I Had A Vision: The Sermon on the Song

“Good morning!” said the pastor, and his congregation echoed.

“Please turn in your music libraries to Handel’s Messiah.” The laity put in their earphones promptly.

“Today,” spoke the pastor, “We will be looking at the Hallelujah Chorus, it’s one of my favorite parts of the song. Let’s take a deeper dive together and see what the composer has for us!”

The audience listened expectantly, looking at each other with gaiety. Once the piece of music subsided in its entirety, the pastor cried out, “Beautiful, just glorious!” He gathered himself and continued, “Now please turn with me, in the song, to 2 minutes and 57 seconds. We will be looking from this point on until 3 minutes and 40 seconds this morning.”

The congregation listened again to the segment chosen. The morale was high, the pastor was enthused, “Wow, yes. I can feel the power here, I think the pinnacle is at minute 3, around 10 seconds into it. You just feel the presence of the song through the melody. Isn’t it powerful?” The congregation nodded together and exclaimed, “Surely this is the focal point!”

The pastor grinned, “Let’s amplify that going forward!” and he went on, “Now, look back to 2 minutes and 59 seconds, can you see the building up? This is pointing to the climax! Slow it down, listen to it, rest in it.” The congregation was rioting with joy now, “Yes! This is the part we must meditate on to amplify the focus of the song! Slow it down!”

The pastor was picking up speed now, he ran through the remainder of the song, quickly explaining it away and how it was all meant to point back to 3 minutes and 10 seconds. The laity was so thankful to have someone to explain the song to them.

“Before we leave today,” said the pastor, “let’s remember what we learned and take it with us!”

The pastor sat down with the congregation, and they proceeded to listen again to the Hallelujah Chorus. Some bits now were painfully slowed down, 3 minutes and 10ish seconds was overly amplified and uncomfortably loud, and the remainder of the chorus was times-two speed, barely legible.

But they understood the song a little more. They smiled at one another and left. Looking forward to next Sunday, looking forward to learning more about the song.