Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

John the Baptist takes his ax down to the frozen river.
Black trees, scalpel wind, malignant cold, blades of light.
The gift does not come easy. Death comes first

in this season of longing and refusal, the denial of the ice.
We go by way of brokenness. The living wound, the surgery.
Offenses hacked wide open. The ax, the confession. Dig in.

(Under the ice the grave water, so lovely, so cruel,
the terrible rebirth. Even good news a shock to the system,
the chemo, the first step, the sword of the angel of life.

It makes you take a breath like you’ve never taken before
You come up out of the water grabbing breath,
gasping like a newborn, fierce for that given air.)

But first the ice, the breaking through, the ax.
You’ll bear the disappointment of the gift withheld,
and set your shoulders to the hard work of staying alive.

But look, there’s been a thaw: the ice has given in,
the brook is open. The ax is laid at the root of the trees.
Something releases. You sing in thanks with curling breath.

Beneath the ice the black water was always moving, telling you,
beneath the sin or cancer or despair a dark grace, constant,
flows: an opening. An offering. Remission.

Winter and its pain won’t disappear. The seasons roll
like breath drawn out and in, and death will come and leave
again like geese. But you can be amazed, and even grateful.

Now you hear the song of winter birds you hadn’t heard,
the faithful voice: “Beloved, ice will vanish and return,
but this light is forever. I am with you. You are mine.”

         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

We have had babies
and even after a crappy day
of poop and wailing and baby snot
crept in on them sleeping
and gushed with love.

We have received bad crayon drawings
and put them on the fridge
and kept them for years.

We have stood by imperfect friends
imperfectly, accepting the endearing flaws,
for the sake of the love we love.

So why is it so hard for us
to trust the heavenly voice
of perfect, unselfish love
that never wavers, never varies?
“You are my Beloved.
In you is my delight.”

All those little things?
Seriously, just baby snot.
Nothing changes that delight.

         
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

         
         

Holy One,
I am your vessel,
your cup, your picture frame.
I am the brush and you are the art.
I am the candle; you are the flame.
I am the school bus and you are the children.
I am the ship and you are my freight.
I am the body and you are my soul,
my heartbeat, my nerve, my breath.
You are the harp and I am the string;
I am the string and you are the music;
I am the music and you are the words.
Holy One, I am your life in this life,
and you are my life.
Bear me on
as I bear you
into the world,
O Holy One.

         

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

If I cup my hands and try to hold perfect darkness in there, it takes great effort and care. With the slightest wiggle I am apt to create some tiny crack somewhere, where the light gets in. I strain and contort my hands. I can’t actually see if the darkness is complete, if there is a little spot of light between any two fingers, so I am constantly looking, doubtful, checking, anxious, uncertain, tense.

Or I can relax and let the light in.

I can try to hold my soul just so, so that no sin enters, and feel anxious that it may happen, and awful when it does. Or I can relax and let the light in. I can trust that, yes, there are shadows, and yet light is there.

In prayer I can try to hold other things out. Or I can relax and let the light in.

That’s how we all get to heaven. God just relaxes and lets the light in.

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

                  

You are my child: my Beloved,
         in whom I am well pleased.
My delight is in you, in your very being,
         not in what you have done, or how well.
That I create you breath by breath is my joy;
         that you live gives me pleasure.

Today I have decreed healing for you,
         and blessing in body and soul.
You belong to the grace of my hand,
         the wholeness of which I fashion Creation.

All that robs life in you I wipe away;
         all that dims your beauty
         I wash away in a flood of glory.
All that you have done that is hurtful
         is gone in the river of healing.
All shame and fear I carry away
         in the unrelenting current of grace.
All that is death in you I destroy;
         I drown it in life everlasting.

Your being sings with the power
         with which I made you.
Your breath is my Spirit;
         your life is my glory.
I give you my own sacred energy,
         to be blessing and beauty,
to shine with my love
         and the the victory of mercy,
the infinity of my delight
         and the death of death.
I make you my river, my dawn,
         and I give you life
that no one can take or diminish,
         that nothing can stop.
You are my Love forever.
         Go, then, and love, forever.

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Merry Christmas!

Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Way too late. But today is the eleventh day. By the time we get to the pipers piping and the drummers drumming it’s clear that we’re following a different rhythm than the secular world. We’re pondering the mystery of the Incarnation, of God-with-us.

By now we get the feeling of the long haul. We feel the urge to take down the decorations and get on with other things—yet here is God, patiently staying with us, not building up to some big event, but simply being with us, now in this ordinary, sacred time, full of grace. God’s presence stretches through our sense of time, traversing its boundaries. Our awareness and energy are relative; God’s grace is constant. We are often preoccupied wishing time would either hurry up or slow down, while the present moment is simply here, shot through with light and promise.

Things take time. The magi are still making their way toward the holy child. According to Matthew’s story, in fact, they arrived some two years after his birth. So this Sunday we’re celebrating the wise men of Christmas, 2010. Have patience this ordinary day. Trust that the promise is diligently making its journey. A star that appeared in the sky of your heart will lead to magical wonders, but not for a couple of years. God is working on a grander scale than you can see. Be patient with the future; it will bring blessing. Be present in the moment; it is full of God.
         
         
Deep Blessings,

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

The light,
and always that gentle,

         

the King
of love,
no weapons, laws or armies,
a tender child
who makes you tender,

         

what would it take for you
to empty out the treasure
of yourself
and give everything away,

         

what would it be like,
every moment,
even the dangerous ones,
to kneel like that?

         
         
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.

         Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,
         “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
         We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
                  —Matthew 2.1

What led these mysterious figures,
         characters from the misty edges of our worlds,
         descending from towers in our dreams,
                  to travel as they did? To change their lives?

What led them to seek and to find,
         to kneel and to honor,
         to give gifts and praise?

What led them to leave palaces behind,
         to submit to the pointing of strangers,
         to change their way and seek new roads?

A star, a small light in a great darkness,
         true enough and sure.
                  A star led them.

A Word, a promise from ancient scripture,
         still alive, and whispered
         deep within.
                  A Word led them.

A dream, a knowing given in darkness and sleep,
         received, not made.
                  A dream led them.

A longing, a desire for wisdom and belonging,
         rising in the deep sky of their hearts.
                  A longing led them.

A willingness, the humility to listen and follow,
         the confidence, even as kings, to obey.
                  A willingness led them.

What led them?
         You led them. Each step,
                  each error, each turn, you led them.

Christ, my child, my star, my dream:
         lead me.
                  And I shall follow.

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.
         
         

Eighth day of Christmas,
before dawn,
every rock and snowpile still,
city resting,
even the Deep is quiet.
Trees stand by, silent attendants.
The east rolls over, waking.
New year opens its eye,
still dreaming, but
thinking of something.
Eighth day of Creation,
still enough chaos to work with.
In the great silence
God draws a breath…

__________________
Weather Report

Blessing
and the warmth of intense good will,
occasionally obscured by showers
of loss, pain, and toil,
but accompanied by mercy and presence,
increasing throughout
the new, gifted year.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         “Fast away the old year passes.
                  Fa la la la la la la la la.
         Hail the new, ye lads and lasses.
                  Fa la la la la la la la la.”

         Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
         for the first heaven and the first earth
         had passed away, and sea was no more.
                  —Revelation 21.1

I like calendars: they have a new picture every month. So I save them, and re-use them. (In 2013 you can use calendars from 2002, 1991 and 1985. Well, and, ’74, ’63, ’57 and 1822, for that matter) The patterns and pictures return, but the time does not.

Deep snow covers everything and turns it into a new world. I know it will some day vanish and the old world will return. I need to stop knowing this. It is good to trust that the world is here and will be here. I love the friends who light my life, the woods I walk in, the sea that sings to me, the heavens that fill these nights with the music of the moon. But I can easily begin to expect the world to continually repeat itself like an old calendar.

Everything is passing, even the whole world, and the world reminds me of this: in the passing of time, the passing of seasons, the passing of loved ones. In my grief and fear I cling to the world, not for its sake but mine. I cling to the world without loving it. But the snow that follows each stone wall so carefully, that attends to each branch with loving devotion, and that will soon fall from the branches and melt away, says, “No, love the world without clinging to it.”

This is only the first world. There is another, and we are passing into it, always, always slipping mysteriously into that new gift that waits inside this world like a child in its womb. Every loss is a promise, every death a preparation. As we turn through the light spangled heavens into a new year, I pray that I may be ready for a new life as well. Let this new year be one in which I am mindful of the new world just barely invisible beyond this one, ready to be changed. May I love the world without clinging to it. May I live in this moment, not a vanished one, or an imagined one, but this one precious, passing moment in which, even now, God is bringing forth a new heaven and a new earth.
         
         
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