Month: October 2015

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

         They said to him, “Grant us to sit,
one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
But Jesus said to them,
“Whoever wishes to become great among you
must be your servant.
                  —Mark 10.37, 43

We’re tempted to believe our faith gives us some privilege
in the eyes of God.
But Jesus disagrees. God’s grace is absolute, and unalterable.

For Jesus faith leads to love of others, not reward of self.
His radical self-emptying invites us always to be mindful,
in any situation and in all culture in general:

What power or privilege do I have?
What power or privilege do I unconsciously expect to be entitled to?

Who is without such power or privilege?
How might I use my resources to serve them—not to patronize,
but to position myself beneath them as servant?

My response may be a great self-sacrifice, or as simple as listening.
There are no right or wrong answers,
only an invitation to continual self-examination.
And a remembrance that Christ is doing this,
continually, for me, and for them.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Fall colors flash and burn
with yellows and reds,
oranges like flags,
their dead or dying leaves
spark pleasure in our eyes,
pour their colors out
like cash
unmeasured into
yards and eaves and flower beds,
drop their gold
into the thirsty sky,
fling wide their treasures.

Why don’t I?
What would it be
to live with this wild,
brilliant generosity,
this free release,
this warmth, this
depth of color, joy,
and loss?

_____________________
Weather Report

Beauty,
with the precipitation of things
falling out of our lives, not in,
as the season’s bright allure,
once accumulated and condensed,
now dissipates,
leaving us the gentle loveliness
of letting go.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         

         Christ, though divine,
                  in complete self-emptying,
                  took the life of a slave.
                           —Philippians 2.6-7

         The Human One came
                  not to be served but to serve.
                           —Mark 10.45

         Where you go, I will go;
                  where you lodge, I will lodge;
         your people shall be my people,
                  and your God my God.
                           —Ruth 1.16

O Love,
I ponder your nearness,
your infinite humility—
to go where we go,
as low as that may be,
to let our journey be your journey,
our life be your life, and death,
to serve us so,
to be dirt beneath us,

O God,
my servant,
my inferior,
my salvation.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         They said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand
         and one at your left, in your glory.”
         … But Jesus said to them,
         “Whoever wishes to become great among you
                  must be your servant,
         and whoever wishes to be first among you
                  must be slave of all.”
                           —Mark 10.37, 43-44

God, I confess. I want glory.
I want to be on the winning side.
I want things to go my way,
even if that is your way.

Christ, give me your heart,
to find delight in serving others,
not for glory, but to love them,
which is to sit closest to you,
and all the glory I need.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

        

This day I name
for those who have lived long in this place.
This day I name
for those who have welcomed us,
and blessed this place before us.

This day I name
for those who have endured generations
of erasure and assault,
the Trail of Tears, Via Dolorosa,
exiles at home, longing for the land beneath their feet
and its well being, as a lost lover,
and who seek still to hallow this ground.

This day I name
not for one who “discovered” this land once
but for those who discovered it new each day,
dwelling in the land, seeing it, marrying it.
This day I name for repenting of white arrogance,
and for seeking the community of living beings.

This day I name
for those whose beauty, effaced, endures,
whose pride dances in the sun,
whose wisdom awaits us;
for those whose deep eyes invite us
to see,
to belong,
to sit down together
in a great circle
and thank.

This day I name
for those who are wiped away and yet remain,
blessing, singing and dancing.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

For those of you who are somewhat near Boston:  I’m leading a retreat on The Poetry of Prayer at Rolling Ridge Retreat Center in North Andover, MA on Tues. Oct. 20.   Click here for more information.
 

Questions?  Write me at unfoldlinglight (at)gmail.com

Deep blessings,
Steve G-H

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         

         No one who has left house or brothers or sisters
                  or mother or father or children or fields,
         for my sake and for the sake of the good news,
         will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—
                  houses, brothers and sisters,
                  mothers and children, and fields
         with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
                  —Mark 10.29-30

I notice of the things I let go of, all I receive again, multiplied—
except fathers.
For Jesus’ hearers “father” meant authority.
There is only one; we need no earthly ones,
no lording it over one another.

Of course if I seek a world in which
we are all equals, and the only authority is God,
those in authority in this world will oppose me—
hence the addition to what I receive: persecutions.

         •

God, help me to trust your absolute authority.
In that trust help me to let go of all I cling to.
Help me, letting go, to seek your realm of justice.
In that seeking give me courage to face resistance.
Help me, facing resistance and even persecutions, to trust
the sisters and brothers, mothers and children I am given
(the great family of justice seekers),
and the homes and fields I am given
(the place of life and belonging),
given by your absolute, loving authority.

Give me grace to give everything in love
and so to receive more than everything,
a hundred times everything,
but only one
of You.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
A man asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments…” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
 
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the realm of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the realm of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
                  —Mark 10.17-27

We continually have to resist the belief that there’s something we have to do to “be saved.” We think there are “good” people (the man thought Jesus was one) and others who are less so. We believe our salvation is up to us. Clearly the disciples think so. Were that true, of course it would be impossible. But it’s up to God. And God has already “saved” us.

Take note that Jesus looks at the man and loves him. The man does not need to do anything for Jesus to love him; he already does. He responds to the man not with requirements but with love. Because that’s his point. There is no requirement. God already loves us. We are already saved. There is no salvation beyond God’s love; God’s love is not insufficient for our eternal joy. All we need to be “saved” from is our own distrust. The man seems to have great possessions but “lacks one thing.” Jesus looks on him in his poverty and sets him free: let go of what you can measure and what you can lose—either riches or goodness—and grasp only what is infinite, what is already yours.

Meditate on this infinite love of God. It is yours, now. It surrounds you, fills you, gives you every breath. You can’t deserve it more or less. It is imply here. Even as you ask and wonder, maybe even doubt, God looks at you with love. God’s delight is not up to you. Let this light break in, and become you.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         It is easier
         for a camel
         to go through
         the eye of a needle
         than for someone
         who is rich
         to enter
         the realm of God.
                  —Mark 10.25

What do I cling to
that burdens me,
that keeps me from you?

What emptiness do I fear
that you can’t fill?

What baggage do I carry
that keeps me
from loving perfectly,
giving wholly?

What would I not give away
to find you in my empty hands?

               •

         Get the
         lead out
         and the gold.
         I will go
         light,
         burden
         poor.
         Spin me
         fine
         silk
         of grace.
         Draw me
         thread-
         bare
         through
         the needle
         of your
         eye into
         the world
         of your
         heart.

         That old
         camel
         will be
         so much
         happier
         out in the
         wide
         desert.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

         
         The word of God is living and active,
         sharper than any two-edged sword,
         piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow;
         it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 
         Before God no creature is hidden, but all are naked
         and laid bare to the eyes of the one
         to whom we must render an account. 
                  —Hebrews 4.12-13

Gracious One, 
your Word of love flows through me 
like light through glass,
as sound fills silence.

Nothing is secret to you,
with your eyes as small as light,
nothing vague or mistaken.

Look between my soul and marrow;
light the cracks between
what is and is not.

Open my soul like a flower in your morning:
petals uncurl and become intense
with your presence.

Pierce my darkness,
take your scalpel to the lies I hold
against myself.
Shine your life-giving truth
from within me, every thought, every cell.

Shine in me and make me
transparent to your grace,
mottled as I am,
transparent to your grace.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com