We have gathered here at the Table of Christ’s body, and we are offered the cup of the new covenant, which is the cup of Christ’s blood. This means that we have gathered at the Table of Forgiveness. Forgiveness was right at the center of the new covenant, and integral to it. We cannot celebrate the new covenant without celebrating the internalization of God’s law, and without receiving the forgiveness promised in Jeremiah’s famous prophecy of the new covenant.
So, then, this is a Table of Forgiveness. It is therefore not surprising that when we gather here we do something that is alien to other man-made religions. This is a Table of Forgiveness, and therefore we sing at it. Muslims do not sing in their worship. Buddhists do not sing in theirs. But Christians have been singing so long that we have started to take it all for granted. But singing is not something that unforgiven people do when they worship. Singing is an overflow of grace.
Think of it for a moment. We are gathered here in the presence of the God we have all offended in various ways. How could we sing unless we had been forgiven? At the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s forgiven ones gather, and they pass the bread, and they drink the wine. And as we do these glorious things, we sit up straight—for we are forgiven—and we sing.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.