Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         “Where is the child who has been born king of the Judeans?
For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
                  —Matthew 2.2

         “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.”
                  —Mark 1.7

Merry Christmas. Today is the 12th day of Christmas. The holiday feels like it’s long gone, but the Incarnation is not over. The Present One is still with us. We may pack the decorations away, but the Beloved will not leave us.  As we leave behind the holiday, the holy days, and move on into “Ordinary Time,” the temptation is to forget the Christmas good news that all ordinary time is holy, that God is present in ordinary places, that ordinary people are Beloved. Even as we enter the season of Epiphany the temptation is to lose sight of the star that guides us. The temptation is to be kings who are too comfortable to leave the familiar, too invested in being right to bow to another wisdom. The temptation is to forget that the purpose of the star is to lead us somewhere, not just to guide us to the manger, but to guide us out of the holidays and into the world.  

John the Baptist and the magi had purpose and direction, not because they were self-directed, but because they were wiling to be led. They oriented their lives to the light of one who was greater than they. They had no illusions they they were in control of their lives. They had turned them over to a higher power, a greater love.

Enter the new year with purpose, with obedience to a love that is greater than you, and no matter what unfamiliar territory it leads you through, you will not lose your way. Stay mindful of the Presence that accompanies you even in the long haul of the ordinary times, and all of your days will be holy days. Never mind the pretty lights. Keep the eyes of your heart on the star of God, the light of grace.   And don’t just ooh and aah. Follow.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         As Jesus was coming up out of the water,
                  he saw the heavens torn open
                  and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
         And a voice came from heaven,
                  “You are my Son, the Beloved;
                  with you I am well pleased.”
                           —Mark 1. 10-11

Every moment
you are coming into this moment,
coming into this life,

this one,
coming up out of the water,
breathing in, opening your eyes.

Emerging from the womb of God,
everything is being created,
everything is beginning.

The heavens,
the heart of things, torn open
for you,

God’s spirit
your spirit,
breathing in you

and saying: “You are mine,
my child, my Beloved.
In you is my delight.”

What else do you need
to guide you in this new year,
this new life, this eternal life?

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Judeans? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
         —Matthew 2.1-3

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming … “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
         —Mark 1. 1, 7-8

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, Epiphany—the visit of the magi— is this Friday, and Sunday is already the Baptism of Jesus. So this week I’m thinking of them both at the same time. In both stories, people show reverence and God is revealed. John honors Jesus as “more powerful” than he. The magi seek the one who is born king. Mary has come to believe according to the words of an angel that her son will be great. And when Jesus grows up, he’ll exhibit this same sense of reverence and honor toward people. It’s as if all these stories are inviting us into the same way of living: to show reverence toward others, and so to see God.

Imagine treating everyone with tender reverence, the way Gabriel treated Mary, the way John and the Magi treated Jesus, the way Jesus treated everyone. Imagine treating everyone as if God has chosen them, filled them with grace, given them good gifts and empowered them to bring forth love into the world. Imagine treating everyone as if they are a special part of God’s intent to save the world.

I believe if we do, God will be revealed. We may not hear heavenly voices, or see auspicious signs in the stars, or be visited by angels, but we will see God.

Show reverence, and you will find yourself in the presence of the Holy One. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
In the new year I do not wish for you
that God will bless you,
since God already intends
only the deepest blessings for you.
I don’t wish that good things will happen to you,
since I don’t know
what will most beautifully shape your soul—
in what losses you will receive grace,
in what challenges you will gain wisdom,
in what struggles you will become more truly yourself.

Instead I hope for you this blessing:
that your heart be at peace,
that your mind be open
and your will be lovingly present;
that you live each day this year with love, courage and beauty,
with gentleness, trust and gratitude.
that you speak and be the truth,
that you find joy and wonder in your life,
that you be deeply mindful
of God’s indwelling presence,
God’s deep delight in accompanying you
in every breath.

May your work be fruitful,
your hope vibrant,
your voice clear,
and your friends faithful.

Whether you feel it or not,
deep blessing will be yours this year.
May you know it, and rejoice,
and live n harmony with God’s grace.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
A new year is upon us. It’s time to take down the old calendar, and if it has nice pictures, save it—you can use it again in 2022— and put up the new one, or the 1984 one that you’ve saved for 2012.

As you do, ponder the old calendar. Look at all those days. God was with you on every one of them. Think of all you’ve done, and give thanks for your endeavors. Give thanks for all the people you met, the folks who did things for you, the souls you touched, the companions you had on the way. Give thanks for all you’ve seen, and marvel at how the things that you’ve experienced, and the ways you chose to receive them, have become a part of who you are. Give thanks for the challenges, the terrible days, the long hauls, for they, too, are part of the journey that has brought you to this day, and part of who you are.

And of course remember all your mistakes, and even more important, what you learned from them. And know that as you leave behind the old year, all those mistakes are forgiven. The little goofs and the profound betrayals, the odd slips and the unbreakable habits, all are forgiven. They are as past as that old year, gone. All that remains is wisdom, what you learned from them.

You have changed and grown. That’s the good news as you stand at the threshold of a new year: we can change. In the new year we can become new people. Of course we resist change, but the truth is that it’s really not change that we dislike so much as loss. It’s our resistance to change that’s hard. Change, and the loss of the familiar, puts us in a vulnerable, powerless position, a place where we’re not in control, and we don’t “know” enough. That’s what we don’t like.

And that— that place of powerlessness, dependence and not knowing— is the gospel place, the place where our only hope, and our only power, is God. It’s the place Jesus invites us to be. It’s all about dying first and then rising. Did you notice last Sunday what Simeon in the temple said about the baby Jesus? “This child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel” (Lk. 2.34). Not the rise and fall, like coming and going. But the falling (first) and then the rising. So 2012 is the year you will die.

And rise. You will surrender everything to God’s infinite love, and let God re-create you. Enter the new year ready to die and rise in the Spirit of the Eternal One who gives you life as a gift. So this new year will be great—it will include your birth-day!

As you put up the new calendar, even if it says 1984, be mindful that you are about to become someone new. This re-creation will involve loss, and you will be tempted to resist it. But God will be with you every single one of those 366 days. Be ready to accept the changes that will come, to rely on God’s merciful presence, and to be re-created in this new time. The whole year will come at you one moment at a time; you can enter into each present moment, willing and lovingly present, for you will be in the Loving Presence.

May God deeply bless your new year. It will be good.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
         —Matthew 2. 1-2

Hidden in the folds of the long night’s robes
gleams a star that knows,
and that shows a Way.

In the village of your soul dwells a Wise One
with sacred eyes
and the courage to leave home.

The heart does not choose a way
by the road, nor the inns,
but the love at the far end.

A bird calls out to its lover,
revealing its presence,
unafraid to alarm the hunter.

Bring provisions,
and burial instructions.
Leave the house open.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Around Christmas time a lot of movies tell you to “Believe,” but they don’t have a clue what to tell you to believe in. It’s not helpful to just haul off and believe any old silly thing. The movies tend to be about believing in Santa Claus, but of course they don’t really mean that. I think sometimes the movie makers themselves don’t believe in anything deeper than entertainment, unless what they really intend to say is not “Believe” but ”Imagine,” or maybe “Honor people’s dreams.”

Still, it seems that Christmas wants to inspire us to believe something. Well, what? The Christmas story has as much fantastic stuff as the Santa story: a virgin birth, angels, magi following a star that somehow stops over an individual house. Are we just supposed to believe all that stuff? Or is there something more significant that we’re supposed to believe? Why is it significant that we believe? And if it’s actually true, why do we need to be told to believe it? Wouldn’t it be obvious?

Here’s what I think the Christmas story invites us to believe. Believe that God is with us, that the Holy One dwells within you. Believe that you are God’s Beloved. Believe that God would forsake the comforts of heaven in order to share your life with you. Believe that God comes to you, suffers with you and stands up for you for the sake of the eternal, inviolable well-being of your soul.

That stuff is hard to believe only because we look with our rational, thinking minds, and can’t see it. This truth we can only see with our souls. It takes practice to see God. But it changes our lives when we do.

The fact is that aside from the highly symbolic parables that Matthew and Luke tell about Jesus’ birth, we know nothing of the conditions of his birth at all. The gospel writers’ point is not history; their point is who Jesus is. I don’t think it matters what you believe about the virgin birth and the manger and all that. It matters what you believe about God. And about yourself and your belovedness, and the world’s.

You are not alone. God comes to you, to save you. God is in the world. Believe that.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Today people go back to work, return to normal life. Malls & radios stations have stopped playing Christmas music. Stores are advertising Valentines’ Day. And it’s only the third day of Christmas. Never mind them. (What they were doing wasn’t about Christmas anyway.) Now is when it sets in, the realization that we’re in this for the long haul, that this is not about a holiday, a brief flash of silent light and then business as usual. This is the long, hard work of Incarnation, of opening ourselves to God’s miraculous, indwelling Presence, and of bodying forth God’s love into the world.

It feels a little harder without the candles and the singing, doesn’t it? Now it’s not special; it’s just… well, life. Which, of course, is what Jesus came to—not some Christmas card picture, but real, regular life. Not even nice, clean, comfortable life, in fact, but the life of a homeless refugee family. Now here’s the real miracle of Christmas: not that God is present in the decorations and the special meals and the family times and all that, but that God is present in the regular times. God is beside us and within us all the time.

Be mindful today that this is the day of Christ’s birth in you. This is the day the angels will sing. This, not some day now past, is the day you have been waiting for! This present moment, God is coming into your life, into the world. And you are awake, looking with the eyes of your heart, ready to see the star, to hear the song, to embrace the child, to bear the love.

This is the mystery of Incarnation: the gift of the present moment, and the miracle of the Present One. Now. Here.

Deep Blessings,

Pastor Steve

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

In the dark of a cold night, on the edge of a dusty little one-pump town at the far end of the Roman Empire, an angel sings. It’s a quiet little song, about bringing love into the world. Then a newborn baby cries. It’s an ordinary cry, and it is the sound of God with us. The mother takes up the cry, for they are homeless, and she loves her baby. The father is in a state of complete wonder, and he joins in and starts singing.

Shepherds nearby are fascinated, the way onlookers are at a flash mob—but then they join in the God-is-with-us song. It’s beautiful. Angels join the chorus, doing this really cool dance, and singing glory. They sing glory in the highest heaven, and they sing peace on earth. Anna and Simeon take up the tune in the temple. And soon the pillars of the temple are rocking and swaying. And the animals about to be sacrificed are nodding and shouting ”Amen!”

And then Magi from the east come waltzing in with swirlly robes and wicked cool hats, doing this really amazing whirling dervish and singing, “God is with us! Glory!” Herod and his security forces with their pepper spray come in and try to bust it up, but the magi lead them off into the parking lot and the dance goes on. Then people all over Judea are doing it, lepers singing like angels and paralytics dancing around in their wheelchairs, and Roman soldiers, all singing glory. Around the corner, behind a pillar, Pharisees are secretly doing it a little, just a little, kind of from the neck up, and humming along, and taking lots of videos.

People in prisons join in the song. It echoes a lot because of the cells. People in exile join in, and refugees, and the crowd is getting huge. People in hospice care and on death row are singing, everybody singing glory. Whole races are singing, whole continents dancing. Then the wind is singing and dancing, and trees waving their arms, and hurricanes whirling around, and cloud formations dancing and dancing. Then galaxies join in, whirling around with their arms flung out and singing glory, until the whole universe is dancing glory and singing “God is with us!” And you begin to feel like you’re the only one who hasn’t joined in yet.

And then the glory vanishes into the world and the angels disappear into the crowd. And the next day people get up and get their coffee and go to work and do their ordinary things, and the world goes on. But that baby is still out there somewhere, and that tune swirling around in your heart.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
In your deepest darkness
        may the eyes of God
                twinkle like stars.

May the sounds of the world
        become song,
                become angelic.

May you always hear,
        like voices in the next room,
                glory.

May God come,
        whole,
                into your life.

May you receive
        the most holy gift
                of wonder.

May God give you the courage
        of the young mother
                in the darkness.

May you hear the song
        of the presence of God
                within you.

May your ordinary life
        be a sign of God’s nearness
                to the lowly.

May all the refugee families
        in your world
                find shelter.

May you always ponder
        the mystery of your dear,
                umbilical life.

May the cries
        of the Christ child
                keep you awake.

 
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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