Sing to the Lord a New Song!

Every week on Tuesday and Friday I check my phone. These are two highly anticipated mornings of my week. Well, Sunday is also, of course, but these days I check to see what new music is out. Hang around me long enough and you’ll figure out that I love music. Sure, I have my long time favorites, but I love hearing new music from the artists I know. I look forward to their latest projects. Sometimes I will go so far as to listen to a song on repeat. It often drives my wife crazy, and occasionally my kids say something like, “Dad can we listen to a new song?” I had someone once say that I would grow out of music, but the truth is, I never have. I look forward to new music, but I love the classics as well. No matter how you look at it, I love music!

In the blog last week I talked about the lectionary, the set of readings that the LCMS has assigned to each week. Sometimes weekly themes for those readings stand out stronger than others. For a long time, this week was known as Cantate Sunday. Cantate Sunday celebrated making a new song to the Lord. According to the church year, we are in the season of Easter, which means we continue to celebrate. For many years, each Sunday following Easter was named with a celebration theme. Over the years the lectionary has held strong, but some of the themes have disappeared. With less knowledge of the traditions of the church, these were the first to go. On the positive side, it allowed for new themes each year while still following the lectionary.

This Sunday we take time to celebrate Cantate Sunday. It is fitting for us at Mt. Calvary because we have a new worship director.  We also have a very gifted hymn/song writer who has been sitting in our pews for years. This week they will use their God-given talents together to teach us new songs. We will be reminded of the words of the psalmist, “Oh sing to the Lord a new song.” (Ps 98:1) It was in light of his season of life where the psalmist was celebrating everything God was doing in his life. He was passionate about it. And we, in the same light of the season of Easter, celebrate what the Lord is doing.