What carries us over

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.



Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
— Revelation 21.1

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
— John 13.34


The problem with a new heaven and a new earth is that sometimes it doesn't feel so good. When old ways pass away and new things come we sometimes feel displaced, disoriented or even threatened by the new ways. We yearn for the way things used to be. When change comes, what can carry us over into the new world? What can help us to adapt to a new reality, to embrace change, to live with and even live for transformation?

Love will carry us over. To live in a new reality, a new haven and earth, Jesus gives us a new commandment: to love others as Christ has loved us. Jesus teaches us to set our hearts on the blessing and well-being of others rather than on our attachment to things being the way we want them. When we commit to such unconditional, self-giving love, “the way it used to be” is no longer our concern. Love sets us free. This new birth is not just an emergency procedure in the case of dramatic change; it happens with every moment. Every breath is an opportunity to let go of the past and enter into the new heaven and new earth of the present moment.

When things change and we feel lost or displaced, Jesus' call to love can carry us over the abyss of our anxiety and into the new world—the new, living, present, vibrant heaven of this very life.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

It's just weather

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and peace to you.


A storm blows down on the lake, and critters along the shore take cover. But the geese keep right on squawking, calmly paddling around, ducking under for food.

Today a storm will blow into your face: someone will get angry or demanding, a problem will emerge, tension will rise. It happens. But it doesn’t matter. It’s what happens next that matters. You might yell back, or panic at the problem, or join in the rising tension. Or you might not.

Most of the time when we yell or get tense or become demanding we are yelling at a storm: we are displaying our anxiety but fighting something we can’t control.

When the wind begins to howl, before you lash out, take the time to ask yourself: is this an actual threat that I need to do something about, and something that I can control, or is it just weather? What am I afraid of? Can this storm really hurt me, or will I endure it just fine? Do I need to protect or defend myself? Whether it’s a deadly blizzard or someone else’s shower, remember that you can’t change it. The only thing you can control is yourself.

It is perfectly OK to paddle calmly through someone else’s storm. You are not responsible for other people’s weather. It usually won’t hurt you, or them. It’s just weather.

I’m going to post, and then go running in the rain.


______________________
Weather Report

Unpleasant at times,
but not deadly.
Dress appropriately,
but don’t panic.
It will pass,
and so will you.



Deep blessings,
Pastor Steve


________________________
Copyright© Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

New

Dearly Beloved,

See, I am making all things new.
− Revelation 21.

God is not a former Creator.
God is still creating.
God is creating the world, all Creation,
new each moment.

Resurrection happens
when we leave behind the old world, the old reality,
and enter the new reality,
the present moment, created new,
glistening with possibilities, fresh with hope.

In death we allow What Is to breathe out
so that What Is may come in.

Resurrection is the eternal opening of the rose,
unfolding light of the flame,
the burning sun
of the first dawn.

Rise, Beloved,
And be made new.

________________________
Copyright C Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

The risen body of Christ

Dearly Beloved,


Grace and Peace to you.

“We believe in the resurrection of the body,”
says our creed. What, exactly, does that mean?
How, exactly, did Jesus rise from the grave?


We don’t know, and we should never pretend to.
It doesn’t matter. It is not for us to know,
any more than we shall know how God created light.


It doesn’t matter in what form or manner:
got up, maybe, breathed a deep one,
stretched and walked out of the tomb,
careful not to bump his head…
Or maybe rose from his old body,
(moldering unused now)
like mist from a lake, or light from a fire,
or laughter from a child,
and took on a new one.


Don’t bother trying to cram something
so mystifying, so incomprehensible
into a few molecules or metaphors.
It shall remain stunning.


After all, even the eyewitnesses missed it at first—
Mary in the Garden, Cleopas on the road to Emmaus,
the fishermen in the boat:
unrecognizable in any one form or flesh, yet flesh:
real, changed and undying.


Know this: that the Beloved will come, always
costumed, oblique,
athwart our expectations and belief,
yet still, undeniably, flesh,
changing before our eyes from life
into life;
until we are convinced that nothing less
than all of us, and all Creation—and even you—
constitute his real, risen, loving, breathing body.






Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Godling

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.



As surely as you come from earth,
are made of earth,
and part of earth,
and will return to earth,
so surely you come from God,
are made of God,
and part of God,
and are returning, every breath,
to God.

God is your substance and your life,
the spark of your being,
your body and its dance.

God is your breath and your flesh,
your muscle and mind.
God is the miracle by which
you are brought out of not being,
the grace by which You Are.

You are one with The Holy Oneness.
You are a blossom of this beauty.

Let God, this day,
be your work and your wakefulness.
Let God be the source of your mindfulness,
the substance of your thoughts and deeds.

As surely as you are an earthling,
you are a Godling,
God’s, and of God,
the Holy One,
Loving One,
Indwelling One, the
One.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Earthling

Dearly Beloved,


Grace and Peace to you.




Go out upon the earth.
Walk among trees.
Lay your hand on their bark,
notice the kinship of skin, of bone
of wrinkle, spot and bug.
Ignore your clothing, let it fall
away from your mind,
rubbish blowing in the woods.
Really, you're a critter,
one of those with whom this world teems,
a muscle of this flesh,
an organ of this creature,
with whom you share the long knowing
of gravity, the flow of blood
from mountain springs
through your clay channels to the sea,
the sun's alchemy of heat to light,
and leaves' of light to food,
and yours of food to heat.
The priest of your body's weight,
the trembling of your hands,
your faithful beating heart and breath,
pronounces your belonging,
and blesses all root and leaf and flesh
that is your life,
the wind and lung's dark sex,
the unknown wisdom hid behind
the closed eye of your body,
your cell's unceasing praise.
All garments, buildings,
pavements and devices are a ruse
to separate your flesh from flesh.
We humans are of humus, raised;
your atoms, all, are of this dirt,
once spirit-blown and then
a thousand times,
and will return and rot and boil and bloom
a thousand more.
Oh, fragile, living tissue, sing with joy!—
for you are of this heaven,
sacred soil ensouled,
no passing thought, but flesh,
created flesh, and blessed to be
an earthling.





Happy Earth Day.





Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

My shep hear my voice

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.



My sheep hear my voice.
I know them,
and they follow me.
I give them eternal life.
— John 10.27-28



The Living Word within
speaks you into being.
It is most holy, then,
to listen.

Live this day
at a listening pace,
in listening poise,
each step a following,

each moment a waiting
for the voice
that knows you,
that your heart already follows.

You don't need right answers
or good ideas,
but only stillness
in which to hear.

Let your heart,
serene and open,
hear the voice
that gives you life.






Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Go fish

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

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.
— John 21.3-6


Peter drifts among his losses and failures,
his disappointment, his guilt.
Elbows on knees, he sits, staring
at the empty bottom of his boat.

Sometimes we catch nothing.
Sometimes our nets come up empty,
our boat is empty,
our lives drift over an empty sea.
We have nothing to offer.

The risen Christ is here, I promise.
And I promise you will not recognize him.
A miraculous shoal of fish hovers beneath your boat.
But you can't see them. Guaranteed.

Just sit and wait
and listen
for the voice.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

I return

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.



•

Holy One,
Unsayable Love,
you have chosen this morning
to rise in this sun,
to breathe in this body,
to blossom in me.

I am in awe.
I am in you.
I am at peace.

I sit in your light.
I live in your heartbeat.
I rest in your love.

Though I go onto my work this day
may I remain here always
in your peace.

I thank you.
I bless you.
I return to you.
Always, I return to you.


•





Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

No ears

Dearly Beloved,


Grace and Peace to you.




The cello has no ears
with which to hear the soaring music
played upon it, or to comprehend
the symphony to which it adds
its single voice.


Why bother doubting
the beauty of your life to God,
when you know we are not given
ears to hear such things?


____________________

Weather Report

Hidden,
with increasing mystery throughout the day,
as all things must be fully illuminated
and partially obscured.
However, as the warm air of heaven
permeates the continent of this life,
grace will prevail
and all things will rise.


_____


Off tomorrow. See you Monday.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Stretch out your hands

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to 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."
— John 21.17-18


But it's not a belt,
nothing so solid and irrefutable,
more like silence,
more like a nudging, a slight vacuum,
an intent beyond our choosing,
a recognition rising slowly like fish.
We are led, allured, invited,
not yanked, by a wisp of grace,
a smell of food on a charcoal fire,
a possibility.


In silence, in the mystery, we are
taken from our lives,
—drawn up out of dark waters,
blessed by grace greater than ourselves,
—fed the bread and fish of miracles,
broken open to the our deepest hearts,
—confessing our love, and
given to the world,
—led by a belt of love.

And so we go.
We look up from our half-eaten fish,
recognize the One who has hauled us
in a net of mystery out of our disconnected lives,
and step into the new world.

So now, enter the stillness.
Stretch out your hands.
Stop trying to push yourself through life.
Wait, 'till, like a fish you are drawn up in darkness,
and led into the rising day.



Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Greening

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

In the woods, the smallest fingers of green
emerge from within.
What has seemed dead wood exults.
The little greenings are incarnations
of an eternal force, divine presence,
angels of a mighty heaven hidden within all things.

God is not some guy out there pulling strings to make things happen. God is the force of life within you, welling up to blossom and bear fruit. God does not coerce, control or punish, or “judge” from some high throne. God lives in you and gives life, like the power that lives in the grass and trees that are turning green.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) made up a word for it: viriditas, or “greening power.” It is God's life-giving, creating energy, evident in all creation. She says, “The Word is all verdant greening, all creativity.” We are “showered with greening refreshment, the vitality to bear fruit.” When we are “shriveled and wilted” Christ brings “lush greenness” to us. “Greening love hastens to the aid of all. With the passion of heavenly yearning, people who breathe of this dew produce rich fruit.”

Let God give you life: rising, strengthening, increasing in grace and beauty. Be still, and sense this Spring rising in you, this power of divine grace transforming all things, this almighty, eternal, indomitable life swelling, promising, blossoming, bearing fruit within you. Let God green in you.

Deep Blessings,

Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Breathe in me

Dearly Beloved,


Grace and Peace to you.



Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you... As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
— John 20. 19, 21-22


Breathe in me, risen Christ.
Revive me.
I inhale your presence.
Your light fill me,
your compassion warm me.
Your Spirit be my life.
My flesh absorb you,
dense with the weight
of your resurrection.
My body resonate with your energy,
my eyes radiate your love.
May I receive your grace,
breathe deeply of your life,
rest in your presence.

And then when it is time,
breathing in through me,
breathing out through me,
send me on your breath
into this wounded world,
this beautiful world,
present in your presence,
breathing in your grace,
and breathing out.




Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Unless I see

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.



Thomas said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."
—John 20.25





The drug dealer's secret shame,
the car bomb widow, how she looks down streets,
the man with hollow eyes in the lock up unit,
everybody thinks it's babbling, his praying,
the battered children and their fragile hands,
the illegal who cleans chickens and feeds her baby,
the father gradually forgiving himself
for failing his children,
and his children—
Thomas, you have only to reach out
and feel with your hand
the wounds of Christ
to behold your risen Lord.




Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Risen today

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


Christ is risen.
Right now.
Resurrection is about today,
not the day of your funeral.
Live today as if you know that
even if you die God will grant greater life,
that even if you give away all of yourself
God will create you anew,
that if you surrender yourself to a greater love
that will be miracle enough.
Live this day believing
that even in defeat and loss and failure
God creates unprecedented victory.
Live today knowing that when all seems hopeless
God transforms things.

Listen: When you sow seeds
God does not give them back,
but breaks them apart, pulls their insides out,
and turns them into beautiful plants.
(Taken... blessed... broken... given...)

Live today ready to be sown.
Live as if Christ is risen
in you.
Let your life—each moment of letting go,
each act of love, each breath—
be resurrection.





Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Christ is risen

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Christ is risen.
Don't debate it, or try to prove it or understand it.
That's like trying to prove that the moon is lovely.
Just let it be true.
Give up, and let it be.
Don't try to guess (which is all we could do)
what kind of body, what sort of process.
Just let the sun rise.
Let God have the way of love and life.
Let goodness overpower evil,
love drive out fear, life defeat death.
Christ is risen.
Don't try to make it into a theory;
let it be a mystery.
Let it haunt you, let it startle you,
let it push you out of bed in the morning,
let it draw you into love.
Christ is risen.
Let Christ rise in you.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Father, forgive

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
— Luke 23.34


God receives our fear and violence and betrayal and all that is in us that works against life; God receives it and does not return it. No one pays for this sin, no one atones. There is no exchange. God suffers, and is not avenged or compensated. God simply, willingly, completely forgives us. This is the grace that sustains our lives.


God inhabits our pain. The Eternal One endures our suffering. The Creator knows our fear and isolation. The Holy One lives inside our sin. God experiences our cruelty and inhumanity, our injustice and oppression. God embraces our sorrow, and is laid in our tomb. The cross is not the working out of some complex plan, nor is it a unique occasion. It simply God's presence with us and for us, loving, blessing, forgiving. It is God's way. This is the grace that sustains our lives.


Let this day be one of awe and reverence, humility and gratitude.



Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Jesus, remember me

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

The criminal crucified with him said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
—Luke 23.42-43

Jesus, this is all I need to hear:
at the center of my ruined world,
whispered in the ashen wreckage,
this gentle promise, that I,
condemned and guilty,
afraid and mangled, belong.
Not a mere pronouncement,
not an achievable goal,
but an already gift,
a claiming, a receiving.
Into your mystery
that defeats pain and shame
you take me.
In my brokenness
you bless me.
In the certainty of my despair
you break me.
To your kingdom
you give me.
When everything had seemed meaningless—
O!—my failures mean nothing to you.
Here in my abandonment
you are present,
here in my hell is Paradise,
here in the heart of my oblivion
I am saved.

O Re-Creator, somehow in your bloodied hands
my life is a fine thing,
and its wings shine calmly.

I am honored to be a citizen
of your kingdom of gentleness.
May this ever be my prayer:
Jesus, remember me
when you come into your kingdom.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com