O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?. (Psalm 139:1–3, 7 nrsv)

During the Abiding Presence women's retreat last weekend, we read this psalm responsively in closing worship. The theme of the retreat, taken from the Women of the ELCA’s magazine "Gather," was about journeys. We read scripture about Jacob, Leah, and Rachel; Elijah and the widow of Zarephath; and encounters Christ had with women on their journeys. Then we had time to talk about and reflect on our own experiences of travel, fleeing, suffering, and rejoicing along the way.

In our work and rest, school and home, numbness and passion, service and being served, we journey accompanied by the Spirit of God who refuses to leave us. No matter how far we have traveled we cannot flee from God.

Sometimes when we talk about faith journeying, we're tempted to think that it's all about us. My journey. My encounter with Christ. My faith maturity.

Instead, we are reminded that we journey as part of a whole community. As Gail Ramshaw writes in her book, Treasures Old and New: Images in the Lectionary, "The Christian journey is marked by distinctive emphases: we journey as a community; Christ is the journey by which we travel; the neighbor in need is the midpoint of the maze." We follow the same God who was with stubborn Rachel, the desperate widow, and the generous women who used their resources to support Jesus and his ministry. We are surrounded by those in need and have the opportunity to serve. We are part of flawed and faithful families and workplaces and groups of friends.

God of beginnings and endings and every time and place in between, we thank you for refusing to let us flee from your presence. Thank you for all of the saints, living and dead, who are part of your whole community. Thank you for giving us to one another as support and challenge. Help us to serve our neighbor in need. In your Son’s name we pray, Amen.

Contributed by Pastor Becky
Monday September 24, 2012
Liturgical Year B: Week 44
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading:
Lectionary 25 (Proper 20)
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost