Wednesday, October 27, 2010

What if it all means Hallelujah?

Our religious tradition was powerfully transformed by the work of the 19th century German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher who placed experience at the center of the religious life. The fruit of experience is meaning, which is more a felt response to life than something that we can explain in words or defend with reason. T.S. Eliot cautioned that people too often, "...had the experience but missed the meaning." We miss the meaning if we fail to reflect on our experience, to let it speak to us. Parker Palmer writes, "Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent."

What does it mean? Nothing! Everything! Many things! Only this one thing! What does it mean? This song. That poem. The canvass hanging in the museum. The piece of art on the refrigerator door created by a five-year old. The first kiss. The death of a loved one. The wild flowers in the field beside the road. The architect's dream captured in a building. The bouquet of flowers on the table and the meal that we share made with many ingredients including love. That snow-capped mountain in the distance or the aspen grove through which we have been driving.

What does it mean that increasingly, when I have the occasion to say the pledge of allegiance, I am moved to tears? I could try to explain why that happens, but such an explanation would trivialize the experience and its meaning.

What does it mean? What do you mean? What does our life together mean? These questions yield answers in reflection, in conversation, in listening to the stories that others tell, stories in which you see reflected some of the meanings of your own life. These questions yield answers in the silence, in sanctuary, in worship, and in the dark of night.

Here in the search for truth, we find that we are with others who are like-minded. Here in the search for meaning, we find that we are with others who are like-hearted. Here, in the search, the beloved community is born: a resource for meaning-making, a companion on life's journey.

To bring this reflection to a close, I find myself returning to popular culture generally, and the movie, Shrek (2001), specifically. In that movie the song, Hallelujah, written by Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen in 1984 is a tribute to the love affair between Shrek and Princess Fiona. It was performed by Welsh musician John Cale.

Cale's version begins with this verse: "Now I've heard there was a secret chord/ That David played, and it pleased the Lord/ But you don't really care for music, do you?/ It goes like this/ The fourth, the fifth/ The minor fall, the major lift/ The baffled king composing Hallelujah/ Hallelujah/ Hallelujah/ Hallelujah/ Hallelujah." (This link is to a YouTube version that I partiularly like: Hallejuah).

What does my marriage mean? Hallelujah!
What do my daughters mean? Hallelujah!
What does this church mean? Hallelujah!
What does my life mean? Hallelujah!
What does being alive mean? Hallelujah!
What about finding and traveling a pathway to meaning? Hallelujah!

But the song is not simply one of joy and praise. Cohen also writes, "And even though/ It all went wrong/ I'll stand before the Lord of Song/ With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah" If I understand this verse correctly then I must also ask, "What do the times that my heart has broken mean?" Hallelujah!

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