Unfolding Light

No thanks. We’re busy forgetting.
Forgetting it’s happening again in Palestine.
In Minnesota. Here. Now.
Forgetting our own capacity to justify cruelty.
Forgetting it starts with rounding up all “those” people.
Forgetting the thousands hauled off.
(Unmarked SUVs are better than cattle cars, no?)
Forgetting those starving in occupied lands,
or stowed in concentration camps —
well, let’s call them detention centers.
Forgetting there is a part of us that believes
there is a “they” who are ruining life for “us.”
Forgetting we are family, all of us.
Forgetting we are one.
Forgetting our way.
Lost, we are caught in our own death camp.

So then we start by remembering we are one,
and their pain is ours
and their hope is ours,
and then we begin to remember
the way out.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

            Jesus began to speak and taught them…
                       —Matthew 5.2

Blessed are you who have nothing to offer,
        for you are offered everything.

Blessed are you who are broken-hearted for the world,
        for God weeps with you, and will rejoice with you.

Blessed are you who do not seek to dominate,
        for love dominates your life.

Blessed are you who sacrifice for the sake of justice,
        for you will know victory.

Blessed are you who are gentle,
        for God’s gentleness enfolds you.

Blessed are you who seek only love,
        for God will be everywhere for you.

Blessed are you who remain peaceful in conflict,
        for so you reveal God.

Blessed are you who are treated harshly,
        for God treats you to the entire realm of God.
Blessed are you who are punished for your compassion,
        for this is the way of the cross.

[I recommend you meditate on the beatitudes and write them in your own words, often. Here are another ten versions, and some meditations on the beatitudes.]

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

When storms of evil assault our boat
we flee for refuge to Jesus,
asleep beneath a thwart
on a peaceful cushion,
and wake him: “Don’t you care
that we’re in danger?”

He wakes, and wakes us with him,
takes us with him,
gathers us in his arms,
his whole soaking church,
and climbs up into the storm
with us, faces the waves with us,
and breathes a different kind of wind
into us—us, for this storm is ours—
a breath by which we ourselves can cry out
in a voice that creates what it names,
“Peace! Be still.”

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

             “I will make you fishers of people.” —Matthew 4.19

Not mere recruiters we are,
but connectors, includers,
netted in the same love,
caught up in the one mystery,
with those hidden in murk
brought out into warmth,
something that was flashing in the deep
drawn up into light, dawn-scaled,
all of us fished up
out of some unseeable bottoms,
whole shoals of us gathered
and gathering, schooling our togetherness,
gladly in the haul of God.
What once we did (call it fishing)
for ourselves, or our desires,
we now do for people, for others,
for all of us,
for the One into whom
we are continually fished.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

             “Follow me,
             and I will make you fishers of people.”
                                  —Matthew 4.19

Follow: to accompany
           Jesus, I leave behind what I cling to
             to be close to you.

Follow: to go after or behind
           Beloved, wherever I go
             you have gone before me.

Follow: to accept, give authority or allegiance, to obey
           O Love, in all I do
             I follow your teaching.

Follow: to conform, to mirror, as to follow a conductor
           Lamb of God, I want to imitate you,
             to follow every gesture, every move.

Follow: to understand
           Rabbi, I confess I don’t always follow your thinking;
             help me understand.

Follow: to watch
           Jesus, I am watching you like a TV series,
             every episode, the whole story.

Follow: to pursue, to track
           Beloved, you are on the move.
             I want to stay on track, to keep up.
             You are the star I follow.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

                             On the death of a friend

A great tree has fallen in the forest.
We stand beside it, bathed
as if by evening light in awe and grief.
Its branches, that once spread toward other trees
now, toppled, reach for sky or earth alone.
We marvel at its height—look, greater than we knew!
Its roots, exposed, reveal how deeply it was fed.
In time the flesh of this old tree will sink
back into earth, and every bit of bark and fiber feed
the bugs and fungi who will do their sacred work
until this wood, now briefly held in death,
becomes again the stuff of life.
The fruit and shade and shelter
that it gave without complaint have fled,
as if a teeming flock of birds at once had left its limbs
and flown, with all their songs, into our hearts,
where now those gifts, like roots in winter,
live unseen, and pray, and wait, till we ourselves,
mysteriously nourished, bear new fruit.
Goodbye, dear friend. The space you leave
now opens up for others yet to grow.
Your deep, thriving green we miss so much
still somehow burgeons in these woods
and in our greening hearts that feel the wind
like spring-warmed leaves with joy and gratitude.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

God of Justice, God of love,
as you do, may we see all people as your beloved.
Move us with your love to act for dignity for all people,
to stand not in charity but solidarity
with those who are oppressed.
Save us from the temptation to wish but not to risk,
to hide behind our privilege, to let others sacrifice.
Sustain us with your hope, to trust your presence,
to rely on your grace in all things.
Fill us with the spirit of your peace,
to face violence and cruelty with gentle persistence.
Beloved, hold us in your arms, for the road is long,
and the struggle is hard—but the future is yours.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

             Jesus said, “Come and see.”
                                —John 1.39


Holy One, You who Are,
open my eyes to see what is.
To look again,
as if for the first time.
I set aside speculation and beliefs,
and draw near to the world to see,
to notice what I notice.

Help me see with clarity your grace.
Help me see with courage
what is wounded and hurtful.
Help me see with faith the work of your hand.
Help me see with confidence
your presence here.

I do not ask to see the road ahead,
but only the next step.
I do not seek signs and secret messages.
I only wish to see.


_____________
Breath prayer:
                          To see . . . with your eyes

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

             Jesus turned and said to them,
             “What are you looking for?” They said to him,
             “Rabbi, where are you staying?” —John 1.38


Two questions intertwine.
    What are you looking for:
What do you seek?
What do you care about?
Where are you headed?

   Where are you staying:
Where are you at?
What do you stand on?
What are you at home in?

The answers intertwine.
The world you want
is the one you create.
How you live
becomes the world.



_______________
         Weather Report

Emerging,
as energy created
in 8 billion vortexes
coalesces into a system
that moves around us all.
Expect showers of blessing.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

A great armored machine gnaws toward us
on cruel tractor treads, venting fumes
of sorrow and dread, a friendly logo
of terror painted on its side,
boasting invincibility.

We stand in its path, naked and fragile.
But not helpless. Not afraid.
We don’t await heroic intervention.
Our flesh is Word made flesh.

We love courageously.
We tell truth. Make noise. Sing lustily.
We give wildly. Take every hand extended.
We impede the wheels. We don’t stop.
Our joy is disturbing, our peace unsettling,
our confidence reorienting.

We live every day as an outburst of hope.
Every day we rise.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording: