Much like many of my fellow United Methodist, I have been struggling with the current condition we have found ourselves in. Many times, I have begun and abruptly ended several blog entries detailing my frustrations with the decision of the Church to affirm the Traditional Plan. I remain a supporter of the One Church Plan, specifically as it presented the opportunity to hold the church together as one organization. Knowing there were firmly rooted camps on both sides of the discussion, I have wrestled to find words that might bring understanding to both. It was this Sunday that these words finally arrived. In Father Richard Rohr’s recent Daily Meditation (Sunday, May 24, 2019) he referenced a quote from Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934–2016, probably best known for his song Hallelujah).
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen
These words stuck with me, popping up frequently throughout the following days since first reading them. I have learned, this is my
As I proceed I would ask you to keep in mind that the One Church plan was not acceptable to many on the Progressive side either. It was inherently wrong to them that this plan still provided for their exclusion, just as the Conservative side saw it the opposite. So, to some degree the One Church Plan was a loss for many on both sides.
As I see it, the One Church Plan created a vessel that contained us all. A vessel that we would continue to call the United Methodist Church. Were we united? Of course not! So, it was most certainly a heavily cracked vessel, so cracked in fact that it was on the verge of collapse. Yet, the plan forced us with all our anger, frustration, and sadness to sit in the same room together and continue to look at each other. We would be compelled to hold the tension, compelled to learn more about each other. As we spent time together we would challenge each other’s foundations. We would walk away, count to ten, and then come back to the table. Eventually, the holding of this tension would produce something greater, something “other”. Arising from the midst of this cracked vessel we would come to see the presence of God in our opposite, and they in us. Now, seeing God in our foe we would return to the scriptures, diving deeper below the surface, to find the truths that would affirm this “other”. Here, we would discover the truths that would allow us to see that there are no two sides to love, just as there are no two sides to God. We will then have taken a step toward true transformation.
When we go our separate ways and create a vessel where we sit with only those that agree with us, we lose a crack, and the light that makes us think hard about our beliefs disappears. With that light, that challenge to our way of thinking gone, we lose a chance at transformation. My hope is that somehow, we decide to sit in our cracked vessel, allowing the light to come in, embracing it and wrestling with it together. Yes, the crack is big, and it would stand to reason that a big crack lets in big light!