For unto us a child is born,
         unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor ,
         Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
         Prince of Peace.
                  —Isaiah 9.6

Holy One, Loving Mystery,
         Mother of Life, Eternal Companion,
you have come to us.
         You have come to save us,
to heal us, to set us free,
         to bring us into your Realm of light.
You have begun something great among us,
         hidden in the life of a child,
         tendered to us from among the poor.
You have come to us as our little brother,
         and made us all sisters and brothers.
Our salvation will unfold
         in the life of this child,
in his words, his deeds, his love,
         and even in his death.
It will take time, and require of us
         patience and trust.
But already, even in winter
         the bud has opened.
Already, even in the darkness,
         even in our doubt and unworthiness,
we are saved,
         for you are with us in grace.

In awe and wonder we kneel.
         In silence we bow.
In tender love we reach for the child.
         In gentle devotion we hold him.
In our arms, in our hearts,
         in our neighbors, we hold him.

Praise! Sing hallelujah!
         Go ahead and wake the baby!
He too will sing for joy,
         for God has married her people.
God has given birth to us again!
         God has created the earth anew!
Christ is born!
         Let there be light!

         

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

         
         

Infinite One,
depth of night,
breath of galaxies:
come to me.

Holiness within,
gestating heaven,
revealing yourself:
let me see.

Tender One,
not afraid of my death,
gentle amidst the storm:
enfold me.

Holy Presence,
womb-warmth,
life-pulse:
enter me.

Heavenly Lover,
journeying with me,
bearing my life:
marry me.

Child from heaven,
come out
and share my world.
Let me hold you.

         
         

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
The story of the Nativity of Christ is not just a lovely, starlit moment of precious magic and calm adoration. It’s the story of God’s subversion of the world, through no power at all except love. Read the stories (one in Matthew, one in Luke) without romanticizing and you see a story of God’s vulnerable presence amidst poverty, oppression and danger. The manger is not a cute image. It’s about a family that is homeless, at risk, and coping. The magi work knowingly around political and military repression. The family escapes death squads and becomes refugees. And where is God in all this? In a baby.

This is the story of God’s incursion into our power structures, to transform them from the inside out with nothing but radical presence and compassion. God does not act as a king or a warrior, but comes as a vulnerable, powerless child, who makes rough shepherds tender, who draws kings to worship on their knees, who threatens Herod and reorganizes society. God does not impose laws for us to follow: God gives us love to fall into.

The festival of the Nativity of Christ is the celebration of God’s radical presence with us, among us and within us, with nothing but love. God changes the rough world into a world of gentleness, from among the vulnerable and marginalized. It’s an inside job. And God enlists us to join the movement. God invites us to live in the world with this spirit of presence and compassion, to be gentle in a rough world, to be loving when it is a risk, to exercise the power of powerlessness, to trust grace. God extends this invitation by coming into the rough and lowly places in our own hearts, and living there with healing power, with nothing but love.

This Christmas may you be more deeply inspired to embody God’s love and emboldened to bear it into this sometimes dark and rough world. May God’s Word become flesh. May Christ be born in you this holy season, and throughout the new year.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
I’m writing this while staying up late, watching the lunar eclipse with Jonathan. The moon, lightly veiled by clouds, but still visible, is slowly swallowed by darkness. Life is sometimes like that.

I’m keeping vigil. Not that the moon needs me to make it through the darkness, just that it feels right to keep it company and bless its darkness.

It’s the winter solstice. Not since 1638, 465 years ago, has an eclipse come on the winter solstice. (A fascinating aside: scientists don’t know the next time this will happen. They’re in the dark.) This is the year’s shortest day, the day of the most darkness. From now on, the days are getting longer. The darkness is slowly swallowed by light.

Dualistic thinkers see here a battle between good and evil. But darkness is not evil. It’s just a place where we can’t see, that’s all. And it’s not a battle. It’s a dance. They both surge in and out, back and forth, turning around each other. The darkness shines in the light, and the light cannot overcome it.

Paradoxically, although the winter solstice promises the return of the light, it marks the beginning of winter. Even as it’s getting lighter it’s getting colder. Dark and light, warmth and cold balance each other, complete each other, need each other. Life is sometimes like that.

It wouldn’t be the Christmas story without the darkness. An angel comes to Joseph in a dream. Magi follow a star in the night sky. The heavenly host comes to shepherds watching their flock by night. God comes to us in our darkness. God accompanies us in our darkness, and blesses it.

When you love those who suffer, you can’t necessarily abolish their darkness. But you can keep vigil. You can accompany them and bless their night.

Don’t be afraid to enter the darkness. Grace happens there. God is there. And there, in the darkness, you can see the light return. In the darkness, light shines.

As it turns out, clouds swallowed the eclipse. We didn’t see much. But it was fun to stay up and watch together. Life is like that. And so is God.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Christmas Lights

The people who walked in darkness
         have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
         on them light has shined.
                 — Isaiah 9.2
 
Little lights they are, mostly,
strung in trees and tacked along eaves:
small lights that couldn’t light a room,
and yet they brighten the street
and beautify the whole neighborhood.
 
A small light you may be,
but be a light anyway,
an Advent candle,
a radiant sign of the coming of Christ,
shining Christ’s grace.
Someone walking in deep darkness
will see, and give thanks.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

A little child shall lead them…
and they will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain.
         •

Christ did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped,
but in self-emptying took the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
         •

Blessed are the gentle,
for they shall inherit the earth.
         •

Love is patient; love is kind.
         •

Love your enemies.
         •

You must become as a child
to enter the Realm of God.
         •

You shall find a child,
wrapped in swaddling cloths,
lying in a manger.
         •

God comes as a baby
to draw out our tenderness.
Hold the child gently
in all that you do.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
         “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
         for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
                  — Matthew 1.21

Joseph.
Joseph, awake.

Wake from your sleep of knowing everything, your dream of not having to look.
Instead, look anew. I have hidden blessing in your life, wonder concealed in what you reject, glory waiting on the path you resist.

I know, you want to understand, and to control things, and this is beyond those.
You are afraid of what others will think. But that is not real. This is real: I am asking you to be faithful without proof, loving without assurance, humble without protection. I am asking you to trust.

Learn to listen in a way that the world can’t teach you. Learn to know in a way that is not how the world knows. Learn to follow a path the world can’t see.

Mary is on a quest, discovering the blessing and wonder that I have created in her. Do the same for yourself. Look within. Listen to your dreams. Give your heart a voice. Trust the magnificence of what I desire for you. Never mind people’s expectations. Follow my delight. Do not be afraid to change your plans, to risk, to sacrifice, to commit.

Joseph, never mind being right. Commit to love. Marry blessing and faithfulness. Marry your doubts. Marry wonder. Marry unknowing. Marry not being afraid.

Joseph, awake. I have hidden blessing in your life. Take it as your own, and know my joy.
Shalom.

         When Joseph awoke from sleep,
         he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
                  — Mt. 1.21

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

O Christmas saints, come gather here
         in my Bethlehem:
         let the miracle unfold in me.

Come, Gabriel, interrupting angel,
         and tell the innocent Virgin within me
         that she shall bear holiness into the world.

Come, dreams, and haunt me with the courage
         to marry the blessing I would spurn.

Come, tender Joseph, and walk with me
         along this road of not knowing.

Come, natal star, build your nest in my darkness,
         and guide me to seek, and keep seeking.
Mark my life with your promise
         that beauty may be found here.

Come, magi, from your wanderings,
         and teach me to follow;
         teach me to behold.

Come heavenly choir, breathing wonder:
         Astonish my routine. Awaken me.
Send me into this village
         looking, looking.

Come, shepherds and all who are shabby and shady,
         and show me how to recognize glory
         swaddled in the mundane.

Come, Holy Child, and be alive in me,
         wordlessly, helplessly
         drawing out all my love.

O Christmas miracle,
         come to the the little shed of my life;
enfold me in your strangeness
         and make me a house of wonder.

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
— Matthew 1.23

God does not live in outer space.  The wonder of the Holy Trinity is that God is not only infinite but also incarnate.  God, who is pure love, lives within all loving souls. The birth of Jesus reveals God in human flesh, in human love, in human presence.  And Jesus is not an exception.  God is fully present in all of us in love. “The Realm of God is among you.”

Imagine God, present and loving, within you.  God lives and reigns in your heart. Your soul is the manger in which the Christ child lies, from which he looks upon the world.  Your heart is the throne from which God reigns with unconquerable gentleness and infinitely deep compassion.

As you go through your day today, the whole glory of heaven radiates from within you.  The presence of God gives you life; it is your pulse, your breath, your awareness.  Live in harmony with God’s presence within you.  Act and speak in harmony with God’s delight in you.  Let every breath be God praying in you.

As you prepare for the coming of Christ, don’t think that it’s going to be just a sweet baby born one night long ago.  It’s God’s incarnation—God’s inhabitation—in Jesus, and also in us. 
 
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given;
so God imparts to human hearts the wonders of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray.
Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.
— O Little Town of Bethlehem

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
         — Matthew 1.23

God is not against us,
         but with us.
For us.

God is not above us,
         but with us.
Among us.

God is not separate from us
         but with us.
Within us.

We will not find the Divine
by gazing into heaven
but by attending to our lives,
our hearts, our relationships—
looking to the human mystery
and the wild love married to us,
the delighted presence
even now walking hand in hand
with us.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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