Keep Awake

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Keep awake, for you do not know when the Beloved is coming.
         — Matthew 24.42


You can't tell beforehand
which manger will receive him.
You won't expect how you will be met.

You don't know when the Beloved will appear before you,
when your vision will break through the surface
to the holiness within,
when your belovedness will become evident.

You can't predict how the One will come to you,
in what ordinary person
offering you grace,
needing forgiveness.

You never know when
you might see God in yourself
shimmering, breathing, calm.

Of the Present One
we only catch fleeting glimpses.
So keep your eyes open.
Stay alert.
Watch.


___________________

Weather Report

Partly clear
as a high pressure area of
Having Been Here and Done That,
producing heavy overcast,
is dissipated by wonder and gratitude.
Expect coming,
with patches of disclosure
and isolated moments when the sun
(which has always been there)
breaks through.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Giving thanks for Thanksgving

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Thanksgiving was wonderful. Gathering in a town where we'd never been (in South Jersey, of all places!) with twenty-one people, thirteen of them strangers to us, around a couple of tables squeezed in where the armchairs are supposed to be. A house rearranged for the sake of togetherness, decorated for the sake of joy. Strangers made family by love. Becoming part of a tribe we've never met. A kitchen crowded with cousins, aunts and uncles; tables piled with food; conversations rich with memories and discoveries. A nine-hundred mile drive there and back, picking up sons along the way, through the thickest holiday traffic that not only one city but Boston, New York and Philadelphia had to offer, and every mile worth it.

Isn't that what Jesus envisioned as the Realm of God? The world rearranged for the sake of community. Beauty honored. Separations overcome. Food shared. Journeys toward each other undertaken. Family created. Isn't this Jesus' vision of The Real World? People around one table, eating and talking. Communion.

Today, of course, I'm in my own familiar house, all alone, eating cereal. But the vision lingers. The promise looms. I'm still there.

This is what God is trying to do with us. It's so simple—and lovely, really: just to get us to sit down and eat together and enjoy it. This is as complicated as God's will for us gets. This is what God is trying to get us to do every moment of our lives. Come to the Thanksgiving banquet. The furniture has been rearranged, the strangers have been invited, the food is all here. There's an empty seat for you. The invitation is always open.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

This very day

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

I don't need to learn to levitate,
or want to turn to pure flame like the saints.
Here's holiness enough for me:
to kindle gratitude like a heartbeat,
gratitude that is its own heaven,
gratitude for for morning and its breath,
for food as it bows its head and closes its eyes,
for the feel of my hand against my face,
for friends whose distance can't diminish
the love they've left with me,
for breath and bone and sky and stone,
for each moment, every even dull moment
full of Being's very wonder.
I'd like to be a bird on a wire
singing its guts out for no great reason other
than being thankful to be singing,
this very day.




         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Night walk

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

This old torn coat will do me
in the woods, with a good sweater.
The path is no Appalachian Trail, just a way
among the beeches, oaks and pines
beyond the house, the sigh of traffic not too far.
An owl begins to speak, thinks better of it.
The moon, near full and thinly overcast,
glows dim, soft-spoken,
dropping splotchy shadows where it can.
I work my way through cloudlight,
shadows and their shadows,
hauntings and suggestions.
The trees are kind in the weak darkness,
the path is patient for me to find it,
and find it again.
The porch light doesn't care how late I am,
but smiling, waits.

This life seldom offers clarion or neon,
white lights leading to red lights.
We walk slowly among uncertain shadows
cast by light reflected. It is enough.
We find our way.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

The real world

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
         for God has visited us and redeemed us.
God has raised up for us
         a mighty savior from the family of David.
This is as God promised through the mouth
         of the holy prophets from of old,
to save us from every power
         that would ruin our lives.
God has shown mercy to our ancestors,
         and has remembered the holy covenant,
the oath that God swore
         to our ancestors Abraham and Sarah:
to set us free from the power of evil,
         free to serve God without fear,
holy and righteous in God’s sight,
         all the days of our lives.
                  — Luke 1. 68-75

This is the plan. It's God's will. It's not just a hope; it's an accomplished fact. This is a way to see reality. This is the Real World. God saves us from what would destroy us (most of which is within us) and sets us free, puts us in harmony with God, makes us holy. Our lives are all we need. We are free to serve God without fear. Nothing can stop us from loving perfectly.

The world in which you have to earn your keep, please God, justify yourself or prove your worth is an imaginary world. The God who wants to judge you, critique your performance, or demand your improvement is a false God. This is the real God: the one who promises, who comes, who saves, who sets us free, who makes us holy, who gives us love.

It may seem like chaos rules the world, and terror is in charge. But the God of Blessing is actually the absolute Sovereign. Let others live in ignorance and fear. We live in gratitude, hope and compassion. For “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of God's Christ, who will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11.15). Hallelujah.


         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

a blessing

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
         for you will go before the Lord to prepare God's ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to all people
         by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
         the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
         and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
         — Luke 1.76-79



You, tender one, innocent one, child of God:
God will shine through you without your seeing it.
You will be God's channel into people's lives.
In your kindness people will somehow feel blessed,
and trust God's grace because of your forgiveness.

For God will dawn upon us with gentle love,
being light to those who live in darkness,
those whom death shadows,
and guiding our hearts in lives of peace.

Let this blessing
walk with you today.



         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

The reckoning

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


Listen:
there is no inquisition
after the stilling of your heart and lungs,
no brutal trial, no depressing movie,
no damning questions.

The harvesters
with their scythes, their winnowing forks,
they are already here.
They are not interested in chaff,
not at all.
But there is no test.
They simply harvest what they can, and leave.

No, after the lights go out,
and the Light comes in,
there are only the little cherubs,
so sweet and lovely,
for whom there is only joy in this universe,
simple, and resolutely perfect.

And those gripped by evil who in desperation
have pilfered this world’s joy,
who have sown fear and cherished sorrow,
those the little cherubs will sweetly
plunder of their dear misery,
happily rob them of all of it;
they will strip them of their skin of scorn,
shatter the hate to which they cling,
tear the blindness from their eyes,
strangle their demons, gouge out their shame,
—little smiling angels, tears on their cheeks,
with graceful blades, cooing softly—
cut their fear right out of them
and lift their hearts, still freezing, from their chests,
leaving only God's,
without so much as an apology,

bind them in tenderness,
plunge them in vats of forgiveness,
pour hot coals of beauty over them—
molten, breath-taking awe—
and pierce them with the gentlest heart-wrenching love,
piling on them relentlessly
the whole weight of all the world’s delight

until they break at last
into helpless tears of joy.




Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

What kind of king?

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
        
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"
         —Luke 23.33-37

What kind of king might this be,
naked and in agony,
defeated and vulnerable,
without a land or an army,
without dignity or power?

What kind of king is he,
who will not save himself,
who will allow scoundrels
to take the life right out of him,
and spend himself for the unworthy?

What Realm does he rule,
and what is his law,
and how will he enforce it?
How will he provide for his people
and defend his land?
What manner of king might this be?

He is the King of Forgiveness,
and his grace is supreme.
He imposes his imperial mercy
upon all who are broken and in need.
He establishes forgiveness
with absolute power;
it is a law that no one can break.

He is my king, the little man
who is shamed and abused
and remains unalterably kind.
Even the greatest force cannot prevail
against his mighty gentleness.

He is my king, the King of Forgiveness.
I bow to him,
and I will obey his command,
and I will follow him
into life.




         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Rain

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Rain,
this one drop falling just now
between the branch and stone,
falling with cloud-mingled memory
of a line of Siberian lakes,
memory of a thousand emigrations
from swamp and steppe,
of zephyrs, monsoons, chinooks and squalls—
this drop is now distilled from all of that
and simply falls, led to this spot, this splat
on a stone, where it rests
after all those glaciers and rivers, rests
in this moment, and asks me:
before you rush off
to your next Patagonian slope
will you fall, here, through this very air,
and soak into this place,
before you are swept away?


__________________

Weather report

Rain, somewhere,
perhaps not near you,
although what
matters you yourself
will have to see.


         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Not a hair will perish

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
“You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
         — Luke 21. 16-19

Only someone who believes in death and resurrection could say “they will put you to death, but not a hair on your head will perish.” Only someone who knows that life is more than flesh, that you are more than a personality, that Who You Are already exceeds your physical body, your earthly life.

We believe that Jesus was a real, earthly human being and at the same time divine, that he was a mortal and that there was also something eternal going on in him, something that even after his death was and is still alive today. Now if we can only see that the same is true of all of us.

And it's love that makes us that way. When we love we enter into that eternal, divine part of us. When we empty our lives into the world, there is nothing left in us but God. Nothing can harm that eternal essence of us, nothing can defeat it or kill it. Thus as Paul says, “Love never fails.” So in love we stand with the poor and the suffering,we reach out to the despised, we give our love to those who cannot return it, we are in solidarity with those who are persecuted. (We won't be persecuted because of what we believe, but because of who we stand with.) This is what it means to be Christ-like. It is to die and be raised in love.

There's not much comfort for those who say, “Give your life to Jesus and problems will be solved and you will be happy.” No, give your life to him and you will suffer. But you will also become more fully your true self, your God-given self, your your divine and eternal nature. You will gain your soul.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Testify

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

They will arrest you and persecute you... because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
         — Luke 21. 12-15

I don't think Jesus is necessarily promising to channel persuasive arguments or convincing doctrines to us. I think he is inviting us to be aware of how God has loved us, and to testify to that grace by loving others, even our persecutors. The “wisdom” Jesus conveyed is not a proposition or belief. It's a loving way of living. I don't think Jesus envisions his followers spouting correct doctrine. I think he envisions us being true to the spirit of love. I think he envisions us being loving instead of being defensive.

In Luke's gospel these sayings about the end times follow immediately after Jesus praises the poor widow for giving her two little coins to the temple. “She has put in more than all the others.” Maybe your testimony is whatever God has granted you to give, whatever is true of your life. You don't need to learn some esoteric wisdom; you just need to be aware of your own life, and the truth and power in it, and convey that truth.

When you're surrounded by cynicism and fear, bear witness to the power and presence of love in your life. That will contribute more than all the rest.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Not one stone

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
         — Luke 21.5-6


What do you carve your name in?

He was right about the stones,
how they all came down,
how the temple joined a great line of ruins,
how every stone comes home to Ground Zero,
is dust, and returns to dust,
about your life, carved in stone.

What do you stand on?

Where the temple once was, stones remain,
a wall where the faithful come to pray.
They fold up little papers with prayers
and stick them between the stones,
moving their lips and murmuring.

What do you hold onto?

What we think of as stones
are just brief gatherings of sand.
Long after earth is gone,
the little scraps of paper will remain.
Long after God has forgotten the stones,
God will remember the prayers,
moving his lips and murmuring.

What do you believe in?

Heaven and hell are made of stone.
All that lasts is this living moment,
and whatever love is in it.
Let the stones vanish.
Come and meet God here,
now.



         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

What Lucy said

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
God is not far away, watching us “from a distance.” God is with us intimately, lovingly, bringing us into being. When we feel our prayers are not answered, the lack is in our awareness, not God's. So we practice awareness. Recently my wise and lovely four year old great-niece Lucy was talking to her mother, Anna, who is also wise and lovely. This, word for word, is what Lucy said:


In your tummy,
I saw your bones and they were white.
I saw your blood and it was blue.
God was with me in your tummy.
He didn't even look at me,
not even once.
He just sat there with his eyes closed
and prayed.
And I watched Him day and night.



         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

The Milky Way

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         


The Milky Way was created
by a herd of white horses
galloping through water
and the water stayed, the spray
of light, the radiant droplets
hung in the air, the light
slapped the horses' flanks and
leaped off into the sky, where it stays,
and the joy of the horses,
the thrilling, senseless running,
the unfurling of mane and tail like waves,
like wings, still vibrant in the darkness,
the rings of water ringing like bells,
rings expanding into rings,
and the silence sings, and the horses run,
still running, still flinging stars
into the darkness, where you can feel
the strike of their hoofbeats in your heart,
the flare of their nostrils, the wild energy
somewhere in the night, drumming,
and you want to know what to do,
because you know
they are coming.


         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

One splendid autumn day

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

One splendid autumn day
light leaps from leaves,
an ecstasy of yellow, red and orange,
your eyes enflamed with glory,
caught up in the moment's crimson rapture.
But then, when flame gives way to smoke,
and embers cool to ochre, dull and sere,
when fire gives way to ash
and winter's long stone wall,
will those moments be any less given,
any less precious and passing?
The light, even the light that languishes
beneath an asphalt sky,
beneath a soggy tarp of cloud,
still leaps within the light.
In the eye behind the eyes,
where grace is more than splendor,
every stain or shadow is a form of beauty,
the angle of a door a prayer,
and glory is the hidden name,
and praise a coiled spring within.




__________________

Weather Report

A glorious day,
as thick clouds,
unpleasant winds and incessant rain
reveal the divine presence
and the wonder of created Being
beyond the visible front
that is continually moving through our area.


         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Children of the resurrection

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

"In the resurrection from the dead … They cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.... God is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to God all of them are alive."
— From Luke 20. 27-38

Jesus is talking about the afterlife. But also, he isn't. God is the God of the living, not the dead. Our faith is about how to live, not what happens to us when we die. If we believe in Resurrection, that we are somehow raised after we go to the grave, then we live right now as if we trust it. We live as children of the resurrection. If we know that we are raised after we die, then we have no reason to fear death. It has no power over us. Even before death, we already cannot die anymore.

Since God gives us life that even death can't overcome, that is the life we seek, and the grace we trust. We are not bound by the need to protect ourselves or preserve ourselves. We have no reason not to give ourselves away. We have no fear of taking risks for the sake of compassion. We can give of ourselves in attentiveness to others, unburdened by defensiveness, competition or greed. As children of the resurrection, in this life we are free. By the grace of God we are truly, deeply, joyfully alive.

Today, live with courage as a child of the resurrection.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Voting and praying

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Yesterday your vote went into a pile, became a number, and got added up and compared to another pile. And then it disappeared. It's over. But when you pray your prayer goes into God, and is treasured forever.

When you vote, you are trying to influence an outcome. When you pray you let go of outcomes and become open to God's inflowing grace.

When you vote, you try to get someone or something else to change. When you pray you yourself change—which changes the world.

When you vote and lose, nothing comes of it. You lost. When you pray for something that has not come yet, as when you pray for peace, or justice for the poor, your prayer vibrates in harmony with the delight of God, which is the energy of the world, and transforms the world.

Your vote may or may not have an effect but your prayer always has an effect. You are a nerve cell of God. When you pray you deepen the world's awareness.

It was good that you voted yesterday. Now pray, and exercise some real power.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Voting

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
One might think that it's Halloween when the witches, ogres, monsters and all those scary figures finally take their costumes and go away. But it's really not 'till Election Day. Political ads have become increasingly negative to the point where it seems like an election is a Halloween contest for the scariest costume (we all know it's pretend) and the winner is whoever comes in last.

It's a symptom of our fear—not just fear of somebody doing something we don't like, but fear of what's inside us, fear of our own inner monsters. We want to be distracted from our vulnerability and our powerlessness and our shame. We want some cheesy issue to distract us from what really gnaws at us. We get inflamed about what other people ought to do so that we can ignore how we ought to change. We're glad to be made afraid of terrorists or immigrants or welfare cheats so we don't have to be afraid of our own selfishness and violence. We obsess with political issues so we can ignore God's issues, like poverty and war and our abuse of God's Creation.

The Bible says that love of money, that is, the desire to protect one's riches, is the root of all kinds of evil. Yet candidates will brag about how much of your riches they will protect (while actually putting in the hands of rich, powerful, unregulated corporations). The Bible says to love your neighbor, but candidates promise to separate you from your neighbors and disengage you from their struggles. Lusting for power, candidates pretend to be “ordinary people.” Candidates will claim to be “outsiders” with fresh perspectives, but ignore the needs of the real outsiders, those who are dispossessed and despised, foreign or voiceless.

It's as if we are invited, begged, to vote with fear and rancor, with cynicism and disregard for reality. But you—you, my friends, reading this on your computer screen this Tuesday morning— you will vote differently. You will vote prayerfully. You will vote gently and compassionately, with courage and generosity, without fear or self-serving, without bitterness or hate. You will vote as you live, in love and grace, and in truth. As Jesus bids you, you will vote for the sake of the poor, for those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted. You will vote with love. And if voting does not seem to accomplish this for you, if you leave the voting booth no more loving and courageous than you entered, then you've got the rest of the day to work on that. Shed the costumes, face your deepest fears, and learn to trust more deeply in the grace of God. The “results” won't show up in tomorrow’s papers, but they'll change the world.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

All Saints Day

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

You are God's holy saint,
chosen and blessed,
given sacred gifts,
invested with divine powers.
You were born to radiate the glory of God,
to fulfill God's deepest desires,
to complete God's delight.
You are given an extraordinary heart
for love, if only you discover it.
All that you do
has hidden in it this holy purpose,
this infinite potential.

You are not unusual among saints,
neither more nor less sanctified than any of them.
They are all people who have lives,
who wake up and make choices,
who do chores and forget things
and do not understand their place
in the splendor of the heavens.
This is not an excuse.

You were born to be holy.
This is not a burden,
not a duty, a command or an obligation,
not a threat or a trap.
It is a gift.
Let it be a wonder,
a mystery to ponder,
so that in your hands
it becomes a gift,
and you join the great choir
singing the magnificence of this life
and the One who gives it.




         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net