John 16:5-15
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
We’ve been doing a little more singing than usual this morning. And that is certainly appropriate. For this Sunday in the church year is traditionally called Cantate Sunday. Cantate means “Sing ye!” from the opening words of the Introit. I’d like to base most of today’s meditation on those words from Psalm 98, especially the opening words: “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory!”
The church for thousands of years has voiced her deepest hopes and anguish and faith in song. That’s really what the Psalms are; they are the hymns sung by God’s people of old expressing their trust in Him in the midst of all the joys and needs of life. But then today’s Psalm speaks about singing something new. What is this new song which the Lord would have us sing?
For some, a phrase like this means that whatever is new and different must be better than the old and familiar. Our fallen nature is obsessed with the new. New smartphones, new TV’s, new clothes, new cars, a new house, a new recipe, a new lover, a new job, a new congregation–whatever is new we assume is better than whatever is old. It is not much of a stretch to see how the church can get infected with the love of the new, including when it comes to church music–contemporary Christian music sung in pop, feel-good styles must be better than the centuries old hymns. But is that really what the Psalm is talking about when it says to “sing to the Lord a new song,” just to sing something that was written recently?
Psalm 98 actually tells us itself what this new song is all about. “Sing to the Lord a new song . . . His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory!” Very simply, what makes the new song new is that it is all about the truth of Jesus. For He is the right hand and the holy arm of the Father, is He not? Did Jesus not win the victory over sin, death and the power of the devil by His cross and resurrection? That is the song of songs. Jesus’ work of dying on the cross for you and rising from the dead, that victory is the song of all time. It is the eternally new song. Or, to put it another way, it is the song of the Gospel. That’s what the Psalm means when it talks about a new song; it is the song of Christ who makes all things forever new with His redeeming love.
So what makes a song “new” or “old” theologically speaking is not how long it’s been around, but rather whether or not it’s centered in Christ. The old song is the way of the Law, of making yourself right with God by your own spiritual efforts and therapeutic progress and inward self-discovery and outward good living. “God helps those who help themselves” is the old song, where salvation depends in large part on what you do and what you bring to God. The old song is the way of karma, of being rewarded or punished based on what you’ve done. The new song, on the other hand, is the way of grace, of being redeemed and shown mercy based on Christ having suffered the karma we had coming in our place. With Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we sing a brand new song, the song of salvation, the song of the One who died for us and rose again so that we might truly live.
So it’s a little bit tricky discerning what makes a song “a new song” in the way of today’s Psalm. Some of the “oldest” hymns in our hymnal express that “new song” of salvation better than any “new song” of today ever could, though, of course, there are some good new songs and hymns, too. It just so happens that I chose one of the oldest hymns in our hymnal to sing today during Holy Communion. The words were written by a bishop named Ambrose in the 300's A.D. They are words addressed to Jesus:
Come, very Sun of truth and love; Pour down Thy radiance from above
And shed the Holy Spirit’s ray on all we think or do or say. Alleluia!
(And then praying to the Father:)
On Christ, the true bread let us feed; Let Him to us be drink indeed;
And let us taste with joyfulness the Holy Spirit’s plenteousness. Alleluia!
Words like that are ever new, because they are centered on Christ, whose mercy never grows old. They’re not based on the shifting sands of our feelings but on Him who is the solid Rock. That is truly a new song in the way of Psalm 98, a Trinitarian song of saints and angels. And those words, by the way, are wedded for us to a very appropriate and reverent and beautiful new tune. There’s certainly nothing wrong with newer music being used, like we did with the Old Testament reading for today, as long as it’s there as a servant to the words of God. The Word must always be the main thing. Too often contemporary music is used simply as a way of trying to create an emotional feeling and manipulate people into a certain spiritual mood, and it is not primarily a servant of the words of God. By means of the band up in front and the lighting and the video screens, the goal is to create a moving experience not all that different than seeing a show or going to a concert. That is not what it means to worship God with a new song.
Or consider a 500 year old hymn from the Reformation, “Salvation Unto Us Has Come.” It, too, is a “new” song in the way of Psalm 98. First, it directs us away from trusting in ourselves.
What God did in His Law demand And none to Him could render
Caused wrath and woe on ev’ry hand For man, the vile offender.
Our flesh has not those pure desires The spirit of the Law requires,
And lost is our condition.
To look to within yourself for your hope of salvation is the old song, the old way of death. But then the hymn sings the new song of Jesus:
Since Christ has full atonement made And brought to us salvation,
Each Christian therefore may be glad And build on this foundation.
Your grace alone, dear Lord, I plead, Your death is now my life indeed,
For You have paid my ransom.
So again, the new song is not primarily about the music that moves us but the Gospel that saves us.
Jesus talks about this quite clearly when He says: “When the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth . . . He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” A truly spiritual song, then, is one in which the Holy Spirit speaks Christ-centered prayer and praise in you or where He proclaims the Gospel of Jesus and delivers the gifts of Christ to you. That’s what the Holy Spirit is all about, glorifying Christ and pointing to Him so that we might trust in Him and be saved.
In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks of three aspects of the Spirit’s work. These three things also identify what makes up the “new song.” First of all Jesus says that the Spirit will convict the world of sin. The Holy Spirit will tell you the truth about yourself and about the curse we all are under. The Spirit of truth will not condone sin or affirm you and support you “just the way you are,” but will drive you to despair of yourself, so that you might learn to see your need for Jesus the Savior and cling to Him alone. The goal of the Spirit’s coming to you is not to make you feel all tingly inside, but to lead you to cast aside all human merit as nothing but filthy rags in God’s sight.
However, Jesus also says that the Spirit will convince the world of righteousness; He will make the true righteousness of Christ known. As Psalm 98 says, “His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.” Just as Jesus purchased our righteousness before God with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death, so now the Holy Spirit clothes us with that righteousness in preaching and the sacraments. As it is written, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” The Holy Spirit takes of what is Christ’s and delivers it to you. He puts in your mouth the new song of faith in Christ.
And then thirdly, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convince the world of the judgment of the devil and of Satan’s defeat. Even though we still have troubles in this life and things which cause us to falter, even though the devil still tries to use these things to scare us to hell and make us lose our faith in Christ, the truth of the matter is that all that he can do is buzz about like a pesky fly. For Jesus conquered him decisively, once and for all at Golgotha. He took away Satan’s power by undoing the sin which held us in bondage. The resurrected Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. The new song, then, doesn’t leave matters in doubt, but speaks of that certainty of the victory which we have in Christ, which will be revealed for us on the Last Day. And if that makes you feel a little tingly and uplifted inside, well, good. That’s a wonderful thing.
This is the message the Holy Spirit has to give to you this day, a message which continues to be proclaimed through the church’s song. So the next time you are learning a hymn, or hear some Christian music for the first time, ask yourself whether it truly gives you Jesus. Is it giving you solid doctrine or just a temporary spiritual rush? Is it the old song of the Law that focuses on you or the new song of salvation which focuses on the Lord? Remember the words of today’s Psalm:
Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory! He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel–to you, His people.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to Todd Peperkorn for some of the framework of this sermon)