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“While We Stand and Sing”
“While We Stand and Sing”
At the end of the sermon, the preacher often asks the congregation to rise when singing the invitation song. When this tradition began, I don’t know. Possibly standing is just physical, giving everyone an opportunity to stretch after the…way to short sermon! Maybe it a psychological boost for those who now just need to start taking a step instead of standing up. At the end I will suggest a different reason we can attach to rising and singing the invitation song.
Have you walked into a room when everyone is laughing and had to asked, “What’s going on? What’s so funny?” Or have you seen a young child start laughing because everyone else is, then stops mid chuckle and says, “I don’t get it.” Some people are “in the know”, on the “inside”, while others are on the “outside” (Colossians 4:5), needing filling in.
As believers we are on the “inside”, but I think we will always need help grasping even more fully and deeper, what is happening when we sing. Notice this:
Hebrews 2:11-13 (CSB) 11) “For the one who sanctifies and the those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers (and sisters), 12) saying: I will proclaim your name to my brothers (and sisters); I will sing hymns to you in the congregation. 13) Again, I will trust in him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave me.”
What is happening? Jesus claims us as brothers and sisters! As brothers and sisters, we gather in the congregation to worship, including singing. What is happening? Jesus sings in the assembly of God!
What is happening? The Hebrew writer quotes from Psalm 22:22. By this point in the Psalm, the focus has changed from the crucifixion to the resurrection. Notice this powerful change:
Psalm 22:21-22 (CSB)
[DEATH] Save me from the lion’s mouth, from the horns of wild oxen.
[PLACE A PAUSE HERE. WHAT IS GOD’S ANSWER?]
[RESURRECTION] You answered me!
[WORSHIP] I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters; I will praise you in the assembly.
What is happening? By quoting this passage, the Hebrew writer is affirming that if Jesus is claiming us as family, and singing with us, then that means Jesus is resurrected from the dead! Resurrection leads to unity, affirmation and worship. By our singing with Jesus we are proclaiming Jesus is ours, and is risen from the dead!
We are not spiritual little children who don’t know about Jesus’s returning to resurrect the dead. There will be people on the last day who won’t know what is happening until it is too late because that day will overtake them like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:1-5). We will know. We will get it. All because we sing and show Jesus Christ is alive forevermore!
So, the next time at the invitation, when hoping someone will answer to call to be buried and resurrected with Jesus in baptism, stand. Stand, thinking I too have risen from the spiritual dead. Stand, thinking I too will one day rise from the physical dead. While we stand and sing, rise, because Jesus has risen from the dead, and is singing in the congregation!
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