Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                    There is no longer Jew or Greek,          there is no longer slave or free,          there is no longer male and female;          for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.                   —Galatians 4.28

It is so hard to avoid categorizing, judging, labeling. I do so in anxiety about my own judgment. I want to be “the way I’m supposed to be.” I want to be “good enough.” So in fear I distinguish and judge. I hate in others what I fear in myself. I find others offensive so that I can feel acceptable. Without realizing I’m doing it I define “normal.”

I participate in systems — Legion — that distinguish, judge, define and dehumanize people. My language and culture devalues women, gays, foreigners, introverts, the traumatized, those whose bodies aren’t like mine. Cancer? You’re brave. Schizophrenia? You’re crazy.

And when my normativeness is religious — when I curse people on behalf of God — it becomes murderous. Someone deports a bus full of immigrants, or massacres a reservation full of Indians, or shoots a club full of gays or a church full of blacks, because for God I have already killed them.

God, I repent of my murderous distinctions.          I renounce normal. Help me shed my judgments,          extend only mercy, and stand against the evil of my own culture,          even my own church. Help me cast out the demons,          beginning in myself. Open my eyes that I may see only your children,          all your children.                            Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Your heart beats in my heart. Your breath flows through me.

I breathe in the sorrow of the world. I breathe out mercy.

I breathe in the fear of the world. I breathe out mercy.

I breathe in the pain of the world. I breathe out mercy.

I breathe in the rage of the world. I breathe out mercy.

I enter the Great Wound, and I breathe mercy.

You breathe mercy in me, breathe deep mercy in all of us.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

          My dear beloved, I hold you in my hands because I want to. You are my delight. You are perfect. You are perfect.

I love you more than you imagine ? how can you know, small as you are, what love I have for you that pours out of my heart without your asking? When you are hungry or upset how can you think of my joy in you? ? but there it is. I love you for no reason, no reason at all, and you can’t change it, your mood or your behavior mean nothing. You may cause distress for me and those who love you but you cannot disappoint me or make me turn away because I love you for no reason at all, and I will love you the same, now and always, no less than when you were newborn.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                    A woman in the city, who was a sinner,          stood behind him at his feet, weeping,          and began to bathe his feet with her tears….          He said, “Do you see this woman?”                   —Luke 7.37, 44

No, we do not see. To one of Jesus’ most arresting questions, we have to answer: we don’t see her. We see our prejudices and stereotypes. We see our fears and projections. We don’t see this woman; we see what we think of her. We see a sinner. We see someone disrupting our dinner. We see someone who makes us uncomfortable. Which is to say, we see our judgment, our expectations, our discomfort. We see our own stuff. We don’t see her.

But Jesus saw this woman, really saw her. He saw her pain and her strength, her gratitude, her courage, her transformation. He saw the precious value of her gift. He saw her soul at work. He saw God’s grace in her.

Jesus really saw people. He saw who they were and knew their story, not because he had ESP but because he paid attention. The woman at the well, the bent over woman, the rich man, Bartimaeus, the woman who touched him in a crowd… he really saw people because he wanted to. He paid attention. And there was healing in his seeing. What he saw in people was not their flaws but the mercy of God. And seeing the grace was like sunlight on plants: it made people heal and grow and bear fruit.

God, help me really see. Help me set aside my feelings and judgments, and see whole people, your beloved, precious souls. Help me see myself: help me notice my projections, and name my fears and expectations; help me confess my blinders and set them aside so I can see. Beloved, help me really see people, really see your grace, really see at all. Beloved, I want to see.  

          Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.          

         A woman who was a sinner began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. She continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” …          Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”                   —Luke 7.37-39, 50

Your faith is not your steadfast belief, not certainty beyond questions. Your faith is not what you think of God or God’s anointed, for you yourself have done some powerful anointing. Your faith is giving your gifts, without questioning how valued they are, without questioning how worthy you are, but simply offering what is in you.

What saves you is knowing you are received without price, without judgment. The Savior’s love is indeed powerful, but how precious is what you have done for the Beloved.

God’s giving and receiving are married in you.

All that is broken is forgiven, all that is wounded is healed, all that is offered is cherished.

All that is broken is forgiven, all that is wounded is healed, all that is offered is cherished.

Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Holy One,          Life-Giver, Womb of all Being and Unfolding of All in joy,          we thank you, for everything is a gift. Every moment is pregnant with your grace          and every difficulty bears your presence. Every person reveals your beauty;          every being is a Word of your mercy. Each created thing hides blessings we cannot comprehend;          your wonders exceed our imagining. Ours is not the power,          nor the wisdom nor the glory. All our labors are only to birth your grace.          All our knowledge is only to behold your mystery. Every moment is a newborn child;          we hold your miracles in our hands. Bless us that we my live in wonder and gratitude,          that we may honor your gifts, that we may care tenderly for all you have given us          and cherish your delight. May your love sing in our hearts                  and your mercy in all that we do. Miraculous God, we thank you,          we ask your blessing,          and we trust your grace. Amen.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.          

          We are waiting for the birth of a baby, waiting and laboring past due.           We pray, how long, O Lord? And you answer, this long, this long.

We are not waiting not for the clock, not waiting for this to become that,           but waiting for the unfolding of your mercy, gestation’s blessed delay.

We wait not for our desire, our favored outcome, but for you alone.

We wait for the desire to control to leave, the despair that all’s in our hands.

Your grace is in this world unseen, your presence embracing, unfurling.

In grace you work your delight even now, in love you wait beside us.

For all who wait for healing, for all who wait for joy,

we pray their waiting be fruitful, that their waiting be for you.

They don’t see but they already know. Blessed are they who wait for the Lord.

Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                     Yesterday I led a funeral for a beloved church member. Today we await the birth of a grandchild. The old saint and the new, neither one in this visible world, are both rocked in the arms of God.

And so are we.

On his deathbed the gentle man was still only beginning to see the love unfurling in his life, looking so much like heaven. Being born, the child will begin to see. And we who hold the little one will also be born anew, and we will begin to see.

God, grant us each the grace to know that we are infants in your arms, angels at your gates, each day reborn, each day a new beginning, each day a passage from this world of grace into this world of grace, surrounded by infinite blessings we can’t know, only beginning to see how deeply we are loved, how deeply.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

It feels like the end of something          but we forget the rest.

It is a door and something on the other side,

this moment a single petal of a rose unfolding.

From the doorway looking back we see you walking along

and ahead we see you walking along.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                    A man who had died was being carried out. …          And Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”          The dead man sat up and began to speak,          and Jesus gave him to his mother.                   —from Luke 7.12-15

You don’t know what it is in you that has died and is beyond hope, something precious, that God will breathe new life into, yes, impossibly, and give back to you. You can’t know what or how or when, but you can wait with faith, you can rest yourself in the mystery that some day this will happen and you won’t be surprised.

          __________________

         Weather Report           Dawn today, or perhaps another day, as the planet comes slowly around and all things, as they do, return to God.

Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail, write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com