Unfolding Light

           We, who are many,
                      are one body in Christ,
           and individually
                      we are members one of another.
                                          —Romans 12.5

The Empire has scanned you,
posts, photos, browsing history, iris scan, bank account.
You are a unit of a category,
subject to their algorithms.

But the scan is not the person.
You rebel: “I am an individual!”
you cry, though the bot cannot hear.
Yet the paradox that beats the bot

is that you are not a lone individual.
You a member of the Body of Grace,
one with all the others, part of them
and subject not to formulas but to Love.

The Orb can identify you
but not your belonging,
not the millions who are also you,
not the Beloved in whom you live.

Remembering the One in whom you belong,
and all those of whom you are a member,
you have all their power; the Empire,
with all its power, is powerless over you.

When you know yourself to be one with the One,
and with the Beloved community,
you disappear, and there is no one there
but Christ, immense, eternal, glorious.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           We, who are many,
                      are one body in Christ,
           and individually
                      we are members one of another.
                                        —Romans 12.5

We are members of one another.
We are not just connected;
we intersect.
When you are hurt I am wounded,
whether I allow myself to feel it or not.

We spend a great deal of energy not feeling.
Part of the remaking of our consciousness
is coming to full awareness that we are all one,
and allowing ourselves to feel it all:

the flood of tears of every gladness and sorrow,
the the joy of every joy, the anguish of every loss,
the presence of every story, the power of every dance,
the life of every species, the memory of every tribe,
yes, every bliss and devastation.

It’s not quite empathy, not quite compassion;
call it compathy: feeling the wholeness
of all existence as our own, because it is.

This may feel like a burden, but only at first:
live with it and you come to see
even with all its pain and grief,
it is mostly joy and wonder and gratitude.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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            Do not be conformed to this age,
                        but be transformed by a new consciousness,
            so that you may discern what is the delight of God—
                        what is good and acceptable and perfect.
                                                      —Romans 12.2

We see things according to our wishes
and what we’ve been taught to expect,
and the tension between them.

Even saints harbor the pride
of wishing it were otherwise,
and greed for revelation and redemption.

Imagine seeing everything as grace,
all of existence as the work of grace,
and the flowing of grace in all things:

beauty unbidden, the life force
in every dimension, a loving presence
even amid our tragedies;

and we ourselves as grace,
grace offered and resplendent,
regardless of our settings.

Seeing the delight of God in all,
surviving our wars and torture chambers,
gleaming in us despite our dullness,

would we not offer ourselves
as gifts of God, good and perfect,
for whom there is no failure, only withholding?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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The Messiah is a poor child in a poor town
at the edge of the world.
Despots want her dead, but her parents shield her.
You know the tale.

The Messiah is here now—
yes, now. Today.
What are you waiting for, Christmas?
You will not find her; no magi will.
She is one among millions;
we cannot save her alone.

But she will save us
when we want her to live,
she and her village and her people
and her land.
Until then we are not saved.
What are you waiting for, Christmas?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Jesus comes in from the lights,
takes off his crown.
(You realize there was no halo:
it was the backlighting.)
Undoes all the pins and badges and medals:
Son of God; Messiah; Lord and Savior;
Died for Our Sins I, II, III, and IV
(the committee accepts several atonement theories);
Walks on Water; Miracles One through Twelve;
14-0 against the Pharisees; Best Wine;
1^st in Fishing Derby; Best Comeback;
Absolute Ruler of Name Recognition… all of them.
He takes off his gleaming white robe,
chucks the holy sandals—they hurt, after all.
Put on sweats and a t-shirt.
Pops a beer. Looks at the books on the shelf:
theology and doctrine. Smiles, shakes his head.
Sits on the couch. Slouches a little.
Scrolls through pictures on this phone
of the two of you. Closes his eyes.
A moment.
Then
he looks at you
kind of like he looks at Mary Magdalene,
pauses, eye to eye, and says,
“Who do you say I am?”

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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but a certain dancing
color under the river
where the light and the water
and the flowing happen
movement mingling
a murmur of curves
indefinite
but certain

outlines surrender and
the stone flows
the color of fish
also where you do not see it
and where the fish is
there is only a ripple
a dapple a shadow
a light

making everything
even later and far away
ocher and purple and blue
and flowing

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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People who clamor that we should get back to the “Biblical family” don’t know what they’re talking about. Biblical families are sick. Cain murders Abel. Abraham passes his wife off as his sister so men might take her without killing him. Later he tries to kill his son. Jacob cheats Esau and his mom helps him run away. Later he trades deceptions with his father in law. Like Grandpa Abe, he has multiple wives. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. David rapes Bathsheba, gets her husband murdered, and marries her. His son Absalom revolts against him and is killed in the war. Jesus’ parables about families all involve disobedient or estranged sons. There doesn’t seem to be a model biblical family; they’re all dysfunctional. They all struggle, and sometimes succeed, to be faithful to each other. In the Bible, family is where you have to work out your Stuff, so you do.

But wait. There is one model of family the Bible consistently smiles on: faithful, loving, functional families. You know who that is? Single mothers. Hagar and Ishmael. Naomi and Ruth. The widow of Zarepheth and her son. The Syrophonecian woman who argues with Jesus for her daughter. (Notice these are all outsiders, not Jewish.) Even the Virgin Mary, in a sense. In the gospels, especially at the crucifixion, Mary functions as a single mom. When Jesus lists the things you might sacrifice for your faith—house, lands, family—he says you’ll receive all, including mother and siblings, but no dad. A single-mother family. On the cross, referring to Mary, he says to John, “Behold your mother.” A family is created, not by blood, but by choice —with a single mom. The closest thing to the Bible’s ideal family is a single mother and her kids.

The Bible’s models don’t match our ideals. They reveal God’s preference for those who don’t quite fit our systems and stereotypes. What makes a “biblical family” isn’t anatomy, it’s relationship. It isn’t a father, it’s faithfulness.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           It is not what goes into the mouth
                that defiles a person,
           but it is what comes out of the mouth
                that defiles.
                       —Matthew 15.11

The most sinful bit about the apple
Adam and Eve ate
was their assumption that they knew
good and evil.
Ever since, we’ve been wielding that
“knowledge” like a three-year old
with a chain saw.
One of our worst offenses
is judging people by all sorts of things
other than who they choose to be:
appearance, wealth, abilities, health,
judging them not by what they do
but by what happens to them.
The addict on the street is not as defiled
as the rich, attractive, powerful person
who is selfish.
And when it is judgment that comes out of us,
it is we who are defiled.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Holy One, light of life,
you are my blood, my breath.
I am the breathing of your Spirit,
the movement of your grace.
I am a spring, overflowing with you.
Your grace is within, eternal,
continually replenished and renewed,
generously flowing out,
out into this thirsty world.
Loving One, flow in me.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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She is given the same colors as everyone:
joy, fear, longing, rage, wonder, grief.
She sits by your window finger-painting,
moving those primary colors as she will,
making your pictures.
Some she puts up to the window
and everybody sees.
Some she shows only to you.
Some she hides.

Take care of her.
Notice her work.
Give her lots of paint and paper.
Sometimes just sit with her in silence
as she paints.
Never belittle her.
She is a master.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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