At the cross the people stood by watching;
         and the leaders scoffed.
                  —Luke 23.35

Three officers stood silent
while a fourth killed a helpless man, slowly.
Centurions at the crucifixion.

To kill, all we have to do is stand silent.
The killing is already going on.
All we have to do is stand by. Stay silent.

Don’t raise your voice.
Don’t protest.
Don’t question what happens.

Don’t object when the Emperor desecrates the holy place.
Don’t defy the secret police.
Don’t cry out. Don’t disrupt.

That’s all you have to do to abet the killing. Stay silent.
The killing will go on, just fine.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Unless you would like your own cross
to bear. Unless you would stand with the man
with the crown of thorns.

Unless you wish to take your faith that seriously
in these serious times.
Unless in you the Holy Spirit is already crying out.

Unless in this kingdom of death you would be resurrected.
Unless you have already died and your life is hidden in Christ.
Unless in you life is stronger than death, love is stronger than fear.

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

June 5, 2020

My church is conducting worship online these days.
I sing a lot of our music live;
we also pre-record some pieces
one voice at a time and mix them into an ensemble piece.
I record a guitar track. Then a vocal track or two or three.
Then I send them off to James and he adds Jenny’s voice
and mixes then into a beautiful song.
I never get to hear the whole song, just my part,
till the mix is done.

Love is like that.
God is singing in us.
You don’t hear the whole song.
You just listen to God’s love
and sing your part,
and trust the whole
is more beautiful than you can know.
That is all.

That is enough.

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

June 4, 2020

          “Go and make disciples of all nations,
          teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” 
                 —Matthew 28.19-20

What he commanded was love.
Our calling is not to manipulate people
to change their religious affiliation.
(If that were true, we would be converting people to Judaism.)
It’s to help people become students of the way he taught:
to live loving lives.

How do we do that?
The same way he did: we show them.

In the worst of conditions, in the awfullest of times,
we show love.

We throw ourselves on the mercy of God
to help us love, for we can only with God’s help.

Only by loving
will we help others love
(but beyond our knowing or seeing).
This is the grace of God: that the little mustard seed
of our love of a single neighbor
changes the nations.

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

June 3, 2020

How do you live through a siege?
How do you guard your heart and keep your hope
amid violence, hatred, injustice and fear?
You pray.

Sit still.
Let the sounds of the news
and the voices in your head settle and fade.
Release your fears and desires. Offer them to God.

Sit with the God of love and mercy.
Just sit with God. Sit, and listen.

Listen to God’s passion for life and wholeness,
for justice and healing.

What do you hear from God,
the God who says “Let there be light,”
who says “I will give my life for you,”
who enters the world’s suffering?
What is God saying to you?

It may be silence.
God may be weeping. God may be praying,
radiating blessing for all who are broken,
working wonders, renewing life you cannot see or know.

Open your heart
to let that light and mercy flood in.
to trust that gracious will.

Breathe deeply of that peace,
willing to be light in the darkness…
and go with love and courage
into the day.

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

June 2, 2020

        Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith.
                  —2 Corinthians 13.5

How do you live through the siege? Whether it is climate change, police brutality, a viral pandemic or 400 years of white supremacy, how do you live faithfully when there is sickness and evil around you?

First, examine yourself. Keep paying attention. Before you judge others test yourself. The only person you can control is you, so do so. What are your basic values? Do you apply them to yourself and others equally? See that they are foundational values, not just self-benefiting wishes. (Here’s the test: Will you—do you—sacrifice to confer the benefits of your values on others?) What is the world you hope to live in? Live in it. Follow its rules. Demonstrate its value. Be light.

Serve each other. Let every action be for the sake of the wholeness of all, not merely your own advantage. Let compassion guide you. Love.

Bear witness. Be transparent. Do not hide your sorrow or your rage. They are part of your power to care. Don’t silence yourself if you are grieving while others are happy, or joyful when others despair. Honor your heart. Don’t whine; don’t spend energy wishing for what is not; don’t blame or judge. But give your broken heart freedom to speak its truth, to sing its song. Start the conversation: not the bitch session, but the dialogue about where to go next, what we can do. We can.

Protect the vulnerable. As the Bible says, “care for the widows and orphans:” for those most at risk, marginalized, or disenfranchised. We are all part of one whole; you are not whole unless your neighbor is. Check yourself when you want to defend your own comfort at another’s expense. Tend to one another. Belong to the whole.

Disrupt. Interrupt your own participation systems that perpetuate harm or injustice. Whether you would transmit racism, plastic waste or a coronavirus, seek ways to stop the spread. Break the cycle. Practice a new way of living. Do justice.

Hope. Hope is not wishful thinking but trust in what is unseen. God’s grace is at work in ways we can’t know. Notice the signs, small and great. Stay in touch with others who care and keep each other’s vision alive. Shield your joy. Practice gratitude. Seek healing. Set the burden of your dread or despair or guilt in the hands of the Gentle One who heals, who radiates blessing, who even now is creating life. We do not know the end; but we know the journey of life is full of grace. Walk it.

You can’t save the world, but you can bless it. Do justice; love mercy; walk humbly with God. Trust God, and work like hell. You are not alone.

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

June 1, 2020

         In the one Spirit
         we were all baptized into one body.                  —1 Corinthians 12.13

One Body.
We are all fingers of one hand,
one Spirit moving through us
in all our different ways.
The lie that we are separate is our first sin.
Our denial does not negate our unity;
our obliviousness does not remove us
from the one body.
There is no other;
we are that one; they are us.

Unless we weep with those who weep,
or rage with those who rage, we betray the Spirit.
Until we ourselves are the one
lying handcuffed, black,
with a white person’s knee on our throat
we do not have the Holy Spirit,
but the spirit of denial.
Until we see our own knee on that throat,
we blaspheme against the Spirit.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will awaken us
to our oneness,
that we may love our neighbor
as ourselves,
for that they are.

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

May 29, 2020

           They were filled with the Holy Spirit
         and began to speak in other languages,
         as the Spirit gave them ability
                  —Acts 2.4

Holy Spirit, loosen our tongues and teach us
new languages of love.
Help us convey your grace across the divides of language,
of culture and race and class and identity.
Put the breath of love in our lungs,
the words of mercy on our tongues,
the song of grace on our lips.
Help us give voice to blessing
that is clear in any language.
Give us grace to listen to every foreign tongue,
respect every foreign story, and honor every foreign soul,
for you have sent us to them
so they may know their belovedness,
and they may reveal to us our own.
Spirit of God, breathe in us.
Spirit of love, sing in us.
Spirit of justice, rise in us to do your will.

________________
Weather Report

Windy,
as the warm, moist air of grace
replaces the cold, dry air of sin,
driven by the jet stream of God
flowing and flowing
throughout the day,
rising in our hearts.

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

May 28, 2020

When you send forth your spirit,
all beings are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.
        His name was George Floyd.

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
         He was God’s beloved, breathing God’s Spirit.

In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. 
        He was black. The Body of Christ.

When you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust. 
        He was slowly choked to death
         by a white cop. His life didn’t matter.

We do not know how to pray as we ought,
but that very Spirit intercedes
with sighs too deep for words.
         “Please, I can’t breathe…”

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.

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

May 27, 2020

        He said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
         and let the one who believes in me drink.
         As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart
         shall flow rivers of living water.’”
                  —John 7.37-38

A spring, clear and fresh,
a river of love
flows from Jesus,
the stream of his being.
          . . .

Drink from the river,
let it flow into you,
fill you, become you,
the stream of your being.
         . . .
Let it flow out from you,
the riverbank,
river of love, the stream of God,
flowing out into all the world.

         . . .

Breathing in, you drink from the river.
Breathing out, it flows from you.
This is the Spirit, the stream of God’s Being,
breathing in you always, flowing in you.      

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

May 26, 2020

We remember the men and women who have died
while serving in the US military.
We remember the men and women who have died
while serving in the Peace Corps.
We remember the men and women who have died
serving in United Nations Peace Keeping forces.
We remember the men and women who have died
working for peace and justice.
We remember the civilian men and women
and children who have died in armed conflicts.
We remember the child in us who dies
when we start to believe in war.

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

May 25, 2020