Messiah, Chorus: Glory to God

Listen: (1:59)

Glory to God in the highest,

and peace on earth

Good will toward men. 

Reflection: Listening to this setting of the angel's words in Luke 2, I find myself smiling once again at the vocal "geography." We have the highest voices singing "Glory to God in the highest," then a pause, then the lowest voices singing, "And peace on earth." If anything, it's a little on the nose, but fun, and it fills my heart with joy. 

What strikes me about this piece is not just the music, but the spaces. Handel is doing theology with the way he lets his music unfold. At the beginning, there is a very firm, unflinching separation between the high voices of heaven, and the low voices of earth. They take turns. They do not overlap. There is a wall of silence between the one and the other, much like the dome of sky God set in place at the creation, separating heaven from earth. 

But then...things start to blend. The voices interweave and harmonize on the words, "Good will toward men." Or, depending on your translation, "toward people of Good will," or "good will among those God favors." The original Greek is fuzzy, and the English words shuffle around a bit, but the message is the same: where there is good will, where there is compassion, where there is love, heaven and earth are united. 

There is a reason why God chooses not to "abduct" the shepherds up into the celestial realm to give them good news, but instead to send messengers down to earth. It's because part of the message is "Heaven and earth are getting together tonight. In the presence of this child you will soon meet, they are one and the same." 

This became the center point for the mission and message of Jesus: "The Kingdom of Heaven has come near." It became part of the way he taught his followers to pray: "Your will be done on earth as in heaven." The boundary line is dissolving, and God isn't staying on God's "side" of the divide any longer (as if the "our" side were ever any less God's home to begin with!) 

It has been such a joy to reflect on this music with you in this season of hope and expectation. My prayer for you in the approaching Christmas season, and in every season of the year, is that you might find places of love, where heaven and earth meet, and that, by God's power, you might be those places for others. God Bless you all, and when the time arrives, a Merry Christmas. 

Prayer: God, thank you for mixing things up. Thank you for melding heaven and earth in the person of Jesus Christ, who is our healing, our hope, our savior and our dear friend. Amen. 

Discussion Questions: 

1) When is the closest you ever felt to heaven? 

2) What are some ways we can show others this new reality, of "heaven come down" in the person of Jesus?