Sermon for First Sunday after Christmas/New Year’s Eve Observed
December 29, 2013, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wallis, Texas
Sermon Text: Psalm 27
Sermon Theme: “Whom Shall I Fear?”
(Sources: Two online Illustrations from SermonCentral.com; original ideas and personal illustrations; Psalm 27, SermonCentral.com; Concordia Pulpit Resources, Volume 21, Part 1, Series A; Nelson’s 3 in 1 Concordance/Reference)
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible’s picture language of light coming into the darkness begins in Advent and crescendos to a climax at Christmas, with a denouement of bursting light at Epiphany. Today, at this mid-point between Christmas and Epiphany, we consider the words of Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
There are so many memorable examples in Scripture of light coming into the darkness to end it, — at least a dozen of the Psalms, including our sermon text and Psalm 89:15, “Blessed are those . . . who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord,” proclaim this. Isaiah 9:2: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” John 3:19: “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil.” John 9:5: Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” Acts 26:18: Jesus tells His disciples, “I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness into light.”
There are at least 50 or more of such quotations in the New Testament alone, so let those examples suffice to make my point, that in Christ, we come out of the darkness into a great light. The reassurance that David gives in our sermon text is the rhetorical question, ‘whom shall I fear’ if I have the light. Continue reading