A Christmas Hallelujah

Christmas. 

 

It’s upon us once again and has been so for quite some time.  Normally the very fact the commercialism of Christmas takes over about the same time pencils are being sharpened fresh for back-to-school, embitters me.  By the time Christmas rolls around – I’m ready to be done. 

 

But, this Christmas season?  It’s felt different this year.  I’ve found myself relatively into Christmas...but not in all of the normal or necessarily identifiable ways.  I’m not feeling compelled to make dozens of cookies or decorate a handful of trees or string garland from one end of the world to the other...but Christmas definitely comes with it’s own excitement and appreciation and expectation this year.  Christmas can be hard...and I have had a lot of life happen around Christmas time (for one example: my cancer diagnosis came the day after Christmas) and Christmas just wasn’t the same anymore.  Things little and big year after year and then it just didn’t come with the same sparkle or pizzazz… But, this Christmas season?  This year there is something internal...

 

In such a way that the whole of the Christmas story, when I pause to truly consider it, makes me a little weak in the knees.  Not figuratively either.  I’m truly blown away by the reality of a God who, as Paul tells us in Romans 5, sent a son while we were yet sinners.  The reality and immensity of God with us – Emmanuel. 

 

Emmanuel is one of my favorite names and resulting concepts of the nature of God.  The fact that between Malachi, the last book of the old testament, and Matthew, the first book of the new testament – there are 400 years.  400 years where God was silent.  Where there was no record of prophet or priest with a voice from heaven, no word from God.  400 years and the silence is broken by Emmanuel.  Silence is broken by not just a word from God but the Word which, John tells us in chapter 1, WAS God… And God took on the form of a baby – the most beautiful and most powerless thing in the entire world – born in the lowliest of places though one day his name would be exalted above all names that at it every knee would bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  If that doesn’t give you chills…

 

There is the somewhat cliché phrase “you can’t have Christmas without Easter and you can’t have Easter without Christmas”.  The two, in my head, should always be celebrated together.  You’ve probably seen the picture of the manager in the shadow of the cross.  And I think of the fact that light came into the darkness but darkness couldn’t understand it.  Part of me pictures Jesus, in a manager, covered in the ring of shekinah glory, with blackness surrounding. But if I were to put a magnifying glass to the blackness, I would see the principalities of darkness, held at bay, unable to touch the one who would one day willing place all of the sin and shame and weight of that darkness on his back and drag it down to Hell in order that we would have opportunity at restored relationship…  I tremble a little when I truly stop to consider the reality of it…

 

And then one word comes to mind.  It shouldn’t be surprising that it is the word my brain chooses…it’s been one of recurring pattern and them in my brain for the last six months or so. It gets screamed at me in songs on the radio and in the smallest snippets of sermons.  But it did surprise me a little because it’s not a typical word associated with Christmas, necessarily.

Peace. 

Joy. 

Glory.

Hope.

Love. 

Those are Christmas words. This was a good word, but not necessarily a Christmas one... But it struck me as the perfect word and perfect Christmas word, especially after listening to my current favorite “Christmas song” – a song which, though quite familiar in origin, had been covered to tell the whole of the Christmas story in a very profound way. (It was the only “Christmas song” I would listen to before Thanksgiving and it is the only song I would willingly play on repeat.)  I encourage you to click on the youTube link and check out Cloverton’s “A Hallelujah Christmas” if you haven’t already.  If you do, really listen to the Christmas story being told through the lyrics of the song and really listen to challenge it gives to offer up a Hallelujah…

 

You see, the song walks through the familiar Christmas story. The story of a baby boy, who was God, who came to earth – the very acknowledgment alone calling to sing out “Hallelujah” with every breath.  A couple went to Bethlehem...but there was no room and so God’s son was born in a barn.  Hallelujah.  Angels came to shepherds...who went and found Emmanuel in the manger and left proclaiming “Hallelujah”.  Wise men from the East traveled long and came with gifts and the cry of “Hallelujah”.  But the story doesn’t end with a baby, because “That rugged cross was my cross too”...and Jesus was nailed to it crying out “Hallelujah”...

 

Hallelujah...

 

After about the 20^th time of looping the song, I looked up the word “hallelujah” because I realized it was a word I knew the meaning of – kind of – because it always came with its own context – but I wanted to know to understand.  And I learned, unsurprisingly, that it is a Hebrew word, originally “allelujah”, literally translating “praise ye the Lord!” (which makes that call and response song make SO much more sense!). It is a shout, a proclamation, and an exclamation of joy, praise, gratitude and exaltation – meaning to lift one to the highest level. 

 

What struck me must about “Hallelujah” in the context of the song was the way it was presented as an offering.  And furthermore an offering which HAD to be given.  Not “had” as in when your mom forced you to share with your brother, but the necessity to cry it out as if it were impossible to keep in.  What does it mean to live and to leave that kind of Hallelujah as an offering? 

 

Furthermore, it brought into fore light an otherwise neglected piece of the Christmas story – neglected at least in my mind.  The profound realization of the dichotomy that both prince and pauper came to lay their “hallelujahs” before the Lord:

 

Shepherds, being the lowliest of the low, not well liked, not always well trusted with nothing to give but themselves, left glorifying and praising God and offering up a hallelujah to any who would listen. 

 

Yet, on the same token, were the kings.  People of status and power and wealth (things we can glean without being told because, lets face it, if you’re capable of taking two plus years off work to travel through the desert to hunt down a baby boy and leave physically valuable and impressive gifts…there’s a good chance you’re a “somebody” in the world). But they too came.   When I consider or think about the magi, I think of their gifts.  What I often forget is that before they gave any of their physical gifts to Jesus, they bowed down to worship Him.  Their physical gifts were in addition to the gift of their hallelujah. The stocking stuffers to the gift they came to give.  Though scholars will tell us these gifts had specific significance to the life and ministry of Jesus...they were secondary to a bowed knee and a gift of praise.

 

No one was above or beneath being welcomed to encounter Christ, and all who encountered left with a hallelujah.  A hallelujah which was also offered by Christ himself. He, who humbled himself to the point of death on the cross for the glory of God, was exalted to the right hand of the Father (Philippians 2), but His hallelujah came first – and was evident through his life.

 

So where does that leave us?  If we have encountered Christ, have we left an offering of hallelujah? Does every breath strive to cry it out?  Do we come full and rich and whole as the magi?  Do we come broken and ostracized as the shepherd?  Does either, regardless, come with the response of hallelujah?

 

I’ve been struck for the last six months especially and again with the idea of a broken hallelujah and how beautiful a hallelujah is when it comes out of brokenness.  Whether it be brokenness like David whose psalms of woes due to the depth of his sin are followed by psalms of praise as he recognizes God’s mercy and grace…or brokenness like Ruth who lost everything outside of her desire and control and still sought the face of God… (“Broken Hallelujah” may in fact be a blog for another time for it has occurred to me that every biblical figure we give merit, endured brokenness and still came to a place of hallelujah.  None were praising from a place of physical wholeness – but of spiritual completion.)  Hallelujahs which are louder and brighter for they come in the middle of life that doesn’t make sense. 

 

Christmas is upon us once again.  But, this Christmas season?  It’s felt different this year. This year there is something internal.  Something internal which has me “into Christmas” in a way which has lacked in years prior.  In such a way that the whole of the Christmas story, when I pause to truly consider it, makes me a little weak in the knees. Makes me wonder.  Makes me tremble.  Takes my breath away.  Something internal which causes my soul to well up, with a Hallelujah. 

 

 

 

 

Luke 2:1-20

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manager.  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”  When the angel had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

Matthew 2:1-2,9-11

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him...After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped ove3r the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, the saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”