The sermon is based on the Old Tstament lesson for Cantate Sunday in the One Year Series.
Easter 5, 2013 Isaiah 12:1-6, Ps. 98:1-2
“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for
he has done marvelous things!” Those words of the Introit leave little wonder
why Psalm 98 is used at Christmas as we sing “Joy to the world the Lord has
come, let earth receive her king.”
Little wonder the Psalm is the basis for the Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ,
is ris’n today, Alleluia!” The Psalm then
leads us to the marvelous thing God has done through Jesus’ cross, “His right
hand and holy arm have worked salvation for Him!” Whose right hand and holy arm could that be
except our Lord, “who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven?” He
was crucified, died and buried and on the third day rose from the dead. So we come to our text for today confessing,
“Though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort
me.” When God turned his anger away from
us He turned it loose on His own innocent Son, therefore, “The Lord God is my
strength and he has become my salvation.”
“Praise to God” is the theme song God gives to our life.
If only we
could make our life sing according to the theme of life and salvation; but
often we sing a song of pessimism in the face of God’s promise; as if God is
not dwelling with us and in that promise tears are already being wiped away;
and death is already dying, and mourning and crying and pain can’t even be
compared with the glory that lies ahead.
Our life’s song too often is written by the plight of humanity and our
interaction with one another, rather than Jesus promise that we will see him
again and we will rejoice and no one will take our joy from us. Even our self pity and simmering angers will
be no more.
As
Christians we take sin seriously. The
failures of humanity are not merely disappointments, or dysfunctions. They are part of the sickness of sin which
afflicts us all. We, who are redeemed,
though, find a perverse enjoyment in seeing things go bad. Now this isn’t an exclusive sin of God’s
children. All people seem to be like
this. It’s baseball season again. And
when the manager brings in a “closer” who doesn’t seem to be able to close out
the game, we take a certain enjoyment in telling the manager through our TV
screen, “I told you so.”
When it comes to singing the song of
God’s life sometimes we are tone deaf and don’t hear the music at all. I wonder how many sermons we have heard about
the love and forgiveness of Christ and our responsibility to do the same. How hard it is to say, “I’m sorry” or “I
forgive you.” Could it be that we take
sin too seriously, acting toward one another as if there is no forgiveness, as
if Jesus death and resurrection was a complete waste of his life; as if we are
functional pagans? No wonder God gets
angry with us. But we are not living at
the hand of blind fate. We don’t have a
capricious God. We have a good and
gracious God who gives long after we stop thanking Him or even thinking of Him.
Jesus encountered such tone deafness. He said, and maybe he was talking to us, “How
can I describe this generation? They are
like children sitting in the market-place and shouting at each other, ‘We
danced for you and you would not dance.’ ‘We wept and wailed, and you would not
mourn.’” Jesus came and socialized with
people. John brought a message of doom
and lived like a hermit. They didn’t
like either way of life. What does God
have to do for us before we will make our life one of joy and
thanksgiving? Die for us? Jesus already took care of that. Make us believe in Him? The Holy Spirit leads us to faith. Receive more material blessings? God has
given more to us than to any other civilization in history. As Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let
him hear.” So let’s hear the wonderful
symphony of God’s deliverance in Jesus Christ.
The situation
for our text is that the people of Israel are in exile. Assyria has conquered their land and carried
them into captivity. The Israelites had
stopped singing praises to God. They
became more concerned with the beat of life that neighboring nations lived
to. So God was teaching them that He was
the choirmaster. He held the music for the
song of life and salvation, safety and security. When we join our world today in its hopeless
song of hope, it’s just as false as always.
The Israelites looked to protection from Egypt. We place our security in treaties, technology
and sophisticated weaponry. However, God
has written the lasting peace treaty.
God has defeated our real enemies, sin, death, and the devil with the
mightiest of all weapons, His Son Jesus Christ.
We are able to
take comfort in God’s deliverance. In
fact, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, comes to us as the
comforter. The road from deliverance
from sin to eternal life is not easy. It
is strewn with much discord because sin, death and the devil are still
operating in this world. But with the
Spirit with us, we need not fear. The
song we sing along the way can be the confident song that we will reach our
destination safely. Indeed, the more we
count on the preservation of the Father, the deliverance of the Son, and the
comfort and strength of the Spirit the more confident we become. Because our confidence is not in ourselves,
but in God.
We have been
baptized. We in our faith are on the way
to life with God. The call of our text
comes to us along the way to the new heaven and new earth. Don’t walk in silence. Don’t worship in
silence. Don’t keep your faith a
secret. Rather “Praise the Lord,“ “Give
thanks to the Lord.” “Cry out, shout aloud.”
But how? How can my weak praise
be heard amid the loud noise the world makes?
How can I a sinner who has enough trouble keeping my faith, be expected
to let God’s praise pour out in stereophonic sound?
You are not
alone. Besides the Holy Spirit, you have
all your fellow Christians. When a choir
sings it takes practice. Choirs don’t
just grab music off the shelf and sing it as well as they do. At first some of the notes are flat and
others are missed altogether. Yet slowly
out of the disharmony comes beautiful music.
The singers catch on. And when a
difficult selection is learned and done well there is a sense of joy and
satisfaction. A looking forward to
singing it again. God turns to us in our
blundering efforts at singing the song of joy and salvation. He works with us through His Spirit. Through faith He brings us into harmony with
himself. He gives us the faith to
believe that in this chaotic and dissonant world, God still rules in harmony. Our text compares God to a faithful and deep
well of salvation into which we can dip and drink the water of life.
“Sing unto
the Lord a new song; for he has done marvelous things.” The Lord has made known his salvation. Let us strive to make our life a song of
praise and thanksgiving to God. Throw
God’s praises around. Let the world know
that you worship our Lord Jesus Christ.
Depend on the Holy Spirit to comfort and strengthen when you are tempted
to place hope and security in the world or in yourself. Teach the song of life to others.
Sometimes married couples have a song they
call, “our song.” We are the Bride of
Christ and God has written “our song.” It’s called “Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ.” Praise the Lord for His lyrics.
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