During Lent we don’t sing hallelujahs. According to the ELCA website, we don’t because they don’t fit the penitential tone during the 40 days of Lent. Apparently is a tradition that goes back to the 5th century. Though some might be surprised, I often quite like tradition. You may ask yourself, “why then, Ray, are you tossing aside this centuries old tradition?”

One of the youth from my church performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the high school talent show and the thought occurred to me, “that is a pretty good Lenten song.” The images depicted in Leonard Cohen’s lyrics are ones of brokenness that fit in quite well with the focus of Lent. So, I’m making an exception.

I think tradition is important. It gives us a connection to the past and a framework to work with. But tradition isn’t infallible and doesn’t inherently have …

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I think this sums up my frustration with some ideas of faith. here, Bonhoeffer is basically summing up Luther’s “sin boldly” statement. Honestly, I’ve never really been able to quite wrap my head around this legalistic idea of faith that, as Kevin Smith explains in Dogma, is more or less God threatening to spank us when we screw up.