Proclaimer Blog
Handel’s Messiah
Christmas is coming around again. Had you noticed? That means that the choral societies are out in force with their Messiah's. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I love Handel's Messiah. The text is all Biblical and was chosen by Charles Jennens. We can't be sure exactly about his motive, nor his faith. True, he was a "devout Anglican" but quite what this means is not entirely clear from the various analyses of his life. What we can be sure about is that his libretto has given us some profoundly Christ centred Biblical theology before anyone even knew that term. You can read the complete list of texts here.
The reason for blogging about it is that I think it presents Christians with an underestimated evangelistic opportunity. It would be an easy event to take people to. And to get into a discussion about. It's even worth listening to yourself. Calvin Stapert's book is excellent for that, published by Eerdmans. I'm sadder – I follow along in a score – either a mini score (£7), a choral score (£6.70) or a large full size orchestral score (£12.50).
Roger Carswell even has an evangelistic tract on the Messiah (just 15p).
Listen. Soak in the Scriptures.