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Have you heard Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah? I bet you have. It's been featured in such t.v. and films such as The O.C., West Wing, and Shrek. It has also been covered by artists such as Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan, and k.d. lang. You can listen to a few versions, probably illegally (not sure) here at http://everybodycares.blogspot.com/2005/11/hallelujah-showdown.html The lyrics are somewhat flexible and either lead to a melancholy re-hashing of a failed love affair that drowns out the spark of the Divine or perhaps, more brightly, a sentimental love story of one who stands before God, all plans failed, with hallelujah (praise to God ((Yahweh)), roughly) on their lips. In any case, for our church's Christmas talent show I reworked the words for Christmas. Here they are below.

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord,
The Shepherd King composing hallelujahs.
Psalms of Son of God he’d sing,
The Lord to raise the perfect king,
To rule forever in Zion, Hallelujah!

Chorus:
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelu-u-jah!

Isaiah was called to prophecy,
How the kingdom of Israel would surely die;
For turning its back on the one and only King.
But he saw beyond the captivity,
One sent by God to make us free,
And from your lips God drew the Hallelujah! (Chorus)

Shepherds in the field were bored;
Marking time, keepin out o’ the cold.
Couple guys standing watch in the night.
There’s a blaze of light, the angels sang;
A baby born in Bethlehem!
A savior born for us? Hallelujah! (Chorus)

Wise men set out from the east.
To find the newborn baby king.
Baffled, confused, afraid to know the truth.
Starlight led the men to see,
A child born into poverty.
And through their gifts they proclaimed the Hallelujah! (Chorus)

Jesus grew into a man,
Teaching God’s eternal plan,
The people ever seeing, would not see.
They nailed him to a cross Friday,
The sins of all the world to pay.
“It is finished!” He proclaimed, Hallelujah! (Chorus)

I heard these stories all my life,
I was bought at a price
Still, I do what I shouldn’t do.
My joy is God’s great grace for me,
Is bigger than my sin will ever be,
And God accepts my broken Hallelujah! (Chorus)

There are many excellent bloggers, so why should I clutter up cyber-space with a knee-jerk, poorly edited, not thought through series of threads? Other than because I can, my hope is to use this as both a devotional resource (I will be blogging through the New Testament next year) and to continue dialogue on issues that strike me as either worthy of thought or simply ridiculous. Or some mixture of both. I suspect that linearity will not be my forte.

I usually avoid the pun. But blogging is such fun.