Category: Reflections

         
         Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness
         to be tempted by the devil.
                  —Matthew 4.1

The devil’s not some red-suit guy
trying to trick me into doing evil.
I seem to do that quite well on my own.

No, these are the real temptations
of being human,
the things that lead me away from you, God:
the longing for power, security and belonging
elsewhere.

I confess these to you, God,
not to prove how bad I am,
but to see more clearly
how this works in me,
how my appetites can carry me away
from you.

I go into the wilderness
to expose my hungers,
to confront my distrust,
to renew my absolute dependence on you.

I won’t banish my temptations,
but welcome them, name them,
and let them become my path to you.

Beneath all that I want,
beyond all that I think I need,
is you.
I walk this desert journey
that you might transform my desires.

In this desert, God,
help me come to desire
nothing
but you.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

         
         
Not the great tragedies,
they have their own orchestra.

But the gentle tear in the fabric,
the best of intentions,
the dust of all this.
The empty glass,
the error, the wound,
the cross’ smaller shadow, finer grain.
A peg on the wall, coat on the floor.

Regret’s inescapable weight,
the sand in your shoe
of wrongs you’ve done,
broken china glued a dozen times,
a carved treasure box holding wreckage.
The grave in the pit of your heart
you come closer every day
to fitting exactly.

The lone bird, mistaken,
far, far over the wrong sea.
The world’s mosaic finished
with your piece still in your hand.

No words above the rectangle of dirt
in the grass, even the stone struck dumb.
The one who departs with your silence.

The child you raise imperfectly
to your cheek, apologizing
with such tender love and shame.

And every moment you spent weeping
on the bathroom floor.

Secretly you know
there will never be time to get this right.

You kiss the Beloved with lips of ash

who holds you and says,
“I know, darling.

I know.”

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
                  
Shrove Tuesday.
Supposed to use up all the fat,
get the desires of the flesh
out of the system,
get ready to get serious.

I’m not there.
I’m feeling: Really? Lent again?
Tomorrow the fasting and ashes?
I’m deep in the fat,
kind of liking the desires of the flesh.
I feel like sitting this one out.

Help me, Jesus.

OK, he says.
Spend this whole day being selfish.
Get God out of your mind.
Just you, on your own.
No holiness, no transcendence,
no courageous love.
Just fat and self-indulgence.
Don’t slack off. Make a day of it.
Wallow in your sorrow,
flaunt your depravity,
lose yourself in all that’s shallow and flimsy.
Let the cement of your despair set solid.

Then tomorrow tell me
if you’re ready for the long road
toward a new life.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
          
Our oldest son and his wife are expecting a boy, our first grandchild, in early April. We’ve had a while now to get used to the idea. Of course Dan and Jill are getting ready for a lot more than an idea. Something’s about to radically change their lives.

Not long after the baby comes, Easter will come. Resurrection, too, is more than an idea. It radically changes our lives. But new life doesn’t just happen in a flash. It takes preparation. So starting Wednesday we have Lent: a time to get ready. The tradition of repentance and “giving up something for Lent” is not just some ancient vestige. In various forms the three great penitential disciplines—fasting and abstinence, prayer and meditation, and giving and service—help us to make room in our hearts for the new life that is coming.

Let his Lenten season be a time to confront your old life, the fearful, self-contained life you need to let go of. Practice letting go of all that and receiving new life from God. Be honest about the brokenness in your heart and in the world. Make an empty space for God to come in a new way. Whatever Lenten disciplines you choose for yourself, choose what helps you let go of old ways and receive new life.

The repentance of Lent is not a dreary, sorrowful duty. It’s full of possibility, like getting ready for a baby. New life is coming. You’re about to be raised from the dead. Get ready!

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         This is my Son, the Beloved;
         with him I am well pleased;
         listen to him!
                  —Matthew 17.5

Jesus shows us the way of the cross,
but we back away.
We’re afraid of the loss and pain,
the sacrifice, the many forms of death
involved in the way of radical self-giving.
Just earlier Jesus said, “I’m going to my death.”
Of course Peter, our blabbermouth, objected.
But God says: Don’t worry. Look at Jesus,
with all the trustworthiness of scripture
and the hardiness of Moses and Elijah,
and shining with the light of resurrection
already radiating in him— isn’t he OK?
The way of the cross, of love amidst fear,
of entering the suffering of the world,
of confronting injustice at great cost,
this way will take you through dark places—
but look at the light with which you’ll shine.
Through all your suffering there is beauty.
Even though you go through death
you will burn with a heavenly light,
the light of my love for you,
the light of the rising dawn of Easter
already in you.
You won’t understand this
until after you’ve seen resurrection,
but I’m letting you know before hand.
Eventually you’ll know: Jesus seems crazy,
his way objectionable, his teaching absurd—
but it will light your way through the night.
Listen to him.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         

         He was transfigured before them,
                  and his face shone like the sun,
                  and his clothes became dazzling white.
         From the cloud a voice said,
                  “This is my Own, my Beloved;
                  with him I am well pleased.”
                           —Matthew 17. 2, 5

You are God’s Beloved.
         Let it be so.
         That’s how you become pure light.

What was brilliant in Jesus
         was simply God’s pleasure
         radiating in him.

Open your heart to God’s desire for you
         like light pouring into a room,
         like silence receiving a bird song.

God’s love for you
         burns like a bonfire in you.
         How do you put that under a bushel?

It’s not arrogant to bask
         in God’s delight in you.
How stuck up it would be
         to spurn the Beloved’s ardent passion!

Lie down and let God make love to you.
         See? Even as you blush reading this
         you begin to glow.

Become the Beloved,
         and like a youth in love
         you will be transfigured
         with the light of God.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

         
         And he was transfigured before them,
         and his face shone like the sun,
         and his clothes became dazzling white.
                  —Matthew 17.2

How might I shine with light?
How might I be transfigured
by the light of God?
How might I be light for the world?

Practice joy and you will glow like a star.
Practice wonder and you will shine
like a candle in a dark place.
Practice compassion and you will radiate
like the sun.

And if that is too hard,
practice gratitude.
Simply practice gratitude
and you will shine with the light of God.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

In a meadow stands a small tree
of whom nothing is asked,

snow at its feet, a bird song
weaving through its branches.

This day is not a test, a burden.
No need to accomplish,

to feel or experience
this instead of that.

I am given to this day as a gift,
to be present, to bear my light,

to witness this glory,
to return thanks.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         Do not resist an evildoer.
         If anyone strikes you on the right cheek,
                  turn the other also;
         and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat,
                  give your cloak as well;
         and if anyone forces you to go one mile,
                  go also the second mile.
                           —Matthew 5.39-41

Jesus is not inviting us to be victims. He invites us into a prophetic act that exposes injustice without retaliating, an act of nonviolent civil disobedience that invites the oppressor to choose differently.  It’s like getting arrested for sitting at the front of the bus. The only way for a right handed person to hit someone on the right cheek is with a backhanded slap, which is not an assault, but an insult. Offering the other cheek is not a way of getting beat up worse; it’s a way of saying, “Do you see what you’re doing? Do you really want to do this? I have made my choice not to retaliate. Now you have a choice.”

A law in Exodus 22.26-27 prohibits keeping someone’s cloak; it is their survival. To give your cloak to one who sues you puts them in an obvious position of law-breaker, exposing their selfishness and inviting them to see that you have chosen generosity. They now have a choice.

A roman soldier can compel a citizen to carry their burden for a mile, but no more. Going another mile puts the soldier in the obvious position of oppressor. You have made your choice of service; now he is in a position to recognize his abuse of power, and take back his burden.

Nonviolence is not timidity. It’s not accepting an abusive relationship. (The way to turn the other cheek is to leave.)  It requires great personal courage, and real risk, to expose injustice by being openly vulnerable to it. It requires that we respect the oppressor and that we stay in relationship with them, which is not easy if they’re being cruel. It also requires deep trust in God’s grace, both for your own well-being and also for the oppressor’s awakening. This is what it means to take up your cross: in love to bear the sins of the world in order to bring about reconciliation, leaving the eventual outcome to God. Its effectiveness is not up to us. The outcome is not ours to decide; only our own choices are. Often the “outcome” is visible only after hundreds or thousands or maybe even millions of such choices. But when we live in love and courage in the face of injustice we create the possibility of change.

Have courage. Change the world. Choose love.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         Love your enemies
                  and pray for those who persecute you.
         If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
                  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
                           —Matthew 5.44, 46

We’re afraid to be nonviolent partly because we can’t be sure of the outcome. We’re afraid we’ll pray for our enemies and they’ll still be our enemies. Maybe. But here’s the miracle: the power of love is such that the act itself is the result, no matter what happens next. The oppressor is not likely to be freely choosing his evil. He’s probably at the mercy of fear and bitterness and loneliness, unable to break free, unable to chose compassion, unable even to see his injustice. He’s just doing what “tax collectors” do. But when we act in love, we we are freely choosing. (We get the upper hand: we’re more free than the oppressor!) Our freedom, not his bondage, determines how we live. We have set ourselves free. That’s no small outcome.

Moreover, when we choose to love our enemy we create an alternative world. When someone is cruel, we create a world of kindness anyway, and invite them to choose to enter it. That world of grace and compassion exists whether or not they choose to enter it. It has power. Love creates a gravitational field that changes how everything in it behaves, even if no one can see it.

Jesus’ teaching is no wimpy excuse for passivity. It’s a call to live with the courage to make our own choices, to trust in the power of our own fully realized being, to refuse to let another person—especially one who’s in bondage to fear—determine our way of living. When we make our own choices we create a new world. When we make those choices in love, we open a door for others into that world. We change the outcomes that are possible. Indeed, when we love our enemy all of reality is changed.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com