As we celebrate the Incarnation, what does it mean that God became one flesh with us?
“I had a dream much later, maybe ten years ago, where I was looking for directions in a town I didn’t know, and I had taken a shortcut through an alleyway. The alleyway led to a courtyard, and the courtyard was full of beautiful young people milling around in the moonlight, having some sort of event. An older guy came up to me and asked, “Can I help you?” And while we were talking a strikingly beautiful young woman, kind of punkish and tall, walked by me, and when she turned, one side of her face looked like those World War I trench victims with half their faces blown away. It was shocking, but then I realized that everybody in the place was like that in one way or another. They were all damaged and trashed and beautiful, and I can’t remember whether the older man said this to me or whether I just understood it, but somehow I came to understand that it’s the scars that bind us. This is what binds us to the people in ISIS, to our enemies, to everything. It’s what every human has in common, regardless of ideology or lifestyle or clothing style or anything else. We’ve all got these wounds. I suppose the wounds of Christ are archetypes for these wounds. It’s in our woundedness that we have our connection point.”
Bruce Cockburn, “A Conversation with Bruce Cockburn,”
Andy Whitman, Image journal, Issue 84 (interview link)
I thought this particular passage from the interview provocative, Kerry. Cockburn is reluctant, “I suppose the wounds of Christ are archetypes for these wounds.” I admire his honesty. This is a person who can’t quite commit to a vision of God because he feels he doesn’t know enough anything anymore.