Sunday services are at 8:30 am and 10:45 am, Sunday school and adult education at 9:30 am during the school year
 Spirit of Grace (at Mission of the Atonement) - Sunday Services at 8:30 and 10:45 am
  • Home
    • Giving & Donations
    • Contact/Maps
  • Who We Are
    • What We Believe >
      • Theology
      • Our Values
      • Spiritual Practices
      • What We Believe
    • Our Stories >
      • How Did This Happen?
      • Our History
      • How Does It Work?
      • Who Are Our Members? >
        • Housecall Providers
      • What Is Our Mission?
    • Young People >
      • Kids Are Involved
      • Families
      • Teaching Our Children
      • Teens
    • Our Commitments >
      • Worship & Music
      • The Arts
      • Welcome to Newcomers
      • GLBT
      • Inter-Faith
      • Service
      • Stuff We Like
      • Affiliations
    • Our Staff >
      • Laurie Larson Caesar
      • Kathleen Truman
      • Our Priests
  • Worship
    • How Does It Work?
    • Weekly Scriptural Readings
    • Sermons
    • Worship & Music
    • Liturgical Calendar
  • Events
    • Adult Ed./Theological Inquiry
    • Teaching Our Children
    • Opening New Doors >
      • OND Video
      • OND Quotes and Photos
      • OND Newsletter #1
      • OND Newsletter #2
      • OND Newsletter #3
      • OND Newsletter #4
      • OND Newsletter #5
    • Centering Prayer
    • MOTA Palooza!
    • Photo Albums >
      • Pride Parade 2013
      • Building the Labyrinth
      • 25th Anniversary Celebration
      • OND Celebration Photos
      • OND Quotes and Photos
      • Baptism Photos
  • Building & Grounds
    • Labyrinth
    • Gardens
    • Weddings & Events
  • Member Tools
    • Sabbatical 2017
    • Giving & Donations
    • Calendar
    • Directory & Volunteer Guide
    • Memorial Service Preparation
    • Meeting Guidelines
    • Oregon Synod News
    • Misc. Information >
      • Reflections blog
      • Long Range Plan
      • Annual and Community Meeting Documents
      • Conflict Resolution Policy
      • Final Sunday Service Templates
      • Fundraising Proposal Form
      • Want to Get Involved? >
        • Caring For Our Sacred Spaces
        • Community Building
        • Community Leadership & Service
        • Service to the World
        • Social Action
        • Worship
    • Recordings of Forums & Events
    • Steering Team Minutes and Messages
    • Volunteer Rosters >
      • Speaking Tasks >
        • Children's Homilists
        • Presiders
        • Readers
      • Communion Tasks >
        • Bread Bakers
        • Catholic Communion
        • Lutheran Communion
      • Everything Else >
        • Final Sunday Planning
        • Greeters
        • Hospitality
        • Musicians
        • Sound & Recording
        • Sunday School
      • Holy Land Peace Ministry
      • Peace & Justice/MACG
    • Volunteer Schedule
    • Are You New?

Reflection #7

11/26/2011

0 Comments

 
A Psalm of David  -  The Inescapable God  -  Psalm 139 (selected verses) 

O Lord you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down,
you are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. 

Where can I hide from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from you presence?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there.
If I take wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast. 

For it was you who formed my inmost parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well. 

Search me, O God and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.. . . 
and lead me in the way everlasting. 

Having sung or chanted the entire psalter each week for many years, this psalm of King David, along with psalm 50 (David’s Prayer of Contrition) have always returned my own spirit to the loving womb of God.  I call it the Old Testament version of Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son.  For me, a person who in some ways is very self critical with both failing and talents, the psalm is a reminder that God loves me anyway, as have other souls over the years. 


How often I have said (or heard it from others) I wish I could live my life over again. God does not want me or any of us to live our lives over again. God wants me to be free and genuine.  Even when I have wanted to run from God, or the Atonement family in my soul’s trying moments. I could not, for Atonement exemplifies the womb of God, the inescapable love I cannot run away from that the psalm speaks of. 

I told my family, grand nieces and nephews on down,  not long ago that I cannot attend all their weddings, etc.  I wish them well and hold them in prayer.  I received a couple replies,  like, “well if you weren’t so involved with your church, or made a pledge to it, you could do more family things.  You need to get a life.”   I answered back: “Atonement is my life.”   What hit me emotionally was that when I ordained and a religious in vows, the family was proud to see me take on a life apart from them.  It was like some could not see that the laity are asked to live the same spirit of the gospel.

 It is sometimes painful to open the door of your heart.  The Atonement community has done much to fill my heart at a time of great void during a huge change in my life.  I am so thankful the inescapable God continues to hold the door open for me.

Recall a time when you tried to escape the inescapable love of God?How has your Atonement family blessed you in a time of void? 

- Chris P.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Join In!

    We have some wise souls with professional writing ability who will contribute blog posts intermittently. Please visit often! Comments and ongoing conversations are encouraged. If you'd like to contribute an article, please contact the office. Thanks!

    Archives

    October 2015
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    A. Locke
    Amy Manning
    Anam Cara
    Annette Stixrud
    Barbara Smith
    Bill Smith
    Bob Gettel
    Book Reviews
    Brad Newman
    Brian Brandt
    Bruce Flath
    Christie Bernklau Halvor
    Christmas
    Clare Perry
    Creationtide
    Danny & Linda Mellon
    Ed Armstrong
    Eleanor Campbell
    Emergent
    Emerging
    Emerging Church
    Final Sunday
    Jabke Buesseler
    Joan Spearing
    John Mcswigan
    Jonathan Monks
    Jon Erickson
    Leadership
    Lois Delcambre
    Margaret Armstrong
    Marie Gettel-Gilmartin
    Mike Gettel-Gilmartin
    Music
    Neal Stixrud
    Non-Violent Communication
    Ordinary Radicals
    Pastor Laurie
    Praise
    Psalm
    Quinn Johnston
    Rebecca Erickson
    Reflections
    Soup Suppers
    Susan-Rae Bell
    Unity
    Val Cannard

    RSS Feed

7400 SW Scholls Ferry Rd., Beaverton OR 97008   (503) 646-1344   office@motaspirit.org
✕