Month: July 2012

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Christ is our peace;
in his flesh he has made different groups into one
and has broken down the dividing wall,
that is, the hostility between us.
—Ephesians 2.14

Like the first day of Creation,
this has been done, and can’t be undone.
As a sculptor carving us from one block,
God has made us this way.
We are not free to make ourselves otherwise.
The only lives we have are these
the Loving One has drawn out of himself,
beyond our small worlds.
As a mother bearing us,
the Living Presence has made us,
in her flesh, made us one.
Not similar, related, or obligated, but
one.

Our separateness is the most seductive illusion.
God’s one kiss awakens us.
You are one with the stranger, the enemy,
the very ones you distance yourself from.
Their blood runs in your veins,
your dreams haunt them.
We breathe in one another.
One hand holds us all.

Thus it is possible
to love your neighbor as yourself.

To extend mercy to the other
is not difficult;
it is the return to the One you love.

What God has joined together
let no one break asunder.

Deep Blessings,

Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Everything is green, all right,
unlimited, alive and moist.
The mosses have intensified,
the bloated brook’s a winding slug
asleep beneath its sheets of scum,
the space between the trees is thick
with wood-sweat, scents and bugs,
the undergrowth bushed up so much
that you can’t see the marsh, or light.
Vines creep and cling, insatiable;
they’d gladly take the woods. The mud’s
a green brown sludge of living things.
A clump of sunlight lies fermenting
down between the cattail’s legs.
Air hangs like laundry, limp and damp.
What mercy empty wind would be,
an arctic breath, or something dry,
some bounds to this fecundity,
some distance, or a little death.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

In this Sunday’s Old Testament reading David dances before the ark “with all his might,” apparently pretty scantily clad. He’s “girded by a linen ephod.” Whatever an ephod is, it isn’t up to dress code. Michal, the former king’s daughter, reams him out for it.

Meanwhile in the Gospel lesson, Herod’s daughter dances at his birthday party. She is applauded, and rewarded with anything she asks—and agrees to ask for the murder of John the Baptist.

Two dances: one soaked in depravity yet praised; the other an honest act of prayer, yet scorned. One is entangled in secret desires and schemes, in bitterness and revenge; the other is free and simple. One dancer reveals too much joy, too much of himself; the other reveals too much fear, too much of the palace’s corruption. One dance is caught up in calculations for getting what one wants; the other is a pure gift. One is designed to please others; the other is offered without regard to what others think. One is a coin passed through many hands; the other a a song sung once.

And here’s the rub: the one that becomes murderous is the one that fits in, that follows the rules, that functions as an acceptable tool of those in power. It’s the dance of the system. The one that is pure worship, the dance of the heart, becomes a scandal.

Pure love never fits in. It exposes us, makes us look foolish. It comes from a place where who we are, our naked self, is lovely, and offered without reservation. It breaks rules, and it often evokes resistance. Fitting in to get what we want is usually rewarded, often by something no less awful than exactly what we wanted. And then by being used by someone else for what they want.

You’re going to dance. The question is not whether, or even how. It’s why.

May God give you both good reason and courage to dance.

Deep Blessings,

Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Right in the middle of his gospel about Jesus, when Jesus sends out his followers to preach and heal, Mark tells a long, sordid story about Herod’s execution of John the Baptist. Herod actually likes listening to John, though he doesn’t get most of what he’s talking about. But among the things John criticizes is Herod’s marriage to his sister in law. So to appease his wife he has John thrown in jail. No particular reason. Just being snotty. Then at a party, the wine flows, everybody gets a little loose, and Herod’s daughter gets up and dances. He likes it so much he promises her anything. She consults mom, who says, “the head of John the Baptist.” And that’s what she asks for. Well, Herod hates to look like a jerk going back on his promise, so has has John killed and his fresh head brought in on a platter. A really nice platter.

The abuse of power, the sleazy inner workings of a dysfunctional family, the easy disregard for life by the powerful, the disasters that come from trying to please others, the poison of resentment, the horrors of corrupt leadership, the destructive power of fear, and, oh, yeah, the tragic price paid by people who tell the truth. Wow. What a slimy tale. Sounds like an episode from The Sopranos. What does that have to do with Jesus? What the heck is it even doing in the Bible?

It’s there because, well, it’s here. That’s the world Jesus sends us out into. We’re sent to be gentle, forgiving, truthful and having integrity among people who are fearful, conniving and self-serving by pleasing others. We’re supposed to be different. It’s also a hint that behind every execution there’s probably a pretty sad backstory full of fearful abuse by those in power. Count on it. People never humbly, courageously condemn others to death.

Today I’m mindful of people in prison, most of whom are there unjustly. (In the US we have over 2 million people in jail, mostly poor black men, mostly there for nonviolent crimes. Nice.) They may or may not have actually harmed society any more than the rich and powerful who put them there. Their real crime is that they are powerless. They are pawns of a system in which people use human life to assuage their fears and maintain their sense of power and social status. You don’t have to be Herod to be part of that story. (The Corrections Corporation of America makes a tidy sum keeping black people in jail. They even promise a 90% occupancy rate. How thoughtful of them.)

The moral of this sad story? Be nonviolent anyway. Don’t use people. Tell the truth. Stand in solidarity with the powerless. And reject the for-profit prison system. The alternative: enjoy the party— and don’t forget to take home your party favor.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

A great old tree has fallen
and taken a few more with it
in its tumble, swept trunks bare,
and left some leaning, bearing bodies.
The one armed pallbearers will stand
a hundred years without regret.
Beneath its jumbled heap of tragedy
great wounds of earth gape brown and fresh
where limbs have pierced and gouged.
The ferns look upward quietly.
A sapling, beech, bent over double,
turns a hand up to the sky.
What lives still in this mess will live,
rooted in these fertile ruins.
There is no surrender,
they are not coping,
but simply, as always,
reaching for the light.
Beetles have already taken notice,
and the ants begin.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Last week they found the Higgs boson! For all you non-calculator-carrying mystical meditating un-geek poetry-reading hippie types, this is a really big deal.

When scientists came up with the math that explains how the physical universe holds together, they had a perfect equation, except for one thing. It explained a universe in which nothing had any mass—there was no substance. In order for things to have mass, there had to be one more factor, that they called the Higgs field, named for the guy who did the math. It’s a dimension of the physical universe that gives things mass when they interact with it. If it’s there, the math says, then there should be a tiny particle, called the Higgs boson. If they found that particle, it would prove almost everything. Trouble is, for 48 years, since it was predicted in 1964, nobody’s been able to find it. It’s been humorously called the “God particle”—not by scientists, but the popular media. In fact some scientists have suggested calling it—pardon the scientific jargon here—the Goddamn particle, for its elusiveness and the trouble and expense it has caused among those trying to find it. Until last week.

(Higgs Boson walks into a Catholic church. Priest says, “How dare you call yourself the God particle! Blasphemer! Get out!” Higgs Boson says: “Well, OK—but without me, you can’t have mass!”)

One thing I love about this whole thing is the “faith in something not seen” they had. Another is the sense of wonder. And another is the Higgs field. Present in all the universe, it gives things mass when they interact with it. Isn’t that sort of like God? God is present in all the universe, and when you interact with God, you are given substance. Nothing else gives you substance, not what happens to you, not what you do, not what others think of you. It’s God’s interaction with you. You aren’t responsible for the substance of your existence: it’s a gift from God. In a way you are a God particle, a tiny manifestation of the holy mystery that holds everything together.

So celebrate with the particle physicists. Like the Higgs boson, it turns out you’re more than just a figment of the world’s imagination. You’re proof of the existence of God.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

I went on vacation for a week.

The world went on without me;
         Another bore it carefully,
         whose world it is, not mine.

I was purely who I am,
         proving nothing.
         earning nothing.

I was present for no end
         but to be present.

It was lovely.

This is the gift of Sabbath.

May it come to you again and again,
         like breathing, like a heartbeat,
         a Word from God.

Shalom.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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