This Is That Day :: Isaiah 12:1-6

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And you will say in that day ...

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah! Amen!

4.

For as long as our church has been alive ... 152 years now here in Appleton City ... we’ve been known as the “singing church.” I can hear why ... because you will say in that day ... 

Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. 

This congregation sings like few Lutheran churches I’ve ever attended. You sing with heavenly joy ... most of the time ... at least when you recognize the tune. You sing with gusto. You sing from your heart. And you do it well. And that’s a good thing.

Through the hymns we sing, we learn about our sin and our need for a Savior. ... We learn about Jesus’ work for us in His incarnation, his birth, his perfect life, his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven. ... We learn about the Holy Spirit’s work to keep us in the faith through the Word and Sacraments. ... We learn how to pray. Our hymnody isn’t meant for entertainment, it’s for our edification and growth in the faith.

3.

It hasn’t always been this way. There was a day long ago that the only singing during Divine Service came from the clergy and the choir. When Luther began the Reformation, the people who showed up on Sunday morning were little more than passive spectators. They sat ... and they watched ... and they listened. They said in that day, when’s the dismissal? 

The choirs back then did all the singing. The pastors chanted everything else. And the people: They just sat silently ... watching ... listening. They didn’t say anything in that day. 

Unfortunately, sometimes they could neither see what was going on ... nor hear anything but maybe a whisper. During the Words of Institution, for instance, the priest had his back to the altar. And he would whisper the words of our Lord. The only clue the congregation had to what was happening was when the bell rang as the pastor said: This is my body + This is my blood +

Think about this for a moment ... 

  • Imagine showing up for the Divine Service and not being able to say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name. 

  • Imagine not being able to hear the announcement to make known his deeds among the peoples. 

  • Imagine not being able to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, as Saint Paul teaches us in his epistle to the Colossians (Col 3:16). 

  • Imagine being able to do little more than to just sit there in your spot, like stumps on refined logs.

  • Imagine just mourning your sin ... or pretending to ... through the entire divine service.

There is a day for sitting ... a day for standing ... and a day for kneeling (if only we had kneelers). There is a time for listening ... for praying ... for singing ... and for mourning. But, most of all, there is a day for rejoicing. The opportunities to do all of these are all gifts from God. And for these, we should thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is most certainly true. 

2.

This is that day! In the Divine Service, God comes to us. For that we should offer thanks and praise. In the Divine Service, God delivers to us his gifts of word and sacraments. This is that day! He uses these means of grace to proclaim in that day that your sins are forgiven. He delivers to you the tangible means of his Word coupled with the water of baptism, and his body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine to show you what you know to be true. These means of grace show us Christ. He gives us life abundantly through them. The gospel is enveloped in these gifts.

This is what our reading from Isaiah 12 is all about. Isaiah is proclaiming a day of grace. 

To be fair to the Prophet Isaiah, our reading really should include all of Chapter 11. Chapter 11 provides all of the context for the Song of Isaiah. 

Isaiah was writing during a turbulent time in the history of the Kingdom of Judah. The message is that God is angry with his people for their refusal to repent (v.1c). The Day of the Lord is coming, Isaiah declares. Repent of your idolatry. The day is coming. Repent of your adultery. The day is coming. Repent of your self-indulgence, your selfishness, your self-idolization, your haughtiness ... repent of your idea that God is somehow pleased with you because of the sacrifices you make. This is that day.

The right worship of God is acknowledging what He has done for us, not what we think we have done for him ... that is self-idolatry. We should repent of that  The right worship is acknowledging what he continues to do for us and to us. All too easily, we get proud of ourselves, declaring to him, look at all I give to Trinity. Look how I tithe so generously in support of the poor. Look at my acts of mercy. We need to repent of that too.

We want to sing about a religion that is steeped in works-righteousness, and not in the grace of God. We want to get in and out of Sunday worship as fast as we can. But you need to know, Man will never find joy except when he is in communion with the one who made him. 

That is why we have this reading from Isaiah. The prophet was sent to preach this Law to God’s rebellious people. But he also sent him to preach the Gospel ... the Good News! ... the Good News about a Savior ... the Good News that God is our Salvation. 

1.

This is that day in which you get to hear it. Isaiah is preaching about Jesus.

One of the best discoveries I had this week was seeing Jesus everywhere in our reading this week. You can’t see it in English, unless you really know what to look for ... but it is as plain as day in Hebrew. The name Jesus appears three times in verses two and three. Isaiah writes: Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be terrified because my strength and song is YHWH, and he will be for me salvation. You will draw water with exaltation from the source of salvation. That word we translate as “salvation” is the same word that becomes Jesus, whose name means “God is my salvation.” And in that day you recognize that all scripture is breathed out by God to reveal Jesus to us is that day you will say ...

I will praise you YHWH, because you were angry with me, but on account of your salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ, you turned your anger away, and you comforted me. Behold, God is my Lord Jesus. I will trust and will not be terrified any longer, because my strength and my song is YHWH. He will be for me my salvation ... yes, my Lord Jesus.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, knowing that, is there any way to respond but with song? You are saved from eternal death! For Yahweh was angry with you, but now His anger is turned away! You deserved nothing but unending wrath for your sin! You were in slavery to the prince of darkness, from whom you could never escape. But God has given you salvation. He has delivered you from sin, death, and the devil. This is that day!

This is that day the Lord has made. This is that day the God of our salvation has come to us. Your Lord Jesus ... God in the Flesh ... the Lamb of God who takes away sin ... has won for you salvation on the cross as he bled and died for you. More than that, he was raised for your justification, so that you too can walk in the newness of life. God has enabled you now to see and to hear the Gospel in his Divine Service to you. 

This is that day He is leading you back through the font of Holy Baptism, the well of salvation. This well is the source of life in God’s name. This well is the source of eternal life. In baptism, God gave you the faith in Christ that saves you ... so that you can say in that day his name is exalted (vv. 4a). For His sake forgives you all your sins. 

So shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!” (v. 6)

This is that day! The God of our Salvation is here ... this morning ... in His Word and in His body and blood ... This is that day! This is the feast of victory for our God (LSB 155). Open your mouth and sing and praise him with you whole heart, not just as a matter of routine. Recognize what your Lord is doing for you today! 

Let your praises flow. God is great in your midst. Praise and thanks are essential ... not because God needs them ... but we need to give them. In this we can recognize how much he has given to us and to stop using him as our servant, which is idolatry. 

The world doesn’t know or acknowledge him, but here today, every time we celebrate the complete Divine Service, we see and hear what a great God he is ... for in him he see and hear the peace which surpasses all understanding ... that the God of our Salvation has taken our sin from us ... that he has given us his righteousness ... that his right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory (Ps. 98:1) and brought us to faith in Christ. 

THIS IS THAT DAY

Brothers and sisters in Christ, tell the world about this day that creates an unending feast. Though we surely deserve it, God has turned away his anger from those who rest in the promises of Christ, who has absolved us and set us free forever ... in Jesus’ name, the God of my salvation. 

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