Sunday Sermon: My Light and My Salvation
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Text: Psalm 27:1
Series: Glad Bethlehem's Living Light
Second Sunday of Advent: PEACE
In a “normal” Christmas season, among the various special services our church would be offering would be a children’s musical program of some sort. Since our Children’s Choirs haven’t been able to meet since this past March, there’s no way we could put anything together this year, though we are planning a “family friendly” service in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, in which several of our children will be providing the worship leadership.
I’m glad that we’ve figured out a way to involve the children because of how they help us to see the significance of Christmas in ways we might otherwise miss.
For example, there’s the story of the children’s Christmas program at another church, where the children were given lines that were to speak at the appropriate time. If you’ve ever worked with children in such a special program or you can remember what it was like when you were a child in such a special program, then you can identify with the situation in which a young boy had been positioned on the front row of the risers and was tasked with the responsibility of speaking those words of Jesus when he said: “I am the light of the world!” But when the time came for the little boy to say his part, he forgot his line. You can picture the scene. His mother is in the front row of the audience, whispering his line to him: “I am the light of the world,” though her son couldn’t make out what she was trying to tell him. She whispered a second time. Then she repeated it a third time. And that’s when the little boy straightened up to speak out loudly and confidently: “My mother is the light of the world!”
What I find inspiring about that story is how when faced with a dilemma that in his little mind he knew he couldn’t solve by himself, he personalized the solution. He leaned into the love he knew had always been there for him at such moments. He rested his racing heart with the one source of encouragement and support that had never let him down and wouldn’t let him down at such an anxious time as this. With confidence and even boldness, he may not have gotten the line right, but he certainly got it in a way that seemed in that moment to make the most sense to him: “My mother is the light of the world!”
We can forgive a child for in his hour of distress leaning upon that love which had been with him from the start. But as that child grows up, as each one of us must do, the question becomes, ‘Will we lean upon that love that is the source of all earthly loves? Will we cast our hopes on the steadfast and everlasting love of our Creator God, who loved this entire world so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son to be for this world light and life?”
The text before us this morning from the 27th Psalm points us in the direction of the confidence that comes to those who in their hour of need lean upon God as the source of their every refuge and help. “The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”
Tradition tells us that David was the author of this psalm and there is no good reason to doubt that claim. You read the stories about David in the Old Testament and you see where trials and tribulations seemed to follow him all of his days. The larger context of the 27th Psalm appears to suggest some kind of military threat David had been facing, a threat that caused him to question his future and to be uncertain about whether he would be able to survive. And in his hour of need, when he did not know if tomorrow would come, David leaned upon the one love that had been with him as a young boy when he faced the Philistine giant Goliath and with boldness and confidence he lifted his heart to the One who had been from that moment on the source of his strength. “The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” In the midst of his trouble David placed his trust in God, and as soon as he did, his fear and his anxiety were replaced with an overwhelming sense of peace.
Perhaps this morning you have come to this place with a heaviness in your heart over some uncertainty that’s been able to get the best of you. In a “normal” time you might have been able to leverage some assets at your disposal to at least manage the threat, but this time is anything but normal and so you face those challenges with a deep sense of “unease.” You’re not sure if in your own power you’ll be able to overcome it.
But the good news of this season is that regardless of the darkness that may have come upon us, our God is able to dispel it with the light of His presence and the power of His salvation. Through the gift of His Son, Jesus the Christ, God has drawn near to us in our time of need to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and to strengthen us and to direct us and to heal us and to save us. All that is required of us is to personalize our devotion, as did the Psalmist, and confess with every fiber of our being that the LORD is “my” light and “my salvation,” and that the LORD is “my” stronghold. Only then will be able to face the darkness with full confidence and resolve.
One of the great stories in the New Testament is the story of Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees and a member of the Jewish ruling council. As the Gospel of John tells us, Nicodemus came to Jesus “by night.” Did John drop that detail into the story because of Nicodemus’ embarrassment over going to an untrained rabbi like Jesus to gain some clarity on his eternity or was John being symbolic, given how light overcoming darkness is a signal theme in his Jesus story. The answer is “probably both.” But what we know for sure is that Nicodemus had no real peace about his salvation. He had a lot of religion, but he had no relationship. He knew about God, but he didn’t really know God. So, when Jesus began to explain to Nicodemus the importance of being “born from above,” it all went over Nicodemus’ head, until finally Jesus spoke to him in words that a Pharisee like Nicodemus, steeped in the Law of Moses, could understand: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Knowing about Jesus is not enough; we must know Jesus as our light and our salvation before we can experience his peace, even his peace that passes all understanding.
Do you know that source of light? Have you embraced Jesus as the only means to your salvation? Once you do, your life will never again be the same.
You could ask Gary Adams, an Asheville, North Carolina man who at one point in his life didn’t have much need for God because he thought that he could face life’s challenges on his own. It wasn’t that he was opposed to the notion of God. He had attended Sunday School as a child and so he knew the basics about God. But as he reached adulthood, he just didn’t see the need for God. God was, as he put it, “irrelevant” to his life.
One day Gary went “caving” with two other friends in North Carolina’s Nantahala Gorge. One of them had heard of a waterfall hidden deep in one of the caves, and Gary and his friends were determined to find it. But while climbing a rope ladder in one of the caves, Gary lost his footing and fell fifty feet to the floor of the cave. When he came to, he didn’t quite know where he was. He was enveloped in darkness. And even worse, he didn’t know who he was. He was completely confused. But as Gary Adams lay there in the cave praying, he knew without a doubt that God was with him. And so he prayed, “Lord, let me live long enough to find out who I am and what my life is about.” And he said that from that moment on, a great peace covered him so that he suddenly felt “whole and complete.”
His two friends had rushed to call the paramedics and when they arrived, one of them called his name, and suddenly Gary’s memory returned completely. But the Gary Adams who emerged from that dark cave was not the same Gary Adams who had gone in. He was now someone who belonged completely to God. He was now someone who didn’t just know about God; he knew God. He was now someone for whom the Lord was his light and his salvation, a stronghold to support him in his hour of darkness.
And that same God, who came into this world in the person of Jesus the Christ, can be the same for you. Whether your darkness is physical or emotional or financial or even spiritual, lift to Him your heart and your soul and say to everyone who will listen: “The LORD is my light and my salvation. The LORD is my stronghold. I have nothing to fear.”