a lie!

In , Jesus continues His description of the Kingdom,

The Word of the Gospel seems so small to those who are outside, so uninfluential.

They call God a liar, and say that His Gospel has no power at all.

They say that because they do not know.

They do not know the power of confession and absolution, the power of worship, the power of the Divine Service where God comes to you to serve you with His love, His grace, and His mercy, through the means of grace.

While they make promises that they have neither the authority nor the resources to keep, they mock the one “who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceed ing joy!”

They think that they can make earth heavenly while rejecting the Heavenly King, but God’s Word declares,

There is no revitalization without revival.

There is no change that does not involve a transformation by the renewing of your mind.

The valley of dry bones will remain just that, until the Spirit blows.

The Solid Declaration of Concord declares,

[26] We322 should not judge this matter according to our reason, nor according to the law, nor on the basis of outward appearance.

Nor should we have the temerity to search the secret, hidden abyss of divine foreknowledge.

Instead, we are to pay attention to the revealed will of God.

For he has revealed to us and “made known to us the mystery of his will,” and has accomplished it through Christ, that it may be proclaimed (Eph.

1[:9*, 10*]; 2 Tim.

1[:9–11*]).

There are no shortcuts to the glory of His Kingdom, and no matter what Satan offers, he cannot offer life, instead, he fights to live but his destiny is only that which ends in death.

Jesus came to die, and by His shed blood has given life to many.

Today, Jesus still says to those who struggle to those who are heavy burdened, to those who see themselves as bound by sin,

Come to the Church where the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed without money and without price.

Come to the Church where the Gospel is proclaimed to you, even as Christ died for you.

Come to the Church, where suffering is not a sin, but it is redemptive, “for with His stripes you were healed.”

Come to the Church, where God is not hiding or silent, but He comes to you in Word and Sacrament, so that you may know that your sins are forgiven and that you are “accepted in the Beloved.”

Come, not to the halls of the Walking Dead, but to the House of the Risen Savior, for Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed - Hallelujah!

And let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, though Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.