Unfolding Light

           “Those who want to save their life will lose it,
           and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
                       —Matthew 16.25

No part of a body
can survive
outside the body.

A member of the Body of Christ,
I am most alive not as myself alone
but as a part of the whole.

Alone I am only a mass of flesh,
but as a member, I am alive
with the whole Body’s life.

I when I lose my singular life
I gain our shared life—
true, and deep, and infinite.

Breath prayer:
                         Not I    . . .     but Christ

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

In the curling incense smoke of his accent
the guide says never mind all the other sites
(and there is competition from many sites, in many accents),
this is Jesus’ real Tomb, the actual one, the holiest place in Jerusalem.
But of course how can we know? It was 2000 years ago,
and this isn’t very holy, encrusted with lamps and sconces
that are trying too hard, and enough silver and gold
to be nothing like where they would lay him,
bejeweled with cheapness, with tourists, our tittering selfies,
our marketplace of beliefs and smug attempts at wonder.
Hardly a holy place, I’d say. A curiosity for tourists.
Through the clatter and clutter of us all comes a woman
in a brown sweater carrying two shopping bags,
up the aisle to the railing. She kneels and prays.
Despite all our chatter, she prays. She is no saint;
she’s just one in a long line of people who come here
to pray, who have been coming here for centuries, to pray.
        Suddenly I want to take off my shoes.
        This is indeed holy ground.

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

O Holy One, your Word has been from the beginning,
and all things have been created through your Word.
You have spoken us into being, the words of your love.
We give thanks that you are not a retired creator,
but still creating: galaxies still form; life emerges;
varieties evolve, all by your grace.
All of us, humans and mountains, whales and stars,
are one in this mysterious work of Creation.
We honor you by singing in this great chorus,
dancing in this sacred dance, belonging in this holy Body.
By your Spirit heighten our awe; deepen our reverence;
tune our harmony with your sacred work.
We who are your handiwork, your art, your creating,
praise you in our being; we reveal you in our beauty;
and we serve you by serving this Creation,
that the Body of Christ may be whole,
and flourish with abundant life.
Amen.

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

           Jesus began to show his disciples
          that he must be killed.
          Peter took him aside
          and said, “God forbid it, Boss!
          This must never happen to you.”
                       —from Matthew 16.21-22

Oh, God, how we want to protect you,
to defend your name from being sullied,
prevent all ridicule, and above all,
assure that you or your Chosen One
should never suffer.

But you are the Suffering One,
who even in creation
had to carve out room in your own self
(being infinite, there was nowhere else),
you who love us perfectly
and so guarantee yourself heartache.
What we do to the least we do to you,
so you are daily judged, slaughtered,
trafficked, abused.

When we cry out it is not against you, but ourselves.
It is not you but we who must do the forbidding,
must rise up against unjust suffering,
not aside, but in the square.
This is the scandal of the cross:
you will not forbid. It is in our hands.

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

           We, who are many,
                      are one body in Christ,
           and individually
                      we are members one of another.
                                          —Romans 12.5

The Empire has scanned you,
posts, photos, browsing history, iris scan, bank account.
You are a unit of a category,
subject to their algorithms.

But the scan is not the person.
You rebel: “I am an individual!”
you cry, though the bot cannot hear.
Yet the paradox that beats the bot

is that you are not a lone individual.
You a member of the Body of Grace,
one with all the others, part of them
and subject not to formulas but to Love.

The Orb can identify you
but not your belonging,
not the millions who are also you,
not the Beloved in whom you live.

Remembering the One in whom you belong,
and all those of whom you are a member,
you have all their power; the Empire,
with all its power, is powerless over you.

When you know yourself to be one with the One,
and with the Beloved community,
you disappear, and there is no one there
but Christ, immense, eternal, glorious.

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

           We, who are many,
                      are one body in Christ,
           and individually
                      we are members one of another.
                                        —Romans 12.5

We are members of one another.
We are not just connected;
we intersect.
When you are hurt I am wounded,
whether I allow myself to feel it or not.

We spend a great deal of energy not feeling.
Part of the remaking of our consciousness
is coming to full awareness that we are all one,
and allowing ourselves to feel it all:

the flood of tears of every gladness and sorrow,
the the joy of every joy, the anguish of every loss,
the presence of every story, the power of every dance,
the life of every species, the memory of every tribe,
yes, every bliss and devastation.

It’s not quite empathy, not quite compassion;
call it compathy: feeling the wholeness
of all existence as our own, because it is.

This may feel like a burden, but only at first:
live with it and you come to see
even with all its pain and grief,
it is mostly joy and wonder and gratitude.

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

            Do not be conformed to this age,
                        but be transformed by a new consciousness,
            so that you may discern what is the delight of God—
                        what is good and acceptable and perfect.
                                                      —Romans 12.2

We see things according to our wishes
and what we’ve been taught to expect,
and the tension between them.

Even saints harbor the pride
of wishing it were otherwise,
and greed for revelation and redemption.

Imagine seeing everything as grace,
all of existence as the work of grace,
and the flowing of grace in all things:

beauty unbidden, the life force
in every dimension, a loving presence
even amid our tragedies;

and we ourselves as grace,
grace offered and resplendent,
regardless of our settings.

Seeing the delight of God in all,
surviving our wars and torture chambers,
gleaming in us despite our dullness,

would we not offer ourselves
as gifts of God, good and perfect,
for whom there is no failure, only withholding?

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

The Messiah is a poor child in a poor town
at the edge of the world.
Despots want her dead, but her parents shield her.
You know the tale.

The Messiah is here now—
yes, now. Today.
What are you waiting for, Christmas?
You will not find her; no magi will.
She is one among millions;
we cannot save her alone.

But she will save us
when we want her to live,
she and her village and her people
and her land.
Until then we are not saved.
What are you waiting for, Christmas?

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

Jesus comes in from the lights,
takes off his crown.
(You realize there was no halo:
it was the backlighting.)
Undoes all the pins and badges and medals:
Son of God; Messiah; Lord and Savior;
Died for Our Sins I, II, III, and IV
(the committee accepts several atonement theories);
Walks on Water; Miracles One through Twelve;
14-0 against the Pharisees; Best Wine;
1st in Fishing Derby; Best Comeback;
Absolute Ruler of Name Recognition… all of them.
He takes off his gleaming white robe,
chucks the holy sandals—they hurt, after all.
Put on sweats and a t-shirt.
Pops a beer. Looks at the books on the shelf:
theology and doctrine. Smiles, shakes his head.
Sits on the couch. Slouches a little.
Scrolls through pictures on this phone
of the two of you. Closes his eyes.
A moment.
Then
he looks at you
kind of like he looks at Mary Magdalene,
pauses, eye to eye, and says,
“Who do you say I am?”

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

but a certain dancing
color under the river
where the light and the water
and the flowing happen
movement mingling
a murmur of curves
indefinite
but certain

outlines surrender and
the stone flows
the color of fish
also where you do not see it
and where the fish is
there is only a ripple
a dapple a shadow
a light

making everything
even later and far away
ocher and purple and blue
and flowing

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