St. Paul’s United Church Christmas Day 2011

Hallelujah! – Rev. David Mundy

Luke 2:1-20

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Hallelujah! Don’t you think hallelujah is a good word for Christmas morning! Here we are as Christians on the day we celebrate Jesus’ birth so a word that means “praise God” is about as good a response as any to the miracle of the incarnation. Of course we are United Church, so we don’t raise our hands and yell “Hallelujah, praise Jesus!” the way people might in some congregations. Just keep your hands by your side!

Actually, hallelujah is one of those churchy words which seems to work well for both Christmas and Easter. We didn’t box up our hallelujahs and refrain from singing them during Advent the way we do during Lent and then send them to the rafters on kites on Easter morning but even without the drama hallelujah is still a good Christmas word.

As we heard a few moments ago, praising God as a response to the birth of Christ is an important aspect of the Christmas story with the heavenly host praising God and saying

Glory to God in the highest heaven

and on earth peace among those whom he favours! (exclamation mark!)

Maybe that’s why Handel’s Messiah ends up being performed by choirs everywhere both at Christmas and Easter. You may have seen that there was a Singalong Messiah last week at Massey Hall in Toronto. I think most of us would agree that Messiah is one of those remarkable works of music which is so extraordinary and moving you can’t help but think it is divinely inspired, even if we usually don’t have much time for classical music.

And what is the best known piece within Messiah? It has to be the Hallelujah Chorus. A year ago a flash mob choral group surprised shoppers in a food court with a rousing and moving Hallelujah Chorus and suddenly there seemed to be Hallelujah flash mobs everywhere.

Those of you who own Iphones can download a Hallelujah Chorus Button app so that you can trot it out whenever and wherever you want –say when you find a parking spot close to the mall entrance on Boxing Day.

This year Sojourners Christian magazine offered a link to a different Hallelujah Chorus from somewhere around the world every day during Advent leading up to Christmas. Some of them were amazing and some were not so amazing. There is a skilled banjo player who comes up with his version of the chorus but I don’t think Handel had the banjo in mind when he wrote this work!

I like the three hard-working South Korean bell-ringers who ring their hearts out giving us their version of the Hallelujah Chorus.

http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/08/hit-hallelujah-button-busiest-handbell-choir-youve-ever-seen

Perhaps that’s the key. Even if we aren’t the hand-raising kind of Christians, the “hallelujahs” we offer can be from the heart, from the very deepest places of gratitude and thanks for the abundant and eternal life Christ offers to all humanity.

If I asked if you know the words or lyrics for the Hallelujah Chorus you might say “hello David, anyone in there?” because one word is repeated often. But there are other words which remind us that the infant of Bethlehem has changed us and our world for all time

And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

There is another Hallelujah chorus which speaks to me as well because it seems so topical this year. It is put together by a Grade Five class who are all Native kids from what I can see, in a remote Alaskan town.

http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/05/hit-hallelujah-button-alaska-love

Hallelujah! Christ is born today!