Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.

When I turned 40 years old back in 2003, I recall fondly how not one, not two, but three birthday parties were generously thrown in my honor.   Being one that does not necessarily like to be the center of attention, it was a bit of a struggle.  On the other hand, though, the experience with different people in different settings, coming together in recognition and appreciation for life, and in particular, the life that we all shared together, all of this together nudged me into a wider framework that was less self-conscious and more wondrously expansive.   It was a celebration of Life, not just mine, but all of it!

During one of the birthday parties, which was held in the backyard of our house, underneath one of the Christmas trees decorated in the yard (my birthday is December 28^th), I noticed a fabric covering a mound of something hidden beneath.  At the point where I began opening the gifts, Leonard pointed to the cloth- covered mound under the Christmas tree and gestured for me to uncover it.   Once I did, I was completely overwhelmed and taken by surprise.  Tears immediately stood up in my eyes as I saw that the treasure hidden beneath the fabric was the collection of stones that my grandparents had gathered during their many years of traveling out West. 

Two years prior, my grandmother had passed away, and when her house was sold, for some reason, the collection of precious stones (granite, sandstone, quartz, slate, schist, etc.) that were in her backyard were left behind.  I had expressed my woe at the stones being left behind upon the sale of the house, and how I wished we could retrieve them.  Leonard and my friend Debbie took it upon themselves to ask the new owners of the house if they could retrieve the stones to present to me on my birthday.  The new owners agreed.  The actual retrieval process is a story unto itself for another time!

Looking at these precious stones laid out under this Christmas tree in my backyard put me in mind of the preciousness of having made some of those trips out west with my grandparents and how those experiences with them had not only given me wonderful memories, but also had lavishly filled my life going forward.   These precious stones were alive!

Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings
but chosen and precious in the sight of God,
and, like living stones,
let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.

The first letter from Peter (1 PT 2: 4-9) in the 5th Sunday of Easter’s liturgy today describes this same sense of the preciousness of living stones.  Here, Christ is the Living Stone that we are called toward and then invited to allow ourselves to be living stones.  Peter quickly expands this preciousness, this chosen-ness, and preciousness of Christ to all of us.  We are immediately part of this preciousness, and as living stones responsible for building our very selves into spiritual homes.   

John’s Gospel (JN 14:1-2) also speaks of these spiritual homes, this time in terms of preparing places:

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
Thomas said to him,
“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.

These dwelling places, like the spiritual houses, must be prepared and built in order for them to be truly inhabitable – Living!  Despite Jesus’ claim that Thomas does know the way, Thomas insists that he does not know the way, because he does not know where Jesus is going.  Thomas can’t seem to grasp what Jesus may mean when he says that he “will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be.”  Jesus is not going to any place – he is not going away.  Time and space, history and distance have vanished. 

Where Jesus does go is inside, deep inside us, into the vaults of our lives and our deaths in order to give New Life to the rigid stones of our ossified and frustrated patterns of living.  This is the preparation, which is a transformation, of our true dwelling place, the spiritual house built of living stones.  This coming back again is a whole new Way that takes us into the intimacy of Christ’s own self so that where Christ is so are we!

We do know the way, when we acknowledge the truth of who we are in Christ.  We are on the way when we Live in and through Christ, as living stones, precious, chosen, strong and expansive, deep in confident humility and fully engaged in Life.

“I am the way and the truth and the life”

Just as those gifts of living stones of my grandparents witness to the multifarious ways of nature in its infinitely wondrous spheres of life, so are we all witnesses to the way of Christ – preparing, transforming, building up, tearing down, always seeking to live alive within the precious wholeness that as Peter tells us, “announces the praises of the One who called us out of darkness into God’s wonderful light.”