Isaiah 12; James 1:16-21; St John 16:5-15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things (Ps 98:1), the Psalmist exhorts. And He especially loves to do marvelous things by water. Remember that marvelous thing He did by the Red Sea? Remember how God drew Pharaoh and his horsemen and chariots to the Red Sea and made it look like they would overcome the Israelites?
But then the Lord did a marvelous thing. He opened up the Red Sea and His people went through on dry ground while Pharaoh and his chariots sunk to the bottom like a stone. God won a battle they could never have won!
So what does a group of people do by the water after having observed such a marvelous thing? You don’t talk about it. You don’t discuss it. You sing! And there was Miriam, leading God’s people in a new song, a song called the Song of Moses (Ex 15). But the lyrics weren’t about Moses. They were about God who had done such marvelous things for them. A song about His redeeming deeds, making them a new people.
Remember that marvelous thing He did by the River Kishon in the days of the Judges? Remember how the Israelites cried for help because they were treated so cruelly by Sisera, the commander of the Canaanites, who had hundreds of chariots? Remember how God’s people had a commander named Barak, who was a coward? Remember how God’s people were outnumbered, unarmed, and had no chance? Do you remember what God did?
In a great tribute to mothers everywhere, He raised up a courageous mother named Deborah. She called herself a “Mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7). She was a good mother. She was very concerned about her family; God’s family. She received in meekness the implanted Word and had faith in the God of Israel. She told Barak to stiffen his backbone and get his troops down to the river because God’s outnumbered, unarmed people were going to win big. And there, by the River Kishon, they did (Judges 4). The only man that got away was Sisera. And he was killed by another courageous woman named Jael, who hammered a tent peg through his temple.
So what does a group of people do by the shore after observing such a marvelous thing? They sing! But not about themselves. But about their God who had done such marvelous things to make a new people, with new hope.
Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has marvelous things. This Sunday is called Cantate Sunday. “Sing” Sunday. We don’t talk in church. We don’t discuss in church. We sing in church. We chant. We, dear Christians, one and all, rejoice, with exultation springing, and with united heart and voice and hold rapture singing. We proclaim the wonders God has done (LSB 556:1).
These wonders, these marvelous things, God has done for us by water. He baptized you. You have been made new in Baptism. The chains and slavery of that pharaoh the devil have been drowned in Holy Baptism. His chariots are rusting at the bottom of the font. There, in the water, your old Adam was impaled upon the Cross as God did a marvelous thing - He raised up a new man, clothed in the robe of Christ’s own righteousness, who now lives before God in righteousness and purity. Now when the Father sees you, He sees Jesus. What could be more marvelous?
Why did you come to church today? People come for many reasons. Some are looking for help. Help with money, with relationships, help for their troubled marriage, help with parenting, help being a better person. The church can and ought at times to help with these. But so can other professionals and agencies.
Jesus established His Church to give you a different kind of Help. A more marvelous kind of Help. He gives you the Helper, the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. And you heard what the Helper does. The Holy Spirit is a Preacher who convicts. He convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Not only the world out there, but the world in you. Your flesh. Your sinful heart and mind.
He convicts you not only of the wicked things you say and think and do, but of the good things you ignore and reject. Above all, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of the big sin, from which all other sins flow, unbelief. Not fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. And we’re guilty. The pandemic has exposed our idols. That is, God has. Let the Holy Spirit convict us of this.
For this is a marvelous thing to realize. It is a good and perfect gift given from above, by the Father of lights, through the Word, by the work of the Holy Spirit. For then we can flee to Christ for forgiveness and refuge.
Likewise we are not naturally righteous and godly, but fast bound in Satan’s chains, death brooding darkly over us. But the Holy Spirit likewise convicts us that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. Jesus is our godliness. Our righteousness is not in the good things we do. But in the works of the righteous Jesus, who by His Spirit, in His Word, gives us Himself. What a marvelous thing!
And this is how the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ! By taking what belongs to Him and declaring it, preaching it, singing it to you! Jesus’ righteousness. Yours. Jesus’ life. Yours. Jesus’ salvation. Yours. Jesus’ mercy, His love, His peace, His joy. All yours.
And His victory over the devil? Yours. The devil brainwashes the world by convincing people that the good life is accumulating as much stuff as you can, living happily and healthily unto a nice old age. So they fear disease and death. But the goal of the Christian life is not to live to 100 and have a bunch of stuff! The goal of the Christian life is to be faithful; to receive again and again the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. This is the help you need. This is what the Holy Spirit brings. What He declares, what He sings to you in the Word, read and preached.
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. Marvelous things like being bone of a mother greater than Deborah, a Mother who is a Virgin. Marvelous things like being drowned in the Red Sea of His own Blood through the exodus of His Cross, bearing our offenses to death in His own Body. Marvelous things like being raised from the dead, the First Fruits of the new creation, and leaving Satan’s head more damaged than Sisera’s, that your head might be crowned with glory.
All songs get old. All new songs become oldies. Outdated. Tired. But not the song the Church sings. For she sings the new song of how God’s anger at our sin was turned away from us and onto Jesus’ head, that He might now turn His countenance upon you at this Altar and grant you God’s forgiveness, blessing, grace and peace.
The Church sings of Jesus Christ, who by water and Word makes old, dead enemies of God into new and eternal creates that serve and love Him. She sings of Jesus Christ, who is coming again and bringing with Him a new heaven and a new earth, where nothing ever gets old, nothing gets sick and diseased, and nothing dies.
Come, dear Christians, one and all, and partake of the river that makes glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High (Ps 46:4). Come up to Mount Zion, lift up your hearts and sing! Rejoice to receive again the good and perfect Gift of Christ’s own Body and Blood. Here what is His is declared and given to you.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things (Ps 98:1), the Psalmist exhorts. And He especially loves to do marvelous things by water. Remember that marvelous thing He did by the Red Sea? Remember how God drew Pharaoh and his horsemen and chariots to the Red Sea and made it look like they would overcome the Israelites?
But then the Lord did a marvelous thing. He opened up the Red Sea and His people went through on dry ground while Pharaoh and his chariots sunk to the bottom like a stone. God won a battle they could never have won!
So what does a group of people do by the water after having observed such a marvelous thing? You don’t talk about it. You don’t discuss it. You sing! And there was Miriam, leading God’s people in a new song, a song called the Song of Moses (Ex 15). But the lyrics weren’t about Moses. They were about God who had done such marvelous things for them. A song about His redeeming deeds, making them a new people.
Remember that marvelous thing He did by the River Kishon in the days of the Judges? Remember how the Israelites cried for help because they were treated so cruelly by Sisera, the commander of the Canaanites, who had hundreds of chariots? Remember how God’s people had a commander named Barak, who was a coward? Remember how God’s people were outnumbered, unarmed, and had no chance? Do you remember what God did?
In a great tribute to mothers everywhere, He raised up a courageous mother named Deborah. She called herself a “Mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7). She was a good mother. She was very concerned about her family; God’s family. She received in meekness the implanted Word and had faith in the God of Israel. She told Barak to stiffen his backbone and get his troops down to the river because God’s outnumbered, unarmed people were going to win big. And there, by the River Kishon, they did (Judges 4). The only man that got away was Sisera. And he was killed by another courageous woman named Jael, who hammered a tent peg through his temple.
So what does a group of people do by the shore after observing such a marvelous thing? They sing! But not about themselves. But about their God who had done such marvelous things to make a new people, with new hope.
Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has marvelous things. This Sunday is called Cantate Sunday. “Sing” Sunday. We don’t talk in church. We don’t discuss in church. We sing in church. We chant. We, dear Christians, one and all, rejoice, with exultation springing, and with united heart and voice and hold rapture singing. We proclaim the wonders God has done (LSB 556:1).
These wonders, these marvelous things, God has done for us by water. He baptized you. You have been made new in Baptism. The chains and slavery of that pharaoh the devil have been drowned in Holy Baptism. His chariots are rusting at the bottom of the font. There, in the water, your old Adam was impaled upon the Cross as God did a marvelous thing - He raised up a new man, clothed in the robe of Christ’s own righteousness, who now lives before God in righteousness and purity. Now when the Father sees you, He sees Jesus. What could be more marvelous?
Why did you come to church today? People come for many reasons. Some are looking for help. Help with money, with relationships, help for their troubled marriage, help with parenting, help being a better person. The church can and ought at times to help with these. But so can other professionals and agencies.
Jesus established His Church to give you a different kind of Help. A more marvelous kind of Help. He gives you the Helper, the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. And you heard what the Helper does. The Holy Spirit is a Preacher who convicts. He convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Not only the world out there, but the world in you. Your flesh. Your sinful heart and mind.
He convicts you not only of the wicked things you say and think and do, but of the good things you ignore and reject. Above all, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of the big sin, from which all other sins flow, unbelief. Not fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. And we’re guilty. The pandemic has exposed our idols. That is, God has. Let the Holy Spirit convict us of this.
For this is a marvelous thing to realize. It is a good and perfect gift given from above, by the Father of lights, through the Word, by the work of the Holy Spirit. For then we can flee to Christ for forgiveness and refuge.
Likewise we are not naturally righteous and godly, but fast bound in Satan’s chains, death brooding darkly over us. But the Holy Spirit likewise convicts us that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. Jesus is our godliness. Our righteousness is not in the good things we do. But in the works of the righteous Jesus, who by His Spirit, in His Word, gives us Himself. What a marvelous thing!
And this is how the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ! By taking what belongs to Him and declaring it, preaching it, singing it to you! Jesus’ righteousness. Yours. Jesus’ life. Yours. Jesus’ salvation. Yours. Jesus’ mercy, His love, His peace, His joy. All yours.
And His victory over the devil? Yours. The devil brainwashes the world by convincing people that the good life is accumulating as much stuff as you can, living happily and healthily unto a nice old age. So they fear disease and death. But the goal of the Christian life is not to live to 100 and have a bunch of stuff! The goal of the Christian life is to be faithful; to receive again and again the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. This is the help you need. This is what the Holy Spirit brings. What He declares, what He sings to you in the Word, read and preached.
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. Marvelous things like being bone of a mother greater than Deborah, a Mother who is a Virgin. Marvelous things like being drowned in the Red Sea of His own Blood through the exodus of His Cross, bearing our offenses to death in His own Body. Marvelous things like being raised from the dead, the First Fruits of the new creation, and leaving Satan’s head more damaged than Sisera’s, that your head might be crowned with glory.
All songs get old. All new songs become oldies. Outdated. Tired. But not the song the Church sings. For she sings the new song of how God’s anger at our sin was turned away from us and onto Jesus’ head, that He might now turn His countenance upon you at this Altar and grant you God’s forgiveness, blessing, grace and peace.
The Church sings of Jesus Christ, who by water and Word makes old, dead enemies of God into new and eternal creates that serve and love Him. She sings of Jesus Christ, who is coming again and bringing with Him a new heaven and a new earth, where nothing ever gets old, nothing gets sick and diseased, and nothing dies.
Come, dear Christians, one and all, and partake of the river that makes glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High (Ps 46:4). Come up to Mount Zion, lift up your hearts and sing! Rejoice to receive again the good and perfect Gift of Christ’s own Body and Blood. Here what is His is declared and given to you.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
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