"Farewell to Alleluia"

Pastor Tom Johnson, February 21, 2012

 

Concordia University Chapel

Hallelujah. It’s not entirely clear how this expression developed. It’s an unusual word in Hebrew. It appears to be a combination of two words: hālal “to praise” and a shortened form of the tetragrammaton YHWH. And so we believe it means “Praise the Lord.” Hallelujah rang in the ears so clearly in Hebrew that the Greeks simply adopted it as their own—not bothering to translate it but use this Hebrew word in Greek worship. The Roman Christians also adopted this word into their Latin scriptures and worship. Hallelujah with an h is a good Germanic transliteration and Alleluia with no h is the Latin form it takes. Hallelujah is even the song of angels in heaven, who day and night without ceasing shield their eyes to the light of the glory of Christ and eternally praise our resurrected Lord. “Hallelujah,” they cry. They call heaven and earth to join our voices together in worship.

This morning we’re saying “farewell” to both forms of the word. But if we are consistent, we should also say farewell to the phrase “Praise the Lord.” But why? Why send our Alleluias on a lententide sabbatical? Why lay Alleluia to rest for a while?

Our farewell to Alleluia is a kind of liturgical “see you later.” It’s a traditional discipline that helps highlight Resurrection Sunday. We lay our hallelujah to rest with full confidence and anticipation that our hallelujah will come out of its liturgical grave with renewed vigor and power. By our fasting from our alleluias, we recognize the fact that our sin, this broken world, the devil, and death all remain obstacles to the praise our Lord deserves. The reality is that we say farewell to alleluia every time we sin. Our thoughts, words, or deeds are often obstacles to us living lives of praise. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we acknowledge this. We pray “Hallowed be thy name.” We pray for our lips to open in praise to the Lord. We pray that our sinful farewell to alleluia would come to an end. We pray that a renewed hallowing of his name and praising the Lord would be reborn in our hearts and mouths.

And, so, alleluia, we bid “adieu” and “fare thee well.” We will miss you. But we know we will see you again. Like a faithful, old friend we know that you will return. We sow you into the ground but we know you will spring up again. We now commit our alleluias to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who will change our cries of repentance into shouts of praise to the Lord, by the power that enables him to subdue all things to himself. We fare you well, Alleluia, knowing that weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning.