CANTATE SUNDAY 2020

The phrase "Sing praise to the Trinity of the Hebrews" summarizes the little gallery below for Cantate (Sing) Sunday. Pic #1 shows Luther and Melanchton with the open Bible in which the Trinity is seen in the name of God at the top. the dove as the Holy Spirit, and the crucified Son; Pic #2 is Ras Tafari, who ruled Ethiopia and took the name of Haile Selassie which means "Might of the Trinity" at his coronation. He was worshiped by his followers as the messiah; Pic #3 is the Tetragrammaton (4 letters, here with vowel pointing) that is on one of the lecterns at the University of Wittenberg is Yahweh (יַהְוֶה), Jehovah; and Pic #4 is the symbolic icon of the Trinitarian Jehovah. This brings me to my address for this morning:

“The Lord Jehovah Is My Strength and My Song; and Is My Salvation”

Isaiah 12:1-2 KJV And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

My Christian friends: Cantate Sunday is a special day during the Paschaltide of Easter. Cantate is the imperative form of Canto and Cantare is the infinitive form “to sing”. And what is the Christian commanded to sing? Simply this, namely, that salvation belongs to God.

Scripture warns us that many will come in the name of the Lord pretending to be the Messiah. If you recall the Rastafarian cult, it creates images in your mind of the charismatic, Jamaican, reggae musician Bob Marley and his headful of dreadlocks. Marley is a Rastafari icon, but there is a greater man whose namesake was at the heart of this Jamaican movement. His name was Ras Tafari. For Rastafarians, who was acclaimed Ras Tafari as Yah incarnate – the savior/messiah, was the birth name of Ethiopia’s last emperor, who was born in 1892.

Ras Tafari, who ruled Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 allegedly traced his line back to Menelik I, who was credited with being the child of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and took the regal name of Haile Selassie when he was crowned, which translated means “Might of the Trinity.” But, even though there were many other cults that laid claim to the moniker Yah; there was only one Yah that was the one, true, God in the Hebrew: Yahweh, translated Jehovah. It was He who was the deliverer of Israel that, in the last days, showed Himself, as the Mighty Trinity, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God.

Our text this morning begins with a recurrent phrase in both Old and New Testaments: “And in that day.” The day referred to in the previous chapter of Isaiah, the time of the Messiah, was when the effects of His reign shall be seen everywhere. The duty of praising Yahweh, however, in such language as to make it applicable to the event predicted in the former part of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 10; the delivering of the nation from the invasion of Sennacherib, as well as the more glorious event on which the prophet fixed his eye (cf. Isaiah 11) - the coming and reign of the Messiah. The language of this song of praise would be appropriate to both these events. In that Day is repetitive: Isaiah 11:10-11

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,

Who shall stand as a banner to the people;

For the Gentiles shall seek Him,

And His resting place shall be glorious.

It shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time

To recover the remnant of His people who are left…”.

The Lord Yahweh, is the great author of this intervention. I will praise You, though You were angry with me. If this language is applied to the Jews, and supposed to be used by them in regard to the invasion of Sennacherib (King of Assyria), it means, that the Lord allowed their land to be invaded. The Assyrian king’s sins were no greater than the idol worship that was found in Samaria and Jerusalem, and to be subjected to such calamities because of their sins (Isa 10:5-12). If it were to be applied to the time of the Messiah, then it is a language which every redeemed sinner may use, namely, that God was angry with us, but that his anger was turned away. As it is applied to you, the redeemed, it is an acknowledgement which you all should feel, that you have no claim to his mercy, and that His goodness in Jesus Christ lays the foundation for unceasing praise that His anger is turned away by the salvation Jesus won for all in His death on the cross.

As to the expression, “Is my strength and my song.” The same phrase occurs in the hymn that Moses composed after the passage of the Red Sea, which this song in our text is composed; Exodus 15:2: “The Lord is my strength and my song, And He is become my salvation.”

The word “strength” means, that God is the source of might and power, and implies that all who are redeemed are willing to acknowledge that they have no strength in themselves but that which resides in God. As Martin Luther said in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed regarding the Holy Spirit and sanctification: “I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

The word “song” implies that God alone is the proper object of praise; it is to celebrate His praise that is the cause of this song’s being composed. “He also has become my salvation.” This is also found in the song of Moses in Exodus 15:2. It means that God had become or was the author of the Hebrews’ salvation. It is by his hand that the deliverance has been affected, and to him should be the praise.

How many times in the Old Testament does it say that Salvation is of God and His name is to be praised. This is exactly what the term Hallelujah means; Praise Yah, shortened form of Yahweh, for His salvation. Even so it was before the prophet Jonah was spewed out of the great fish’s mouth onto the shores of Nineveh that Jonah prayed (Jonah 2:8-9): “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” And, as Deuteronomy 6:4 explains, “Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” using the word echad for “one” that denotes the uniqueness of God. Yahweh (Jehovah) is united as One and not being as a singular one alone. Therefore, Father is God and Lord, the Son is also God and Lord, and the Holy Spirit is God and Lord; namely, only one (echad) God and one (echad) Lord.

Do you recognize this one God of your salvation? Has His salvation been declared to you in Jesus’ death and His resurrection? John the evangelist states plainly that Jesus proclaimed, “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

Jesus had shown that He alone is your salvation when He, who was without sin, took on the sins of the whole world and nailed them with His body to that old rugged cross. It was there where HE was heard to cry out, “It is finished!” That is to mean that all was done for your salvation since salvation belongs to God. And yet He descended into hell to proclaim that He triumphed over all His enemies that hate Him; who put themselves above Him; who are now forever consigned to an eternity in hell. But for you who believe in His name, God the Father was satisfied with the payment God the Son paid and showed it in His resurrection from the dead to a newness of life for your justification! For all that, your responses are continued this Eastertide with songs of Hallelujah! Praise Yahweh, the Lord God!

Yes, you must see that salvation belongs to God, God the Son, who for our sakes suffered humiliation, torture, and death on a cross in His person that consisted of both human and divine natures. It was not just a man who suffered all these things but the very Son of God. In that way it is stated, in so many ways, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that salvation is of God. Regarding, therefore, the person of Christ it is stated in our Confessions, Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article XIII: “Dr. Luther states in his treatise Concerning the Councils and the Church: ‘We Christians must know that unless God is in the balance and throws in weight as a counterbalance, we shall sink to the bottom with our scale. I mean that this way: If it is not true that God died for us, but only a man died, we are lost. But if God’s death and God dead lie in the opposite scale, then his side goes down and we go upward like a light and empty pan. Of course, he can also go up again or jump out of his pan. But he could never have sat in the pan unless he had become a man like us, so that it could be said: God dead, God’s passion, God’s blood, God’s death. According to his nature God cannot die, but since God and man are united in one person, it is correct to talk about God’s death when that man dies who is one thing or one person with God.’ So far Luther.”

St. Augustine said, “God crowns His gifts in us.” Mercy (that is Grace) and faith are correlatives, having a mutual relation, as John 3:35-36 says, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” It is as Scriptures say, Mankind is saved by grace through the means of faith alone. If you try by works or even by your love to gain salvation, let it be known that you have rejected the mercy of God that He offered for your salvation. Paul states it this way: Galatians 5:4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

So, it should be that the heavenly Father took the sacrifice of Jesus, who was both priest and sacrifice, and declared it as righteousness for all who believe. As St. Paul said in Romans 4:20-5:1, “ He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here, any child is able to understand that no one can be made righteous in Christ without faith; and yet many great and mighty theologians persist in saying that God has declared the entire world forgiven and made righteous in Christ prior to having been brought to faith.

James 1:17-18, which is found in the Epistle for this Sunday, shines a light upon whom is justified and whom is that receives the perfect gifts of salvation. Commenting on James 1:18 “Of his own will begat us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures” Luther says: “By this statement James makes a far-reaching thrust at all factions and sects. They also have a word and boast much of their doctrine, but theirs is not the Word of truth whereby men are made children of God. But we have a Word whereby, as we are assured, God makes us his beloved children and justifies us, IF WE BELIEVE in that Word.”

Over the years many people have followed many fake messiahs, who live like kings upon this earth. Many of cultic personalities have laid claim to wealth, power, and the wisdom of this world; but only the one true God can offer you all good and perfect gifts, as well as true righteousness, that cannot be attained except through faith.

This faith, which also is a gift through the hearing of the Word of God, grabs hold of its Giver through Word and Sacrament, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, this is “that day”, the day when Jesus burst through the prison gates of death and lives forever. It therefore can be declared to you that this day you have the continual Easter joy and life everlasting! Hallelujah! Amen.