Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
                 
                 
 
It is not into a Christmas card-perfect scene
of loveliness and reverence that Jesus comes,
but into this rough world
of poverty and human trafficking,
factory fires and school shootings.
Here, in our grief and terror,
and in our secret shame
of who we human beings are,
Jesus comes to bring us God’s love,
and also to show us who we really are.
Yes, it is awful that such tragedies happen at Christmas time,
but this is the time for them;
this is the whole point of Christmas:
it is into the darkness that the light comes.
Our world is full of violence and sadness,
but no sooner do terrible things happen
than God comes among us
to be with us in our brokenness,
with healing and forgiveness,
comes as a child—
amazing, always a child—
comes saying, “I still love you,
and even in world of hurt
I will always be with you.”

                 
                 
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         Bear fruits worthy of repentance.
                  —Luke 3.8

Most folks have their Christmas list,
the things they want,
the fashions and gadgets of late.
John has a different kind of list:
if you have two coats give one away;
don’t use power to get things;
keep your greed in check.
One is coming, he says,
who will set your heart on fire.
This Christmas, pray for the gifts
that, if you want them,
you are sure to receive:
the gift of generosity and compassion,
the gift of humility, of trust, of joy.
Pray for the gift of gentleness,
the gift of a healing spirit.
Put the gifts you want for Christmas
on your list, and let God know.
Think of them as you’re shopping.
Ask deliberately for them,
and they will come,
secretly, in the night.
For Christ will come
and find shelter in your heart,
whether or not you leave milk and cookies.
And even though I’ve promised,
you’ll still be surprised.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
         Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
         The Lord is near.
         Do not worry about anything,
         but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
         let your requests be made known to God.
         And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
         will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
                  —Philippians 4.4-7

Trust that the Lord is near, nearer than your nerves.
The Breather of your Breath,
the bright energy of your being
radiates through you.

Trusting your Beloved’s blessing,
knowing that you are held,
that your fears are swallowed up in grace,
your desires burned up in a greater longing,
knowing the Beloved’s delight in you,
and joy in being with you,
you are at peace.

The light of this peace fills and flushes
the shadows of despair,
and gives you great courage
to be gentle in all things.

Rejoice in the Lover always.
Still, and ever, rejoice.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Gray sky, ducks calm
on the pond,
edges frozen.
Smallest flakes drift,
meander down,
tiniest sounds
as they touch the reeds,
a little tap.
Silence swallows the land whole.

Can a human life not
spill over,
even once,
and cracked open,
God slip in unnoticed?

Ducks look back,
wing feathers brilliant
on the black water.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Most of our Advent traditions formed centuries ago among Christian and pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic peoples, as they approached the winter solstice. So there’s a lot about darkness, stillness and silence. Farmers removed idle wagon wheels to make wreaths with candles, reflecting on the fallow season of waiting and hope. All this darkness and cold might sound a little off to you who live in Australia, where summer’s about to begin, or South Africa or Brazil, or for that matter even Texas. While we’re singing about the “bleak midwinter” the folks in Corpus Christi and Adelaide go to the beach.

We call this a season of silence and stillness—notice how may carols have silence in them—but we’re rushing around, busier than ever, and making more noise than usual ringing bells and singing in public, if you can believe it! We’re playing music and stringing up extra lights as if to banish the very darkness and silence we adore.

The darkness and quiet of December in the north country is a symbol, but not the whole of it. After all, there isn’t that much bleak, dark midwinter in Bethlehem—and actually Jesus probably wasn’t born in the winter anyway. “The dawn that breaks upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” has nothing to do with latitude. The darkness of Advent is the darkness within, and the darkness of a fearful, competitive world. The silence is the deep silence at the center of our souls. That’s where Advent happens, and the birth of Christ unfolds.

Where is the darkness in your life? Where are the places in your life where you can’t see, where the known disappears into the unknown? Where is that place in your awareness where you can be without “seeing,” without knowing or understanding, and be at peace?

Where is the silence in you? You won’t find it “out there.” Go within. Sit with it. Sit with it a lot, and let it speak to you in the language of angels, the language of God, which is silence.

Your wagon wheels may not be idle, but there is a place of quiet in your soul. Where are the empty places in your life? We might feel uncomfortable about emptiness, but an empty place is one where the Christ child can come when there is “no room in the inn” elsewhere. Perhaps even the painfully empty places—the places of loss, bereavement, poverty or fruitlessness—maybe these are places where even now angels are gathering.

Don’t expect the world to offer you darkness, silence and stillness. Go to where they are, and wait there. God will meet you there.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

         
         
         

Under the gold and gray
of the sky falling down,
this surrendering season,
afternoon becomes
so quickly evening,
then darkness.

Darkness,
why are we afraid of you,
afraid of so much of you?
Is it because only in this dark
do we open our eyes?

We and the darkness
enter into one another.
There is no flash of dark,
no sudden hiddenness,
but the suffusing mystery.

In the dark we slow down,
feel our way,
know the smallness of our knowing.
What a gift, to be given time
for our eyes to adjust.

Why does the dark come so close,
so enfolding?
Perhaps to be near those
who will listen to it.

As open as the night sky,
we hear
what the angelic darkness in us
is saying.

         
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         …As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
         The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
         “Prepare the way of the Lord,
         make straight a path for God”.
                  —Luke 3.4

Luke does a little sleight of hand here. Isaiah says “The voice of one crying out: ‘In the wilderness prepare a way.’” Isaiah is talking about a road through the desert that would bring the exiles back home. Luke is talking about John preaching in the desert, so he makes it sound like it’s the preacher that’s in the wilderness, not the path that’s being prepared. Luke connects John and Isaiah because the coming of Jesus is not just about personal salvation; it’s about justice.

We’ve turned Christmas into a sentimental feeling-fest. We get warm and fuzzy loving each other and feeling touched at the midnight candles and the pretty music. But listen to the scriptures and it’s actually all about God’s profound and even traumatic incursion against the unjust systems in this world, to create a new order. The mountains and valleys of wealth and power will be leveled. The rough places of exploitation and dehumanization will be smoothed. No wonder there’ll be “signs in the heavens and distress among the nations.”

To really honor Christmas we should not just to shop for our loved ones but act on behalf of God’s loved ones, the poor and powerless. Tonight I’m taking some church members caroling at the prison. Maybe it will get some of them involved in reform of our “justice system.” Maybe our singing will be a small voice crying out: “In the wilderness prepare a way….”

This Christmas, be mindful of those who are marginalized, exploited or oppressed. Keep in your prayers those who are lonely or afraid or abused. Put them on your list, not just to shop, but to work for justice. In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight a path for God. And all flesh shall see the salvation of our Lord.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         (Luke 1.76-79)

You, child of God, will be transparent to divine presence.
You will open doors for people into the Holy.

You will awaken people to the embrace of the Beloved,
enfolding them in forgiveness.

By God’s tender mercy
heaven will dawn on us,

giving light to those who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death,

guiding our hands and feet
in the way of peace.

         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,
         and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to this temple.
         The messenger will purify you and refine you like gold and silver.
                  —Malachi 3.1, 3

         I am confident that the one who began a good work in you
         will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
                  —Philippians 1.6

         Prepare the way of the Lord;
                  make straight a path for God.
         Every valley shall be filled,
                  and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
         and the crooked shall be made straight,
                  and the rough ways made smooth;
         and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
                  —Luke 3.4-6

         By the tender mercy of our God,
                  the dawn from on high will break upon us.
                           —Luke 1.78

You can’t level mountains and valleys;
that’s what you’ve been exhausting yourself
trying to do for too long.
You won’t purify yourself.
The Holy One has begun something in you
beyond your control:
a great dawning in you,
an opening of a new way,
a becoming more purely who you are.
A holy pregnancy
of The One within you.

In stillness, let the dawn of God rise in you.
In wonder, cherish the unnamed Coming One
who stirs in you.
Welcome with delight what is only faintly appearing
in the depths of your own soul.
With compassion for this divine infancy in you,
open your heart
and wait.

         
         
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.
                 
                 
Prepare the way of the Lord;
           make straight a path for God.
                       —Luke 3.4

In this Advent season we prepare outwardly for Christmas: we hang lights and put up decorations, we bake goodies and wrap gifts. How will you prepare inwardly? The coming of Christ means that God will be incarnate: embodied, lovingly present, in the flesh in your life. Christ is coming into your life, into your heart, in a new way. Advent is a time to prepare a way for that to happen. God enters our lives without our planning or arranging; yet there are ways we can open the doors, and as the carol says of Jesus, “prepare him room.”

Imagine that Jesus were actually coming to live with you. What would you want to do to prepare? What would you change? Well, Jesus is coming to live with you, so change it! What is one way you will prepare for his coming? What is one thing you will do this Advent to make it easier for God to be a part of your conscious living? Maybe you will devote a few more minutes a day to prayer than you do, or reach out to someone hurting, or advocate for justice. Maybe you will devote yourself to a new kind of gift-giving, or give to someone who actually really needs it.

Don’t decide right now. Give this some time. Sit with this a while, meditate on it, and let the Spirit suggest a response. Then commit to preparing a way, making a straight path for God to enter your life in a new way.
                 
                 
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