Category: Reflections

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Gray sky, ducks calm
on the pond,
edges frozen.
Smallest flakes drift,
meander down,
tiniest sounds
as they touch the reeds,
a little tap.
Silence swallows the land whole.

Can a human life not
spill over,
even once,
and cracked open,
God slip in unnoticed?

Ducks look back,
wing feathers brilliant
on the black water.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Most of our Advent traditions formed centuries ago among Christian and pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic peoples, as they approached the winter solstice. So there’s a lot about darkness, stillness and silence. Farmers removed idle wagon wheels to make wreaths with candles, reflecting on the fallow season of waiting and hope. All this darkness and cold might sound a little off to you who live in Australia, where summer’s about to begin, or South Africa or Brazil, or for that matter even Texas. While we’re singing about the “bleak midwinter” the folks in Corpus Christi and Adelaide go to the beach.

We call this a season of silence and stillness—notice how may carols have silence in them—but we’re rushing around, busier than ever, and making more noise than usual ringing bells and singing in public, if you can believe it! We’re playing music and stringing up extra lights as if to banish the very darkness and silence we adore.

The darkness and quiet of December in the north country is a symbol, but not the whole of it. After all, there isn’t that much bleak, dark midwinter in Bethlehem—and actually Jesus probably wasn’t born in the winter anyway. “The dawn that breaks upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” has nothing to do with latitude. The darkness of Advent is the darkness within, and the darkness of a fearful, competitive world. The silence is the deep silence at the center of our souls. That’s where Advent happens, and the birth of Christ unfolds.

Where is the darkness in your life? Where are the places in your life where you can’t see, where the known disappears into the unknown? Where is that place in your awareness where you can be without “seeing,” without knowing or understanding, and be at peace?

Where is the silence in you? You won’t find it “out there.” Go within. Sit with it. Sit with it a lot, and let it speak to you in the language of angels, the language of God, which is silence.

Your wagon wheels may not be idle, but there is a place of quiet in your soul. Where are the empty places in your life? We might feel uncomfortable about emptiness, but an empty place is one where the Christ child can come when there is “no room in the inn” elsewhere. Perhaps even the painfully empty places—the places of loss, bereavement, poverty or fruitlessness—maybe these are places where even now angels are gathering.

Don’t expect the world to offer you darkness, silence and stillness. Go to where they are, and wait there. God will meet you there.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

         
         
         

Under the gold and gray
of the sky falling down,
this surrendering season,
afternoon becomes
so quickly evening,
then darkness.

Darkness,
why are we afraid of you,
afraid of so much of you?
Is it because only in this dark
do we open our eyes?

We and the darkness
enter into one another.
There is no flash of dark,
no sudden hiddenness,
but the suffusing mystery.

In the dark we slow down,
feel our way,
know the smallness of our knowing.
What a gift, to be given time
for our eyes to adjust.

Why does the dark come so close,
so enfolding?
Perhaps to be near those
who will listen to it.

As open as the night sky,
we hear
what the angelic darkness in us
is saying.

         
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         …As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
         The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
         “Prepare the way of the Lord,
         make straight a path for God”.
                  —Luke 3.4

Luke does a little sleight of hand here. Isaiah says “The voice of one crying out: ‘In the wilderness prepare a way.’” Isaiah is talking about a road through the desert that would bring the exiles back home. Luke is talking about John preaching in the desert, so he makes it sound like it’s the preacher that’s in the wilderness, not the path that’s being prepared. Luke connects John and Isaiah because the coming of Jesus is not just about personal salvation; it’s about justice.

We’ve turned Christmas into a sentimental feeling-fest. We get warm and fuzzy loving each other and feeling touched at the midnight candles and the pretty music. But listen to the scriptures and it’s actually all about God’s profound and even traumatic incursion against the unjust systems in this world, to create a new order. The mountains and valleys of wealth and power will be leveled. The rough places of exploitation and dehumanization will be smoothed. No wonder there’ll be “signs in the heavens and distress among the nations.”

To really honor Christmas we should not just to shop for our loved ones but act on behalf of God’s loved ones, the poor and powerless. Tonight I’m taking some church members caroling at the prison. Maybe it will get some of them involved in reform of our “justice system.” Maybe our singing will be a small voice crying out: “In the wilderness prepare a way….”

This Christmas, be mindful of those who are marginalized, exploited or oppressed. Keep in your prayers those who are lonely or afraid or abused. Put them on your list, not just to shop, but to work for justice. In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight a path for God. And all flesh shall see the salvation of our Lord.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         (Luke 1.76-79)

You, child of God, will be transparent to divine presence.
You will open doors for people into the Holy.

You will awaken people to the embrace of the Beloved,
enfolding them in forgiveness.

By God’s tender mercy
heaven will dawn on us,

giving light to those who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death,

guiding our hands and feet
in the way of peace.

         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,
         and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to this temple.
         The messenger will purify you and refine you like gold and silver.
                  —Malachi 3.1, 3

         I am confident that the one who began a good work in you
         will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
                  —Philippians 1.6

         Prepare the way of the Lord;
                  make straight a path for God.
         Every valley shall be filled,
                  and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
         and the crooked shall be made straight,
                  and the rough ways made smooth;
         and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
                  —Luke 3.4-6

         By the tender mercy of our God,
                  the dawn from on high will break upon us.
                           —Luke 1.78

You can’t level mountains and valleys;
that’s what you’ve been exhausting yourself
trying to do for too long.
You won’t purify yourself.
The Holy One has begun something in you
beyond your control:
a great dawning in you,
an opening of a new way,
a becoming more purely who you are.
A holy pregnancy
of The One within you.

In stillness, let the dawn of God rise in you.
In wonder, cherish the unnamed Coming One
who stirs in you.
Welcome with delight what is only faintly appearing
in the depths of your own soul.
With compassion for this divine infancy in you,
open your heart
and wait.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
                 
                 
Prepare the way of the Lord;
           make straight a path for God.
                       —Luke 3.4

In this Advent season we prepare outwardly for Christmas: we hang lights and put up decorations, we bake goodies and wrap gifts. How will you prepare inwardly? The coming of Christ means that God will be incarnate: embodied, lovingly present, in the flesh in your life. Christ is coming into your life, into your heart, in a new way. Advent is a time to prepare a way for that to happen. God enters our lives without our planning or arranging; yet there are ways we can open the doors, and as the carol says of Jesus, “prepare him room.”

Imagine that Jesus were actually coming to live with you. What would you want to do to prepare? What would you change? Well, Jesus is coming to live with you, so change it! What is one way you will prepare for his coming? What is one thing you will do this Advent to make it easier for God to be a part of your conscious living? Maybe you will devote a few more minutes a day to prayer than you do, or reach out to someone hurting, or advocate for justice. Maybe you will devote yourself to a new kind of gift-giving, or give to someone who actually really needs it.

Don’t decide right now. Give this some time. Sit with this a while, meditate on it, and let the Spirit suggest a response. Then commit to preparing a way, making a straight path for God to enter your life in a new way.
                 
                 
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         I am confident that the one who began a good work in you
         will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
                  —Philippians 1.6

God has begun a miraculous thing in you.
Beneath the matted tangles of your unbelief,
within the brittle shell of Impossibility,
in the dark deep within you,
there it is,
a star in the velvet silence,
a seed in the hard earth,
a child in the virgin’s womb.

Give up trying to guess what’s in the package.
Let go of wanting to see it first before you accept it.
Stop pretending you’re unworthy.
It’s God’s delight to give you this gift.

Meditate on the mystery
of the secretly growing blessing within you.

Like Mary, simply say,
“May it be for me according to your Word.”

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
                  —Jeremiah 33.15

There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken…. When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
                  —Luke 21.25-26, 28
         
         
Beside the brick retaining wall, the old tree grew, and its roots reached and swelled and buckled the wall. Eventually someone removed the bricks, cut through the roots, and erected a new cement wall. And the old tree grew with the great force that was in it, and its roots reached and swelled, and buckled the wall.

Jesus is not coming into the world to leave it the way he found it. He is bringing with him a reign of justice and mercy. Because our sin is so deep, and the systems, habits and economies of violence and injustice are so entrenched, the coming of that reign is gong to buckle some retaining walls. The birth of a new world means the death of this one. If we are attached to the walls, we will be distressed. But for those who long for freedom, the upheaval will be welcome birth pangs.

This Advent as you hear these scriptures of tumult and transformation, if they sound like fantasy, or dark apocalypse, think of the people who suffer injustice, the oppressed and imprisoned, the abused and exploited, those who live in terror or war or poverty. These words are for them. They are for those who long for a different world, those who long for freedom. You may choose to be among them; if so, lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         In those days and at that time
         I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David;
         and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
                  —Jeremiah 33.15

From your heart’s dry clay a green sprig rises,
         life-giving, wealthy with buds
                  of fruit to come.

Your doubt is too small
         to keep the Holy One
                  from breaking forth.

A tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
         What, that it should grow out from you!
                  What, that you did not notice!

Maybe what you know as pain
         is the swelling
                  of this strange, small, greening branch.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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