How to Be a "Hallelujah"

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Let us pray: Holy God, sometimes your Word is not one we want to hear because it challenges us—or makes us uncomfortable. Open our minds and our hearts to truly listen to your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

SCRIPTURE PASSAGE: Romans 5:1-8
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance (produces) character; and character (produces) hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the Lord endures forever, Amen.



INTRODUCTION
I was once at a funeral and the minister said she had heard a quote, and that she liked that quote so much that she tried to make it her life’s goal. And this was the quote: “To be a Christian is to be a hallelujah from head to toe.”

She wanted to be a “hallelujah” from head to toe—when she smiled, she wanted “hallelujah” to radiate from eyes and her heart. When she laughed, she wanted “hallelujah” to overflow from deep inside her. When she helped someone, she wanted pass the “hallelujah” on to them.

You’ve probably never heard this quote before; I know I never had. But I’m going to guess that, if you think about it hard enough, you can probably think of someone you know who is a “hallelujah from head to toe”—someone who is a never-ending stream of peacefulness and strong character and endless hope.

#1
Now, you might think that Christmas is the best time of year to work on being a “hallelujah.” At Christmas, everyone is happy and perky, at least for short periods of time. We can even be happy and perky for extended periods of time, if we absolutely have to. But being a “hallelujah” takes more than just perkiness.

I actually think Lent is the perfect time to work on becoming a “hallelujah from head to toe." Lent is a time of darkness—because we know at the end of Lent is crucifixion and death. Each week we extinguish another candle to symbolize the growing darkness as Jesus moves ever closer to the cross, and each week we have prayed for those whose lives are filled with hopelessness and darkness. Lent is a perfect time to work on being a “hallelujah” because “hallelujahs” happen even in darkness.

So to be a “hallelujah” is to walk through the valley of the shadow of death all the while knowing “all will be well.” To be a “hallelujah” is to feel the darkness surrounding you but knowing in your heart that, in the end, “all will be well.” To be a “hallelujah” is to look into someone else’s darkness and to remind them “all will be well.”

Anybody and everybody can say “hallelujah” during the good times. But the road to being a “hallelujah from head to toe"—much like the road to be a faithful Christian—is long and hard and painful.

Being a “hallelujah” takes hard work. It takes focus and concentration. It’s not something that can be achieved overnight. It is something that takes practice—day after day, trying . . . striving . . . struggling to be a “hallelujah” even in the middle of darkness.

#2
I know it sounds hard; it may even sound impossible to be a “hallelujah.” But it’s not. You can do this; you can be a “hallelujah” because God has already done the hard part: Romans 5 says while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. That means that Christ defeated death for you; Christ has overcome the darkness for you. In Jesus Christ, God has poured out his love into your heart through the Holy Spirit, who has also been given to you.

Because Christ died for you, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ. That means no amount of darkness and no amount of pain can defeat you. All you have to do is hang in there and persevere. And when you persevere, it will build your character. And as your character grows, you will always have just enough hope to keep going, to persevere.

And when you get the hang of perseverance, and when your character has grown, and when you know you have enough hope, you can be a “hallelujah.” In any situation, you can be a “hallelujah”—in the darkness, in the light, you are a “hallelujah.” In the face of the greatest pain and the greatest heartbreak, you can remind yourself and others through the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and that “all will be well.”

CONCLUSION
I wish I could give each one of you a pearl. And when you go through a time of darkness, I wish you could hold that little pearl in your hand and know that when something painful comes into your life, God’s peace will help ease that pain, just like an oyster coats the irritating grain of sand until it is no longer painful. That little pearl would remind you that God’s peace will help you to persevere through the darkness.

We can persevere because God has done the hard part for us: while we were still sinners, completely undeserving of his grace, he died for us. Jesus has won victory over darkness for us. Though darkness still exists and sometimes surrounds us and sometimes even begins to overwhelm us, darkness will never destroy us, because Jesus has conquered darkness.

Out of all our pain and out all our darkness can come something beautiful. When we persevere through pain and darkness with hope, we can become a “hallelujah.”

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen