A
Moment Aside --- 28 January 2021
Canadian poet Leonard Cohen’s works are well known. His religious tradition is Jewish with a lively interest in other religions including Zen Buddhism. I’m sure a conversation with him would have been interesting.
The quote in the picture above may seem
odd, but it really does make sense. “There’s
a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” makes a reference to
the brokenness of the world and actually the brokenness of every person. None
of us can claim to be perfect. (Oh, we can claim it… and we’d be mistaken.) We
live in a broken world. This is actually a part of the Lutheran understanding
of the world. As broken people in a broken world, we do the best we can. We
have to look for a source of light and strength outside ourselves. Sometimes
it’s our very brokenness that impels us to look for something beyond what we
can see. The pains of the world and the pains of people (including our own)
drive some to deny a benevolent God or even the existence of a God at all. It
might be the pains we feel for ourselves and see around us and the cry for healing
or for justice that we make is the beginning of the entrance of that light that
shines through the “cracks” in our reality.
“Forget
your perfect offering…” is what the poem says. I don’t know of any such
thing as a perfect offering we could make. (As a Christian, I leave aside
Jesus’ offering. That’s for another time.) Our best thoughts and our most
esteemed actions might seem like a toddler’s gift of a mud-pie to mother.
Perfect – no; offering – yes. And our loving God accepts them as such.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget
your perfect offering
There
is a crack in everything
That’s
how the light gets in.
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