Eddie Izzard said "There's something phenomenally dreary about Christians singing....the Church of England is the only group of people that could sing Hallelujah without feeling like it's a Hallelujah thing" - watch this (but not if you're easily offended - contains language that I won't be using from the pulpit)
There's a good chance that this year's Christmas Number One will be X-factor winner Alexandra singing 'Hallelujah', a song first written by Leonard Cohen. In fact there are three versions of the song now competing in the charts, the original Cohen version, the 'definitive' Buckley version, and the Alexandra version.
Is Cohen trying his best to send us to sleep? If this song was being sung as worship to you would you feel you were being worshipped? Alexandra certainly cannot be accused of a lack of passion in this performance.
When you next 'stand before the Lord of song with nothing upon your tongue but Hallelujah' will it be in the style of Cohen or Alexandra? How much sincere passion will you put into your praise?
At this point of course the more observant amongst you will have noticed that this song isn't really that Christmassy, neither is it an act of worship, it being an express tour through some interesting Old Testament stories, starting with the musical King David watching Bathsheba's rooftop bath (if that sparks your interest in the OT, go to 2 Samuel Chapter 12 for more).
But I hope you get my point.
And they are off...
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Unless you have been living on another planet for the last few years you
will of course know that today the games of the XXX Olympiad begin in
London.
I...
12 years ago
2 comments:
Quoting an atheist comic? You're in danger of being expelled!
PS You really need to listen to his Jesus and the Dinosaur sketch
There are all sorts of ways of praising...not all are jolly surely. I find this song profoundly moving because it's spoken from a place of vulnerability. And surely that's what christmas is about - the vulnerability of being human and the particular vulnerability of being a baby. for God to come into the world as one who is vulnerable is a message which turns the ways of the world upside down.
'love is not a victory march, but its a cold and it's a broken hallelujah'
says it all..ironically...that the power of love is manifested through weakness and brokenness and in being so, is triumphant.
thus my vote goes to Jeff Buckley as Alexandra misses a key verse(which hints at communion and ecstasy - though not the ecclesiological defintion of the former or the medicinal kind of the latter) and therefore the whole point (again - giving up the whole self).
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