Unfolding Light

            The king was enraged. He sent his troops,
            destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
            He noticed a man at the wedding
            who was not wearing a wedding robe,
            and he said , “Bind him hand and foot,
            and throw him into the outer darkness
            where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

                         —from Matthew 22.1-14

Nice king, huh?
Notice how in Jesus’ parables
we think of powerful people as God—
and then figure out how to live
with that kind of divine tyrant.
But Jesus is the Prince of Peace,
not not the master of vengeance.
Jesus looks more like the one thrown out.
Despised and rejected by others,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering.
Beware of your scorn of outsiders and misfits.
Every time you do, someone gets thrown out
of the heavenly banquet.
Beware of the divine sanction
you give to power and violence.
Every time you do,
there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I have marriage vows I keep.
I follow them religiously.
They are not rules I have to obey.
They’re what my love looks like.
I don’t force myself to follow them;
I fulfill them because they give me joy.
I don’t post them. I don’t enforce them.
They’re not for others.

God has promised faithful love to us.
In response we say “I do.”
The Ten Commandments are our vows.
They’re not laws we have to obey;
they’re what our love of God looks like.
They’re not obligations; they’re our joy.
They’re not for anybody else.
But for those who desire intimate love with God
they are our delight.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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            They gathered all whom they found,
            both good and bad,
            so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
                         —Matthew 22.10

The basic parable sounds like Jesus:
the realm of God is a banquet—a party!—
and in particular a party celebrating faithful love.
And everyone is invited, good and bad.

The add-on sounds like Matthew,
allegorizing 1^st Century history,
and dialing back Jesus’ radical inclusivity:
many are invited but some are rejected after all.

So Jesus says it’s a party,
but Matthew says some are not dressed to party.
Like maybe they have on business attire like Matthew’s,
instead of party clothes,
because they’re here for something other
than to celebrate God’s amazing love
that includes both good and bad,
both well-dressed and not.

So. Are you ready to party?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You wanted God to come, radiant…
but there was nothing.
Then in an unguarded moment—
you were gazing at something so purely
as to be without desire—
someone like an angel
appeared as if having emerged
from that very Thing,
translucent but real, solid—
and, before you could speak,
vanished into you,
and is still, like ocean waves,
always surging in, and always,
as beneath those waves,
unseen, surging out.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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They are robed, educated, well-situated,
who offer you the cup,
but they received it from one who is suffering.
Standing at the table saying
“This is my blood” they are quoting
those whose it is.
The peace and comfort are misleading:
on that original night, doom hung over the table;
at Emmaus it was traumatized hearts that came to;
on the beach he shared breakfast
with souls still pulling themselves together.
The bread is broken among those who are not whole;
the cup is poured out in those who are poured out.
This is who he brings to the table with him.
When the Risen comes to us in the Broken
we can’t help but look around
and see the fracture that binds us,
the healings—so many—without which
we ourselves are not healed.
We rise from the table not to glibly praise him
but to find him, to serve him,
at last to heal him.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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            The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground,
            the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
                         —Exodus 14.22

Did they run, nervous that the miracle
would at any moment collapse?
Did they march through the sea bottom,
focused on the next stage,
forgetting to look around?
Did they amble across the seabed,
talking about the latest game?
Did they curse the Egyptians,
or just tremble at the miracle?
Did they notice? Did they stop to gawk?

Do you?
You think it’s over?
You don’t think God is holding
the seas of the universe
in untiring arms this very moment
for our sake?
You don’t think the ground we walk on right now
isn’t miraculous?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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                    The stone that the builders rejected
                    has become the cornerstone.
                         —Matthew 21.42 (Ps. 118.22)

The builders, mind you, will continue to reject it.
The market will account it as nothing.
The empire will neglect it at best,
more likely denounce it.
Your own instinct will be to distrust it,
your thinking will pass over it.
Face it: the grace of God has no place in this world,
no belonging, no authority.
It is misfit. Outcast.
Oddity at best, perhaps a threat.
Which is to say,
it is sheer mystery, pure gift,
and constant miracle.
Those who rely upon God’s grace
will be scorned, and ridiculed,
and also saved.
Choose bravely.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Imagine, Jesus says,
some rebellious vineyard workers
who beat the owner’s servants
and kill the owner’s son
to try to seize the business.
That’s a bit much, we reply.
But how cruelly do we try
to twist the realm of grace
toward our own benefit?
How badly do we hurt
the people who hold us accountable
to God’s demand for justice?
How brazenly do we kill
the creatures of God who remind us
of who it is to whom we belong?
How terribly do we mangle
the vineyard of God’s love?
How, even in my own prayers,
do I try to take over,
and do harm to the mysterious grace of God?
What would it be like
to be a willing worker in the vineyard of love
and let the owner, the Creator,
receive all the benefit?
Imagine, Jesus says.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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It doesn’t matter how far
you have to walk through the desert,
how rough the bucket you bear.
Go to the well of God
deep within.

There is a spring of pure forgiveness.
Lower your bucket way deep.
Don’t stop drinking.
Go ahead, empty the well;
the more you take
the purer it gets.

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