Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Here is something I (Matt) wrote for our school newsletter.

Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth...

Last week, a group of choirs got together at the Nordstrom flagship store in downtown Seattle, and at the cue of the store pianist, proceeded to perform the closing song of Handel’s Messiah, the “Hallelujah Chorus” taking shoppers by surprise on what was just a normal December shopping day for them. This type of “random act of culture” has been somewhat of a phenomenon lately. Choirs and opera companies have been doing this in different cities across America, and its technical name is a “flash mob”. (A ‘flash mob’ is a is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual act for a brief time, then disperse.)

Hallelujah! The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ...

An internet video of one of these Hallelujah Chorus flash mobs has been circulating around our school. (You can find the video by searching “Hallelujah Chorus food court” on the internet) Originally passed from one teacher to another and used in our teacher devotion time, it has now been seen by most classes at school. The video portrays a normal mall food court at a meal time. A girl with a cell phone stands up and starts to sing, then a man joins her, standing on his chair on the opposite side of the room, then others join, and all at once there is a company of over 100 professional singers singing the Hallelujah Chorus to normal people in a mall food court. By the end of the song, many people are standing, as is the tradition of the Hallelujah Chorus, and people are visibly impressed. It brings tears to your eyes, to see this beautiful piece of music performed in such an ordinary place.

And He shall reign for ever and ever...

Why do the tears come? Why the emotion when watching a video on the internet? It could be nostalgia for those wonderful things that surround the Christmas season. I hope that it is because we have the ears to hear the words. But do we really hear and do we really see? There are people in the video that are more concerned with their burger and fries than with the beauty happening around them. Is that true of us? A few others are trying to get back to their shopping, and don’t have the time to stop and listen– its as if they don’t even hear or see what is going on. What can we really say to them though? Do the words make more of a difference to us because we have tears in our eyes? It seems that the King of Kings has come, and I’m hungry for a milkshake. The Lord of Lords has arrived, and we’re checking our watches. This King’s reign will never end, and we’re worried about everything from Christmastime expenses to what someone said to us yesterday!

King of kings, and Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever...

The King of kings has come– what better news could I hope to hear? What better sight could I hope to see? Does my celebration of this King’s coming show up in my ordinary everyday words, thoughts, and actions, or just around Christmastime? This world has been visited by its true King. He came to our world– to this real ordinary world, even as a baby in a forgotten corner of the Middle East. And even then , His coming invoked worship- real worship. The angel armies stood and shouted- “Glory to God in the highest!” and the shepherds trembled- and then went to Jesus and worshiped. Right in the middle of there ordinary lives came the omnipotent King of all the universe. They heard, they saw, they went, and they worshiped. This King coming to us is like the Hallelujah Chorus being performed in a food court. What is our response? Will we go and worship this king like the shepherds did? It is my prayer for the Everett Christian School family that the good news of this King would cause us to worship and to follow Jesus in every ordinary detail of our lives.

Hallelujah!

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