Month: November 2013

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…. This will give you an opportunity to testify.”
                  —Luke 21.5-6, 13

Let go of human things; hang onto God.

When sacred structures fall apart, then the Holy Presence will have to dwell in us ourselves.

When people can no longer find forgiveness in old systems, then the community of faith itself will have to bear forgiveness to them.

No single stone is sacred; they are all needed to make a temple. Stay connected.

When the world around you descends into darkness, you can still shine with light.

Don’t expect society to go your way, but don’t go with it. Bear witness to another Way.

The reason you were born, the the purpose for which God brought you into this world, is to bear God’s forgiving presence into a world that is desperate for it.
        
 
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

        
All your ideas about God are stones,
smooth and perfect.
All your words are stones,
round and smooth.

You can’t stack them up
into a statue of God.
Every prayer
is a pile of stones.

Throw them into the nearest lake.
Listen to the sound—kisplash!—
as they disappear into the holy water.

The last ripples expand,
growing all through you,
reaching your farthest shore.

God sits with you and watches
in silence, transfixed.

Later,
even if you’re not thinking about it,
the ripples are still widening in you.

Deep Blessings
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.

For those whom we have asked
to bear the horror of our violence
we offer our prayers
of thanks for their willingness
to stand between us and our fears,
for forgiveness for having asked them,
of healing for the damage to their souls
by what they have done and seen,
for mercy for them who don’t know
how to carry the horror back to us,
how to shed the darkness
we have asked them to drink,
how to live among us, who are so willing
to sacrifice our children.

May we give others peace to bear, not fear,
healing to carry, not weapons,
and send them into blessing, not danger.

May we, too, have the courage to serve,
to risk, to give our lives in love
for the sake of our homeland,
which is the Kingdom of God,
the whole human family,
in the spirit of peace.
Amen.

         
         

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         God is God not of the dead,
                  but of the living.
                           —Luke 20.38

God is God of the present moment,
         not the past.

Your sins were in the past;
         but God is in the present moment.

God does not stay in the past,
         remembering your sins:

God is in the present moment,
         loving you.

Forgiveness is letting go of the past
         and coming into the present.

Repent of your sin—let go of the past—
         and come into the present,

where you are a child of God,
         a child of resurrection.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         

I am a solitary bird         
                           on the wrong island.
The distance
                           unbearable,
the darkness
                           knotted up. 

How to place this cry
                           that is not my voice,
this reaching
                           not my hand,
this silence
                           not my emptiness?
                  

Ah, it is yours,
                           Beloved,
your ache,
                           your gift to me:
your empty space in me
                           missing me,                      

you who have
                           never left me,
who have held
                           the distance,
hurt bridging
                           the lonely gap,

you, my ache,
                           my island,
my sea,
                           my wing,
my home,
                           my Love.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

         
         

                  

Beloved,
you who hold the cosmos in your hand
and yet live within me,
I surrender myself to you.

I hand over my body to your use.
I place my desires in your hand.
I give over my will to your control.

Your breath fill me,
your nerve move me,
your love flow through me.

May I listen with the sun’s attentiveness,
love with the rain’s abandon,
endure with the earth’s patience.

May I be gathered up in your desire.
May I become one with your blessing.
May I disappear into your love.

Beloved,
my delight,
I am yours.

         
         

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         
Pilgrim,
learn to love your failures,
your fruitless days,
your weak and barren prayers.
Every step in the wilderness,
even when you’re lost,
is a step on the journey
toward the Promised Land.

Every step, even the two forward
and one back
and one to the side,
going nowhere,
is blessed:
a step in the dance
your Lover has
with you.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         
Beloved,
I empty out my pockets for you.

The keys of my gratitude and awe
I give to you.

My shopping list of hopes and cares
and the people I love
I place in your hands.

My wallet of pride and self-protection
I hand over.

The ticket stub of all my sorrows,
all my fears and doubts,
you take gently from me.

The used tissue of my guilt,
my need to be remade,
my anger and despair at my weakness,
you keep and do not return.

The paper clip of my tiredness,
my wandering mind,
you receive like treasure.

The lint of my not knowing what to pray or how,
my not really praying, just pretending,
my not even trusting you are there,
you cherish.

I turn the pockets of my heart inside out for you
because in my own crazy way I love you.
And you are delighted,
and in your crazy way
you hold me.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
    
For all the souls whom I love
who are far away,
who sanctify my world,
I allow my love to reach
across the world to them,
and I give thanks.

     

And all souls whom I have loved
who have moved beyond this world
bear my love with them to wider spaces
and carry me on their journey,
binding me to the infinite.

For their journey with me
and their journey beyond,
I give thanks.

Holy One,
I give thanks for all the saints,
whose love breathes in my lungs,
whose courage awakens my nerves,
whose secret trials ring in my bones,
whose desire for you throbs in my heart.

All of those, unknown,
made holy by your tender kiss—
I fall into their love for you,
I let their mind be mine,
they live in me,
and we are glad.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com