Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Generous God, thank you.
For the gift of life, the gift of creation, and this amazing world, thank you.
For the gift of lungs that know how to breathe without my telling them,
for galaxies that spin without my spinning them,
for living beings that surround me and give life, I thank you.
For the mystery of my life, the path that has brought me this far,
for all those who have been part of my story, all of them, I thank you.
I am grateful for loved ones near and far,
for those I live with and those I seldom see,
and those who have touched me only once,
for they are the tree that holds the nest of my life.
For the wonders that surround me, the beauty and strangeness,
the color and music of this life, I thank you,
and pray for eyes and ears of wonder.
For the mystery of your presence within me,
your attentiveness to my every heartbeat,
your unfathomable delight in my being, your forgiveness and healing,
for your gift of renewal and your resurrecting in me,
and for your energy in me, the shining sun of you in me,
I give you thanks and pray that I may always be mindful.
For all your gifts I am grateful, delighted and amazed,
and pray that I may ever be so.
For all that is to come, I ask not for goods or favors,
but only this: a heart of wonder, humility, gratitude and delight.
Amen.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         Plate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
         Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world.”
         Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?”
         Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king.
         For this I was born, and for this I came into the world,
         to testify to the truth.”
                  —from John 18.32-37

Pilate thinks and operates in a world of power—the ability to coerce, to get what you want through force or fear. But Jesus knows that’s an imaginary world; he lives in the real world, the world of God’s love. He bears witness to that love. He embodies it unmistakably. He is its proof. His being has authority, and his love reigns over the world. But in this play-acting world of appearances, what kind of power is that? Is Jesus a king or not?

Of course he is. He has a greater power than Pilate, and Pilate unconsciously knows it, or he would not be so threatened. Well, he will show Jesus power. The Empire will strike Jesus down with the one power that Empire has: the power to destroy, the power of fear.

And the Empire will lose. Rome will impose death, for that is all Rome can do. But God will give life, for that is what God does. And life will win out over death. Caesar will exercise power and Jesus will exercise love, and in the end Jesus will change the world and Caesar will get a salad named after him.

Empire always loses. Exploiting people as pawns in one’s power drama, rather than meeting them in love as they are, always fails. Domination is illusory. Love overpowers power. It is stronger than fear or death. In Empire’s imaginary world power, security and status, wearing costumes, pretend to have authority and to give life, and pretend that love is powerless. But don’t be fooled by the weapons and costumes. In the real world, this world, love is the only power. Resurrection, not death, is always the last word. Love, not force, reigns supreme. This what it means to say that Christ is “Lord.” God’s love enfleshed reigns supreme throughout the universe. This is worth trusting with your life.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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pressed together
reaching up for the straps
lurched alike
hands in the air
all these faces
trying not to touch
so many stories silent
all of us reaching up
choosing our way
not saying what
so deeply we hope
borne along
on the way to somewhere
together on this train
leaving what we have left
secretly longing
all of us reaching
borne along.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Her black skin disappears in the black night
but her eyes are open.
At the end of the street is the half moon,
her eyes open, too.
She watches the moon down the street,
turns the corner, stays on the near side
so she can see the moon above the fence.
Stops to see the moon under the branches of the tree,
then passes the house.
There is the moon, between houses.
And between the next two.
Now a little park, where the moon slides
through the trees, watching her,
and over the low roof of the garage,
reflected in the car hoods out front,
bulging and receding over one hood and the next.
Now down the hill, the moon moving
in and out between roofs and chimneys,
always coming back.
Finally she comes to her house, up the steps,
where the moon is between the posts
and inside and up to her room
where it looks in her window in wonder
at her full moon eyes,
two kindred spirits, who sometimes disappear
but who are always watching.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         Every priest stands day after day at his service,
         offering again and again the same sacrifices
         that can never take away sins.
         But Christ has perfected for all time
         those who are sanctified.
                  —Hebrews 10.11, 14

Our modern version of the sacrifice— the ritual action performed over and over again in order to deal with our inadequacy before God —is not the slaughter of animals, but our busyness. Some little god in us, some demanding voice, believes that we need to accomplish, control and experience a lot of things. We need to make ourselves useful. We need to cover the sacrificial altar of our lives with all that we’ve done. We are afraid that that little god in us would be displeased if we just sat there.

But we are set free from that. We don’t have to do everything. We don’t have to rush around. We don’t have to over-function, overachieve, over-schedule. In fact, we don’t have to do anything. We’ve already been perfected and made holy (“sanctified”). We can stop the slaughter of the innocent animal of our time and mindfulness.

Look at Christ: he not only gave up his ministry (think what miracles he could have done had he escaped the cross!), but he gave up his life, not to accomplish, but to simply be. And though his doing ended in death, his being went right on beyond death. That’s how free we are: like those who have already died and gone to heaven, we don’t have to do anything. Just be. We don’t have to offer the sacrifice of doing again and again. It turns out that an infinite number of angels can dance on the head of a pin, but they’re not that driven.

Yeah, I know, I have a lot on my to-do list, too. But don’t forget the one sacred thing on your to-be list. If we take time every day to remember that our holy calling is to be, not to do, then the things we do will be holy, and not so neurotic. We don’t have to crowd our whole life onto the head of a pin: we have space to dance all over heaven.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         “Do you see these great buildings?
         Not one stone will be left here upon another;
         all will be thrown down.”
                  —Mark 13.2

The temple did come down,
impossibly, the great twin towers fell,
and autumn leaves,
civilizations fell like desert rain,
your mother died,
your body, once naïve and strong
is slow and weak with wisdom.
Thrown or gently tugged,
it all comes down.

And here you are.

The present moment
is the only permanence.
You too some day will fall,
be born anew,
and leave here in your empty place
nothing but love.
In the world inside this world
when all is sand it is
the only thing still standing.

In all that’s lost,
oh, everything that passes,
in love alone you fall
into the arms of the Beloved
forever.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         

All the greatest things you have done,
with those of all the masters,
are little purple berries
on the end of bare branches
that songbirds come and eat
and then migrate far,
strong and beautiful.

                  •

All the mistakes you ever made
fall like leaves and rot
in God’s good dark earth
until, after time and regret
and a winter of letting go,
it all becomes rich, black soil.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Christ … offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins…. By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified…. The Lord says, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
                  —from Hebrews 10. 12-18

Imagining our relationship with God in terms of sin and burnt offerings may seem archaic, but it speaks to where we’re at. We are haunted deep down by a sense that we’re not “making it,” that we’ve done something wrong, that we’re not good enough, that there’s something we need to do to be OK with God—or for God to be OK with us. But the good news is that this is not true. Whatever shortcoming there is between who we are and who we were created to be, whatever deficiency we feel there is in us, whatever gap is between us and God—God fills it. God in us makes up the difference between who we are and who we are afraid we “ought” to be. We are perfected—just right for God.

This doesn’t mean we’re perfect, or that we don’t need to repent, or that we are not always continually becoming someone new; nor does it mean there aren’t consequences of our hurtful choices. It means that we don’t have to do anything to be acceptable to God. We don’t have to make up for anything or prove anything or pay for anything. We don’t have to do penance. Sure, we’ve done awful things. But God lets go of them. God dwells in the present moment, not the past, and invites us to start fresh each new moment. Of course God has to let go of a lot to do that. That’s the whole point of this “sacrifice” language: whatever has to be sacrificed for us to be close to God, God has sacrificed. We don’t have to. It’s done.

God invites us into the present moment, invites us to be present for God, who is perfectly present for us. Start now. Come as you are. No cover charge, no entrance requirements, no dress code. Just be here. Really, you already are.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Winter storm, power out for days. People without heat or electricity stay with friends, or come to public buildings to warm up, cook, check email and charge cell phones. People bring food and water to neighbors with none. We huddle together. But without TVs and computers we say we feel isolated. We wait for the power to come back on so that we can go back into our houses by ourselves and pretend to be independent again.

                   •

Now and then, for a little while, we enter into a sort of personal rolling blackout called prayer: we unhook from all the things that make us feel like we get power from outside us, and let our power come from God alone. We deepen our connection with all of life and its Source, and deepen our awareness of God’s power within us. We notice the things that obstruct our connection with the Holy One and we let go of them. We let go of the illusion that we are isolated beings. We become powerless so that we might claim the true and pure divine power within.

                   •

In the darkness of prayer we see the light within. In the solitude of prayer we are deeply connected. In the silence of prayer we hear the voice of Love. Sit in the blackout. It’s where the warmth and light are.

_____________________
Weather Report

Storms, of course.
What did you expect?
But it won’t matter:
there is peace within.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Generous God, in the woods the trees are bare; they have let go of everything. But I confess my fear. I imagine letting go of what I cling to, and I am afraid. I am paralyzed. Beloved, being one with you is the only treasure I desire; everything else is a burden. Yet I cling. But I want to be in the grip of love, not fear. Heal me, and set me free of these heavy loads! Set free my paralyzed heart. Even if my fear clings to me, I open my arms to you. You are my only security, my only rest. You are the spring within that I trust enough to let go of the autumn leaves. Help me to want you more than what I cling to, to be eager to be free. Bless me, that generosity will be for me not a test but a gift. Amen.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com