Unfolding Light

           “Joseph, son of David,
           do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”
                              —Matthew 1.20

Mary was nowhere near ready
to say yes
and she said yes.

Joseph was ready to say no
and he said yes.

The magi had to set a lot aside.
Even the shepherds had to get up and go.

Faith is not in knowing
but in willingness.

O Sparkling Darkness,
you nudge us now and then.
You offer openings,
often disguised as closures.
Give us grace to attend,
and to say yes.

Brother Joseph says:
do not be afraid to marry the mystery.

Breath prayer:
                         Marry … the mystery

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          She was found to be pregnant
          from the Holy Spirit.
                            —Matthew 1.18

The virgin birth may mean the child
is straight from God.

It may mean that Mary could bear the Divine
without anyone else’s help.

It may mean that God’s grace
is unprecedented, without cause.

It may mean that all we know
is so shallow as, at times, to be wrong.

It may mean that you, too, are susceptible
to the irruption of the Holy.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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         Be patient, dear siblings,
               until the coming of the Beloved.
         The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth,
               being patient….
                                             —James 5.7

Waiting is not always delay,
as for a bus that’s late.

Sometimes it’s gestating,
perfecting, becoming whole,

a rose unfolding,
the heart growing.

You don’t really want the baby to come
before full term.

In the powerlessness of waiting,
the passionate passivity of patience,

we give ourselves over
to the power of the Mystery.

In our waiting
the space we make for love grows.


Breath prayer:
                        The baby .. is coming

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              God has scattered the proud
                          in the imagination of their hearts.
              God has brought down the powerful from their thrones
                           and lifted up the lowly.
                                                     —Luke 1.51-52

Neither the toppling of the powerful
nor the lifting of the lowly
is complete without the other.

I need both. I confess
I want to bring down the powerful
and also to become one of them.

I want the scattered proud to be others,
to protect my privilege. When refugees
are settled, to keep my old world.

I’m not sure I’m ready for the lowly in me
to be lifted up, to be guided
by humility and powerlessness.

Oh, Mighty One,
do your work in me,
that I may do my work in this world.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Jesus began to speak about John:
          “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?”
                       —Matthew 11.7


We don’t seek someone in soft robes,
a spokesperson from the royal ballroom.
We’re not just awaiting the happy morning
with presents and family and comfort food.
We await a Messiah who will be with us
in our loss and lay hands on our trauma,
and heal us and the evils of this world.
It will disturb—a thorough pruning,
axes at the roots of unfruitful trees,
winnowing and cleansing fire.
It will be a firm and gentle revolution
against the Empire of hate and greed:
the unwhole healed, the dead raised,
the poor receiving good news,
the desert blossoming.
God’s intent for us is serious.
So our Advent preparations are festive:
we deck halls, bake cookies, wrap gifts.
But they are also sober and deeply attentive.
We hang lights, but also honor the darkness,
for it is in this darkness, this,
that the promise unfolds among us,
this darkness in which God comes
to be with us in our anguish.
We let our eyes adjust, to see in the dark.
When we see clearly what we see,
the world indeed begins to change.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          You have looked with favor
          on the lowly state of your servant.
                       —Luke 1.48

O Mary the Disregarded,
passed over, totally missed,
daughter of the world’s denials and refusals,
its doors closed and condescending sighs;
Miriam of the slums,
whose voice has not been heard;
Miryam of Nobodies,
written off for being a woman,
Sister of No Account,
you who have so long and so habitually
apologized for yourself—
hark.
         The Divine sees you,
and sees in you
the Divine.
Disdaining the judgments of men,
the Beloved regards you with favor.
To God your lowly state is no such thing.
Great things will be accomplished,
the strong arm of God revealed,
in you.
Your very soul magnifies the Mighty One,
and discloses God’s mercy, promised from of old.

Rejoice in God, your redeemer.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          John sent word and said to him,
           “Are you the one who is to come,
          or are we to wait for another?”
                       —Matthew 11.2-3

So many signs,
so many people raise our hopes,
and then fade in history’s crowd and clutter.
Will this be the Christmas when—…?

But we do not await some traveler from a far shore,
some miracle for a while withheld, then granted.
We await the blossoming of what is already within,
“as a farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth.”

The One we await is the Beloved, present here,
the spirit of love, embodied already.
Many may bear that spirit, but it is also within you.
Turn to love, and the One you await will appear.

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

            The wolf shall live with the lamb;
                    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
            the calf and the lion will feed together,
                     and a little child shall lead them.
                                —Isaiah 11.6

God, I am home to both lamb and wolf,
both love and anger, fear and desire,
both lashing out and running away.
I fear the world’s anger
yet adopt it as my own.
I am torn between the anxious prowl
and your gentle peace within me.

I accept them both,
so that I may freely choose.

Help me to trust your grace,
and dare to dwell with the wolf,
knowing that even in the face of evil and injustice
I may have peace,
that even amid uncertainty I may have hope,
that even now I may know joy.

Child of God, lead me.

            May the God of hope
            fill you with all joy and peace
            in trusting God’s grace,
            so that by the power of God’s Spirit in you
            you may abound in hope.
                         — Romans 15.13

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

          John said to them,
          “You brood of vipers!
          Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”
                       —Matthew 3.7

The “coming wrath” is not God’s vengeful anger,
but the doom of the world’s self-sentenced ways,
the inevitable collapse of all greed and violence
into pointlessness and the abolition of being.
Those who came to John to judge were trapped
in their own grace-starved world. Fighting
for their place, they would destroy each other,
drowning in their own anger, fear and selfishness.

The Coming One invites us into a different world,
where God’s wrath is not vengeful anger
but refining fire, the blacksmith’s hot anvil,
God’s insistence on transformation,
where our swords are hammered into plowshares,
fear bent into courage, greed worked into trust.
It may feel like wrath, to be so wrought
for the sake of love—even by grace,
but there is no anger, only mercy
and the hard, painful labor of birthing us
into a new realm.

The blacksmith, pleased with the work,
plunges it into the deep baptismal water,
and it comes out tempered, strong, and ready.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           The axe is lying at the root of the trees…
           The one who comes after me
           has their winnowing fork in their hand,
           and they will clear the threshing floor
           and will gather their wheat into the granary,
           but burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.
                       —Matthew 3.12

O my Redeemer,
I can’t rid myself of these sins,
my wayward wants and hates and fears,
my killing habits, my unloving ways,
these growths that strangle me.
With all your merciful strength
take up your axe of grace,
and prune the branches of my heart.

Bring, muscled, to my gathered being
your winnowing fork.
Thresh the grain of my life.
Save all that is good and all that is blessed.
And all that is deadly, all that robs,
all that weighs without fruit, carry off and burn
in the mercy of your unquenchable fire.

By your welcome grace take from me
what I haven’t the power to do away with.
Relieve me of what I, enthralled, still cling to.
Come, liberating axe, dear winnowing fork,
have at me, and set me free.

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