Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Three slaves are given charge of their master’s estate. Two invest their portions and gain a return, but the third says, ”Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”
         —Matthew 25. 24-25

Fear makes us cling rather than letting go. But clinging only binds us to our fear. It does not set us free. Practice letting go.

Fear inhibits our willingness to be fully, lovingly present each moment. Afraid of the responsibility and uncertainty of investing ourselves in the present moment, we withhold ourselves. Afraid of what might be demanded of us, we do not engage in what is before us. Wishing things were otherwise, we bury ourselves elsewhere. But life is this, not something else. Practice being present.

All that you are and all that you have is God’s. You have nothing to lose. Practice giving yourself away.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Treasured are they who have nothing to offer.
They live in the Realm of God.

Happy are those who know deep sorrow,
for they know deep joy.

Lucky are those who are powerless,
for the world will be given to them.

Beloved are they who hunger and thirst
         to be close to God,
for God alone shall fill their lives.

Blessed are they who are gentle,
for they will always have a soft place to land.

Gifted are they who are transparent to love,
for they will see God in every moment.

Treasured are they who bring reconciliation.
They are children of God.

Warmly embraced are those who suffer in order to love.
They live in the heart of God.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
See what love the Mother-Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. That is who we are! Of course the world does not see this, because the world does not know God. Beloved, in the present moment we are God’s children; what we will be in the future has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when God is revealed, we will be like God, for we will see God as God truly is. And all who have this hope in God purify themselves, just as God is pure.
         —1 john 3.1-3

God is love. The One at the heart of all being is love—a desire for blessing, well-being and oneness, a delight in our being woven together. We are children of such love: love creates us, and in our very being we bear love into the world. The purpose of life is to be transparent to this love, to live in the present moment in full awareness of the love of God that is our life and being. We do not fret about how we will be judged or what will become of us, because we know that we belong to this love. The more clearly we see the God of love, the more purely we shine with that very love. God’s compassion, self-giving and delight becomes our whole life. The struggle in life is to shed the things that impede the perfect love that is inherent in us, to become the pure love that is our nature. A saint is not necessarily someone who is extraordinarily “good,” or made holy in some unique way, but someone who is translucent with love. It is not a stretch to become such a person; you were born so. You only have to reclaim it. May it be your prayer always to return to the present moment, to return to the Loving One, to return to the love that is you.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

May the nakedness of trees
         expose within you strength and beauty.

May deepening darkness
         draw you into a richer mystery.

May frost on grasses
         edge your life,
         speak to you of limits.

May the first snow change your plans,
         and get to used to that.

May changing climate
         give you courage for a new journey.

May every day be a day of giving
         thanks.

And for you in the Southern Hemisphere,
         as others enter one season,
may you always have faith
         to go in another direction.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

The grasses in the meadow remember everything.
They don’t need grave markers.
Stones will be ground to sand, dragged to the sea.
But the everlasting grasses keep whispering,
passing along generations the stories, the names.

They have no way to recall the rich and sheltered,
who left monuments of other kinds,
whom they do not know, who have never clung
to them for sustenance, turned to them for beauty,
hidden in them for life, joined them in praise.

They call out the names of the martyrs of the earth,
those who have fallen among grasses,
who pass without fame or memento,
those with courage to flourish then fade, like them,
who join in the song of faith, merely singing.

They are not polished names that shine or ring like brass,
but names of straw, earthy, simple and mortal.
Truth is not a notion, but names. It is not carved in stone,
even in a distant shrine. It is remembered.
The name of God is murmured among the grasses.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
I heard of a Halloween party once in which everyone was invited to come dressed as their own worst neurosis. Right on. Halloween is an acknowledgement that we live in a trick-or-treat society in which we are continually manipulating how others see us, to avoid tricks and get treats. It’s a day to confess that we are not who we pretend to be. What we wear the rest of the year is actually a costume. Today we can take it off: today we have permission to expose our demons, to name our dreams, to confess how scary our insides can look sometimes, and even to scare the goblins right back.

As the little pirates and princesses come to your door tonight, you might imagine that they are mocking your feeble attempts to dress up as a responsible adult, to pretend things about yourself, to appear to be the way others want you to be, to present yourself in a certain way so that you get the treats you want. Don’t take their mockery personally; thank them for being honest about you. Give them candy. Let them nudge you to ask yourself how often you wear such a costume, how desperately you pretend to be someone you’re not, and how deeply you’re willing to be yourself, even if it makes others uncomfortable. Ask this: what would you look like if you went as your own best self?

Go to God and take off your costume. Get naked if you have to, to shed the illusion that we are what we pretend to be, and that who we are isn’t good enough. Let the Holy One give you courage to claim yourself, and to be yourself without apology or adjustment. Seek the faith to go out into this trick-and-treat world without a disguise. Decide to live in such a transparent way that divine love in you is always instantly recognizable.

You can be polite. You don’t have to scare people with all your inner demons, or parade your inner beauty. But you can be yourself. The one it will most frighten, at first, will be you. But soon you’ll notice that your own best self fits better than any costume.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
When those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still…. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.
         —Joshua 3. 15-17

Even if your way is unmapped,
the road itself not yet built,
your journey is not aimless,
but always toward holiness,
toward a place that’s been prepared for you,
not farther away, but closer,
not an end, but a home.
Even when you’re there,
you will keep approaching.
Even now you are there.

                  •

All your life you are crossing over
through Red Sea Jordan
holy waters of the Womb,
leaving this world for the next,
into a life of deeper life.
Every moment, God’s water
is breaking.

                  •

Among the throng that thread their way
across the desert of your heart
there are priests who bear God’s presence
within you.
They won’t drop it.

                  •

When you are bearing something sacred,
barriers before you will withdraw,
but only at the moment
when you step into the flowing mystery,
into the depth of what holds you back.

                  •

While you cross over,
the bearers of the holy
will wait for you,
for all of you,
until you yourself
are part of holy land.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Twenty-five years ago today, October 27, 1986, in Assisi, Italy, the home of St Francis, Pope Paul II declared the first World Day of Prayer for Peace. He was joined by religious leaders representing over a dozen faith traditions from around the world. Today again we join with people of all faiths to pray for peace.

Holy One,
In the beginning you created all things with a single word.
Each moment you re-create all things with a single breath.
We are all expressions of your one desire,
all members of one body,
all created in the deep peace of your love.
Each breath we take is your peace,
your one peace for all living things.
May your holy peace illumine our hearts,
fill our bodies and transform our minds,
heal our communities,
mend your world,
and re-create all things,
new in the breath of your love.

Amen.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Last night at a dinner we were blessed by an imam, chanted over by a rabbi and prayed for by a priest. I needed all three.

I don’t believe that there is only one true religion. There is one God, yes—one reality, one absolute truth— but many ways to live in reverence. There are many ways to wake up, many names to give the sacred, many languages in which to praise, many stories that reveal the Holy. (Mine is the Jesus story. What’s yours?) Religions are not “all alike;” they see different parts, and lead us on different paths. Some see more than others.

But none of us has the whole story, because God is infinite, too great for even an entire religion to understand or worship fully. The One, the Creator of the Universe, whose name is I Am, the Merciful One, the Way, is greater than any image, any name, any tradition. The Heavenly Lover of All Beings has way more imagination than to only reveal herself to one people in one time in one form.

Don’t assume that you worship the one true God in the only way possible. Don’t let yourself off the hook by thinking that you don’t have a choice. When you do, you can easily begin to believe that your religion is more real than the truth itself, and stop seeing altogether, stop being present. No, devote yourself to being present. Seek what is true and what gives life, what most deeply connects you with Creation in love. Have the humility to know that there are other ways. Have the curiosity to wonder what you’re missing. Have the grace to thank God for the wisdom of other traditions, and the wisdom of your own. Have the courage to choose your favorite story, learn it well, and live it out, not because other stories are false but because it is the one that most deeply gives you life and brings you into harmony with all Creation.

When I am prayed for by someone of another faith, I am reminded that my understanding is incomplete, my perspective is limited, my tradition is finite. Only God is infinite and whole and perfect. God is beyond my naming, my understanding, my worship. I practice my imperfect faith, and God smiles and says, “It is enough.”

As you practice your faith, seek the prayers and blessings of people of other faiths. You need it.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
The scribes and the Pharisees tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.
         —Matthew 23.4, 6-8

Beware the voices around you or within you that claim to lead you by dispensing demands and guilt. They won’t teach you anything. Don’t follow what gives you shame; follow what gives you life, what sets you free. Don’t listen to the teachers who will show you what it’s like when everybody likes you and agrees with you. Listen to the ones who lead you toward the grace-full presence of the Holy One.

Don’t try to learn from what everybody else wants you to hear. Learn from your own doubting questions. Don’t trust the teachers who know a lot. Trust the ones who are still learning, for we are all students. Trust that God wishes to be your rabbi, to reveal herself to you in your life, in your way, in your heart and mind and experience.

You will grow in wisdom not by a greater command of the facts, but by a deeper openness to God’s presence. God is not outside of you waiting for you to figure out how to get there. God is within you, leading you. Listen to the voice of wisdom within you. It’s not a voice of certainty, but a voice of wonder, of openness, of learning. Open your mind to every moment as an opportunity for the Present One to be revealed to you. Enter every moment as a learner of wonder, a student of God. Trust the silent teacher within.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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