Journal of Sacred Work

    Light and dark jumble the river of our lives. We navigate the currents as best we can. The wisest of us know that we need help.

   The Judeo-Christian tradition offers various pathways to atonement and renewal. Jews seek to rediscover light through Yom Kippur. Christians seek relief through rituals and sacraments that include communion, confession, baptism and the salvific Christian narrative. 

   Our search for light means we are all afraid of the dark. Finding light means we have already seen darkness. 

   How do we understand our desire for atonement? How do we enter the river of light?

   The cause of death is life.

   During our life, we live on the air above and the earth below. But we are primarily water.

   Water always connects – from clouds to earth (and back again), from lake to ocean, from cup to lips. Rivers run through our earth bringing nourishment to some and floods to others.

   Sailing the ocean of worldly desire, our spirit discovers its own thirst.

   We may not understand that the River of Atonement is always flowing through us. 

   Water can cool the fiercest fires of our lives. In the wash of sacred water lives an atonement that enables a new direction.

   Only the River of Atonement can truly slake our spiritual thirst. Only God's living water can turn our darkest desires towards Love's light.

   We recognize that we have wronged others. "We may not have fulfilled our great potential, or we may have misused the soul's energy given to us for a higher purpose," Rabbi Yitzchok Tiechtel writes. In preparation for Yom Kippur, Jews are called to "make amends" to those they have wronged, and to express gratitude for the certainty of God's forgiveness. 

   How do we ensure our soul runs true from its source? Atonement forms a foundation that strengthens when we take responsibility and open our hearts to receive God's Love. 

   We may then begin anew.

   There is nothing harder then to take a new path in life, a path that may look unfamiliar, unattainable and unappealing.

   Those that go beyond apology to continuous acts of loving kindness are the lucky few who enjoy both the River of Atonement and the refreshment that comes only by embracing God's Love.

   How hard. How crucial to life.

-Reverend Erie Chapman

Photograph: Currents Study #1 – copyright Erie Chapman 2011