Sermon: Lent 1 Midweek

25 February AD 2015
A Lent — Easter Series on Christ and Creation

Title: In the (New) Beginning: Light (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Jesus is the incarnate Word of God. He was present at Creation, active in creating, and re-creating a fallen Creation and a humanity dead in its trespasses.

Through His Son, God commanded light to shine “in the beginning.” He then sent the Son to shine the light of His love in our fallen world. Those who believe in Him now shine His light amidst sin’s darkness.

We trust that as the darkness will never overcome our Savior, so it cannot overcome us who believe in Him. We also know that we who confess Him among men will “shine ... like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)”

Hymn: During Lenten midweek services, through Holy Week, the Vigil, and Easter morning, we will be singing With God in the Beginning as Office Hymn or Hymn of the Day. Each time we will sing two stanzas focusing on the Christology of that day’s sermon text from Genesis. The tune I chose is Auf, auf, mein Herz, known among many English-speaking Christians as the Easter hymn Awake, My Heart, with Gladness.

   With God in the beginning
   Was His eternal Son;
   Brightly was His light shining
   O’er all that was begun.
   Yet once all mankind fell
   To Satan, death, and hell,
   Into our evil night
   Came down the saving Light.

   To God would no one hearken,
   His Word we all denied.
   Satan did all hearts darken
   And God’s will was defied.
   Yet in the deepest gloom
   Christ sealed the Tempter’s doom,
   Went to the cross and died
   That all might know His light.

      ©2003, 2015 Walter P. Snyder

Text: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:1-5

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of In the (New) Beginning: Light.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 27; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 1:1-5, 9-14

Illustration: The First Day of Creation from Die Bibel in Bildern by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld at Wikimedia Commons.

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