at-one-ment

A young friend said to me during Holy Week, "I cannot cope with the atonement."

Neither can I, if the atonement is thought of forensically. In forensic terms, the atonement means that Jesus had to die for us in order to atone for all our awful sins, so that God could forgive us. In forensic terms, it means that God cannot forgive us unless Jesus is crucified and by this sacrifice atones for all our wrongdoing.

But that is not what the word means! I went to an etymological dictionary and looked it up. It means exactly what it says, at-one-ment. I double-checked it in a second dictionary. There is nothing about crime and punishment in the makeup of that word. It simply means to be at one with God. Jesus on the cross was so at-one with God that death died there on Golgotha, and was followed by the glorious celebration of the Resurrection.

-Madeleine L'Engle
-Glimpses of Grace



oh Lord my heart is not lifted up
my eyes are not raised on high for Thee
i do not think on things to great or marvelous
or matters too difficult for me

but i have calmed and quieted my soul
like a weaned child is my soul within me
i have calmed and quieted my soul
like a weaned child with its mother is my soul within me

oh israel trust in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore
oh israel trust in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore

-waterdeep
-psalm 131