The prophet Isaiah in our lesson from the Hebrew scriptures tells us: “ . . . you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.” I AM—when Moses, upon receiving his call at the burning bush, asked God’s name, “God said to Moses, ’I AM WHO I AM.’ (Ex.3:14a) The “I am” sayings of Jesus in John’s gospel refer to this name for God. When Jesus is giving the great commission to his disciples in Matthew’s gospel, he says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt.28:20b) I AM, the BE-ing of God. “Here I AM”—what a precious promise Isaiah gives us—when we cry for help, the Divine will make God’s presence known to us.

When I first read the scriptures for today, “Here I am” jumped out at me, but I didn’t know where it would take me. Then I read a review in the Spring issue of “Parabola” magazine (p106-111) of the movie “Bill W.”, the story of the life of one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. He had an amazing “Here I am” experience. In a drying-out hospital in 1934, at the nadir of his life, Bill W. says, “The last vestiges of my painful obstinacy were crushed out and with no particular hope or faith I cried out as a child in the darkness: ‘If there is a God, will he show himself?’ It seemed as if that room lit up in a great glare . . . I was transported into an ecstasy . . . I stood on top of a mountain and a great clean wind was blowing not of air but of spirit and I was free . . I had touched the ultimate reality of a loving God.”

“ . . . you shall cry for help, and he will say ‘Here I Am.’” This is not merely a Bible story that happened long, long ago. It is true today in the here and now. Maybe not in such an Elijah-type experience (I Kgs. 19:9-13) as Bill W. had, but when we cry for help, we can trust God will answer, will be with us to see us through whatever we are facing. God, the indwelling, enfolding Source and Essence of all, manifests the Divine Presence in whatever ways each of us can recognize. It is different for each of us and may be different each time we experience God’s “Here I AM.”