Nathanael said to him,
           “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
           Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
                                 —John 1.46

We’ve already decided
no one from Nazareth should be taken seriously.
Let’s confess what I call our cultural fundamentalism:
the belief that there is only one truth, and we own it.
The belief that my group (however I identify it) alone matters,
and we alone are entitled to decide
what is Real, True and Important.
We will not be dissuaded from our illusions by facts,
because it’s not the truth but who says it that matters.
If the speaker is one of us and protects our entitlement
(and magnifies our grievance at the loss of that entitlement)
we will believe whatever they say.
But the voice of an outsider simply doesn’t matter.
We are entitled to define what’s True, Real and Important,
and they are not. No one from Nazareth.

It’s the way of religious fundamentalists,
conspiracy theorists, white supremacists,
and other like-minded people.
It’s the basis of racism, sexism, heterosexism,
and every form of discrimination,
behind every crusade, pogrom, witch-hunt and genocide.
Whites, Americans, men, Christians—we all suffer from it.

What’s the antidote? “Come and see.”
Humility. Willingness to hear another’s truth.
Listening. Taking the “other” seriously.
Attending most deeply not to those defending their entitlement,
but to those who have none.

God, help me listen deeply and humbly.
Help me see all people as real, as whole, beloved people.
Bid me always, “Come and see.”

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

January 12, 2021

Beloved, you have not given up on us.
Shine your light within us.
Crucified One, you have been here before.
Sustain us with your presence.

Give us the wholeheartedness
to mourn our brokenness
and then to rise and get to work.
Give us the resilience to stay faithful,
even in the shadow of evil,
to do justice and to love mercy.

Loving One, lead us.
Redeem our fear, redirect our despair
and revive our spirits.
Give us hope and dissatisfaction.
Give us strength and patience.
Give us humility and courage.
Give us love that will not quit
in the face of evil.
Be among us, be with us, be in us.

Faithful God, hold our hearts in yours,
and grant us your peace.
Amen.

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

January 11, 2021

A voice came from heaven,
“You are my Child, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him
out into the wilderness.
—Mark. 1.11-12

Birthed into a troubled world
that needs you,

honored with the burden
of glory that is not yours,

hearing the blessing from above
you have to retreat to hear it within.

The word drives you out
into solitude where you are only you,

beloved, and must free yourself
from being otherwise.

Only in the wilderness of your aloneness
can you become who you are—

there, and in the press of the world ‘s need.
Baptism is no get out of jail card.

It’s empowerment to go in
and set the prisoners free.

For this you will need your belovedness.
Go to where that’s all that matters

so you will have such blessing
that it overflows where it is needed.

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

January 8, 2021

Just as he was coming up out of the water,
he saw the heavens torn apart
and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
—Mark 1.10

Underwater it’s quiet.
Deep in God you hear your heart beat
and the Great Silence of the universe.

Only when you come up
do you hear the roar of the world.
Bring the silence with you.

God’s waters break,
the heavens’ womb opens
and you emerge into a wound

torn more than the waters.
Only the divine silence
overcomes the world’s noise.

The Spirit, dove of listening,
descends, and bears you gently
through this torn, raging world.

“The realm of heaven has suffered violence,”
Jesus says, “and the violent take it by force.”
But they needn’t storm the ramparts

of God’s heart torn open,
where we already are.
Life is both an emerging and an entering,

a birthing, from love, into love,
a binding of the wound.
Bring the silence with you.

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

January 7, 2021

          It has now been revealed
           that the Gentiles have become fellow heirs,
           members of the same body,
           and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
                                 —Ephesians 3.5-6

Epiphany is the celebration of the revealing
of God in Christ to all the world,
represented by the magi from another country,
practitioners of another religion.
The “gentiles” are those who are not like us,
people of a different way.

God, help me to reveal your love, to all,
to shine with your light, and light alone—
especially to those who are not like me,
to those of a different way.

Those I disagree with, those I abhor,
are members of the same body.
It is to them I am to reveal your love
and shine with your light.
Shine in me, God of love and light,
shine in me.

Breath prayer:
                      Your light … in me

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

January 6, 2021

         There, ahead of them, went the star
          that they had seen at its rising,
          until it stopped over the place where the child was.
                              —Matthew 2.9

Of course a star doesn’t stop over one place.
What if they’d been off by one house?
They would have entered, and knelt down,
and paid honor to some other child.
They would have seen the divine,
revealed to them by the Spirit.
And, I tell you, the child
would have grown up to become the Messiah.

Kneel and honor whoever you meet,
and go home by your own way.
You will both be blessed.
Trust God to make of them, and of you,
what God will.

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

January 4, 2021

Twelve days seems long,
the gifts nearly forgotten,
the cookies gone;
but the child, remember, is still an infant.
We have a long road ahead of us,
justice on a far horizon,
our wholeness still in swaddling clothes.

The world looks at us oddly
when we say “Merry Christmas” today.
But time, as the prophets already knew, is relative.
Twelve days is more than enough
to finish off the leftovers
but barely enough to fully contemplate.
Ignore the world, hurrying nowhere.
We trust on a longer arc.
The world-bearing journey takes time.
The magi took two years.

It is neither late nor early. It is now.
The path the length of the universe
is no longer than this moment. This.
The infinite unfolds, God acts, today.
The sun rises on this day.
As always,
begin.

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

January 5, 2021

              Having been warned in a dream
              not to return to Herod,
              they left for their own country by another road.
                                          —Matthew 2.12

The star behind us, a new year rising,
just when we thought the search was over
and the treasure found, we hear a warning
to repent, to change our ways,
to embark on a new unknown
off the road where we’re at home.

But we welcome it.
This old one was awful.
The year was hard, the way was rocky.
For all the danger and cruelty
we’re glad not to return to
we give thanks for this gift, so needed, from God:
another road.

Thank you. We’ll take it.

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

December 31, 2020

Go seek that other deep nativity,
not sweet, nor bright, but empty, low and rough,
untouched by desperate activity,
where stillness and the longing are enough.
Wait in this wounded darkness, from whose rend,
where roots of death are woven in the earth,
a child emerges painfully, to mend
with splintered hands the world that gave him birth.
For deep in battered hearts, too cold to feel,
where blood and bones and heaven’s veins enmesh,
God comes, incarnate, altered, bound to heal
the brokenness by living in this flesh.
Let God redeem this life on Christmas morn:
let flesh be Word made flesh; with God be born.

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

December 30, 2020

          The word of God is living and active,
           sharper than any two-edged sword,
           piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow;
           it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
                                 —Hebrews 4.12

           “This child is destined for the falling and the rising
           of many in Israel,
           and to be a sign that will be opposed
           so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—
           and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
                                 —Luke 2.34-35

Not the rise and fall of many, but the falling and rising.
Death first, then resurrection.
(The “sleeping and rising” of the sower, Mark 4.26.)

A “sign” that exposes our resistance.
A sword that separates truth from delusion,
action from wishing.

So. Your inner thoughts.
Not your opinion about Jesus,
but your willingness to die first,
and then rise with him.

Let the sword pierce your heart.
Are you ready—today—to die
(once more, and again…)
and then to be raised?
Or just thinking about it?

Anna and Simeon knew the moment
when they saw it.

Act.

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

December 29, 2020