Ascension Day

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
—Luke 24. 50-51


Today is Ascension Day, 40 days after the resurrection when Jesus ascended to heaven. Clearly he has left. Yet he said, “I am with you always.” How do we make sense of this? It must be that Christ is with us in another form, not the body of Jesus of Nazareth. On Pentecost we will see the new form of Christ's incarnation, the Body of Christ: not a person at all, but a community.

Christ is present, here, now. God, in love, is bodily present with you. Look around you. Look within you. Look slowly, and carefully. Let your prayer be a deepening, widening awareness. The Beloved will appear in forms you do not expect. Remember Jacob and his dream, and the disciples on the road to Emmaus: it is often only afterward that we realize that God has been present in ways we did not know. Christ doesn't always look like Jesus. God doesn't always look like God. The best we can do is to continually open the eyes of our hearts to the indwelling, surrounding, unseen presence of the Loving One.

Keep the eyes of your heart open.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve










_______________________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@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

The day after

.
Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


Last night we packed up the decorations.
The ornaments went back in their boxes,
the angels put away their instruments
and returned to their tissue paper heaven,
the shepherds returned to their fields
in plastic tubs in the basement, the wise men
returned to their faraway cardboard palaces,
the holy family saddled up the donkey
and left Bethlehem—the rumor is for Egypt,
and that there will be trouble in town.
It is the same, I know, in your house.

So now if there is to be angelic music
it will have to be hidden in your voice.
If there is to be good news of love made flesh
it will have to be in your hands.
If there is to be light in the darkness,
the small twinkling light of a star
that leads someone to love,
the quiet steady candle of presence,
it will have to be in your eyes.
If there is a child who is born the Prince of Peace
look within,
rejoice,
and return to your fields.



Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © 2010
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@hotmail.com

On the twelfth day of Christmas

Dearly Beloved,


Grace and Peace to you.


Happy twelfth day of Christmas. Twelve drummers drumming and all that.


It is clear by now that what we celebrate in the twelve days of Christmas is not what the rest of the world has in mind. (I hear they're producing a new version of “A Charlie Brown's Christmas” in which they've deleted the scene where Linus tells the Christmas story.) Sure enough, for some it is merely a time for buying and getting stuff, and going to school concerts and gaudily decorated office parties. For others it may a time of love and giving. Even for most Christians it's Jesus' birthday, but not much different from other ones, except that we get the presents.


But what if it's about Incarnation, about Christ being born in us, and therefore about being transformed? Well, that takes time. Twelve days is a good beginning. (A twelve day old baby is really just the beginning!)


What does Christmas mean to you? What does it mean in you? Are you ready to bear Christ into the world in your own new life? What will you do to care for that new life? How will you live now that is different from the way you used to? May the “reason for the season” last longer than twelve days with you.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________

Copyright c 2010
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@hotmail.com

Five golden rings

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


In the rest of rest of the world Christmas is over (it runs from Thanksgiving to Dec. 25). Notice that people are already wishing you a happy new year. But for us Christians, it's only the fifth day. Five golden rings, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. We've got a lot of maids a-milking and lords a-leaping yet to go. For most of the world, Christmas is a gaudy flash, and it's over in a flurry of wrapping paper, and a day later we go back to normal. But going back to normal is not what Jesus' followers are about.

Santa has come and gone but Jesus is still here—now what? Now we begin to live as if the Splendor of Heaven is among us. We live as if the One Who Loves Us and who comes to save us has indeed come, and is indeed saving us. We live as if after years of longing in exile we are finally being rescued. We live as if the Prince of Peace walks beside us. We live as if angels hover, singing glory. We live as if a star is shining overhead that announces for all Creation that the Beloved is here. We live as if God is with us. Because it's true.



Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © 2009
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@hotmail.com

Christmas

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


It’s a special time, with the pretty lights and sumptuous meals, the gathering of loved ones and the giving of gifts, the beauty and the memories. But don’t think that the beauty and the luminous mystery belong to this day alone. The proclamation of Christmas is that God is With Us. This is not about one magical night long, long ago, but about God is with and among and within us always.

Ask Mary. When you were on that hard road to Bethlehem, when you were homeless in a strange place, where was God? Inside you. When you were shivering in that shed, left out of the circle of acceptance and privilege, where was God? Beside you. When you fled to Egypt, sought by powers and dominions whose soldiers were sent for your harm, where was God? Cradled in your arms, in your beating heart, in the depth of your breath. Each day, in your ordinary times, in your struggles, in the times of belonging and times of abandonment, where was God? Right here. Always, right here.

On this special night, God says to us with all the beauty it deserves, “I love you and I want to be with you. You are my delight, and I will give up all of heaven simply to be with you. Even if you do not understand, even if you hurt me and reject me, my desire is to be with you—to be in your arms, in your heart, in year breath. See! I am here. I am with you. Peace to you, and to all living things, in whom is my delight.”


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © 2009
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@hotmail.com

Baby in a manger

.

God does not come into our lives with overpowering force.
God comes with no more power than a baby has:
the power to evoke our love.

God comes with no more authority than a crying child,
the authority of one who knows suffering,
and will not be fooled by empty comfort.

God comes with no grandeur, no Empire,
but a world of infinite expanse, whose gates
are hidden in our hearts.

God comes with no parades, no banners,
no recognition at all, except among those who listen
to the silence that burns in all Creation.

God does not come to holy places, to sanctuaries and temples,
but to mangers and graveyards, shelters and tent cities,
to broken places.

God does not come to the triumphant and those in high places;
God comes to shepherds and lepers, to the poor and the weak,
and to you.

When you are willing, look.



Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © 2009
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Blessed is she who believes

.
Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


Blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her by the Lord.
— Luke 1.45

Blessed is she who believes
that God can use her ordinary life,
who has done the work of peasants
and been in others’ shadows
and still is extraordinary,
who has nothing remarkable to offer,
who is not brilliant or powerful—
and who trusts that the miracle
is of God’s choosing, not her deserving.

Blessed is she who believes that
in plain living, in deep friendships
and love of children and quiet respect,
God speaks;
that in endurance and honesty,
in making soups and potholders,
in trust in grace rather than power,
and a tender heart for those who are abused
and the occasional letter to the editor,
God’s prophetic Word is proclaimed;
that in faithfulness to the weak
God’s promises are fulfilled.

Blessed is she who is not afraid to do great things,
to bear great love, to wield the power of her wisdom,
to know God in her body and her mind.

Blessed is she who believes
that God is in her
for the healing of the world.


Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


_______________________________
Copyright © 2009
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com