Hallelujah! - article by Joel Hempel
Although Seminarian Jonathan Chapa preached a wonderful sermon this past Sunday and delivered it without ever glancing at his notes (a gift few preachers have), what caught my attention was what Beth read in Revelation 19:1-10: Hallelujah … Hallelujah … Hallelujah … Hallelujah. No, she wasn’t stammering. She was proclaiming what the “great multitude” in heaven was crying out before the Lord Almighty.
Just what is the meaning of the word hallelujah? For many people, the meaning is, "Yea, that's great! Let’s celebrate.” For Christians – at least when we are worshipping – hallelujah means, “Praise the Lord.” The word is a compound of two Hebrew words, Hillel or praise, and Jah, a shortened form of Yahweh, meaning God or Lord.
Monday evening at our Deacons’ meeting, the guest presenter was Patti Sprich from Webster Gardens Lutheran Church. Having had the experience of leading a grief support group for 22 years, she talked with us about grief, grief support, and the process of working through painful loss – especially the death of a loved one. I came home remembering the losses I have experienced.
Probably everyone in the western world has heard the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. It is a song that feels like a hymn with a haunting and immediately memorable melody. But it's not a hymn. Cohen was at most an agnostic whose poetic brilliance married Old Testament religious references with sex and the pain of a broken relationship.
So, Monday night after Deacons, I searched the internet for a Christian version of Cohen’s iconic “Hallelujah." If you haven't heard it, I bring your attention to
www.vimeo.com/528591302. It is an Easter rewrite of the song, and it is powerful! Prepare to be blessed.
At first glance, grief and hallelujah don’t go together. Hallelujah is joy, grief is sorrow. Hallelujah is celebration, grief is some combination of depression, anger, loneliness, and deep sobs of sadness. Then I listened to the hymn linked above.
The hymn is the story of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The burial is critically important in the Easter drama because it is the burial of Jesus that leaves his followers convinced he is gone! But as we all know, Jesus was far from gone. Indeed he was dead, but he was not gone. He was doing our work, confronting and defeating Satan's deadly plan.
Cohen's original song was about love lost and a life ruined. Easter is about love gained, and life resurrected.
What do you grieve? Who have you lost? Jesus understands. Your pain is his pain. And his joy will be your joy. Hallelujah!
