Waiting for the Hallelujah Chorus

George Frideric Handel was a musical stranger until I started singing in our college choir. Maybe we had met earlier, but his name just didn’t ring a bell like it would when we joined with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra each December to sing the “Messiah”. My infatuation with Handel’s major oratorio finds me still humming from this work every Christmas season. “For unto us a child is born…and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God…the Prince of Peace.”

If you are familiar with the entire work, you will know that it contains selected King James [James VI of Scotland and/or James I of the British Empire where the sun never set] versions depicting the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Typical performances of the whole thing could take nearly three hours, which is why our annual December endeavor only dealt with the stories of Jesus’ birth. Even so, the classical endeavor was rather lengthy, and you could hardly wait for the grand finale to be sung: the “Hallelujah Chorus”. To the audience it finally meant a welcomed chance to stand for this triumphant crescendo for a variety of reasons: a] it’s what King George II did at the first performance; b] the dynamic of the music demands they stand; or c] to relieve their tired rumps from sitting so long.

When you reflect deeply about the message and meaning of the Hallelujah Chorus, you realize it has yet to become close to reality as we know it. It’s more akin to whistling “Dixie”, for which white southerners stood whenever and wherever it was played. The mighty Messiah libretto declares that “the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever and ever…” Last time I checked, this crazy place is a long way from being ruled by the Lord, and his Christ. Hardly any evidence of a collective ethic resembling the teachings of Jesus, royalty to the contrary not withstanding.

Once the dust settled on Jesus’ birth and life among us, the kingdoms of this world — beginning with Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire — realized that cozying up to this Messiah thing could pay political and economic dividends. From then on, empires and/or kingdoms conveniently declared themselves to be a Christian nation or whatever in order to maintain control over any other adversaries — real or imagined. Thus the holy catholic church and the communion of the saints became duped and used for everything under the sun except living out the Gospel truth of the Prince of Peace.

All of this, of course, has prevented the sacred dream of the Hallelujah Chorus from ever becoming reality. Maybe we can wait for an act of congress which would take from here to kingdom come. Or…, while we sit on our duffs waiting for the Hallelujah Chorus to come true, we might as well join in John Lennon’s counter culture song: “Imagine there’s no countries/ It isn’t hard to do/ nothing to kill or die for/ and no religion too/ imagine all the people living life in peace…” I think we might be able to Handle such a dream that’s more strangely akin to the Messiah’s vision of peace on earth and goodwill to all, as “in all people that on earth do dwell sing to the Lord with cheerful voice…” Imagine that. Hallelujah!