Rejoice Greatly O Daughter of Zion
My last couple of years in the classroom as a teacher, when my students would get my attention and ask a question, I would sometimes say to them; “Yes, daughter of Zion.” Disclaimer, I taught at an all-girls school. I’m not sure where I picked that habit up from, but Oh well. Sometimes my friends even get hit up with that sobriquet. One of my recruiters came into my office recently with a question, and because it’s advent and arias from Messiah have been bouncing around in my head for like two weeks, I immediately looked up and said, “Yes, Daughter of Zion.” She kinda looked at me and shrugged that salutation off and went into the pressing issue.
In this advent Messiah blog series, we have gone from Comfort Ye My People, And He shall Purify, Who May Abide, Gross Darkness, For Unto Us a Child is Born and now, here we are. REJOICE! Rejoice Greatly O Daughter (and Son) of Zion! Just like the Psaltry (Psalms), Messiah takes us through every possible human emotion. From words of prophecy, the gospels and Pauline letters, Messiah is a musically entrenched emotional roller coaster, be it Handel’s version or Quincy Jones’ soulful adaptation.
Rejoice Greatly O Daughter of Zion! PLOT TWIST. We’ve finally gotten away from Malachi and Isaiah. The text of this aria comes from yet another prophet, Zechariah. Zechariah provides the inspiration for this highly electric, soprano led aria. Let’s see what the brother has to say. “Rejoice greatly. Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion. Rejoice greatly. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is the righteous savior and he shall speak peace to the heathen. Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold thy king cometh unto thee.” Well…for me it’s the “He shall speak peace to the heathens,” part. But I’ll just keep writing. I can’t shake the vision of Aunt Esther and Fred Sanford going at it though. Old fish eyed fool and heathen.
But what does rejoicing look like in 2020, these times of Ronapocalypse? I wouldn’t be a good teacher if I did not give you a little review and content for the context. Rejoice: verb- to feel or show great joy or delight. I’m gonna go ahead on and say it, 2020 ain’t been a year that elicits one to stand on their hands and clap their feet with exceeding great joy. We were barely three weeks into the new year, only to learn about the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and others on that fatal plane crash. And it seemed like after that, there was the jumpoff of a season of extreme loss upon loss. And to add to that, this deadly pandemic was the proliferation that made things even worse.
You may be saying “Yeah right, Karsten. Rejoice my ###! I lost my job, my business folded. I was evicted. I lost my mom. I had to move back home with my parents. I got furloughed. My whole family is on some BS. I’m physically estranged from my family. I lost friends because of this election.” Whew Lawd! That’s a whole lot. I am in no way diminishing or making light of anyone’s pain or circumstance. We have all been through a lot, seen and processed a lot during a time in which everything is just different. Maybe our world had to fall apart so things could fall into place.
Here’s the thing. All we have is this right now moment. The present. It’s a gift, Merry Merry! This year has been uncomfortably difficult at an unprecedented level. As jacked up and screwed up as things have been, we stood firm and took the hits. Things may have gotten crazier at work. Already strained familial relations may be on the brink of reaching that breaking point. Those tweens, teens and fur babies that we harbor and feed are on our last nerves. These idiots in these streets ain’t wearing masks like it’s October 2019.
Look around. Take a deep breath. We are still here, broken, but whole, wounded healers, confused, angry and just feeling all the feels, and that’s okay. We are here, surviving the deadliest global pandemic known to humanity, that has been poorly managed. We are here in the land of the living. We are here, being seen and not viewed or mourned. And in this crap chute of a year, that is something to rejoice about. The elders used to say “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow.” Hold on to hope and love as we move from moment to moment on this side of eternity. When we grab hold of hope and cling to love with a sprinkle of joy, our spirits will bubble up with gratitude, setting off a chain reaction of rejoice and praise. As the psalmist reminds us: “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Rejoice! Rejoice Greatly, O children of Zion!
#Selah
