I'm preaching at the morning services this Sunday. A line from the Epistle lesson ("Open wide your hearts")and a line from the Gospel lesson ("Peace! Be still!") grabbed my attention last week as I started thinking about how I might preach. And then something I read several years ago from the poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen came to mind as well. Cohen is not a practicing Christian, but seems to really "get it" in many ways. During the Adult Christian Formation time on Sunday, I'll also be sharing some of Cohen's music and poetry and reflecting on the Sunday lessons. Read Cohen's quote below, plus the two lessons and let me know what comes to your mind. Cohen was asked his "take" on Christianity.
“I don't really have a ‘take on the state of Christianity.’ But when I read your question, this answer came to mind: As I understand it, into the heart of every Christian, Christ comes, and Christ goes. When, by his Grace, the landscape of the heart becomes vast and deep and limitless, then Christ makes His abode in that graceful heart, and His Will prevails. The experience is recognized as Peace. In the absence of this experience much activity arises, divisions of every sort. Outside of the organizational enterprise, which some applaud and some mistrust, stands the figure of Jesus, nailed to a human predicament, summoning the heart to comprehend its own suffering by dissolving itself in a radical confession of hospitality.”
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