[Oe List ...] Salmon with Reflections on Handel's Messiah

[William Salmon]

GETTING A HANDLE ON HANDEL’S “MESSIAH”
November 23, 2008
William E. Salmon
Salina, KS
The Question to answer: “What is the darkness that covers the earth?”

	Recently, the Salina Choral performed their annual Christmas Concert on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at the Salina Sacred Heart Cathedral. This hall has beautiful acoustics even for a deaf person like me. It was a joy to sit and listen as Salina’s best and brightest singers (including my wife Beverly) brought Handel’s “Messiah” to the audience. As I listened, I was deeply moved and began a downward journey into my spiritual innards. 
	The following are new insights for me, and I want to share them with you. This is a Christmas present for you. 

What happened to me!
	In the middle of the presentation the Bass sings a recitative, “For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover The Earth.” How distressing are these words accompanied by music that lays bear your soul. Later in the concert, the somber mood is brightened by a solo sung by a totally blind woman who lifts her rich soprano voice singing, “Then Shall The Eyes Of The Blind Be Opened.” Seeing her bend her frail frame into each note brought me to tears of joy. Let me tell you why. 
	As she sang I felt my interior shift like an earthquake to a deeper level; it was something like falling into a hole without end. Listen with me:
Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. . . He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
As I listened and fell deeper and deeper, the following insights crawled up and out of my soul to answer this question, what is the darkness that covers the earth?

How Handel handles this question
	At first my mind went to the Christmas story itself. Jesus was born in darkness; Christmas Eve is when Christians celebrate the birth. One of the experiential platforms of my theology is that the darkness is not something to fear. The spiritual journey into our interiors is like going into the Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs where the docent briefly turns off the lights in the cave so that the visitors can experience total darkness. I asked myself, is this how our blind soprano soloist views the world as the blind? I briefly closed my eyes and put my hands over them to make it as black as I could. My answer must be, “I don’t know.”
	Next I ruminated on the Easter story which is no different. Christ is crucified on the cross and the sky turns black as night, and the tomb must be as black. Then the resurrection takes place just prior to dawn. Jesus Christ is not unfamiliar with darkness. 
	My third rumination considered that the meanness of the world itself is blackness. There are many churches today who espouse this view. The Roman Catholic Church promotes the doctrine of the moral depravity of the world; certainly there is plenty of evidence for it. Some ultra-conservative Protestant denominations promote the idea of being “Left Behind” to a world that leads the lost to eternal destruction. Because of irrelevance, I cannot agree with either view. 

The world is A-moral---	
	My experience of the world is not depraved, and it is not a dangerous place in which to be left behind. The world is a-moral; it is not bad, and it is not good. It just is. That’s it? Then, how can we account for cancer, for crib death, for the meanness of divorce, or for foreigners flying aircraft into the World Trade Center? The truth is this there is no justification for any of it. It just is, and that’s it. Rabbi Kushner affirms this in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. This is just The Way Life Is (TWLI).
Does this change the darkness? ---
	This does not change the darkness. What is changed is us. The darkness of our life experiences are different only in kind from the joyous occasions that come our way. A cancerous death makes the same moral demands on us as the birth of a new born baby; life is the same as death. How we choose to stand self-consciously before both makes all the difference, but this depends on us and not on our particular circumstances. We are not defined by our situations, but rather we choose to either be victims or victors. 
Spiritual Suicide--
	Years ago, I began my journey into my spiritual innards with a leap of faith as I threw my entire self into my interior darkness in an act of spiritual suicide; I died that day to my self; that is, I died to my ego. I threw myself into the darkness of spiritual despair not knowing what would happen. The experience was terrifying, but my witness is that I have yet to hit the bottom. The reason is that the darkness is eternal, and this is where God lives within each of us. 
	What frustrates me is the sense of falling out of control. It is not comfortable to fall, and it is unhelpful to not have control over my destiny. However, as long am I am falling, then I am totally dependent on God to be sustained. It is only as I get scared enough to seek sanctuary in some ego-blanket that I get into trouble, and this is something I do constantly. Every time I seek such safekeeping I get into trouble, because it is my ego seeking independence rather than my surrender to dependence as God’s servant. 
Where God lives---
	It is unfortunate that my ego dies with such difficulty because it gets in the way of my obedience to the God who sustains me in acts of forgiveness, in wonder, and in joy. What I’ve found in this darkness is truly mind boggling and provides the imperative of my ministry to this present hour. I am compelled to share where I’ve been and what I’ve seen on my journey into my inner spiritual cave. This is not a mystical experience, but rather an indicative reality; this is the Really Real. 
	I’ve spent over thirty years struggling to find words to explain the beauty and fear-less-ness of the interior darkness. All words fall into inadequacy. But now Handel’s beautiful “Messiah” is one more metaphor. I know the veracity of this illustration because I live it constantly. 

Living with a backward hoody
	Think for a minute about wearing the black hoody of a Halloween costume. By accident we get this head piece on backwards with the holes for the eyes, nose and mouth to the back of our head. We wear this hood for a long time surrendered to the experience that we are blind. Then, one day, someone tells us, “Turn the hood around!” 	This is not so easy to do. After all we’ve grown accustomed to our blindness. But the voice is persistent, “Turn the hood around, and you might even enjoy it!” After some persistent nagging we agree to try it. Voila! We’re not blind after all. What kind of story can ground this experience? 

Handel’s “Messiah”---
	Following the Overture, the Tenor, in recitative, raises to his lips the opening verses of 2nd Isaiah 40: “Comfort Ye. Comfort Ye, O my people.” The appeal is to turn the hood around; to repent in order to receive the comfort of God. Note that the comfort comes from God and not from the world; the world is just TWLI.
What can we expect if we turn around the hoody?—the glory of the Lord!
	The Tenor gives us the answer, “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted, “and the entire Chorus joins to sing, “And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” Exactly! Note that the Glory of the Lord never went anywhere. It always is there for us, but in order for us to enjoy the benefits it is necessary to turn around the hoody. 
	Next, the Basso deepens the message; “Thus Saith the Lord,” “But Who May Abide The Day Of His Coming?” Maybe this is the hard part for us—I think the Bass will do fine, but we have a decision to make. Can we turn around the hoody? Why is this so difficult? 
	It is hard because a couple of things are required of us:
1)	It is not so easy to turn around the hoody, because we’ve been wearing it backwards for a long time; we experience it as the comfortable way to live.
2)	This surrender may not work. Maybe the leap will kill us, and we’d be better off blind than dead; it is difficult to hurdle over our fears. It is every bit like committing a suicide because it requires that we die to a familiar way of life.
How does the Hoody define us? ---
	 There is much in society that tells us it is not necessary to turn around the hoody. The hoody defines our personalities; who we are is determined by the way we wear our hoodies. 
Living a lie---
	Wearing the hoody backwards is living a lie! There is much that is conflicting with what we want compared to what we are created to be. Like a cow that is created to BE a cow, we humans are created to BE humane and gracious while working for justice and mercy. To be what we are not created to be results in our living at odds with our selves, our neighbors, and finally with God who created us to live without hoodies at all; Adam and Eve were naked! Remember? At some emotional moment between desperation and affirmation, we take the leap and TURN AROUND THE HOODY! 

Let’s hear what Handel does with the story
	The Chorus joins the Bass in singing, “And He Shall Purify.” Getting that hoody turned is like a refiner’s fire; the dross of our misconceptions is burned away, and what is left is the pure stuff of which we are created. Once the hood is turned, then like the cow, we become what we are created to be. 
Let the show begin---
	What is the journey of reaching up to turn that hood? Get in your mind a slow motion picture of doing an act of seconds and turning it into a drama of several minutes, such as the following sequence. 
Scene One: Your hand begins its journey up to the hood---:
	The Bass solo begins this journey for us, “The People That Walked in Darkness have seen a great light.” 
Scene Two: Your hand inches a bit higher—
	The Chorus picks up the theme. There is no longer any reason for us to wear our hoodies backwards, “For Unto Us A Child Is Born,” who will live in entire freedom WITHOUT HIS HOOD ON BACKWARDS!  A Soprano stands to sing the witness of shepherds and angels that our freedom is living without our hoodies on backwards: “There Were Shepherds Abiding In The Field,” “An Lo! The Angel Of The Lord Came Upon Them,” “And The Angel Said Unto Them,” “And Suddenly There Was With The Angel a multitude of the heav’nly host praising God, and saying. . . “
	The Choir takes the role of the Heav’nly host promising that when the hoody comes clear around what we’ll hear and see is, “Glory to God, Glory to God in the highest!” OK, now are we ready for this?  “. . . and peace on earth,” and “good will towards men (Wait a minute and the women-folk will their say. OK?), and don’t forget, “good will, good will, good will, good will toward ALL.” (OK, I changed the last word.)
Scene Three: Your hand goes still higher but ever so slowly---
	The moment is not over yet. As your hand reaches the hoody, a Soprano promises, “Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion,” “Behold the king cometh unto thee, rejoice. . . “
Scene Four: Now your hand begins to turn the hoody---
	The Alto Solo reminds us that all of our needs are met when we are totally dependent on God: “Then Shall the Eyes Of The Blind Be Opened” and “He Shall Feed His Flock.” The invitation to turn the hoody is to use Jesus as the demonstration that all this is possible, “Come Unto Him,” all who labor with blind hoodies and Jesus will demonstrate that, “His Yoke Is Easy And His Burden Light.” 
Scene Five: Opps! There it goes—
	OH YES! Stand up, baby, and sing with all the gusto your heart can muster, “Hallelujah.” God is right there to catch us as we fall away from false security right into the arms of that which created the cow to be a cow, and creates us to live in entire freedom, the freedom to be dependent on God and obedient as humane and gracious people working for justice and mercy. 
Scene Six: How long is this freedom available to us?—
	 Easy answer; it lasts, “Forever, and ever, forever and ever, Hallelujah! (Be careful here!), Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah! (Wait! OK, Now sing--) HALLELUJAH!
	Around comes the hoody! 
	
A conclusion:  the darkness is blindness and not worldliness ---
	How long does the hoody stay this way? My experience is not very long. Our egos like it the old way. When it slips backwards we know it because we begin to get into trouble; our egos demand that we live independently from our intended creation. So, at least once every day we retake the leap of surrendering ourselves to the task of turning the hoody around. On some days it seems like we turn it a thousand times. But once we’ve seen the light through the holes in our hoodies, life is never the same again. 
	Regarding G. F. Handel’s, “Messiah,” the conclusion I’ve come to is that it is our blindness, rather than our worldliness, that is our fall from grace. We have no excuse to live blindly, because the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrates this truth. The Good News is that the Messiah continues to come into the world, again—and again—and again—and yet again, and gives us the graceful message, TURN AROUND THAT HOODY!
	Thank you George Frideric Handel.  Can I have an “Amen?”
Merry  Christmas!

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