Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
You can keep your “Hallelujah Chorus,” Georg Handel.
Really. I mean, it’s lovely and all, and tons of fun to sing. (Whether you sing it poorly or well, and for most of the past twenty-five years or so, I’ve been in the former at annual Advent Messiah sing-alongs.) The words and music are stirring and the reverberation on that “jah” is amazing. Forget the Ohio State “fanquake” of a few weeks ago in the Buckeyes’ double-overtime win over Michigan… it doesn’t take many people singing the close of the chorus to get a “Godquake” going.
But for me… the Messiah is all about “And the Glory of the Lord,” taken from Isaiah 40:5:
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (NRSVCE)
That’s what Advent’s really about, right? That silence. That pause. That stopping what we’re doing, no matter how good, how philanthropic, how charitable… and listening to what the Lord has spoken. Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets carried the message beautifully. But in sending His only begotten son in human form, God gifted us not only with the words He desired us to hear, but also with a model for how to live them: with humility. With obedience. With love.
