Category: Reflections

After his suffering he appeared to them during forty days. As they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. Suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “People of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward the sky?”
         —from Acts 1.1-11

We who loved him gawk,
amazed, at first more taken
by his going than his being gone.
But then arises in his place

an awkward, fearful silence
no one wants to break,
assurance, sealed in stark bewilderment,
that what we know is wrong,

that what we love is gone,
that how we might love well we do not know,
that love enough
we cannot summon.

The One we loved has shifted
once again, has hidden once again
somewhere— in someone? how?—
has disappeared into the very air,

or nearer still, where there is no flame yet,
but only hollow wind. How hard it is
when the Beloved slips into
a mystery we might not love.

This would be our defeat, a simple loss,
standing here, looking into air,
had not these strangers come among us,
(heaven always closer than we think),

shaking us from the sky, confusing us,
making us wonder, questioning within,
if we could trust this vanishing,
if he had really gone at all.

                               —May 9, 2013

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
God, I am rushing, just brushing by, passing
my life on the street without greeting,
breathless and ceaseless,
skimming my life without taking it in,
distracted and fractured and shallow.

Be the lead in my life,
the molasses, the waist-deep snow.
Be the awkward weight, the icy walk,
the dark room with rearranged furniture
that forces me to go slow and pay attention.
Give me a weak heart, a breathing condition
that makes me pause now and then
and begin again, slowly.
Be my fine print, a foreign language
so I lean forward, listening to each word.
Be the unseen voice for which I look around,
the smell of baking bread
that makes me back up to an open door.
Be my stillness, my Sabbath, my stopping,
the Enough that it is to be here.
Even as I go, give me courage to give up,
to accomplish nothing,
to get deeply, truly nowhere at all
but here.

         

         

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 ask that they may all be one.  
        As you, Mother, are in me
         and I am in you,
         may they also be in us.”
                  — John 17. 20, 21

You who are Holy, You who are One,
by your grace we are one:
not unanimous or alike, but one.
One living body, with one spirit,
part of one another,
present in each other,
as you are present in us.
We and all strangers,
our most bitter enemies, are one.
The cry of the most far-flung peoples
rises in our hearts;
the hope of our salvation
rests in theirs.
Our pain, our freedom, our beauty
is all one thing.
O One, may the light of your love
dispel the illusion of our manyness,
the great sadness of our separation.
With the glory of our varied lives,
in your love,
O One,
we are one.

         
         

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.
         
A few people (multiplied by anxiety-addicted news media) are protesting the burial of the marathon bomber’s body here. It’s silly. He’s dead. He can do or be done no more dishonor. The tragedy is that we hang onto our anger and fear.

         “My peace I give you you.
         Do not let your hearts be troubled;
         do not let them be afraid.” — John 14.27

Terrible things have happened.
         God, grant me acceptance.

People have been hurtful.
         Give me forgiveness.

I am not done being hurt by what has happened.
         Help me let go.

I also have done terrible things.
         Forgive me.

I am afraid of my own guilt.
         Heal me of my shame.

I want so desperately to be “good” that I need others to be “bad.”         
         Release me from judging.

I am angry because I feel powerless.
         Give me peace.

I am afraid of my vulnerability.
         Give me peace.

I am addicted to my fear and anger.
         Give me peace.

In fear, I desire more violence, that others bear my pain.
         Give me peace.

My anxiety, like a gun, makes me feel safe and powerful.
         Give me peace.

This world is in need of healing.
         Give me your peace, that I may be healing,
         for this alone is your desire.
Amen.

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.
         
         
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
         — Revelation 22.1-2

Beautiful Tree of Life! Thank you for your grace,
for your verdant strength, your generosity.

You grow in the middle of the street of the city:
our only way is through you.

You grow on this side, and the other side.
You straddle the nations.

As a grove of aspen: all one tree, many stems,
Mustard seed, Redwood, Baobab, apple.

In the city there is no sight of the noxious weed
of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Tree on which Jesus hung has risen from death,
has sprouted green, has borne life-giving fruit.

You sustain us. You gather us, you shelter us.
We drink from the River, we live on your fruits.

No one comes to you alone, but as family.
No one eats as enemies or foreigners, but Yours.

You are the vine and we are the branches.
We are your leaves, twelve tribes of healing.

All the world lives in your shade, nests in your branches.
All of us eat of your body. We belong to you.

Beautiful Tree, Mother of Life! Tree of justice!
Tree of Healing! We thank you for your grace. Alleluia!

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.

         
         Those who love me will keep my word,
         and my Mother-and-Father will love them,
         and we will come to them
         and make our home with them.
                  — John 14.23

Heaven is not a distant country.
It comes to you.
It grows around you.
It is your home,
your your most inward, intimate place,
your deepest belonging.

To love your neighbor
is to welcome them
into the home of your heart
where God is.

You let the love well up in you
and it returns enlarged,
and you find yourself
embraced, en-webbed,
familied.

No matter what day comes,
what despair or undeserving,
you are still among
the Beloved ones
who gladly live with you.

Even in drought the well
is surrounded by flowers
and the greenest of grass.
         
         

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.
         
         
The geese traveling their distances above you,
the little swirls in the brook
making their way to the ocean
holding onto each other’s tails,
the green spikes pushing up into the light,
the breath rising through you into song,
the lifting unweight in you that leans
out across the tiny sea toward another person,

they are all saying the same thing:

come,
come with me,

come home.

___________________
Weather Report

Return,
as all things gather
from where they have been sown.
Expect occasional flurries of longing,
with scattered moments of recognition.
One hundred percent chance of arrival.

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.
         
         

You have come to this planet
to run and dance
and to cheer,
and you have done so.
And, Beloved, you
with the wind in you
and the fire in you,
with the Beloved in you,
when the bombs
of someone else’s
anger and despair
exploded you
and for a moment
you lay in the street,
unable,
and others carried you —
(shattered open,
you finally know
it is forever, now,
for we have done
so much more than cheer,
holding our blood
in each other’s hands) — 
that was not an end
but an awakening:
the anger and despair
are not yours.
You have come
to run and dance.
The wind blows
through your broken ruins
and they get up, borne,
and they will get up,
and they will dance,
and you will go on running,
running
on your mangled legs,
dancing
on your stumps and devices,
running to the infinite finish,
wildly dancing,
elegantly, sorrowfully,
beautifully dancing,
celebrating
every perfect one who runs by
on their wounded feet,
all of us carrying each other
across our many ribboned
finish lines,
and all of us,
even the despairing,
will finish.
         
         

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 these early spring days
before their fullness
the trees have a light in their eyes,
the packed, swelling buds,
these delicate feathers and fingers,
(and the blossoms,
the crazy blossoms!)
and then the tiniest leaves,
little baby exclamation points,
raised eyebrows
freckling the changed woods.

To attain individuality
and courage and creativity
you don’t have to do some
outlandish thing.
Just let the beauty
of the Beloved
deep within
come out.

The birds
just can’t stop talking about it.
         
         

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.
         
See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; they will be God’s peoples. The Holy One will personally be with them, and will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
        — Revelation 21.3-4

This is a mystery. For how can we love if we cannot suffer? Yet this seems clear: the sorrows of this world, the deep sadness that shapes so much of how we live, all our pain and regret is passing. God’s tender, comforting presence and God’s gentle healing are eternal. The sorrows we feel arise from loss, but in the Realm of the Beloved there is no loss; all things are one. Even death is not as powerful as love. What we love cannot be taken from us because we are one with them. Our deep presence in one another is eternal; everything else is passing away. The illusion of our separateness is strong, and it is this illusion that causes us grief. But in God’s love we realize our oneness, and each moment is a gift, without regret for what it might otherwise have been. There is always joy in the present moment.

We also weep for one anther. We mourn for those who suffer; we weep with them and suffer with them. And, weeping, we work for the day when their suffering is lifted, when the power of evil, injustice and oppression is finally overcome. So it is good to hold this vision before us, this promise of the day when God wipes every tear from our eyes. We ourselves will not do it. Ultimately it is the grace of God, the Love at the heart of all things, the blessedness of our oneness, that will. Meanwhile we accept the power God gives us to work for that day. We live in hope of that day— hope that is not mere wishful thinking, but confidence that that reality is already part of us, that this world’s suffering is passing away, but the tender mercy of God is present, and powerful, and infinite.

May this give you peace and strength and comfort, guide you on your way, and give you courage to live with mercy and love.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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