The Rev. Leyla King, who closed her Week Four chaplaincy Friday morning, delivers her first sermon last Sunday in the Amphitheater.
The Rev. Leyla King completed her Week Four sermon series at the 9:15 a.m. Friday morning service of worship in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title was “Nevertheless, Praise,” and the scripture reading was Psalm 150.
King deliberately chose the last poem in the Psalter because the word “dance” appears in verse 4, almost exactly in the middle of the psalm. It is a psalm of raucous jubilation. Each verse uses the phrases “praise him” or “praise the Lord.”
She asked the congregation if they could hear the rhythm in the psalm. She urged them to use their hearts, minds and souls to worship the Lord today and always. She invited the congregation to dance their praise to an awesome God.
The word “Hallelujah” is sometimes used at the beginning or end of a psalm. It is often translated in English as “Praise God.” King said that the first part of the word, hallel, is translated as praise. In Psalm 150, it is used as “Hallel God in his sanctuary,” or “Hallel him for his mighty deeds,” or “Hallel him with tambourine and dance.”
Linguistically, King said, Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic cousins. A young child on the cusp of falling asleep sometimes makes a soft noise or a soft cry. In Arabic, the child is said to be saying his or her Hallels.
They are called this, she said, because babies are considered to be newly come from God, and they maintain a closer connection to the Creator that adults struggle to hold on to.
King said that the act of praising God is at the very heart of who we are as humans; it is built into our DNA and all creation. Praising God is not prescriptive, but descriptive of all creation. Anything with body and breath can praise God if we would let it happen, if we are really mindful of who we are and whose we really are, to praise God who loves us into being.
It might be easy for those at Chautauqua to hallel God, but we are not newborns, she said. There is much going on in the world that prevents us from saying hallel to God.
King told the congregation it has never been harder for her to say hallel or join the dance than in the last nine months. Israel is trying to wipe us off the face of the earth with their genocidal tactics, she said, and Palestinians have been the victims of generational trauma for over 75 years. Those horrors weigh her down and make her incapable of moving to the dance.
She listed places in the world like Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine and Haiti where people are suffering. She said that Black people, LGBTQ+ people, and women are having to fight for their basic human rights in this country. (The congregation applauded.) She noted that two old white men who have held power, and think they deserve power and our votes, are creating the most depressing election season in a long time.
She acknowledged that she had not even mentioned people’s personal struggles.
It is the human instinct, she said, to praise the light; but it is in the reality of darkness, when we might not feel like singing, that we need to shout “nevertheless.” She told the congregation, we still need to hallel. We need the beating heart of hallel because we hunger for God’s presence and we have individual reasons to praise the Lord. She urged the congregation to lean on the Lord of love who promises to heal us and make all things new.
Leonard Cohen wrote “Hallelujah” in 1984. It is a song that uses religious imagery, but is not a religious song. King said Cohen focused on brokenness, yet the need for praise. She quoted a verse: “Now, I’ve heard there was a secret chord / that David played, and it pleased the Lord / But you don’t really care for music, do ya? / It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth / the minor fall, the major lift / the baffled king composing Hallelujah.”
There is a definite minor chord accompanied by a major chord that helps to lift the song, King said.
The last nine months have made it hard for King to say hallel. She told the congregation as mournful as they may feel, God is present and God’s love is rooted and ready to spring forth.
The real triumph of God’s love happened on the cross, she said, among the fears of disciples and tears of women. Jesus took all our brokenness and left it on the cross.
King said that we all struggle to live rightly and we never get it just right, with people or God, but that is when we most need hallel — in that brokenness where God finds us. Cohen wrote that “our love is not a victory march / It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.”
In the cross, King said, we bring our sinfulness and suffering. Our cold, broken hallelujah will be lifted up in a joyful dance. Whether we whisper or shout, tiptoe or dance, “nevertheless” we praise the Lord. The congregation applauded.
The Rev. George Wirth presided. The Rev. Jessica Frederick, curate at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown, read the scripture. For the prelude, Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, played “Danza Espagnola,” by Ramón Noble. Under Stafford’s direction, the Motet Choir sang “Psalm 150,” by Louis Lewandowski. Owen Reyda, 2024 organ scholar, provided accompaniment on the Massey Memorial Organ. The postlude, played by Stafford on the Massey Organ, was “Toccata,” from Symphony No. 5, by Charles-Marie Widor. Support for this week’s services was provided by the Alison and Craig Marthinsen Endowment for the Department of Religion.
