Unshackled Moments ~ April 26, 2017 ~ Ode To Joy

The Ode To Joy is the final section, the close of Beethoven's Ninth and last symphony. It's also one of my all time favorite classical compositions. I love it. I also love what Henry J. van Dyke did with it around 80 years later, using the music for his Hymn of Joy, aka Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee. I'm not sure which, Beethoven's Ode To Joy or Dyke's hymn they were intending those of us in attendance at my friend's funeral yesterday to associate with the music being played at the end of the service, but it made me smile. I'd never heard this music at a funeral before, but I loved it. Some may have heard Beethoven, some my have heard the lyrics to the hymn, but either way or both, they heard a message of joy. I have added it to the list of music I want played at my funeral.

But the idea of rejoicing at a service like that is not about pretending or forcing away grief and mourning, and joy and sadness are not always mutually exclusive. That may be part of why I love these songs so much. I have always found Ode To Joy an anthem of hope in a hard world. Beethoven had gone completely deaf by the time he began his ninth symphony and never heard a single note of one of the most beautiful, amazing and inspiring compositions of all time. What a nightmare. Can you imagine the misery and frustration? Your whole life is music. It's your identity, your livelihood, your worth and your reason, and then you go deaf. It's not a reason to rejoice. It's a reason to give up and die, or at least cry. And yet, he took seven years of struggle to write this symphony and even directed its debut, although he could not know or control if the musicians were playing what he intended the way he intended. It's not joy in place of sadness and misery, but joy mixing with and triumphing over, just coming out slightly on top of them.

And the hymn?

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,

God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,

Op’ning to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;

Drive the dark of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness,

Fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee,

Earth and heav’n reflect Thy rays,

Stars and angels sing around Thee,

Center of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, vale and mountain,

Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,

Singing bird and flowing fountain

Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving,

Ever blessing, ever blest,

Wellspring of the joy of living,

Ocean depth of happy rest!

Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,

All who live in love are Thine;

Teach us how to love each other,

Lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus,

Which the morning stars began;

Father love is reigning o’er us,

Brother love binds man to man.

Ever singing, march we onward,

Victors in the midst of strife,

Joyful music leads us Sunward

In the triumph song of life.

These words were inspired by majestic mountains and a heart filled with praise at a time of fear. The world was on the edge of war, and everyone was speaking and feeling doom. World War 1 was right around the corner and many had little hope. There wasn't a lot to be or feel joyful about in the minds of most. There surely wasn't a lot of brotherly love binding people. And yet, this has become one of the most famous and well known hymns, along with Amazing Grace. It's a prayer asking for the ability to love one another and producing that feeling of the sun bursting through the dark storm clouds.

Joy comes from love, and since nothing can separate us from Daddy's love and the love of Christ and the love of the Spirit within us, nothing can separate us from joy, not sadness, not even death. But that doesn't mean sadness won't be there. That doesn't mean there won't ever be a time or reason for grief and for mourning. There is, and there will be. There will be time of suffering and of loss. There will be times when life is hard and does not go the way we'd like. There will be times when we lose people, gifts and abilities, health, and things that mean everything to us, but we don't have to lose our relationship with Daddy. We can run to Him, even when life doesn't make sense, especially when life doesn't make sense, and we can rejoice in His love for us, even when life stays hard, even as it's falling apart, even when the healing doesn't come. When we walk through the Valley of the Shadow we can do so without fear because He is with us, not because He always makes the shadow go away.

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