O sing to the Lord a new song.
Preached by Rev. James Murray at Dominion-Chalmers United Church,

May 17 2009.

If you could change one thing in an order of worship, what would you change? Would you change the music? Would you cut out the sermon? If I could, I would change the way we read the psalms. We read them responsively, and as a result we sound rather monotone. We seem to never capture the full emotional intensity. The psalms are a collection of prayers. They are the laments and cries of people who seek God in the hardest of times. They show the depth of emotion we can reveal to God. They reveal how God will not forsake us even when we start hammering on the doors of heaven. The psalms also reveal the intense joy our faith can bring us. The psalm we read this morning speaks of this great joy.
“O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God has done marvellous things.”

How great their joy must have been that only a new song could express their delight. It is a rare day when only a new thing can fully express our joy. It is a rare day like a wedding, when only new clothes are good enough for the occasion. It is a rare day like the dedication of a new building, when a new piece of art is unveiled. It is a rare day like the opening of a new concert hall, when a specially commissioned piece of new music is premiered.

I sometimes wonder how Peter and the other early disciples dealt with all the changes they faced during their ministry. So many things changed so rapidly. They were forced to grow at a very fast rate. God had busted out of the temple. The Holy Spirit was on the move. And the disciples are asked to keep up with all the new things God was doing. The disciples had to leave their old beliefs behind and create new ones on an almost daily basis. They beheld God doing many marvellous new things. At the end of the day, they must have been wondering what had hit them. As they reflected on all these amazing things, did they feel like saying “O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God has done marvellous things.”

In those early days, Peter and the other disciples were just discovering all that the gospel of Jesus Christ consisted of. They were actively exploring what life could be like if you tried to live the Jesus way. They didn’t know what this Way of life would be like. They didn’t know what might happen. And things happened. Amazing, surprising and marvellous things happened.

On this one occasion, a Roman centurion starts a very significant chain of events into motion. This Roman was named Cornelius. Cornelius worshipped the Jewish God, but was of course he was never fully accepted because he was a foreigner. Yet one day an angel comes and speaks to him. The angel says “Cornelius, God has heard your prayers.” As if this wasn’t shocking enough, then the angel tells Cornelius to send for Peter. Before Cornelius’ messenger can get to Peter, Peter has a vision. God reveals that all food is from God. It is all good. The old distinctions about clean and unclean have been swept away. Peter protests this, because he was taught to follow the food laws. God basically tells him who is in charge, and to get with this new program. A new thing is happening.
“O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God has done marvellous things.”

When the invitation to visit Cornelius arrives, Peter’s world-view is shattered even further. For now God’s angels are directing the foreigners to ask about Jesus. The definition of who is God’s chosen people is being rewritten. All of humanity is now to be called God’s chosen people. The group of foreigners who gathered together in Cornelius’s home eagerly receives Peter’s message, and the Holy Spirit falls on everyone present, both Jew and Gentile. Everyone is amazed. Nothing like this has ever happened before. “O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God has done marvellous things.”

Then Peter asks, “Who can withhold the water for baptism?” It is like trying to hold back the waters at creation’s birth. It just can’t be stopped. Just like Philip who found water in the desert to baptize the Ethiopian Eunuch, Peter realizes there will be objections to this new act. Yet he realizes he has been asked by God to do what was once thought to be impossible.

 
To the amazement of many, Peter dares to baptize Cornelius. But it doesn’t end there. He then lives with these foreigners. He eats at their table. He teaches them about God and Jesus. By these remarkable acts the Christian community is expanded by one quantum leap forward. I can just hear them during their worship time together singing “O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God has done marvellous things.”

It was Jesus who sows the seeds of possibility for these kinds of changes. When Jesus shares his last supper with his disciples, he says some amazing things to them. He tells the disciples he no longer considers them to be his servants or disciples. He now calls them his friends. The old hierarchy of master and servant is now gone. In its place is a new relationship of equality, and partnership. He sees all his disciples, both men and women, as his equals.

The Gospel of John tells us ‘He said this so our joy might be complete.’  He wants to motivate us by inspiring joy in our hearts. He doesn’t want to control us by using guilt. He doesn’t shame us when we don’t understand. He motivates us by setting us free.

He sets us free by replacing all the old commandments which governed our every move with a new commandment, which is to love one another.  It is the only commandment which has the power to change the world.  It isn’t a burden to have to follow such a simple rule. It can be applied to every situation we face. ‘What does love require of us?’ is the only ethical question we will ever have to ask ourselves.  This is the power of friendship- it creates a relationship, a bond, which is deeper than any ideal. How we deal with God is how we are to treat our friends. With ethical loving kindness.

This is the gift of responsible freedom. Now we are to decide what is right, as we ethically try to love everyone in this world as if they are our brother and sister. For every one in this world truly is our brother and our sister. They are all our friends. Our faith in God is no longer just an abstract set of ideals. Our faith in God is how we relate to one another. It is a great challenge to live up to this belief. Yet when we are faced with this ethical challenge, how many of us have chosen to sing out, “O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God has done marvellous things.”

 
Some say this rapid rate of change soon subsided, and the power of the Holy Spirit soon faded away. Others would point to what is happening in the world and say it is AD 30 all over again. God’s Holy Spirit continues to do marvellous things in our world. Those early disciples were not the ones going out and doing radically new things. They were just trying to catch up with what God was already doing in the world. Like those early disciples, we too are being invited to join in on the marvellous new things God is doing in world today. We are being given new people to love. They are not given to us so we can tell them what to believe. We are being given these new people to befriend, to welcome them in. And when you welcome a new person in to your life, you have to take the time to get to listen to them, to know them, to understand them. We are changed by the people we welcome into our lives.
 
We take the time to welcome others in, because we believe God is still active in the world, seeking to bless us all. In every moment God is seeking to heal the sick. To transform what is possible in our lives. God is seeking to give hope to the hopeless. God wants to give Joy to those who despair. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals to us how far God will go in order to give these gifts to you. God wants you to join in sharing these gifts with this world.

And just  in case you think you have to do all this alone, you need to know that the Holy Spirit is just waiting to join you in singing one more verse of  “O sing to the Lord a new song, for our God is still doing marvellous things.”
Amen.