HALLELUJAH: CULTIVATING ADVENT TRADITIONS WITH HANDEL'S MESSIAH

HALLELUJAH: CULTIVATING ADVENT TRADITIONS WITH HANDEL'S MESSIAH by Cindy Rollins

Today we finished listening to Handel's Messiah. Generally thought of around the Christmas season, Handel's first performance of the Messiah was during Easter. Listening to the past few weeks' selections has sent my spirit soaring. Words like "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" and "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us" sing through my soul. As I putter around in my garden it seems even the earth is reinforcing the words of scripture as spring begins to break through the death of winter.

"Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

                          1 Corinthians 15:55-58