Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         He was wounded for our transgressions.
                  —Isaiah 53.5

Today, on Veterans Day, we honor those who have served in our military. Today we will romanticize them. Tomorrow we will forget them. The next day we will deny them medical care, housing and mental health benefits. The day after that we will ignore them while they suffer the wounds of war, the ravaging effects of doing and witnessing brutal violence, the mixed feelings of having served their country by killing people. We will debate the finer legal points of torture, while they bear the deep psychic scars of having participated in inhuman, soul-destroying duty. (It appears that the psychic damage of torture is as great on the perpetrators as on the victims.) They will wrestle with the reality that 90% of our war dead are innocent civilians, and we will tell them they are not guilty, because it’s the price of freedom. They will do their best to believe that. They will bear the scars, the wounds and disfigurement, the nightmares, disorientation and loneliness of having borne their nation’s insanity into the world. They will suffer the highest suicide rates in the nation. Of course many combat veterans adapt well and find ways to make their peace with what they’ve been asked to do. But not without psychic cost. We will thank them, because we don’t want that blood on our hands.

But it is. Combat veterans are the victims of our practice of child sacrifice. We offer up their bodies as a sacrifice for our sin, an offering in our religion of war, the illusion that violence is necessary, effective and redemptive, the evil lie that our lives are made better by someone else’s suffering. They are the victims of our belief that violence changes anything. As a nation we project our fear of suffering and powerlessness into the evil of war, and they—and all whom they engage in violence—bear the wounds. They are the children whom we have sent to kill some other mother’s children. We honor them, but we do not stop sacrificing them.

Today I pray for all who are touched by the violence and inhumanity of war. To all who have given their lives I offer my thanks for their bravery, and their devotion to their country. God grant them rest, and honor their memory. To all who have chosen to serve, and to all who have suffered without choosing, I pray that God will grant mercy, healing and blessing. And in their honor, in the name of the Prince of Peace, who gave his life in nonviolent love, I devote myself to the end of our blood sacrifices, and to the mending of the world.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
         —1 Thessalonians 5. 2-6

Afraid of dying, we avoid living.
We sleep a sleep of fear,
dark nightmares pulled up around our chins.
Thinking we must survive now,
we wait to live later.

But the present moment is constantly being destroyed,
swept away into the past,
taken by a thief
who leaves another.
Life is transitory.
Each day, in fact, can be our last.

So wake up,
and live in the present moment.

The thief steals only what you have kept,
not what you have spent.

What calls out in your life?
What song needs singing,
what person needs loving,
what risk invites the investment
of all of yourself?

Child, awaken.
Rise to this day.
If you love someone, tell them,
before the moment to do so
is burned in a flash.
If you have a gift,
give it before the moment
vanishes like a dream.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Since parables are usually about something other than what they seem, you can read one as a metaphor for other things, like our relationship with God or something. But it may also be a once-upon-a-time story that’s “about” exactly what it says it’s about. Jesus told some stories like that, like in Matthew 25.14-3.

Once there was this guy who had a ton of money. (One of the 1%. Of course Jesus didn’t say a “ton,” he said a “talent,” which was a measure of weight– a lot of it. A talent of money is actually the equivalent of fifteen year’s wages.) So he’s got about $120 million to play with. (You don’t suppose he earned that by his own honest, hard labor do you? Working overtime, maybe? Or was it more likely by using other people, gaming the system, paying the lowest possible wages, oppressing workers, skimping on safety and environmental measures, lobbying for fewer regulations, taking advantage where his money and power allowed him to?…)

Anyway. He lines up his money managers. To one he assigns $75 million, to another $30 million, and to another $15 million. The first two play the game. They invest his money. (In struggling family farms? Probably not. More likely where the real money is: armaments, oil, speculative banking, loan sharking via credit cards…)

But the third manager won’t play along. He joins the Occupy Galilee protest. When the rich guy demands his take, the manager returns his $15 million and says, “Do you know how afraid people are of you? You steal money that’s not yours. You rake in money you didn’t earn. You cut the needy out of your budgets. Well, I’m not going to participate in your economic game. I’m not going to work for you. So I buried your money in a shallow grave, a place of death. Here. Go get an honest job and make your own money.”

God bless the ones with the guts to peak out against injustice. Because, of course, the rich guy fires him. And of course he gives his account to the manager who’s made the most money for him, the one who’s already deep in the system. The rich get richer, don’t they?– and the poor get poorer. The one who has everything gets more, and from the one who has nothing, even what he has is taken away.

The end.

You don’t like this story? Well, it’s true. What are you going to do about it?

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Faithful moon,
not always visible,
but always facing me,
circling, dancing,
mystery beauty veiled,
pulling me from the inside,
swaying my tides,
waxing silently–
in your luminous darkness
I step outside
and pray.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
________________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

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