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Sing to the Lord a new song, Alleluia. Cantate Domino.
For He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. Alleluia.
The gift of godly mothers, the gift of godly parents and grandparents who have done their God–given vocations well and faithfully, this is truly something to sing praises to the Lord for. But we dare not stop there, because godly mothers and fathers are only some of the ways in which God delivers to us something much more important.
Thirty years ago, my own mother was my kindergarten teacher. My mother has always been a person who has high expectations for herself and her family. She has high expectations for her students. All I'm going to say about my year in kindergarten with Mom is this: She taught me well, and she did not let me get by with one single thing all that year. She was on me like a hawk if I stepped out of line — and she knew me all too well.
Our Heavenly Father certainly used my dear parents to give us Sutton kids good gifts: the beginning of a good educational foundation, discipline, attention to detail, a love for the Scriptures and being a Lutheran Christian, a real love for music and the hymnody of the Church. Mom got me going on piano lessons and engaged the church organist as my piano teacher with lessons given in the shadow of a gargantuan pipe organ. She gave me her confirmation hymnal, with her name and confirmation date engraved on it, as my first hymnal for use at Immanuel Lutheran School, Seymour, Indiana. Students were required from grade one to have their own Lutheran Hymnal, an idea as old as the Reformation. If you parents love and cherish the hymnody of our Church, so will your children. If you act indifferently towards them, so will your children.
It is likely that we all have many cherished memories of our parents. That's my prayer for all of you, anyway. We all have a song of thanks and praise to sing when we consider such blessings of God. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. God blesses us through means, and that includes, especially, our parents, the highest earthly authority God sets over us, the persons whom all other earthly authorities only act in place of.
To teach us this, God gives the fourth commandment: Honor your father and your mother. We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. All others, even the mighty government, even your favorite teacher, the policeman who pulls you over for speeding, even your pastor when you ask him to assist you in teaching your children the Christian faith, serve merely in loci parenti — in the stead of and by the authority of the parents, biblically speaking.
Yet, as we know, even the best of intentioned earthly authorities fall short and have failures and shortcomings. The best parents — my mother included — have their shortcomings. All are affected by sin and have inherited the sinful and corrupted nature of our first parents. It should, thus, be no surprise that so many parents do not take seriously their God–given responsibilities in today's anti–Christian culture. Nor do they see parenting as a blessing. It is no accident that the breakdown of the family in our society coincides with the falling away and rejection by so many of the Christian faith. But this sinfulness is just singing a now old and evil song, the song of Satan, the song of selfish idolatry and hatred towards God and neighbor.
“Know this,” James says in his epistle, “let every person be quick to hear [or listen]:, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness [or humility] the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:19–21, English Standard Version)
Our first mother did not do us any favor by being quick to listen to and speak to that serpent and then eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Our first father did not do us any favor in dropping the ball as husband and head of his household by failing to defend his wife and pointing one and all back to God's Word as the only source of life. They chose to sing the evil old song of selfish idolatry, and so have all of us ever since. The song of joy sung by the angels at creation became muted to our ears.
So, we too are quick to sing and hum the old song of Satan, quick to use words of anger and malice against God and neighbors, and we bring into our lives so easily all of the filthiness and rampant wickedness of this world and its prince — all the things which work against us loving God and neighbor, loving and honoring and cherishing our parents, our spouses, our children, our friends, our fellow Christians.
But while we were yet sinners, singing the old song of sin and shame, God was continuing to preach and teach about His new song of salvation, and so He sent His Son to be that righteousness revealed in the sight of the nations. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us to release us from bondage to Satan and, in His resurrection, has become the new song of life and hope and comfort. Isaiah wrote of that day when God's new song would break out once again:
You will say in that day, “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. Sing praises to the LORD, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”(Isaiah 12, ESV)
The new song is of a God who does not stay up in heaven hoping to see us make our way to Him. It is about a God who comes down into our midst, sets aside His righteous anger over sin, and chooses to love us instead. He did that by being our true and perfect Father, a Father who desires to give us every good gift so that we might be His children for all eternity. We need not be afraid of the Lord God Almighty. We only need trust Him and receive the gift of His Son's righteousness and salvation with thanksgiving, with praises, with His new song of salvation.
How do we learn this new song? How does the new song become ours? How does Christ's death and resurrection, His victory over sin and death, become something for you to sing about? How do you know that this is your song to sing? How does God apply this to each person?
This is today's Gospel lesson. The Holy Spirit must come and teach each of us the truth of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit puts the new song of God's salvation in Jesus Christ into our hearts and minds. Luther summarized the Gospel lesson in today's chief hymn, in the ninth and tenth stanzas
Now to my Father I depart, from earth to heaven ascending,
And heavenly wisdom to impart, the Holy Spirit sending;
In trouble He will comfort you and teach you always to be true
And into truth shall guide you.
What I on earth have done and taught guide all your life and teaching;
So shall the kingdom's work be wrought and honored in your preaching…(Lutheran Service Book #556, stanza 9–10a)
The Father and the Son, who have made us children and co–heirs, give us the Holy Spirit and, so, give us all that they have. Forgiveness of sins, salvation from sin and death, eternal life. Light instead of darkness. Comfort instead of fear. Truth instead of lies. Strength instead of weakness. Every good gift that comes from above comes from our Father, by the Holy Spirit, on account of His Son. Those gifts are something worth singing about.
But those gifts do not come randomly, by chance. The Holy Spirit works through means. God's gifts come through these instruments. He works through pastors who preach the Gospel and declare you absolved of your sins in Christ's stead. He works through parents who bring you to the waters of Holy Baptism. He works through parents and fellow Christians who see to it that you are catechized in the faith, who pray for you, who rejoice at the day you are first given your Lord's body and blood.
He works through nurturing mothers who are quick to confess and extol God's Word to their children, who revere and support their husbands as the Church loves and serves Christ. He works through fathers who lead their households in practicing the Christian faith in devotion and prayer and hymns, who diligently teach their children the Christian faith from God's Word, who sacrifice and give of their love to their wives and children as Christ has loved the Church.
You have been reconciled to your Heavenly Father on account of His Son's atoning death and glorious resurrection, and you have been given His Son as your adopted Brother. The Holy Spirit — through Baptism, Absolution, Preaching, and the Holy Supper — has given you new birth into your true and eternal Mother, the Church. You have quite a marvelous and amazing family!
We, indeed, have something to sing about in Jesus Christ — a new song of salvation and righteousness in Him. The Holy Spirit brings us that song in the Gospel and the Means of Grace. It's the song of God's family, of the family that has been redeemed and created anew in Christ.
Thanks be to God for His marvelous gifts. May we confess His praises even unto the ends of the earth! In Jesus' name we pray it. Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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