Gospel Text for Sunday 1 May 2022

 John 21:1-19        Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me.”

Reflection        The disciples did follow Jesus.  For nearly four years they listened to him preach impassioned sermons, watched him restore sight to the blind, free lepers from their plague, feed enormous crowds, expose hypocrisy, challenge power mongering and greed, and treat outcasts and sinners  with respect and forgiveness. The disciples walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, found shelter from dust storms and slept with Jesus. They bickered, laughed, wept and shared four passover meals with Jesus. But when things go south and they watch their teacher, their friend being beaten and crucified, the disciples run away, lock themselves in a hidden room, and almost immediately return to the way they were four years ago - fishing for fish.

After four years of following Jesus and fishing for people still the disciples are unconvinced by signs given to Mary Magdalene of Jesus’ continued presence among them. Four years of following Jesus and fishing for people, the experience of being startled by the presence of Jesus made known to them  while hiding in a locked room and a third incomprehensible experience of Jesus’ ephemeral presence with them when Thomas in present, and what does Peter do? He decides to reclaim his business of fishing for fish and the other disciples follow Peter. 

So much for following Jesus and fishing for people. Jesus is dead. We may as well go fishing.  After four years of living and breathing and finding their way with Jesus, was nothing really changed? I want to shout, “What is wrong with you? Have you learned nothing?”  How quickly I leap to judging Peter and the disciples. One thing I have learned about pointing fingers. The finger always bends back and implicates the finger pointer. 

In this case the finger of judgment insists we ask ourselves several questions.

For how long have we claimed to follow Jesus? Months? Years? Decades? How has our journey with Jesus effected our fishing habits? Are we fishing for people?  or fishing for fish? Which of course begs the question, what exactly does that mean?  Let us begin with fish.  I believe fish is a metaphor for whatever we think we need. Our fish might be security, safety, affection, attention, esteem, power or control. For what do you fish?

I have fished for all manner of things during different seasons of my life. As a young adult I fished for recognition and esteem, acquiring advanced degrees, working feverishly to publish professional papers and win NIH grants. As a single mom I fished for security and safety, making money based career choices to support my daughter and my self. As a young middle age adult I fished for meaning, practicing Taoism, studying my dreams, meditating, making retreats in monasteries and chanting in convents. As a middle middle age adult I fished for relationship with something more than my self and found my way back to Christianity. As an older middle age adult I fished for ways to give my gifts away for the good of others and found myself in seminary where I learned about fishing for people.  After several years being fourth priest in a very large parish I forgot about fishing for people and turned to fishing for influence and power, which stood me cross ways with the senior priest. It was not long into my call to be senior priest at my own church that I remembered who I was following and why I was here, fishing for people. 

And still, I am reluctant to us the E word. Evangelism. Fishing for people. I recoil at the thought of being put in the same boat as Bible thumping, in your face tel-evangelists. But as I stumble down lethe’s road I am forgetting the true meaning of the word Evangelism, which comes from the Greek Euangelion and means, good news or good story. 

And that, my friends is what evangelism or fishing for people is. Sharing our good stories, our good news about how God is real  and present for us in the ordinary moments of our lives; in our suffering and our locked rooms, in our empty nets and overflowing abundance, in the dust of the desert and the mist of the sea, at breakfast and Holy Communion.  By sharing our stories and listening to the stories of others we plant the seeds of hope for all people. Sharing our good stories of how God is real for us, this is evangelism. This is fishing for people.

Here is the thing. When for the third time Jesus encounters Peter the other disciples and us tired, hungry and tangled in our empty fishing nets, he spends no time chastising us for forgetting every thing we learned in the previous four years or lifetime. He simply reminds us to cast our nets in the right direction and then he puts a towel around his waist, prepares breakfast and feeds us, again.

This is our story. A story of our comings and goings, remembering and forgetting, being fed and feeding one another. No blame. No shame. Just endless opportunities to begin again sharing our stories and listening to others as we weave together the threads of our lives in the tapestry of our shared “with God” life.

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Christian Testament text for 24 April 2022

 

1 John 3:18-24        Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Reflection        Although it is not clear who the author of 1John is, the overarching purpose of this treatise is to urge readers to embody Jesus’ commandment to love as Jesus loves; “not in word or speech, but in truth and action,” action meant for the good of others.

Ever sInce the mid 1800s in Kierkegaard’s book Works of Love a distinction has been drawn between eros and agape love. Eros is drawn to the goodness or beauty of the other and desires union with the other so to experience personal fulfillment.  Therefore, eros is love arising from human need to be joined with another to whom we are attracted or in whom we see goodness.

On the other hand, agape affirms the goodness and beauty of the other, raising them up rather than seeking something from them. Agape acts to promote what is beneficial for the other rather than desiring something from the other.

Let me be clear. Eros has its place. Without it, I would not be here to write and you would not be here to read. But eros has a short shelf life. It only took me two marriages to figure that out. By contrast, agape love endures for the long term. It is love in which we abide; living, breathing and  finding our being  while affirming the goodness and beauty of others and fostering their well being.

The love commandment in 1 John points to both ethics and morals; ethics being the code of conduct prescribed by the great commandment “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… and…you shall love your  neighbor as yourself,” and  morals referring to the Spirit of love that abides or persists within us. Morals arise from the wisdom or law written on our hearts, inform our conscience and direct our actions. Although this kind of moral psychological interpretation would not have occurred at the end of the first century when 1 John was written, the author of this treatise is urging readers to recognize the interior source of love and persevere in love informed actions for the benefit of others; in other words, to abide in agape love. 

Just prior to today’s text from 1 John we are counseled, “We know love by this, that (Jesus)  laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 John 3:16). On rare occasions we may have cause to literally step into the line of fire to save the life of an other, but many times every day we have the opportunity to “lay down our lives for an other,” albeit less dramatically.   Every time we share our assets or resources, our time or whatever is meaningful to us for the good of an other, we are laying down our lives. Every time we hold back our judgment, self interest, preference, comfort or desire in order to affirm the goodness and beauty of an other, we are laying down our lives and experiencing a moment of agape love.

Returning to 1 John we are challenged by the question, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help?” (1 John 3:17). How do we respond to this question given our current situation? We complain that the annual inflation rate for the United States is 8.5% for the twelve months ended in March 2022. With the price of gas in Oro Valley at $4.49 per gallon and the cost of groceries rising every week, we furrow our brows, cross our arms, tighten our purse stings and look for someone to blame. 

But look around. Even in the face of the current economic climate, most of us enjoy more resources than folks across the globe have ever imagined.  Which brings us to a painful part of agape love. Agape love demands we give up some of what we tell ourselves we need to affirm the beauty and goodness of others and foster their well being, especially others who are suffering with extreme, life depleting need.

Here is the thing, agape is the same Greek word used to describe God’s love for humanity and our love for other human beings. Agape love is the law written in our canon and etched onto our hearts. It is this love in which we abide, affirming the goodness and beauty of all humanity, laying down our lives for the benefit of others. Where will you direct your agape love today? 

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Gospel text for the Great Vigil of Easter 16 April 2022

Luke 24.1-12        On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection        No eloquent words nor finely formed images can  begin to help us wrap our minds around resurrection. Frankly this was an enormous stumbling block for me years ago as I was discerning my call to the priesthood.  What am I to think about resurrection? It is the hallmark of Christian faith and I am not sure I can swallow it? Surely I cannot preach it. I wrestled. I prayed. I waited. And then something happened. 

It was an unremarkable day during which I was having an unremarkable meditation when suddenly I had an experience of Jesus that was more real than anything I have ever seen with my eyes or touched with my hands. It captivated all of my senses and hung a lamp in my heart that remains undimmed.

With no apparent previous cause, in the silence of my heart  I heard Jesus say, “Follow me.” Do not ask me how I knew it was Jesus. I just did, with absolute certainty. I knew it like I know my own name and that I am standing here speaking with you. And I felt my self step behind him. Jesus said, “Come closer.” I did. And he said, “Closer.” Feeling hesitant and awkward I answered, “If I come any closer I will step on your heels.” And he said “Closer.” Ever so tentatively I stepped into his heel and vanished, except I was not gone. What was gone was my sense of separation. I could not see him. I had no sense of where I ended and he began. I just knew that he was closer to me than my own breath and that I was so close to him that there was nothing between us.

Every cell and every space of my being glimmered with knowing, “This is true.” Though I have rarely shared this story, the experience remains as real for me today as it was seventeen years ago. Unlike seventeen years ago I am no longer afraid to share this story, a story I have come to understand as an experience of death and resurrection. Death of my belief in my sole and separate self and resurrection in union and unity with Divine Presence that Christians recognize as the Christ. St. Paul explains it this way to the Galatians. “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Death and resurrection. The only thing lost in death is the belief in separation. Everything is gained. This is resurrection.

Two thousand years ago Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women followed Jesus. They heard the authority in his words. They felt the healing power of his touch. They grew weary walking with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They watched and were horrified as their teacher, their friend was beaten, nailed to a cross and died. They saw Jospeh of Arimithea take Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrap it in linen and place it in a new stone tomb. Regardless of the circumstance, the women never stopped following Jesus. 

It is no wonder that when the first glimmer of light pierces the frightful night following Jesus’ crucifixion the women, exhausted and rapt in the aroma of anticipation,  immediately returned to Jesus’ tomb where they have a mystical encounter with Divine Presence.

When Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women look into the place of death they see it is not empty and with every cell and every space of their being they know that the words of the two men with dazzling clothes they mysteriously encountered in the tomb are true. Jesus is not to be found among the dead. Jesus’ place is with the living. Jesus’ place is in the hearts and minds and lives of the living who follow him. 

Here is the thing. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women expected resurrection but it was not supposed to happen now!  They brought fresh herbs and spices to Jesus’ tomb believing the ritual of preparation was essential to properly prepare a person’s body so that it could begin its long journey toward a far distant resurrection.  The women went to the tomb expecting to minister to the dead. They had absolutely no idea that resurrection is now. Resurrection is for the living, living in union and unity with Divine Presence, the Christ, right here, right now. 

This is the wonder of the Easter story. NOW is the moment of resurrection. NOW is the moment of new life in union and unity with the risen Christ, living, breathing and loving through each of us right here, right now. 

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Passion Narrative for Good Friday 15 April 2022

 

Link to Passion Narrative according to John   John 18:1-19:42 

Reflection        Each tentative step I had to pause, adjust the heft of the rough hewn cross on my shoulder as I made my halting way to the altar steps and there laid down the burden of the awkward Good Friday cross. Having completed my part of the liturgy, I sat down in the chancel facing the church half full of people.

One by one folks left their pew to wait in line to touch, bow before, kiss or weep over the stark symbol of suffering. It was not long before hot tears dripped like blood from my chin, painting dark stains on my mourning cassock as I watched the people wait in somber silence for their turn at the cross. Without favor my river of tears accompanied the wealthy, poor, elders and teens, beautiful and bent until the eyes of my heart rested on a person whom I always judged as having the perfect blessed life, and like lightening I “knew” with my heart what my head could not fathom. 

With the scales on my eyes washed away by my tears I “saw” the river of humanity flowing up the church aisle to reverence the Good Friday cross as one, one intimate and holy communion in suffering. Suffering, a great equalizer. Suffering cutting through every strand of diversity, born in the hearts of all human beings. 

Suffering is suffering. It is not better. It is not worse. It is not more and it is not less. Suffering is suffering. Great riches do not protect us from suffering. Neither does brilliance or poverty, good judgement or folly make our suffering less. In suffering we all participate. In suffering we all belong. This truth is stamped on my heart forever. In suffering we are all one holy communion.

Perhaps that is the good part of Good Friday. We cannot and we will not suffer alone. This night we weep the tears of the powerful and the poor, the dying and the to be born, the pious and pretentious, the murdered innocents and their perpetrators. This night we are one, one holy communion joined in suffering, suffering with God.

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Gospel text for Maundy Thursday, 14 April 2022

John 13:1-17, 31b-35        Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean.”

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

"Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Reflection        Knowing that his time on earth is coming to an end, Jesus does what many of us might do, host a dinner party with our closest friends because we love them, even to the end, even those ones who have disappointed or betrayed us.  The odd thing is, at dinner parties generally the host takes the place of honor and perhaps Jesus does while serving barley bread, goat cheese, olives, dried fruit and wine. But on this night Jesus also does something extraordinarily unconventional. 

Jesus steps away from his place of honor as host and teacher. He gets up “from the table, takes off his outer robe, ties a towel around himself…” pours water into a basin then kneels in front of each guest, washing their feet and drying them with a towel.” We commiserate when Peter blurts out precisely what we are all thinking, “I am not comfortable with this. I do not want you to wash my feet!”

Here is a bit of context about the tradition of foot washing during Jesus time. Temple priests were not permitted to minister unless they washed their own feet twice. (Zeb 17b) In ancient Israel as a sign of hospitality a host would offer water to a guest and invite them to wash their own feet. (Gen. 18:4)  It is no wonder Peter is appalled when Jesus kneels to wash his feet.  A good host will offer their guests water to wash their own feet. Even temple priests wash their own feet. For a friend, a teacher to wash your feet, this is unheard of.

Which of course begs the question. Why in the world would Jesus do such an outrageous thing? And why on earth do Christians across the globe on this night get on their knees to wash the feet of friends and strangers?

I believe that at some unspeakably deep level we understand that love is more than an interior experience of excitement and attraction. Love is what we actually do to express our care and desire for the good of other people. Jesus puts it this way, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15.13)  I would add, love means setting aside our pride and preoccupation with our self. Love is about making our selves less and elevating the other.

Still, we protest.   “Let’s shake hands or have a polite hug, but  I don’t want you to see my gnarly toes and touch them. And Jesus, I do not want to wash your dusty feet either.”

And Jesus says, “I have seen you. I have heard your. I have felt you. I have touched you. I have cared for you as your servant. I have held nothing back from you because I love you as God the Creator loves me. I love you as God the Redeemer loves me. I love you as God the Source of all being loves me. Now, do likewise.” 

Jesus is showing the disciples and us what love really looks like. It is passing on God’s care and loving kindness.  Later in John’s gospel Jesus says, “I have loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love… this is my commandment. Love one another the way I have loved you. This is the very best way to love, put your life on the line for your friends.” (John 15.9,10,12)

Let me be crystal clear. Jesus is not promoting masochism nor being a doormat. He is showing us the way of extravagant love that holds nothing back. Extravagant love for the good of others, love poured out without measure for the good of friends and strangers. Whose feet do you need to wash? Who will you let wash your feet? Amen. 

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Passion Narrative for the Sunday of the Passion 10 April 2022

Following is the link for The Passion Narrative according to Luke. The link is provided given the great length of the narrative. 

http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/lhwe/luke.html

Reflection        The church was an ultramodern building nestled in a sumptuous Marin County residential setting.  Passing through lush gardens, mesmerized by a stone fountain’s water music mingled with the fragrance of perennial  blossoms I was stopped dead in my tracks as I passed through the sanctuary doors and came face to face with a twenty foot contemporary painted wood sculpture of a Mexican/Spanish styled Jesus nailed to a cross, hanging high above the altar. Thankfully no one else was present as my gasp was audible.

“Oh dear. How can I be in this place? How can I gaze at this enormous dead Jesus every week?” And so began my first parish field education assignment as a brand new seminarian.

It took several months before I screwed up the courage to ask Mark, the rector, how he could live with the daunting sculpture of dead Jesus reigning above his head? He paused  before responding. “Hanging there above us is a constant reminder of what we humans are capable of at our worst. We should never forget our potential for evil, how every day we destroy innocents by our actions and inactions.” Something raw and ignoble clicked inside me. My mind and my heart beat a quick about face. 

We are not worshipping the institution’s graven image of the mangled body of Jesus and thereby violating the first commandment given to us in the Hebrew Scripture, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” (Ex 20.4) The crucifix is radical social commentary. We contemplate the unsettling sculpture of an innocent man nailed to a cross to remind ourselves how easily we turn away from good, misuse our position, power or privilege, then willfully or unwittingly execute evil and elevate our actions to regal heights. 

It is no wonder we resist looking at the vexing sculpture of an innocent man nailed to a cross. It brings us face to face with this inconvenient truth. We are among the crowds of people who follow Jesus,  religious leaders, public officials and ordinary folks who ever so swiftly are swept into the emotion of the moment. Forgetting who and whose we are we turn away from good to execute even the most innocent among us. 

This week, this Holy Week, let us look at the image of an innocent man hanging on a cross and admit all the ways in which we am culpable for pounding nails into the hands and hope of humanity by our actions… and inaction. Let us look at the crucifix and see the homeless man we drove past without stopping to encourage, babes in the arms of their migrant mothers with no place to lay them down, terror in the eyes of a pregnant teenager,  a single mother’s distress as she leaves her sick child home alone to go to work and not lose her job,  destitute people lined up at food banks, social security offices and border crossings, buildings and bodies senselessly shattered from the US Capital to Ukraine. This week let us admit we are all part of the crowd at Jesus’ trial before Pilate shouting, “Crucify him. Crucify him.”

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Gospel of Life Sunday 27 March 2022

 

Text this week is the Gospel of Life, living in the present moment.

Reflection        Waiting for the BART yellow line to San Francisco, chill wind whipped hair into my eyes while the screaming thunder of the approaching train signaled my senses, “Be on guard.” Minding my posture as well as the gap, I settled into the welcome warmth of the less than half occupied car. Unwashed train windows were fitting backdrop for the long winded woman who joined us at the first stop.

It took me awhile to figure out that the wired woman was pontificating to London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco. Words were lost in the river of her emotion as she balanced her bulging backpack on the seat, leaving scarce room for her to sit while reaching into a tattered sack to retrieve a can of beer. I resumed my vigil surveilling fly by cardboard villages buried beneath overpasses and caravans of dilapidated vehicles parked nose to tail along their curbside home. Gazing through dirt stained windows tears caught my throat and blurred my vision.

Screeching to the next jarring halt, like a neglected proscenium the train doors part revealing a mammoth man squeezed and restrained in a wheelchair, a ghoulish red haired doll strapped to his shoulder as a disheveled caretaker bumps, bangs and locks the scene in place. Within a matter of seconds London Breed’s provocateur renews her protestations, the wheelchair man’s head falls forward and we dive to one hundred and thirty five feet below the San Francisco bay. 

Now staring straight into oblivion, the damn in my blurry eyes bursts as a fiery tong pierces my  heart. “Oh my God, such anguish and adversity, such misery and misfortune. And here I sit on my way to sip wine and slurp oysters. I am so blessed, so incredibly blessed. I could be barely surviving entombed beneath train tracks or restrained in a wheelchair with a diabolical doll strapped to my shoulder.” Then something broke open and it occurred to me. I am. 

I am not other than London Breed’s agent provocateur. I am not other than wheelchair man or the dispossessed box dwellers. 

When Moses asks God for God’s name, God answers, I AM. (Exodus 3.13) I AM is that which we all are, made in the image and likeness of the One, Holy and Living I AM.  We are One I AM.  When we allow ourselves to settle into the fullness and messiness, the wounds and the wonder of every stinking real life moment we not only find our selves, we also find God in the faces of every I AM. 

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