Unfolding Light – Page 340 – Daily Reflections and Worship Resources

Fully known

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.


O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
         —Psalm 139. 1, 4

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
—John 1.47-48

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
— 1 Corinthians 13.12

Even the most secret place in my soul,
the darkest hidden cave in me
where I know God has never been,
the dreams I’ve not yet had,
their meanings layered in murk and mystery,
the things I don’t know I know,
locked and buried beneath a mantle of ignorance,
the most well-veiled secret prison cell within me,
the remotest, most desolate moon of my thoughts
that surely God could never imagine,
even the things I will never have guts to consider,
even the absolutely unknowable in me
God already knows like a nest,
thought of first, saw how it got that way,
knows where the blessings are.

Jesus is scary to follow,
because I know in his gaze
I’m going to see
more of myself than I want to.

III

Who knows what unseen forces pull on us,
what invisible wounds we protect,
what untold stories have given us our place and our name,
what tyrants we fear,
what side effects of ourselves we suffer,
what twisted ways seem in our blindness
the path of nobility?

We can’t translate the poetry of our own cries.

But the author of our souls sees, blesses,
misses nothing.

The struggle between good and evil
is mostly a struggle
between awareness and unawareness.

Maybe I would judge less
if I knew how much of myself
is invisible to me.

Maybe I would wound less often
if only I saw how much mystery
entangles even the simplest gesture.

Maybe I would fear less
if I had the eyes of the One Within
who sees all and never recoils, but leans close,
who sees even my most awfulness,
tiny as it is amidst so much glory.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

God is already happy

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

People say the point is to be good
and so to make God happy
so you can go to heaven.

But God is already happy.
God is infinite bliss itself,
and there is no greater or more unshakable joy.

God is walking on air, seriously delighted.
Even with you. Perfectly euphoric.
What makes you think you can change that?

You’ve seen a mother with her newborn?
Then you know what I mean.
She knows what I mean.

You can’t manage God’s happiness.
It’s infinite. Neither good nor evil can sway it.
You can either dance with it, or not.

So what is there to do,
but join in the laughter,
let go of all that stops up the delight,

and rush off to tell your neighbor
how ridiculously pleased God is,
holding them in her arms?

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

I don’t know

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Present One,
I don’t know what this day will bring;
so I pray that by your grace I will receive it
with faith and equanimity.
When people talk to me, I don’ know
what they will say, or what it really means to them;
so I pray that I will listen
with compassion, humility and curiosity.
Whatever happens I don’t really know
whether it’s good or bad;
so I pray that I may be present without judging.
Whatever I encounter, no matter
how many times I’ve seen it, I don’t really know
what is there, or how it truly looks;
so I pray that I will be open, mindful and attentive.
I don’t know the outcomes of my actions,
what will become of me, how your grace works,
or the landscape of eternal life.
So I pray that I may trust without knowing,
love without judging, accept without understanding.
You who Are,
today may I be fully, deeply, and lovingly present.
Amen.

__________________
Weather Report

I don’t know.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Full moon, waning

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Just before sunrise in the east
the stage lights are heating up.
But in the other direction the moon,
pale, patient and perfectly round,
quiet as a maid, prepares her bed,
and smiles serenely toward her trees
and lays herself in their arms.
And so begins her guileless disappearance:
tonight she will show less, a bit,
and so the next and the next and the next,
slowly becoming sky, until,
still fully present but unseen,
like God, she carries the light
entirely within her,
and lets our wonder loose
upon the whole sky.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Bless them all

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Yesterday in worship we heard the story of the baptism of Jesus. We reflected on the baptismal blessing: “You are my child, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We did a baptismal renewal liturgy. I sprinkled everybody in the church with baptismal water using a cedar branch. “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”

Then I invited people to come forward for a blessing. One by one they came forward. I made a cross of oil on their forehead, laid a hand on their head and said, “Nita, born of water and the Spirit, may you faithfully bear Christ into the world.” They lined up patiently. The stepped up one by one. Dozens of them, old and young, some whom I know well by now, some still nearly strangers to me. I looked them in the eyes. “Born of water and the Spirit…” Some smiled, some looked searchingly, some bowed their heads, some held their hands open. “May you faithfully bear Christ into the world.” One little boy said, “OK.”

Toward the end I began to get a little teary. It’s a powerful thing to behold so many people, one by one, as God’s Beloved, and look them in the eyes and bless them, bless them all. Ones who are pure in heart and ones who are all messed up, not that I can tell the difference, ones that are so happy and ones that are longing, aching for something new— none of them unworthy, all of them God’s Beloved. They were like a deep, long river of belovedness, flowing around me, a river that I stood in like Jesus getting baptized in the Jordan. Their belovedness began to sing. I saw the heavens torn open. I wish you could have been there.

So here’s a gift for you. Go out somewhere today where you’ll see a lot of people: a work place, the street, the mall, it doesn’t matter. Look at each person one by one. Say to yourself on their behalf, “You are God’s child, God’s Beloved, with whom God is well pleased.” Bless them all, one by one. Keep doing it. (Maybe you can make a habit of it.) Bless them, all, and see what it does to you.

_________________
Weather Report

Wind brooding over water,
grace raining incessantly,
water and the spirit.
Monsoons of blessing,
unseasonably warm with Presence,
clearing occasionally to a vision of unity,
since this storm of grace covers the planet.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Epiphany

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Star shining from deep within
the far distance,

whispered music,
delicate, indestructible light,

wisdom not of this world,
calmly other-wise,

lead me.

(A thread of light
through the middle of the world
the world knows nothing of.)

Gentle child, unafraid
in this crowd of life,

healing by your presence,
creating with your gaze,

draw me.

(Listening for a voice
made of light, a word
you can barely see.)

Mystery, friend of darkness,
not of Herod,

tended to in wakeful trust,
always home,

bear me

by another road.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Follow the star

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

“You are my beloved”

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

Reverence

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

New year blessing

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