Today we’re singing one of John Rutter’s most popular pieces. It was published in 1980, and I’d venture to say that most churches have this piece in their choral library. Surprisingly, we did not. Every choral director knows it and has performed it; although, some of my snootier colleagues would deny it. It has a more contemporary feel. It has a simplified chordal accompaniment, a sappy melody, and snappy rhythms. The backbeat feels a bit popish, and it’s marked to be sung “Happily.” You may listen to it with a cynical ear, but you can also tap your toes, bobble your head, and smile.

Some might consider it tacky, but it sure is fresh and chirpy. Some may not think it’s church worthy. But couldn’t you make the argument that God created everything, even so-called hokey church music? I dare not say the piece is hokey, but there are two parts to the game. It’s not just hokey – it’s the Hokey Pokey. To play, you must turn yourself around.

You may look down on it as “low church.” But to others, they’d look up to it, considering it “high church.” The text might be considered hokey as well. We are to thank God for the sky, the flowers, and the birds. We praise Him for brothers, sisters, and friends. It appears all’s right with the world in a piece like this, until it’s not.

There are no insides without outsides, no friends without enemies, and no beginnings without endings. In the same vein, if we say God is good; we imply that God is also bad. A democrat is not a democrat without a republican. The rich are not rich without the poor. It all contains implicit dualities, and there is no pleasure without pain. How often do we miss the inseparability of the opposing side? On the underside of this anthem hides words like, “For the suffering of the human body, for enemies, plagues, depression, viruses, and poverty: Lord of all to thee we lower this our sorrowful lament of pain.” This version sounds Lenten, but in our gratefulness lies our implicit sorrow.

How happiness eludes us! There is great suffering to mention, but not only. Some churches are always happy and terrific, but you’ll soon see the crumbling charade. They think they have all the hokey and none of the pokey. The drab ones claim all the pokey and nary a bit of the hokey. That’s how extremism is born, trying to eradicate “the other.” But self and other dance together, side by side.

People don’t see the hypocrisy of their so-called virtuous pursuits. They wreak havoc in the world by playing the victim, yet never seeing how victim and victor are dancing cheek to cheek. What a dance! Half of the world is hokey-ing while the other is pokey-ing. It’s not in the extremes, but in divine symmetry that we see The Truth. To sense the mystery of Oneness, you must dance with the duplicitous character of twoness. Do the Hokey Pokey and turn yourself around. To see God, that’s what it’s all about. Soli Deo Gloria!

(P.S. I’d better not see anyone in the aisles playing the Hokey Pokey during this anthem. How low church can you get?)