Unfolding Light

          There was also an inscription over him,
          “This is the King of the Jews.”
                       —Luke 23.38

Oh, they got no end of mirth out of that,
so ripe for mockery, so unlike the king
they secretly wanted, the conqueror,
the one who would mount the power structures
and give them a better place in it.
But here is this weak, weaponless man
who reminds them of what hurts most in them;
who suffers what they are most afraid of,
only without shrinking;
who takes power structures
in his shattered hands and shatters them,
wielding the overwhelming power of mercy
from within their own wounds;
whose love is immense, indomitable, immortal.

The one anxious to be king
climbs over others, even himself,
mocking the one in the lowest place,
closest to the great power.

This one reigns in weakness and suffering.
There is no king
and he is the one,
come not to rule
but to redeem.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You listen,
as the forest listens to the wind,
as the ocean hears the river.
You listen to someone, not just their speaking
but their being.
Your listening is a door,
through which they enter you.
The more fully, openly, spaciously you listen,
the more of them comes in,
what they’re saying and not saying,
and can’t say, what they may not even know
until they hear it being heard.
The door that is your listening becomes
the whole space, a house, a temple.
It holds the world.
In this temple, beneath the words,
beneath the cries and silences,
you hear the voice of God—
without words, a wind. A music,
enveloping all, the full sound.
In someone’s story, even their pain,
is the world’s vast joy and agony.
In your listening the whole sanctuary
resounds with the glory of God.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Not a hair of your head will perish.
          By your endurance you will gain your souls.
                                 —Luke 21.18-19

The endurance of love
is not superhero strength
but faithfulness,
kindness in the face of fear,
love amid the unknown.
And when we are too weak
even to rise up,
divine Love endures in us.
Remain faithful to that light
shining within you
and despite all loss and suffering,
your soul will be fully yours;
you will not perish,
you will endure.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          They will arrest you and persecute you;
                    they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons,
          and you will be brought before kings and governors
                    because of my name.
          This will give you an opportunity to testify.
                                 —Luke 21.12-13


The Gospel of grace
          threatens the Emperor of might.
He strikes out in suave arrogance and fury;
          the faithful remain gentle and steadfast.

We have too long imagined a privileged place,
          but that is not the place of Christ.
In the halls of power,
          come stand among those without.

We testify to the grace of God
          not from seats of ease
but from risks taken, wounds healed,
          powerlessness blessed.

This is not mere victory,
          but the mystery of resurrection.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          When you hear of wars and insurrections,
          do not be terrified, for these things must take place first,
          but the end will not follow immediately.
                       —Luke 21.9

Nation will rise against nation.
Even the rich will war against the poor,
with plagues and famines.
But even the end of an era is not the end.
Life is greater than emperors.

There are rough spots, like this, on humanity’s path.
Generations from now, they will speak of these times.
They will remember some rulers, a war or two.
They will have no names for the faithful
who remained steadfast, who passed on
love and wisdom to the next generation.
We will be as invisible to them
as we are to the emperor of this age.
But as long as we convey grace,
even to those who do not yet know they are called,
the end will not come,
and those yet unborn will marvel
at the long history of love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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         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 21.6, 13

          Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
                                     —John 2.19

Let go of human things;
         hang onto God.
                  •

When sacred structures fall apart,
        the Holy Presence will dwell in us ourselves.
                  •

When people can no longer find forgiveness
        in old systems,
        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.
                  •

Don’t expect society to go your way.
        Bear witness to another Way.
                  •

When the temple falls
            we become the temple.
                  •

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

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

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Before they call I will answer,
           while they are yet speaking I will hear.
                       —Isaiah 65.24

My beloved,
you do not have to call out to me,
that I may hear you through clouds of distance,
across the great chasm of strangeness
between human and divine.
To me you do not call out, but in.
I am within you, in your deepest heart.
Within your joys and worries,
your strengths and wounds, I am there.
Your shouts of hope are my voice in you.
Your cries of despair, your pleas for grace,
are my longing in you.
Far beneath your understanding
there cries an unmet soul-hunger,
an unfinishedness like baby birds, beak up,
in the closed-in silence that finds no words,
but burns, heavy within you, yearning:
that is my spirit.
Your prayers give voice
to your hearing me hear you.
Beloved, before you love,
I am your Love.
Before you pray,
I am already your answer.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Perfect silence, hold me still.

Forgiving grace, set me free.

Infinite mercy, fill me gently.

Courageous love, bear me over.

Ridiculous joy, let’s do this.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          The Holy One is gracious and merciful,
                    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
          The Holy One is good to all,
                    and God’s compassion is over all that God has made.
                       —Psalm 145.8-9

This gospel is repeated over and over in scripture.
Some want to modify it, qualify it, compromise it,
or dilute it with some kind of divinely justified meanness.
But that’s not God; that’s just meanness.

There are two religions. One is the Religion of Being Right.
“Get it right,” God says, “or I’ll punish you.”
The other is the Religion of Being in Love.
“I love you,” God says. “Don’t you want to live like that?”

You can’t have both. If you follow all the rules,
sooner or later you’ll hurt somebody. If you love everybody,
sooner or later you’ll break a rule.

They’re both in the Bible. But see which one Jesus chooses,
over and over. “I desire mercy, not performing sacrifices.”
Even God’s judgment is not punishment, but love.

The greatest goal of our faith is to perfect our love,
that it be untainted by anger or self-righteousness.
This is not a discipline of trying harder, but of accepting
more deeply, more freely, the perfect love we are given.

Shed the anger, your own and God’s,
and let God be perfectly compassionate
so that you may be perfectly compassionate.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Let these leaves be in you, rich
in the loveliness of their renunciation.

Let the gracious confidence of trees be yours,
who offer without the smallest sense of loss.

This is simply the day it is, and the season.
There is no argument, no clinging

to leaves, or the need for leaves; no more
resistance to their falling than to their budding.

The trees do not protest, or even hope.
They calmly stand and sow their gentle

flecks of color in the woods.
What happens is perfectly all right.

Whatever departs from you will shine,
bathed in the light of your release.

Let these leaves be in you, who in the varied
radiance of their surrender say simply, “Yes.”



________________
Weather Report

Loss;
moderate winds of time,
increasing throughout the day,
will blow most everything away,
except the sunlight,
which remains stoutly unaffected.
Expect a warming trend,
and increasing humility.

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