And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
             for you will go before the Holy One to prepare God’s ways,
             to give knowledge of salvation to God’s people
             by the forgiveness of their sins.
                                                   —Luke 1.76-77

You go before, before the way is straightened.
The preparations are mostly unseen. Go anyway.

Bold pronouncements won’t do it;
you make God’s grace known by forgiving.

Plant seeds of grace in the dark soil of this world;
sow seeds of light in the darkness.

In time they will bear fruit, in time.
Go before; Infinite Love is at your back.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             By the tender mercy of our God,
                  the dawn from on high will break upon us,
            to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
                  to guide our feet into the way of peace.
                                           —Luke 1.78-79

When we see the world clearly,
its doom of climate, of tyranny, of violence,
the reign of riches, the empire of fear,
we join those who sit in darkness.
It is no longer only slaves and prisoners,
but all the world that dwells in the shadow of death.

And now, now, the prophet announces
the coming of a dawn as if a winter solstice.
A light that guides us into the ways of peace
even amid the winds of conflict.

Look, then, even in the darkness, to the light.
The dawn is not on the horizon but among us,
even in the deep night, already rising.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius,
           when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
           and Herod was ruler of Galilee,
           and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
           and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,
           during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
           the word of God came—
                                          to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
                                                                                       —Luke 3.1-2

Luke names every locus of power,
every place where the Word of the Almighty
ought to land…
and it does not come there,
but in the wilderness, to a powerless peasant
without office or authority, a man named John.
Don’t look to the mighty for the power of God.
Look to the lowly.

Grace always rises from below.

In your own heart, yes, there are your strengths,
those things you’re most comfortable with,
what gets noticed and praised—
but look also to the wilderness,
among the quiet, overlooked things,
the tender places, the sorrows and wounds,
the outlier hopes and fragile dreams,
for the movement of the Spirit.

The Holy invades from the bottom up.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
             and on the earth distress among nations….
             Then they will see ‘the Truly Human One coming in a cloud’
             with power and great glory….
             Stand up and raise your heads,
             because your redemption is drawing near
                         —Luke 21.25, 27, 28

With Jesus we practice double vision:
to see the signs of the times,
the gathering clouds, the tyranny looming,
the ruin of our climate,
the collapse of what sustains us—
and at the same time the irruption of grace,
the glory of God with us in the human realm.
To dare to bear sorrow and hope together.
To know the horror of end times
and still trust the power of kindness.
To see the signs of a troubled future,
and remain loving in the present.

Help us, Holy One, to see the darkness clearly,
even as we shine the light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           Prepare the way of the Holy One,
           make straight the paths of God.
                         —Luke 3.4

Mary, waiting for her child, is powerless, patient,
dependent on a greater movement—
not uncertain, but also not in control.
Like waiting for the sunrise.
Waiting for God to appear in a new way.

Yet waiting like Mary is not passive,
but preparing, being transformed.

The “way” of God is not elsewhere,
some road God needs to enter the world.
God enters by the unlikeliest path,
through the least accessible means.
The Mystery will enter as Mystery wills.
So maybe to “prepare” is not so much waiting
for God to appear as changing how we see,
becoming ready to see God in new ways.

And God enters the world through us.
So waiting with Mary, we are waiting
as God transforms within us.

We are the way God is preparing.

How are you preparing yourself
to be the way God enters the world?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Pray that you may have the strength…
             to stand before the Truly Human One.
                         —Luke 21.36

You stand before the Beloved,
not being judged,
but as a model of the Gracious One
to the world,
facing the world with love.
You go before the Loving One,
who is right behind you,
who has your back
Pray for the strength to stand before Christ,
to body forth that love,
to shine with that light.

Pray that you might always trust
that strong, gentle hand on your back.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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O Giver of all that is good, we are grateful.
We are surrounded by beauty and grace.
We are sustained and nourished by a green, thriving planet.
For home and family, neighborhood and nation, we are grateful.
In contrition we acknowledge that many of our blessings
have come at the expense of others, and the earth;
and that our benefits are not extended to all.
Even amid suffering, we humbly dare to be grateful.
We are mindful of forces of domination that loom
and the demands of justice that cry out unfulfilled.
Yet your presence abides with us; your mercy sustains us;
your grace empowers us, and we are grateful.
O God, may our thanks be honest, humble and generous.
May we receive our blessings in your spirit: ready to share them,
and to see to it that they are made available to all.
May our gratitude be restless, until all are included,
according to your most generous grace.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Be on guard
             so that your hearts are not weighed down
             with dissipation and drunkenness
             and the worries of this life.
                         —Luke 21.34


Jesus isn’t telling us to detach ourselves from the world,
or to stop caring, but to refuse the world’s anxiety.
Trying to make ourselves happy, we fear losing happiness.
We worry; we drug ourselves with whatever dulls us.

Let your heart be lifted up instead, carried,
not by the promise of comfort but the presence of grace.
The Beloved transforms even moments of suffering
into a communion of closeness.

Guard against cynicism. Be wary of guarding your heart:
open it wide, and even as the pain of the world seeps in,
the love of the One Who Is With US floods you,
and your heart is not weighed down, but floats on a sea of grace.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Heaven and earth will pass away,
             but my words will not pass away.
                         —Luke 21.33

You will pass away.
This generation and the next will disappear.
This nation will go down into the dust.
Governments will shrivel like dried leaves
and blow away into the earth.
We may delay or hasten our end,
but it will come.
Soon or later, the whole human family
will be no more.
All our good and evil will pass away.
But the love of God does not die or change.
Grace will outlast our failings.
The blessed oneness of all living beings
will pulse with light
long after all beings have passed.

Whatever losses we fear,
whatever disasters threaten us,
they will pass.
Whatever the children of the Beloved suffer,
their belovedness will not fade or tremble.
Even as we fear the heating of our globe
and the ripping of our society,
the Goodness at the heart of all things
remains, forever and ever.
Cling to this, not what passes,
and you will know life that is eternal.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             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.
                         —Luke 21.25

Oof. Sounds like climate change.

Sounds like troubled times coming upon us
like a storm, or a heat wave,
unseasonable disruption, unreasonably dark—
but a trouble we’ve brought on ourselves.

Wait. This is our introduction to Christmas?

Yes.
Cutting through our sweet carols
is the cry of the world,
and the cry is not an interruption,
but the reason.
God has come to be with us
in our self-made night.
In our evil, and the foreboding of evil,
among the signs of the gathering chaos,
the Hopeful One comes among us,
small and helpless, fragile,
requiring our mercy,
evoking our love,
nursing us with courage.
Not in some easy dreamland
but here in this thickening, sickening darkness,
under the thumb of Herod,
whose soldiers are already strapping on their boots,
comes the Tender One,
whose very being defies the chaos,
terrifies the Emperor,
stirs the people of God,
and brings dawn to the night-blind world.

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