Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         When he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.'” …
         … His elder brother was in the field… He became angry and refused to go in… His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, “For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back…you killed the fatted calf for him!’
                  —from Luke 15. 17-30

The younger brother distances himself from his father by essentially wishing his father’s death, by seeking his father’s goods instead of a relationship with him, and by going away. Even upon his return the son intends to break the familial relationship: “I am not worthy to be called your son; treat me as a hired hand.”

We usually paint the older brother as the righteous one, but the older brother is an exact mirror of the younger. He distances himself, staying out in the field and refusing to come in, so that the father has to come out to him. He expresses no love for his father or desire for his father’s love, but only for goods. He sees his relationship with his father in terms of “obeying your command” but not love. (In fact he’s quite rude and spiteful.) Mirroring his brother’s attempt to break the familial bond (“treat me like a hired hand”), he says he has worked “like a slave” and calls his brother “this son of yours,” as if they’re not related.

If we’ve thought of the older brother as the righteous one, it’s because he’s been obedient. But he’s selfish, bitter and unloving. Both brothers are equally wasteful (“prodigal”) of their father’s love. And the father does not seem to want obedience—he wants a loving relationship, and offers it to both sons alike. Righteousness is not obedience; it’s love.

The failure of our love—distancing ourselves from God and one another— is at the heart of our sin. In our self-centeredness we break our family bond with God and with others, as if we’re not related. It is not just of our disobedience that we repent, but of our distance, our refusing to get close to God and to others, including those whom we judge.

The good news is that in the end we are unable to break that bond. Despite our attempt to disown God and each other, God stays related to us and keeps us related to each other. The father puts a ring on the younger brother’s finger—a symbol of family. And he corrects the older brother and calls the younger one “this brother of yours.” Despite their failures he invites them both in to the party. The righteousness that we need is not obedience. It’s a loving relationship—and this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God.

In repentance we pray toward both God and neighbor, “I am not on my own. I am yours.”

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.
         
         
         There was a man who had two sons.
         The younger of them said to his father,
         “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.”
         So he divided his property between them.
                  —Luke 15.11-12

The reading of the will is supposed to occur after the death of the parent. For the son to ask what he does is saying, “Father, I wish you were dead. Give me your stuff.” Alarmingly, the father consents.

How brazen the lad, we say. How selfish. He doesn’t love his father; he just wants his stuff. And the older son is no better. When the wayward son returns, the older son complains, “You haven’t even given me so much as a goat.” He doesn’t care for his father either. He just wants stuff. Both the sons distance themselves from the father, the older son by his bitterness as much as the younger by his leaving town. Neither one of them expresses love for the father.

How like us they are. I wonder if God’s deepest sadness is that God’s beloved children don’t seem to want God; we just want God’s stuff. How many of our prayers to God are for stuff—fix this disease, thanks for that sunset, protect my child, find me a job. What if instead our deepest prayer were simply “Hold me close?”

No matter what your situation, your desires, your hopes and fears, let your prayer be simply this: “Beloved Mother, Life-giving Father, hold me close. I love you. I want to be with you. Hold me close.”

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.

You imagine you’re a train
making your way along your tracks
and maybe you want to plunge faster,
achieve that destination,
or go farther, extend those narrowing tracks
into the vanishing point—
or maybe jump that track for another,
maybe somehow lay a track of genius
in a new direction—

but

what if you’re not a train?

What if you’re a sound,
as a song or of a bell,
or a voice saying “I love you,”
and your journey is to expand
in every direction
into this strange, waiting 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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Life-giving God,
you are my oxygen,
my heart and lungs.

I long for you
like I yearn each moment
for my next breath.

I try to find life elsewhere,
easier, closer—but there is none,
and it does not give life.

But I breathe deeply of your presence,
your grace filling my body and soul,
and I live.

in my hunger I gorge
on junk food for the soul,
and I am even hungrier.

But I feast on your love
for me and all living beings
and I am satisfied.

When I think of my soul as a tree
planted in a box, untouched,
it withers.

But you dig around the roots of my soul
and the richness of life and death
soaks in through my roots and fills me.

In my fear
I turn from you
and starve myself.

But in your love
I return to you, my life,
and I live.

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.
         
         
         A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard;
         and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.
         So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years
         I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree,
         and still I find none. Cut it down!
         Why should it be wasting the soil?”
         The gardener replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year,
         until I dig around it and put manure on it.
         If it bears fruit next year, well and good;
         but if not, you can cut it down.”
                  —Luke 13.6-9

Gardener God,
they said you were the one with the ax,
the demanding one, the avenging punisher—
but you are not him. You are the giver of life,
the one with nothing but loving care,
not one who commands, for whom I must produce,
but one who tends me, so that I bear fruit.
Yes, you are the one who protects me from the other!
I look for you looming above me and you are not there.
You are beneath, digging at my roots.

Will you forgive me if I flinch when I see the ax?
Will I let you dig around me,
loosen the soil I count on to hold me fast?
Will I welcome the manure, and all that it means,
for my nourishment?
Will I let your grace into my deepest roots?
Will I hear your voice not of threat but of nurture?
Will I recognize that greater power?
Will I let your manure of utter self-giving and death
bear fruit in me?

Gardener God,
tend to me
and I will bear the fruit of your love.

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.
         
         A dialogue on the soul’s hunger:
         Isaiah 5 and Psalm 63

Abundant one, you bless me with your promise:

         “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
                  and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
         Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

but in dry, barren places within,
still I long for you, I don’t find you;
I’m on my hands and knees.

                           O God, you are my God,
                                    I seek you, my soul thirsts for you;
                           my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land
                                    where there is no water.

And then—I confess: in my hunger I seek
consolation in many other things, many places…
but they are not you. They don’t give me life.

         “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
                  and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

But you do not starve me. You lead me to life.

         “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
                  and delight yourselves in rich food.
         Incline your ear, and come to me;
                  listen, so that you may live.”

So I return to you.
I am mindful of your presence.
I listen for your Word, and I receive life.
In you I am deeply nourished. My soul is feasted!

                           So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
                                    beholding your power and glory.
                           Because your steadfast love is better than life,
                                    my lips will praise you.
                           My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
                                    and my mouth praises you with joyful lips.

Help me, Generous One,
to me mindful of you always.

                           I will think of you on my bed,
                                    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
                           for you have been my help,
                                    and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
                           My soul clings to you;
                                    your right hand upholds me.

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.
         
         
         
In February woods,
snow-stilled and deep,
harsh cold and dark and wind,
earth mostly still asleep,
I hear a single bird
whose thin, high song
we lately haven’t heard.
Its happy, hopeful word
would be a bright cliché
most days, but not this cold
and early, not today.
The old, enduring vow
sung in a rough or lonesome
place is news enough—
sufficiency of grace.

_______________________
Weather Report

Life,
remaining constant despite
changing conditions of improbability,
producing wonder and a sense of
something given, and awareness of
inclusion in something even greater
than the subtropical westerlies.

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 geese on the brook
are as calm as the snow.
Who leads them to this place?
Other than the water
their muscular bodies,
their long necks are the only things
that are not mere underlining for snow.
They rest on the bank,
they float on the obsidian water,
their reflections blacker than the pond.
Today they are saying very little.
This is a fine place for them,
where they can be still,
but not a place of beauty or a shrine;
their temple is much greater,
their peace much wider.
There is food here, there must be,
beneath the black mirror,
the white hands of the snow,
and rest. They sit without concern.
After some time they will unfold
the maps of their wings
and be on their way.
I marvel at this grace,
as I cross the brook toward home.
They will find their way.
They will find their 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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         

         They told him “Herod wants to kill you.”
         He said, “Go and tell that fox for me,
         I do my work, and on the third day I finish.
         …
         Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often have I desired
         to gather your children together
         as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…”
                  —from Luke 13. 31-35

Jesus, my man, my hope, my strength,
why did you have to go and say that?
My Lord, my Resurrection,
you know I want to love you,
the tender one who always rises
victor, to the top.
You know I want to trust in you
to give my life for something large,
to follow you forever,
like the sun rises forever,
like the river flows forever.
You know I want you, Lord.
Why don’t you be a lion,
roaring over her cubs,
why not a mother bear
nobody wants to mess with?
Why not be mighty? Why not last?
Oh, Jesus, Jesus, don’t make me weep
for you weeping over us like that.
Not like that.
Why tell that fox, that fox,
his bullying eyes, his greedy teeth,
why tell that fox you want to be
a mother hen?

All right then, Jesus, be my mother hen.
Old Herod’s tail is twitching.
You hold your little wing around me, Lord,
your tender little mama wing.
You’ve got me, Jesus. You tell that fox
you’ve got us all.

__________________
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.
         

         Some Pharisees came and said to him,
         “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
         He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me,
         “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures
         today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.
                  —Luke 13.31-32

Jesus looks at the forces of death,
geared up for the raid,
the jaded dealers of oppression and fear
with their swords and their guns,
the powers, who own the jails
and write their laws
on the backs of the poor,
he looks the powers in the eye
and says to them, “Today,
in this present moment,
and the next day, that follows without fail,
I am doing my healing. And on the third day,
it is already too late for you.
You will already have failed to stop me.”

He looks at his rejection and suffering,
his dying, his death, his being dead,
he looks it in the eye and says,
“Today and tomorrow I am giving life.
On the third day, it is too late for you.
I will have accomplished it.
You have already failed.”

Lord, grant us the courage to confront evil
in whatever forms it presents itself,
the faith to trust the miracle of compassion,
the ability of powerlessness,
and the arresting power of your grace.
Grant us the love to follow the little man
with love and a death sentence.

For even now he goes about
raising people up,
and what he has done is done,
and it can never be undone.
Amen.

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