Category: Reflections

Lent is when we go downstairs,
down into the basement of our souls,
into the dark, dingy, dirty places,
and clear out the junk we need to get rid of.
In Lent we don’t need to beat ourselves up.
We need to lighten our load,
bag up those fears and desires
that are leaking all over everything,
take our guilt and shame out to the curb.
It’s not easy to lay our hands on broken things,
to look deep into the gummed up works.
That’s why Jesus shines with his light,
shines so we can see our way down into the dark,
see to lift up the junk and hand it over,
so he can haul it out into the light
of the dumpster.
The light Jesus shines is good with dark places,
so we know even from the deepest hole down there
we’ll come out. The light will lead us. We’ll be OK.
Mucking around down there we get dirty,
and we come up with grime on our hands
and ashes on our foreheads for everybody to see.
But we’re free of all that blame and disappointment.
And the darkest, deepest cellar hole
becomes an empty tomb.

__________________
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           From the cloud a voice said,
           “This is my Son, the Beloved;
           with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
                           —Matthew 17.5


Listen for the One amid the others,
from so far within it’s beyond.

The voice deep down inside of things,
where God still echoes.

If you don’t turn from this clanging world to listen
you won’t hear.

Listen for the voice that calls you Beloved.
It may sound like sweet nothings.

The voice that knows your wholeness,
sees your gleaming, makes your life run deep.

Listen for the depth of the marbled silence
of one who is listening.

A beckoning, not a command,
toward, not above.

Listen for the love that draws you,
even through the shadowed valley,

the voice that knows life beyond that,
and speaks without guile about joy.

Listen for the voice tinged with hope and delight,
and listen. Listen.

__________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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           Jesus was transfigured before them,
           and his face shone like the sun,
           and his clothes became dazzling white.
                           —Matthew 17.2


Sometimes someone changes and you get to see it.
And sometimes you finally see what was always there.

Maybe this is the real grace of transfiguration,
not that things change but that our seeing does,

that we see with eyes of wonder,
that we see divine presence in this world,

that we see resurrection in every death,
see the gleam that is each person, even the doomed,

that we see them beyond the limits of their flesh,
see them in company with saints, see them divine,

risen already from whatever deaths and disappointments
they will endure, still shining. We see with eyes of mercy.

Maybe the miracle is not in the light that enters our eyes
but the light that shines out from them.

Pray that by the grace of the God who shines
our eyes may be transfigured.

____________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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           He was transfigured before them,
           and his face shone like the sun,
           and his clothes became dazzling white.
           Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah,
           talking with him.
                           —Matthew 17.2-3

Jesus has just said he will be killed, and raised again.
If you give away your life for love, he said,
God will give you a new one.
Jesus has already surrendered his life.
He is already the Crucified One.
And now we see him, with others who have died,
and he is shining with Easter light, risen again,
before it even happens.

Jesus is the lighthouse shining at the mouth of the bay
where we enter the narrows of death,
shining to show us the way through
to deeper, wider life.
The light emboldens us to enter the dark—
the neglected, the unseen, the unfamiliar, the unloved—
to find life there, healing and beauty and resurrection.

In this dazzling light, if we trust it, if we follow it,
we ourselves may be transfigured.

__________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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Beloved,
when you pray to me
set aside your prayers.
Just sit with me.

It gives me joy to be with you.
Of all my creations
in all the galaxies,
including the galaxies themselves,
none is any more precious to me
than you.
You delight me.
Unseen, unheard, unfelt,
I hold you. I enfold you.
I know at times I come on too strong,
at times too vague,
but dearie, I’m doing my best
to be just small enough for you.
Come sit in my lap.
Just let me look at you.

Be mine.

__________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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           He was transfigured before them,
           and his face shone like the sun,
           and his clothes became dazzling white.
                           —Matthew 17.2

Oh, please don’t explain this story.
It’s truly, divinely, accurately weird.
Sure, there’s a moral of the story—
several, in fact: theological constructs,
stuff you should believe. Fine. Hold those in your pocket.
Meanwhile, sit there for a minute,
cock your head a little and just gawk at this story.
It’s weird. Jesus shining, dead people chatting,
Peter talking nonsense, a cloud that enters like a crab
and holds them in its pincers, a disembodied voice. Whoa.
Don’t start in on theology,or psychology, or meteorology,
or any fool ology. This is not about ology.
This is about wonder.
How Jesus shines. Life just shines.
The glory of God spills out of things,
leaks out of every container, even people.
Being alive is beyond explanation,
grace is odd, love doesn’t make sense
and God is inexplicable— a real, absolute, true
mystery. Not a puzzle: a mystery.
The uncanny more-than-itself-ness of life.
Faith is not about having religious opinions,
not knowing, certainly not certainty.
Sometimes faith is just awe.
The willingness to be bedazzled,
to look at life and go, “Wow.”
When beauty and grace and loveliness overwhelm you,
when words fail and being smart is of no use.
You sense God may be afoot but can’t say how.
All you can do is say, “Huh. Whaddya know. Wow.”
Let this story be weird. Let life be amazing.
Let God be more than you can grasp.
Your faith needn’t be much more
than grateful, gob-smacked wonder.
If you really want to get religious, let this be your creed:
“Wow. Amen.”

__________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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I don’t know

if this murky road

goes anywhere

at all

but

beside me

I see

Your shadow,

with me.

__________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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           Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No.”
                           —Matthew 5.37

God, give me grace
that my “Yes” be Yes,
my “No” be No,
that I be clear.

May I stand for what I stand for,
that my Yes or No be true,
even when it upsets people,
when they want me to waffle.

Save me from their fear
of being disagreed with.
Save me from my fear
that I’m not worthy of my opinion.

To what is yes,
I bow deeply with my yes.
To what is no,
I bow deeply with my no.

I pray that I may discern clearly,
and be at peace,
hearing always your Word,
your “Yes, Yes, Yes.”

__________________
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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Jesus takes the law up a notch—
or, really, down: down into the depths:

not just what you do but why,
who you are in the world.

To not merely avoid murder,
or even anger, but to truly honor people.

To place your relationship with God
in your relationship with others.

To not merely avoid adultery or even lust
but to truly be faithful with another person.

To not merely avoid over-grand promises
but to be a person of profound integrity.

This is the grace of God, after all, toward you,
who has vowed to love, honor and cherish you.

Let the grace well up from within,
for the true law of God is pure joy.

         [Mt. 5.21-37]

__________________
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•
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
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It’s thirteen below on my morning walk.
The snow is rock, the brook is a brick.
Everything crackles. The air itself is brittle.

Yet chickadees and nuthatches work the oaks
in their bare feet, on their tiny ankles.
Life prevails, sustained by a mystery within.

There are seeds that sprout after thousands of years.
Pine cones that open only after forest fires.
Survivors of child abuse who turn out lovely.

There is some force of life in you
that can’t be put out, that is—what’s the word?—
Eternal.

Shelter that spark. Give thanks.
Layer up if you have to. But trust it.
It will keep you. It will keep you.


______________
Weather Report

Frigid,
but only outside
you. What is within
is not subject to passing storms.

---

Audio version:

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

February 6, 2023

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