Category: Reflections

          Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,
         and a tongue rested on each of them.
         All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.
                  —Acts 2. 3-4

One fire,
a million sparks
from the first “Let there be light”
still shining in the one darkness

one sun’s light radiating
in a billion directions

light always shining, only radiating,
never stopping, never dying
in us

consuming fire
burning off all but the precious,
all but the true,
transforming us into light

flame of pure love
creating us
becomes us

How vainly we try
without knowing
to put it out

when it will carry us
through all this
into the next joyful world.

Pentecost, 2015

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      

         “In our own languages we hear them speaking
         about God’s deeds of power.”
                  —Acts 2.11

Take a moment to reflect:
What are “God’s deeds of power” in your life?
If you were to tell someone the “good news of God,”
what would you say? What’s the good news?

How will you live today
in a way that conveys that good news?
What acts or attitudes will give language to that good news?

The Spirit is at work in you
to shine with grace,
to change this world with love.
Trust that, open yourself,
and let the Spirit work through 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

           When you send forth your spirit, we are created
                  —Psalm 104.30

Holy One,
         breath of the big bang,
         idea of creation,
you who make spring come forth,
         who make life out of nothing,
breathe yourself into me.
         Create me.

you are the flame,
         I am your light.
You are the nerve,
         I am your muscle.
You are the Word,
         I am the story.
You are the song,
         I am the singing.

I am one with you
         and one with all Creation.
One Spirit,
         one flesh, many forms.
In your Spirit
         I am we.

Pentecost, May 19, 2015

      
         
God,
I so often focus on what I want to accomplish, acquire or experience. Help me today to focus on love, to let you perfect your love in me. Not to be an expert, but to be a student of love. Help me be mindful and grateful for how your love works in the world and holds it all together. To watch and learn from Christ, and from those around me who love. To enter every experience as an opportunity to wonder at love, to learn it and practice it. Keep me mindful that it is not my love, generated by my effort in some secret dynamo within, but your love flowing through me. Grant me the grace of a beginner’s mind, beginning anew each moment. By your love in me, always unfolding, make me today an attentive student of love. In your grace, perfect your love in me. Amen.

__________________
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 asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
                  —Acts 1.6-9

The disciples have lost their Lord and received him again, and now they look to a new and bright future. They don’t see that he is about to leave them again, this time for good. They grasp at their dreams for their nation, expressing grief before they are even grieving. But Jesus turns their gaze otherwise. Their calling is to something larger than their own lives, something that extends from where they are to the ends of the earth. The power in their lives will be neither personal comfort nor a political fix, but the elusive, invisible wind power of love among them. And they will receive this calling and power in a vessel of grief and disorientation as Jesus departs from them once more.

Typically God’s grace comes to us through loss. Often those who bear witness to the Good News are escaped Hebrew slaves pining for the ease of Egypt, Ruth bereaved in a foreign land, a prophet reflecting on exile, a family torn apart by their son’s selfishness, disciples stunned on a windswept hillside. Even our own resurrection comes at the cost of losing our lives— if we are lucky, over and over. For it is in our fragility and bewilderment that we discover God’s abiding presence, solid and life-giving. Christ ascending to reign over all Creation, leaves our side. The glory to which we are witnesses is not some great triumph but the loss and majesty of life as it is, and the eternal presence of love, even in absence. To this, even in our not knowing, we are witnesses.

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

                  

God, Source of my joy,
         help me check my selfishness,
leave the path of fear,
         and not speak ill of anyone.

I delight in you,
         mindful of your love every moment.
I am like a tree planted by a lovely stream.
         May I yield the fruit of your love.
I receive the life you give me;
         it thrives in me.

Whatever is evil in me
         is like chaff your wind blows away.
It doesn’t last in the face of your truth;
         it is overwhelmed by your presence
         like a great congregation within me.
Watch over my way, God: may I be loving.
         Let my hurtful inclinations be changed.

__________________
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

      
         He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
         While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven,
         suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
         They said, “People of Galilee,
         why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”
                  —Acts 1.9-11

Don’t try to diagram the mystery.
The Body of Love,
in your hands but hard to put your finger on,
within, among and yet beyond,
is here and not here.
The One who Is With You
is not present as you wish.
Sorrow and joy mingle perfectly.
Theories will not help you.
You can’t look it up.

Look here:
this, now.
In the bed you make,
the people you meet,
the rumpling within.
Even what has left you,
your empty arms,
is a place to look.

Jacob on his stone pillow knew:
this loss, this trouble, this gift
is the ladder to heaven.

Keep looking,
but not up there.

__________________
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

I pray that God, the Womb of Love,
who in Jesus has embodied among us
the love that creates and orders our lives
and makes them good and beautiful,
may awaken in you deep awareness
of God’s presence and love.
With the eyes of your heart enlightened
may you have the hope God has for you;
may you live in wonder and trust
of the gifts we all receive as God’s Beloved;
may you come more deeply to trust
the immeasurable power of God’s love.
It is love that raised Christ from the dead:
the power that orders the universe,
that rules over all human dominion
and all realms before and after humans,
in the visible world and the unseen.
All things are subject to the Lordship of Love.
And we, the church, are the Body of that love,
love that fills everything, and contains everything.
Everything.
Alleluia.

________________________
Weather Report

Love,
as the visible world passes through
the cloud of God,
dense with divine presence.
Expect heavy showers
as this warm Spirit condenses
into human compassion,
especially in low-lying areas.

__________________
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.

      
         
The first light of morning
from the book of the chorus
strikes you like a bell.

Not an idea but a note,
the one you were made for,
rings out all day long.

A lifetime hollowed out
making room for the sound
of your moving through it.

Even in your silence
the light of your song
crosses rivers.

Flocks of birds fly out
and circle the village.
Even distant fields sing.

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.
      
         I have said these things to you
         so that my joy may be in you,
         and that your joy may be complete.
                  — John 15.11

Oh, please.
Be done with your sober commandments,
fleeing from the wrath to come.

This is a gift, not an obligation.
If eternal life weren’t fun who could endure?
We are the joy in our grandmother’s arms.

See, God dancing in the aisles,
looping over the grassy hill,
rolling down sideways in the grass,

calling to you:
Shuck that solemn suit,
leave the dutiful wheelbarrow behind.

Don’t try so hard to be so seriously loving.
Let it explode.
Let joy come to you like a fart.

Let my little boats of joy
sail through your heart.
Be a kite on my wind.

All I want is complete joy, spilling over you
like an uncontrollable laugh,
filling you like I made you for.

Jesus said,
I am the light of the world.
So lighten up.

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