12/31/2023 ~ First Sunday after Christmas Day ~ Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:22-40 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/899585016

Alleluia!

“Alleluia! Praise God! Praise Yahweh from the heavens; praise God in the heights! Praise God, all you angels; praise God, all you hosts!” — Psalm 148:1-2

It has been said if you know two languages, you’re bi-lingual. If you know three languages you’re tri-lingual. If you know one language, you’re an American.

When Bonnie and I were, pardon the expression, “courting,” she came to New York City to visit me several times. Once, when we got on the Subway, she realized as she looked down a row of passengers that every person was reading a newspaper and each paper was in a different language, none of them English. The Big Apple— you get all kinds of languages.

Given my history, making a living as a writer, at times meager, at times lush, I take a particular interest in words and their meaning. And English is well known for importing words from other languages, sometimes importing them whole, just as they are found in the original.

But the words we import tend to lose subtlety, texture, the nuance they had in their native setting once rendered into English. We, for instance, take the word ‘debonaire’ from the French. In its language of origin it can mean suave, urbane, affable, genial, carefree, jaunty, confident, charming or even well-dressed. But it can mean all those things at once, at the same time, simultaneously in the same sentence.

However in English we might demand more precision than that. ‘Which of those meanings does the speaker or the writer really mean?’ In English our inclination is to demand exact meaning.

Those who speak French would be comfortable with the idea that this one word might mean all of those things simultaneously. It’s speakers of English who get a little edgy with that concept.

But English does use words which originate in other languages, so here are a few words with those other origins noted. From German we get delicatessen, hamburger, frankfurter, pilsener, pretzel, pumpernickel, sauerkraut, schnapps, spritzer, kaput, kindergarten, neanderthal, poltergeist and autobahn. From the Scandinavian languages we get words such as sky and troll and geyser.

From Flemish we get skipper, keel and dam— something which holds back water, not the other kind. A number of words come into our language from Greek. These include phobia, Christ, phenomena, hypotheses, pentagon and anything ending in ‘ology’— o-l-o-g-y.

It’s pretty safe to say anything ending in ‘ology’ means the science of the study of whatever it is with which the word started. Theology is the science of the study of God. Biology is the science of the study of life forms.

Many of our root words also come from Latin. With a fair amount of direct lineage we get such words as advertisement, edifice, album, bellicose, disciple, insulate, judge, rural, sinister and dexterous— those last two being left and right in Latin. And there are words and phrases from the Latin which we don’t even bother to alter or translate at all, like ‘habeas corpus’ and ‘semper fidelis.’ (Slight pause.)

That brings me to Hebrew. I’m sure many of us have used the word ‘hallelujah,’ without ever asking where it came from or what it meant. I know I did once. (After all, it sounds so good, especially when you just shout it! Hallelujah! Right? Sounds good.)

We have imported hallelujah into the English pretty much as is. Again, as is the case with translating a lot of words from a foreign language, it’s not really possible to render an exacting meaning in English from Hebrew.

But we can get a sense of it and by dissecting the underlying Hebrew and this is in an effort to get a fuller understanding of what the word is trying to convey. For starters, you’ve probably all seen hallelujah spelled with the ‘h’ on the front of it or with an ‘a.’ That’s ‘h-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h’ and ‘a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h.’ But these are just two different ways to transliterate the word. There’s really no difference.

Now, the word Hallelujah, itself, is not a noun. It does not name anything. It’s a verb. The ‘h-a-l-l-e-l’ part of the word means ‘to praise,’ an action.

Some sources suggest that the ‘e-l’ in that part of the word also refers to God, since the word ‘el’ (e-l) is one of the words for God in Hebrew. It would also make sense for the word which means God to be a part of a word for praise.

But for the Israelites and I hope for us, today, this is not about just any God. We actually know the name of God. God as it is addressed in the word ‘hallelujah’ and it is the God of Israel, whose name we know from the third chapter of Exodus.

The name of God offered there is Yahweh. But, of course, this name, this word, Yahweh, is a verb. In its verb form the name Yahweh loosely means ‘to be’ or ‘I am.’

That’s where the ‘j-a-h’ the jah part of the word ‘hallelujah’ comes in to play. ‘J-a-h’ is a shortened form of Yahweh. Hence, hallelujah means not just ‘praise be to God.’ It also means ‘praise be to Yahweh, God.’ And, since the h-a-l-l-e-l, the ‘hallel,’ is a verb form and ‘jah’ is a verb form, that’s two action words strung together.

Now, I want to come back to the idea that the word Yahweh is a form of ‘I am’ or ‘to be.’ How Twenty-first Century is that? God is a state of being. God is a presence. That sounds like something a contemporary resident guru would say.

But this is not new word. It is at least three millennia, three thousand years old. And it describes God as a state of being. Therefore, it also and effectively describes God as The One Who relates to us and the One to Whom we can relate.

It therefore and also, describes God as God separate from us. It describes God as not us. And the least time I looked, you and I— we— we are not God. (Slight pause.)

All this still leaves us with the question, ‘why?’ Why do we praise God? Well, if God is Who those of us in the Jewish and Christian traditions say God is, the One Who is the author of life, the appropriate question is not ‘why do we praise God? The appropriate question is ‘how could we fail to praise God?’

If that’s true for our tradition, perhaps the real question which should be asked is ‘in what ways do we respond to God because of God’s steadfast love for us. In what ways do we respond to God especially in this season, as we remember the birth of Jesus.’

I think the answer is we should respond to God with our whole being. Indeed, though being long in years, Simeon and Anna are clearly overwhelmed by the reality of God and responded to the reality of God in the Gospel story we heard today. And their whole being is what is responding. (Slight pause.)

Perhaps the real power— and words do have power— the real power in the word ‘hallelujah’ is it’s actually hard to say the word without using what feels like our whole being, our whole body. That being said, will you do me a favor?

I mean no pressure here, but if you are willing to stand please because I would like to try an experiment with this word. Please stand if you are willing.

(Slight pause.) Now all together, let’s say the word Hallelujah three times. But each time try to get a little louder and see if you suddenly start feeling this word with your whole being.

(All.) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank you! Did that feel like something was happening there, right? Please be seated. So, it is hard to say that word without kind of putting your whole being into it, right?

(The pastor only.) Well, I guess there’s only one more thing to say. It should be obvious. Hallelujah. Praise be to God Who sent Jesus to be the Messiah, to live and dwell among us. Hallelujah and amen!

12/31/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “I’m reminded that White Christmas (if you listen to the verse) was written because Irving Berlin found himself stuck in Los Angeles where it didn’t snow. I’d like to come back to that French word I mentioned earlier, debonaire. In the French translation of the Jerusalem Bible where it says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” the French translation translates that phrase as “Blessed are the debonaire.” And, indeed, this has nothing to do with Fred Astaire or Cary grant or being suave and sophisticated. It does have to do with a person who goes through life with gracefulness, full of grace, fully aware that the grace God offers us wondrous things. A person therefore who is debonaire is willing to offer God praise no matter what the circumstances— poor in Spirit— another connection for you.”

BENEDICTION ( Isaiah 60:19-20a)
The sun shall no longer be / your light by day, / nor for brightness shall the moon / give you light by night; / for Yahweh, God, will be your everlasting light, / and your glory. Amen.