Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Thirty three years ago today Beth and I became partners for life. Beth has been the greatest blessing in my life, and being married to her the second greatest. Protestant as I am, marriage for me has been more of a sacrament than a social contract. It’s a living parable of God, of faithfulness and presence and constancy. For me Beth’s faithfulness is a taste of God’s. And when I experience my own attraction to Beth, and attraction to being faithful, out of love, not duty, I taste God’s love for me, for all of us, and my love for God. And I touch that mystery we call the Holy Spirit, God’s love alive in me.

Part of the blessing of marriage has been discovering the depth of what it means to be faithful— not just faithful to her, by “not cheating,” but faithful with her. It means being fully, honestly, lovingly present for her. It means being myself, my authentic self, with her. It means living in covenant, in partnership, not just association. Although I am a whole person, and I do not have an “other half,” I discover my wholeness in community, in covenant, in relationship. Discovering my whole self is hard work, since there’s a lot of me I don’t want to see. But we’re joined; there’s no escape. This is good, because it’s sometimes hard work, and kind of ugly. But I have to stay and learn as Beth reveals stuff to me, and do the same for her. And in the process we both become more fully ourselves, more deeply in love, and more beautiful.

When I think of my fault and failures, the fact of Beth’s faithful love for me is really a miracle. To atheists I say, fine, if you don’t believe in God, believe in that. Whatever mystery it is by which Beth faithfully endures being drawn into my disasters and wounded by my dysfunctions, still gently loving me— believe in that. Whatever it is that evokes faithful love out of my otherwise disordered and distracted heart, believe in that. It’s real.

This is how God loves us, tenderly revealing ourselves to us, enabling us to become our full, deep, authentic selves, never giving upon us, enjoying being with us, not in obligation but because deep down, God is actually totally in love with us. God has said, “You are mine, and I am yours.” The Holy Trinity says, “I will be true to myself only in being true to you.” Give thanks for this grace. And whether you are married or not give yourself to living in loving faithfulness to the world. It is life’s richest blessing. Now excuse me; I’m going to go buy some flowers.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

         
         
                  
Beloved,
let me see with your eyes.
Let me see myself clearly, no shame,
no expectations, just a soul being me.

Let me rise above myself and see
as my own observer, over my shoulder,
see others and their worlds,
not centered in mine.

Let me see the universe, and me in it,
all just as glorious as can be,
me and the suffering ones, and the haughty,
and my enemies, there among the stars.

Let me see the world beyond me,
outside my little grasp, the world
without me, before I came, after I am gone,
whole and beautiful.

Let me see with your hope,
your delight, your compassion.
Let me see with the eyes of one
who loves what you have made.

Beloved, let me see with your eyes
until I disappear, and there is only
you, your eyes, your infinite heart,
gently seeing.

         

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         

As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
                  —Luke 7.12-15

She had lost a child— that most hollowing grief. He was her only son, her only way to pass on what she meant to the world. She was a widow, sorrow already having come and made a home with her. She was now without family, without a way to survive in the world. Though a stranger to her, Jesus, the Compassionate One, felt her anguish with her.

There is something fundamental to who we are, a part of us we believe we can’t live without, why it is that we are alive, what it is that we have been given to give to the world, how we shall go on— it is the child within us, the offspring of our heart, the self we hope to be. And sometimes it seems that it’s taken from us. To some degree maybe we all are grieving the loss of the Child, the hope of our souls, the Love of our Life.

But the Child, our hope, our Beloved whom we have lost, God restores to us. This story of Jesus copies the story of Elijah raising the widow’s son (in 1 Kings 17), ending with the same words: “He gave him to his mother.” It’s not just a miracle, it’s a gift, a personal gift. When our inner Beloved, our heart’s Child, has been taken from us, the Compassionate One touches our grief, stretches out upon our sorrow, and restores to us the Love we had lost. God’s work is to renew, to restore, to return life to us.

And to return us to life. For we are really the ones who are revived. We ourselves are God’s Beloved Child, who have in ways died, lost our life. There is, as the Elijah story says, “no breath left” in us. And God restores us to life. It often takes a long time. But we are brought back to life. It is a gift, a miracle. And the Healer will give us to our Mother.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
                  
Indwelling God,
the morning light is your presence.
You hold me.

I breathe in
and your presence fills me,
blessing every cell,
seeking my heart.

I am present for you,
willing and open.

In all whom I meet
I look for your presence;
I listen for your voice.

In all that I do
I embody your presence,
and bear you into the world
like the fragrance of flowers.

Every moment
my soul is receiving you back to its own.
I am giving you back to yourself.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         

Now that it’s June winter has come in earnest,
the great hibernation, the time of barrenness,
time of going inward, time of patience.

If this seems wrong to you, it may be because
you’re not in Australia, where many of you are,
and you forgot that you’re not the center of the world.

On the other side of the world,
the argument, the truth,
is the One who holds us all in the One.

And you who are beyond, left outside
the boundaries the rest of us believe in,
you too belong.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
                  —Galatians 1. 6-7

Beneath the theological theories and complicated explanations, the truth is simple. God is love. At the heart of everything is the mystery of God’s infinite, embodied, indwelling love for all Creation. You are Beloved, you and everyone else equally, and love beckons to you live in love. Christ shows us how to live in love, shows us the power of love. Love is the gospel. Everything else is a footnote. All doctrine, all orthodoxy, all religion, all beliefs and practices, laws and and obedience, insights and traditions are all mere reflections upon the miracle but they are not the miracle. The love you give and receive, that is the gospel. Don’t bother with another gospel. Don’t fight over the details. Don’t give your life to a footnote. Live the love, the whole love, and nothing but the love. Root your life deeply in the gospel of compassion, the mystery, the gift, the wonder, the grace of God’s love for us and in us. Let love be your being, your breathing, your consciousness, your actions. Let compassion for all living beings be your life. Let yourself become Christ, the embodied love of God, in the spirit of Jesus. Beloved, love deeply. That is everything.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

The centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go,’ and he goes, and to another, “Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this,’ and the slave does it.”
                  —Luke 7.6-8

God does not try.
God does not wish,
or command from afar
and hope we obey.
God says, “Light,”
and the word shines.

God wills life.
There is no command, no obedience,
nothing conveyed from there to here.
Trees put forth leaves,
earth turns green, living things blossom.
What God wills is what is
and what is most deeply becoming.

The saints live in harmony with God’s energy,
trust it unfolding,
even as we will otherwise.
The healing you yearn for,
the wisdom, the peace,
these God has already spoken.
They have already begun to become.

You yourself are a word God has already said,
a word of grace,
grace that was, and is, and ever shall be.

Deep Blessings
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
                  
O Infinite Blessing,
a forest of your grace rises in me,
a sea of blessing caressing every shore,
a desert whose light and air are blessing,
a city in me, a million blessings living there.
In me your blessing is a spring
welling up to eternal life.

Like light I radiate your blessing today
on all whom I meet, friend and stranger,
this moment and the next, blessing,
blessing the ones I love and who are hard to love,
blessing those on the street and in traffic,
blessing peoples far away and foreign,
blessing those who suffer and those who toil.
Each moment today will be a moment of blessing,
asking of me only compassion
and an offering of good will for all living souls.

And if I should tire,
if I should doubt my calling or weary of my task,
I will rest in your blessing
like a spring welling up
until it overflows agin,
flowing out from me,
out into the desert,
giving joy to thirsty creatures,
turning parched things green.

O Blessing One, O Cherishing Love, this day
may I shine with the light of your blessing.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
                  I

         Getting there

Morning sun.
On the hubcap
a spider in her web.
Ah, I think today I’ll walk.

                  II

         Washing windows

If only I had earlier seen
how much what I saw
was inside,
how much I didn’t see.

                  III

          Winged seeds

So many little bits
floating down from trees,
spores, seeds, threads of life,
whole trees within—
all of us you send
out into the world.

         

         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

         
         
                  
O God of Eternity,
on this day we remember those
who have died while serving
in armed forces for their country.
For their service we humbly give thanks.
For their courage and self-sacrifice
we offer our praise and honor.
For the lives destroyed and the families grieved,
we pray for healing.
For asking them to bear such loss on our behalf,
for sending them into war with such ease,
for placing a human cost on our security,
we repent and ask forgiveness,
and pray for a change of heart.
May we never forget the price of our choices.
We pray that we, too, may serve as they have:
with courage and self-sacrifice,
with devotion to those beyond ourselves,
with discipline, purpose and unity,
to serve the cause of peace and the well being of all,
to dedicate ourselves and our very being
to healing, non-violence and justice,
to give our lives for the sake of peace.
God of Peace, we give thanks,
we open our hearts, and we ask your blessing. Amen.

         
         

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com