Singing the New Song with God and His Creation

This sermon was preached at my congregation, Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charlotte, Iowa, on Cantate, the Fifth Sunday of Easter.

Psalm 98 – Introit
St. John 16:5–15

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Chronicles of Narnia is a well-known and beloved fantasy series by the Christian thinker and writer, C.S. Lewis. And in that series, The Magician’s Nephew tells the creation story for the magical land of Narnia, as it was created by the God and Christ-figure of that world: the Lion, Aslan. It’s told from the perspective of a young boy named Digory from our world who stumbled into Narnia at its very beginning.

In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once… It was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it…
Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices that you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out—single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world… The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing (p.98–99).

In this way, C.S. Lewis describes the beginning of creation for his fantasy world. He clearly had in his mind Job 38:7, which describes the creation by saying: When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy. More than once, the Bible connects the angels of God with the stars. So, we can imagine how God created the world by singing it into existence, and his creation responded by joining in His song: first, the heavenly hosts, and then all the rest of God’s creatures as they came into being.

We can also think of singing as an analogy for the Trinity—that God has been singing from all eternity, even before the creation of the world—not singing TO Himself, but singing WITHIN Himself, a song shared by the three Persons in the one God. From eternity, the Father sings to His Son. And the Son, the Father’s Word, sings back to His Father. Their song is perfect love and joy, and so from their singing proceeds the Spirit. They don’t sing the same notes, and yet all three are equal in the song. So, as it takes at least three notes to make a musical chord, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sing together, united in perfect harmony.

And as the Holy Three-In-One sing, their song of love and joy spills over into creation. The harmony of their three notes gives rise to more and more: a joyful polyphony—the many voices of God’s creatures, all blending harmoniously with their Creator, keeping in time and in tune with the Father and the Son and the Spirit who give them life.

I read recently that humans may be unique among animals in having a sense of rhythm—that is we can listen to a beat and synchronize our movements to that beat (Caldecott, Beauty for Truth’s Sake, p.95, fn. 9). Now, I would say that each animal (and even the whole natural world) has its own beat or rhythm that it follows instinctively. I only have to watch my dog run to see how his paws keep perfect time together as they carry him along. But when I play music at home, my dog doesn’t keep time with the song. It seems animals are not able to mimic and match rhythms other than their own. But humans do. And I think this is because humans are created uniquely to respond. As lords and stewards of creation, humans are to respond willingly and freely to the rhythm and song of our Creator and His creation.

But then, to continue this analogy, it is our sin that has brought discord and disruption. We do not listen and respond, but try to drown out the Trinity’s song of love by shouting our own broken song of pride, independence, and self-centeredness. Instead of finding our place within the great symphony of the Trinity’s creation, we want to have the solo. So, we find ourselves alone, having destroyed our harmony with God and His creation.

And yet, as the Trinity is perfect love, God will not leave us in our discord. So, the Father and the Son began to sing a new song:

God said to His beloved Son:
“It’s time to have compassion.
Then go, bright jewel of My crown,
And bring to all salvation.
From sin and sorrow set them free;
Slay bitter death for them that they
May live with You forever.” (LSB 556:5)

The Father began a new song of love by sending His Son for us lost sinners. The Son joined in this new song by His loving obedience to the Father. And the Spirit proceeds from this new song and brings us to join in.

This new song of redemption and re-creation is introduced for us in Psalm 98 that we sang this morning:

Cantate—Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!
His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him.
The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Where do we see salvation? When did the Lord remember His love and faithfulness? Where does He reveal His righteousness to all people? When did the Lord’s holy arm work salvation, and who sits at the Father’s right hand? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died upon the cross and rose victorious from the grave. In His blood, we see God’s righteousness for us. In His death, all God’s promises are remembered. And in His cross the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God.

The new song that we now join in singing with the Trinity is the song of our redemption—our ransom from sin by the blood of Jesus. It is the song of resurrection—Jesus’ victory over death and our new life in Him. This new song is the song that MAKES us new. And just as the old creation was eager to join in the polyphony of the Creator’s song, God’s creation rejoices to join in the singing of this new song. And by the Spirit’s power, even this old, fallen, broken world will also be made new.

Our liturgy—what we do in worship—that is what humans were always meant to do: to join and lead the singing of all creation in praise back to the God who made us all and gives us life. The cosmos is full of music. The scholars of the medieval church used music as an analogy for the movements of the planets. We certainly notice how birds and other animals have a song and dance of their own. Even great winds blowing through trees make their own kind of tremendous music. In the Christian liturgy, and in the liturgy of our Christian lives, we truly take up our part in this music, singing this new song—teaching it and leading it for the rest of God’s creatures.

Psalm 98 concludes with this liturgy, calling all creation to join in:

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord.

This is also what we will sing in our closing hymn. We call on our God’s creation to help us sing this song of praise. We can’t do it on our own, nor would we want to. The harmony of God’s new song only grows more beautiful as more voices are added:

You forest leaves so green and tender
That dance for joy in summer air,
You meadow grasses, bright and slender,
You flow’rs so fragrant and so fair,
You live to show God’s praise alone.
Join me to make His glory known.

All creatures that have breath and motion,
That throng the earth, the sea, the sky,
Come, share with me my heart’s devotion,
Help me to sing God’s praises high.
My utmost pow’rs can never quite
Declare the wonders of His might. (LSB 811:3–4)

And creation is only too happy to be able to harmonize with us once again. Under the curse of our sin, this creation groans. But at the same time, the creation waits with eager longing for our salvation… that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19–21).

So at the end of Psalm 98, we hear that the creation joins in this new song BECAUSE of our salvation: Sing for joy together before the Lord, FOR He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. The Lord came once to BE JUDGED on behalf of us lost and sinful people. In His death He was judged guilty of our sin. In His resurrection He was judged to be righteous and the One who gives that righteousness to sinners. So now, when He comes again to be the Judge, He will bestow mercy on those who believe in Him. And He will judge the whole earth with His righteousness. He will make a new creation—a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

This new creation is already begun, as the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church. He is singing this new song in the Word of the Holy Scriptures, in Holy Baptism, and in the Holy Supper. The Spirit’s song inspires in us new convictions, new certainties that though we are sinful, we are declared righteous in Christ, and the devil, that sower of discord, is defeated. We are made new and taught to join a new harmony with God as His holy and beloved children.

This is the goal of our liturgy: to bring us back, week after week, into this new song—back into rhythm with the life of the Trinity, back into tune with the song of God and His world. The whole cosmos is full of the Creator’s music. And this is why our liturgy is so full of singing. And right at the center of it all—the center of the liturgy, the center of the new song, the center of the cosmos—there is the Creator at one with His creation: God and Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, His Body and Blood in bread and wine, given for us to eat and to drink as a foretaste of the new creation. Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.