Church of the Holy City

The True Bread of Life
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
August 11, 2013

Exodus 16:1-15 John 6:35-50 Psalm 34

Several thoughts come to mind from our New Testament reading from this morning. First, there is the reference to Holy Communion. The sacrament is invoked by Jesus’ words, “He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). We use these words in this church for our communion service. These words call to mind the line from the beatitudes, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). They also call to mind the words Jesus speaks to the woman at the well. He tells her,
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13-14).
Second, I think of God’s universal love for the whole human race. I hear this in Jesus’ words, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). What a comforting thought that is. Third, there is the reference to manna. Jesus said, “Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die” (John6:49-50). The manna is too large a topic to consider at this time. But along these same lines, Jesus earlier had said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). This is like Jesus saying that manna does not give eternal life but the bread that comes down from heaven a man may eat and not die.
Let’s begin with the first of these three considerations, which is the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Holy Communion is a symbol. It symbolizes the whole process of salvation, for we see salvation as a process. For this church, salvation is a real change in character. It is a change from self-interest to other-interest. It is a change from ego-dominated goals to God-centered goals. This process is contained in the elements of communion: in the bread and wine.
The bread is a symbol of God’s Divine Love. And the wine is a symbol of God’s Divine Wisdom. Eating the bread and drinking the wine symbolizes our accepting of God’s love into our hearts and God’s wisdom into our minds. When we have God’s love in our hearts, and when we practice loving acts wisely, then we have eternal life.
The bread and the wine themselves do not give us eternal life. Indeed, if we do not cultivate a loving and wise disposition, the bread and wine have no meaning. Without a heart and mind seeking God, then the bread and wine are just that food that spoils. It is mere bread and wine. But when we actively seek God’s love and wisdom, then the bread and wine function like a true symbol and we feel God’s presence in the sacrament.
This consideration moves us into our second idea. Jesus promises that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. If we seek God, and what God stands for, we will find God. As we heard in our John passage, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” All who seek God, will find God. And all who come to God, God will accept. Emanuel Swedenborg has a beautiful passage about God’s all-inclusive love:
Jehovah, or the Lord’s internal, was the very Celestial of Love, that is, Love itself, to which no other attributes are fitting than those of pure Love, thus of pure Mercy toward the whole human race; which is such that it wishes to save all and make them happy for ever, and to bestow on them all that it has; thus out of pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow, to heaven, that is, to itself, by the strong force of love (AC 1735).
We affirm this inclusive understanding of God every Sunday when we recite the Adoramus. In it, we find the words, “God is present to save all people, everywhere, whose lives affirm the best they know.”
Some use this very passage to assert that God saves only Christians. What a small and narrow God that would be! I think that such a reading emphasizes the letter of the words against the spirit of the words. If Jesus is God, and I believe that He is, He says that He will never drive away any who come to Him. This means that all who come to God will be accepted, whatever name they use for God. As a Christian, I see God as Jesus Christ. But this does not mean that God cannot be called Shiva, or Krishna, or Allah, or Yahweh, or any other name a person uses to invoke the one God.
We have God’s promise that whoever calls on God will not be turned away. This brings us to the miracle of the manna. Manna was bread that fell from heaven like dew. It fed the Israelites when they were in the desert. With all these references to Jesus as the bread from heaven, and the idea that manna came from heaven, it seems clear that we are not dealing with ordinary bread here. No, this is symbolic bread. It is the food that comes from heaven. And what comes from heaven is all the various forms of affection and love that we can express in this world and that will live forever in the next. These forms of love feed our soul and give us spiritual life.
This brings our discussion back to the issue of salvation. I said earlier that salvation for us is a real turning from selfish and ego-driven goals to neighbor and God-centered goals. This turning from earth to heaven takes a lifetime and even continues into the next life. It is not an easy journey. At times it feels like we are wandering in the wilderness. When we give up ways of living that we have become accustomed to–such as a craving for recognition and self-interest–when we give up old ways, we do not know what lies ahead. We may surrender our ego, but what are we left with? In one book I read, the writer compared it to the hole in a doughnut. The writer lamented, “If all is God, won’t I be like the hole in a doughnut?” This isn’t the place to go into the ramifications of God’s Omnipresence–indeed, even a whole sermon couldn’t even touch such a theme. The point is, when we let go of our worldly cravings and our self-interested desires, we don’t know what we are left with. It takes a while for heavenly loves and God-centered thoughts to make sense. So we think of the manna the Israelites lived on. In Hebrew, “manna” means, “What is it?” What is this wondrous food from heaven? So our new life, when we give up our old life is a mystery for a while.
When we begin to replace selfish loves with Godly loves, at first we don’t know how to act or what our emotional life will consist in. When we replace worldly thoughts with heavenly ideas of how to live, at first we don’t know what makes sense. But as we wander through this wilderness of character transformation, we come into the Holy Land. We settle in an emotional land that becomes our spiritual home. We come to recognize spiritual feelings and we think thoughts that are true. As we let God’s love into our hearts, and God’s wisdom into our minds, we feel at home in heavenly life. We may even come to understand the answer to the problem of the doughnut hole.
We have Jesus’ promise that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. We have Jesus’ promise that if we drink the living water He gives, that we will never thirst again. And we have Jesus’ promise that he who comes to Him will never hunger. This promise goes out to all devout believers of every faith.

PRAYER

Lord, you are the true bread that comes down from heaven, which gives eternal life. You have promised us that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. Lord, we humbly ask that you lead us in the paths of righteousness. Guide our steps ever toward you and our heavenly home. You have said that you will not turn away anyone who seeks you. Lord, we seek you with all our hearts. Accept our heartfelt will to follow you. Lord, accept our meditation and effort to come to you. And, Lord, lead us forever into your kingdom for righteousness sake.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

10-Week On-Line Course in Paul taught by Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 30-December 8: Tuition only $55!

The Apostle Paul isn’t all that bad! In fact, he’s fantastic! Some of the things he says you wouldn’t believe. I think Swedenborgians are prejudiced against Paul. I was. But with an open mind, we will find Paul’s letters inspiring, beautiful, and in places quite in accord with Swedenborg. This 10-week course is a topical survey of Paul’s letters in the light of Swedenborg’s theology, as Protestant Christianity sees him, and as we find him in the letters themselves. For more information, or to enroll, please email Rev. Dr. Fekete at: revdrfekete@gmail.com. Deadline for enrollment is September 25. The course is limited to 15 students.

But Will God Dwell on Earth?
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
July 21, 2013

2 Samuel 7:1-17 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Psalm 23

Does God need a magnificent temple to be honored in? Does God need elaborate rituals and grand ceremonies? When King David wanted to build God a magnificent temple of cedar, God told him,
Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” (2 Samuel 17:5-7).
No, God does not need pomp and grandeur in order to be honored.
God does promise King David, though, that David’s son shall build God a temple. But even when Solomon does finish building a temple to God, he recognizes that this mere house of cedar does not contain the vastness of God Himself. With humility, King Solomon says to God,
27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! 28 Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee this day; 29 that thy eyes may be open night and day toward this house, (2 Kings 8:27-29).
The question arises, “For whom would we want to build such a temple?” King David compares the way the Ark of the Covenant is housed versus the way the king, himself, is housed. King David is living in a splendid palace of cedar, while the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent–in fact the Tabernacle constructed in the desert wanderings of the Israelites. Is the temple to glorify God? Or is the temple to glorify the king?
This is a live question, because God’s answer to David seems to pacify the King’s ego. God will not allow King David to build a house for God, but God will give David a great name and another type of house, an everlasting house. God tells David,
I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. . . . I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. . . . but I will not take[b] my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:9, 12-14, 15-16).
So David will have a legacy, the legacy he may be asking for when he wants to build God a temple. David is promised first, that he will have a great name. That must have pleased David. Then God promised David that his son will build God a temple. Finally, God promises David that his children will remain on the throne of Israel for ever. That, finally, is the house God will build for David. God says, “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me.”
I can’t but think that David is really asking about his legacy more than he is asking about honoring God. But I don’t think that ego is the only issue here. There is the issue of what Swedenborg calls “the externals of worship.” That term means the outer rituals and symbols of our worship. That term means the ceremonies with which we worship and the buildings in which we worship.
Here, Solomon seems to capture the essence of how we best use the externals of worship. Solomon acknowledges that God’ greatness far transcends the little temple he would build for God. But he humbly asks that God’s eyes, “may be open night and day toward this house” (2 Kings 8:29). What Solomon is saying is that God attend the worship that goes on in the temple. So Solomon realizes that God is everywhere, but that a special place in which we focus our thoughts on God is helpful. I think that it is helpful for us humans. I think that the final truth here is that it is helpful for us humans to have a place in which we can focus our thoughts on God, such as in a temple or a church.
It is helpful, but I don’t think necessary. When I was growing up in the late ’60′s and early ’70′s there was a lot of questioning and rebellion. Among the things we rebelled against were all forms of authority. This included our parents, the government, and the church. We had the notion that we didn’t need a priest, a minister, or even a church to find God. We could call on God everywhere and at any time. I recall the words to a song by one of my favorite bands back then named “Jethro Tull.” The song went like this, “I don’t believe you, you have the whole damn thing all wrong, He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday.” So many of us abandoned organized religion back then, thinking that we could find God in our own hearts in our own place and time.
But maybe we went too far. I think that the legacy of the ’60′s was the abandonment of all forms of religion. All forms of what Swedenborg would call the externals of religion. When the church as an institution and the church as a place of worship are abandoned, it is easy to get lost spiritually. Without the weekly reminder of Sunday worship, what happens to a person’s prayer life? Without the weekly reminder of Sunday worship, what happens to conscience? Without the church structure and its symbols, do our internal feelings for God open? Amid the traffic and toil of the workaday world, do we still remain open to God?
I think that there is something to be said for the symbols of external worship. When I walk into a church, or a temple, a peacefulness comes over me. My head clears from the business and worry of day-to-day living. But this may be because I treat places and symbols of worship with holy care. I keep my holy places sacred in my own mind. I consciously leave my worldly concerns outside the church walls, so that when I enter the church, I am ready to let God in, and to let my own heart open up. This is how I interpret that commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. It doesn’t mean just go to church on Sunday. It means keep a holy place in our hearts for all that Sunday means. And that includes sacred spaces and the emotions and thoughts associated with them.
So I think that we need sacred spaces. And this I will concede to all the old hippies out there, myself included: sacred spaces need not be only church buildings. But I do think that we need places to be sacred. These might be woodland clearings, rivers, forests, or any place we feel at one with God.
This is not to say that we can leave our sacred feelings in our sanctuaries and go about the business of life forgetting all we come to treasure in our sacred spaces. No, we need to practice our spiritual principals in all our affairs. We need to bring the holiness we feel in our sacred spaces into our daily lives to the extent that it is possible. This means we need to bring our spiritual peace of mind into our driving habits, for example.
But without a special, holy space, we may never find that channel of spiritual love and enlightenment. Without a holy space, we may not find the spirituality to infuse our lives with. We may forget about God; our prayer life may suffer; and we may become materialistic. God does not require a temple or elaborate rituals to be honored with. But it is my belief that we humans do.

PRAYER

Lord, we are often caught up in the affairs of this world, caught up to the extent that we forget about your kingdom. We let worries and concerns for the things of this world overwhelm us. Yet when we come here, we ask for you to accompany our worship service, and fill us with your warmth and light. May we leave our worldly worries at the door to this sanctuary, and let go of all our concerns for the things of this world, and open our hearts to receive your love. May we lift our minds to the things of your kingdom when we enter these walls. And yet, Lord, you are everywhere, and your kingdom is within each of us wherever we are. May we bring to the outside world the peace and love that we find in this church. May the holy inspiration we find here fill our lives outside these walls. May we practice the principles we learn here in all our affairs.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

The Healing of Nations
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
July 7, 2013

Genesis 15:7-21 Revelation 22:1-7

This past week was important for the honoring of nations. I was privileged to enjoy two national celebrations. First, as you all know, July 1 was Canada Day. With festivals and fireworks we celebrated the day when Canada was founded as a Dominion. I spent the evening with Canadian friends of mine, and being a Permanent Resident, I was caught up in the patriotism of the day. Then on the 4th of July I privately celebrated the Independence Day of the United States of America. My TV broadcast the fireworks from the Nation’s capitol.
Patriotism can call forth the best qualities of brotherhood and sisterhood, and love of one’s country. But it can also call forth the worst qualities in humans, when the lust for possessing land leads to armed conflict and the horrors of war. Our Bible readings for this morning suggest both attitudes. Our reading from Genesis suggests the trouble we see in the Middle East today. And then in Revelation we find a prophesy about a time when the Tree of Life heals the nations.
Swedenborg teaches that our country is the neighbor to be loved above an individual and even above self. The nation is composed of individuals, so loving one’s country is loving all the individuals in it. To love one’s country is a spiritual move. Swedenborg writes,
A person’s country is the neighbor, because it is like a parent; for there one was born; it has nourished and still nourishes him, it has protected and still protects him from injury (TCR 414).
There is actually a correspondence between loving one’s country and loving heaven. Here on earth we love our country, and that love is elevated into the spiritual love of heaven in the next life.
It is to be known that they who love their country, and do good to it from good will, after death love the Lord’s kingdom; for this is the country there; and they who love the Lord’s kingdom love the Lord, because the Lord is the All in all of His kingdom (TCR 414).
In Genesis 15, God reminds Abram that He told Abram to leave Ur in Mesopotamia, and to travel to Canaan. Then God promises Abram that He will give him the land of Canaan. God says that Abram and his descendants will be “sojourners in a country that is not their own” (Genesis 15:13). Not only will they sojourn in a country not their own, they will also enjoy
great and goodly cities, which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant (Deuteronomy 6:10-11).
In a line suggesting the armed conflict by which the Israelites will take the Holy Land, God says that the land is home to, “the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” So the land that God gives to Abram is already inhabited by other peoples. The Israelites will have to defeat these tribes in order to make the land their own
The wars of conquest by which Israel comes into the land of Canaan are in the book of Judges and in the book of Joshua. These are troubling books of the Bible in that it appears that God tells the Israelites to commit terrible acts of slaughter when they conquer Canaanite cities. It is from these books of the Bible that the concept of Jihad comes. It is described in Joshua,
Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword. . . . And they burned the city with fire, and all within it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD (6:21, 24).
The implication of war is also in Genesis 17. There, the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac is discussed. God promises that Abram’s son Isaac will beget countless people–numbering as many as the grains of sand on the earth. God also promises Abram that his son Ishmael will father a great multitude. Of Ishmael, God says that he will be father of twelve rulers and that he will father a great nation. Tradition holds that the rivalry between Isaac and Ishmael foreshadows the tension between Jews and Arabs.
While wars can erupt from the lust for possession of land, so also can patriotism and zeal for human rights move the hearts of nations. The famous words of Thomas Jefferson remain a testimony to the causes that the free world embraces. Let’s take a few moments to recall them, from the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Drawing on the philosophy of John Locke, this document states that our right to be free is God-given. We are endowed by our Creator with “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These freedoms are founded in Nature, Natural Law, and given to humans by God.
Unfortunately, these noble words led to warfare, also, as the United States broke free from England’s rule. Almost one hundred years later, Canada was formed as a Dominion in its own right. In this case, humanity had learned enough to allow this new nation to exist without bloodshed.
The natural freedoms that Jefferson so compellingly articulated seems in large part to be accepted by the United Nations. The free world looks at the whole globe and longs for there to be these freedoms everywhere. This leads me to think about the last chapter in the Book of Revelation. These words bring to my mind the Tree of Life that grows next to the river of life. This tree bears fruit all year round. And Revelation has that beautiful line in it, that the leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of nations.
We see the suffering of oppressed peoples all over the world, and we long for the healing of nations. We see warring factions in Afghanistan and in the Middle East and we long for the healing of nations. We attempt to institute sanctions where we see human rights abuses. And at times we go to war to protect peace–what an irony–as we do in Afghanistan. We long for the healing of nations that the Tree of Life brings.
There is finally one form of patriotism that remains to be discussed. I mean patriotism to the Church. By the Church, I mean the community of all believers. Loving the Church is a higher form of love for the neighbor than even one’s country.
The church is the neighbor to be loved in a higher degree, thus even above one’s country, for the further reason that a person is led by his country into civil life, but by the church into spiritual life (TCR 415).
The church, for Swedenborg, does mean the community of all believers–not just a person’s religion or the building in which a person worships.
The Lord’s kingdom is the neighbor to be loved in the highest degree, because by the Lord’s kingdom is meant the church throughout the world, called the communion of saints, and by it is also meant heaven. Therefore he who loves the Lord’s kingdom, loves all in the world who acknowledge the Lord and have faith in Him and charity toward the neighbor . . . (TCR 416).
It is this love for all who profess a love for God in whatever faith tradition they belong that leads me to participate in the Edmonton Interfaith Centre, the National Council of Churches in Christ, the General Convention of North America, and to minister to this specific Church of the Holy City. Everyone I know on the Board of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre espouses peace for the world, and for the religions of the world. And all decry, with me, the violence perpetrated in the world in the name of religion.
Our neighbors individually, our country collectively, Christians all over the world, and the faithful of all sects and creeds are our neighbors. As we reflect on the great freedom that living in Canada and in other countries of the free world gives to us, let us also remember that these freedoms are God-given. Let us remember and reflect on the heavenly freedom that comes from God, and reflect on God’s kingdom, our greatest neighbor and our final spiritual homeland.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks this day for our country. For our country has nurtured us, protected us, and guarded the freedoms we know. We live in safety from foreign oppressors, and we can take for granted our safety and the blessings of liberty we enjoy. On this day, let us reflect on the gift we have to be born in a prosperous and free country. Let us remember that we are free to pursue happiness as we know it, and to live the life we choose to live. We know that our country is our neighbor in a high sense, and we are taught to love it even more than ourselves.
And we give you thanks for your church on earth. For even as our country nurtures and raised us, so the church continues to nurture us. The church gives us the truths to combat evil and to lead us into goodness.
And Lord, we give you thanks for your heavenly kingdom, that flows into our hearts with its blessing of love. Our true home and homeland is your eternal kingdom. We love our country on earth as our soul loves your heavenly kingdom in eternity. Thanks be to your care and love you grant us through our country, our church, and through your heavenly kingdom.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

A Father’s Love
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 16, 2013

Genesis 28:10-17 Luke 8:40-56 Psalm 103

When I search for hymns about mothers for Mothers’ Day, it is hard to find any from our Book of Worship. And also, when I look for Bible passages about significant mothers I am only able to find a few. I would have expected the opposite when it comes to fathers. And indeed, I had no trouble finding hymns. And in the Old Testament, there are many stories about significant fathers. But when it comes to the New Testament, the passages about fathers are just as few as are those about mothers. I mean passages about human fathers, not the passages that mention Jesus and His heavenly Father. I don’t want to use those passages because they are not about what ordinary mortal fatherhood is about. But I did find that passage about Jairus and his daughter. That reading shows to some degree a father’s love for his daughter.
Of course there are many, many Bible passages that point to God as Father. For instance, in the reading for this morning about Jacob God says that He is the God of Jacob’s fathers, Abraham and Isaac. This suggests that in early Israel ancestor worship may have been practiced. And in the New Testament, God is referred to as our Heavenly Father, as in the Lord’s Prayer.
I chose the Old Testament passage about Jacob because Jacob himself is the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Although Israelites often refer to themselves as children of Abraham, I think equally so the 12 tribes of Jacob are a more specific way of identifying oneself. The Apostle Paul identifies himself in both ways. He calls Abraham his forefather, and when he talks about himself personally he says he is of the tribe of Benjamin.
It is fair to say that Judaism and Christianity are religions dominated by men. So fathers are prominent in the stories, and God Himself is considered our Father. Then we have the male figure of Jesus. But we do not think of Jesus as a Father figure. But nevertheless, Jesus reinforces the male dominance of Christianity. This creates an imbalance in our religious thinking. We are hard pressed to come up with images of a Feminine Divine. Catholics revere Mary almost to the point of divinity. But Mary is not God. This Judeo-Christian dominance of men has led to a predominance of men in the religious practice of those religions. For a long time, in Judaism only men were allowed to study the holy texts. And, as well, only men could become rabbis. And in Catholicism today, while Mary is revered, only men can become priests. Protestant women fought hard to open the way for women ministers–including in this church, too. Now, however, even in Reformed Judaism and in Protestant Christianity, women can become rabbis and ministers.
We have touched on the role of fathers and men in religion. Now we ask, “What about family life?” There are passages in Paul in which the Apostle teaches that men are to be the head of the household as Jesus is head of the church (Ephesians 5). And further, Paul teaches submission for women in 1 Timothy 2:9-14. In evangelical churches, this doctrine is taught to Christian women and families.
But in our culture’s celebrations, I think that Mother’s Day eclipses Father’s Day. I don’t think that fathers receive as much celebration as do mothers. Yet fathers provide an important contribution to families, too. The ideal household is one that has a father and a mother and their power is balanced.
We saw in our story from the New testament, that Jairus was deeply concerned for his daughter’s wellbeing. He falls at Jesus’ feet, pleading for his daughter. When Jesus reaches their house, he allows only his closest Apostles to enter, along with the girl’s father and mother. Here we have that ideal family unit: mother, father, and God.
We speak of a mother’s love and support, but there are a number of virtues that my father taught me. One was discipline. Another was clear writing and speech. I remember reading a not my father sent me when I was in Virginia and in my 30′s. For the first time, I saw how well and clearly my father wrote. This came to me as I grew up around him. Another thing my father taught me was to think quickly. As a disciplinarian, my father would threaten me with punishment often. But if I could think of a plausible excuse quickly he couldn’t act on his threats. This gift, learned under duress, has helped me to no end in my academic career. Finally, my father taught me the strength of my own convictions. He was a domineering presence in my family, and to stand up to him took strength and courage. When I believed in myself, I did just that. This virtue has served me well in the challenges life put before me.
There are certainly enough reasons for me to complain about my father. I think everyone could. But as we become adults, we realize that our parents were only human and that they raised us the best they knew how. We will not harbor resentments about our parents. We will see the many ways they showed their love for us, or we will know that they loved us even if they didn’t know how to show it.
Fathers do care deeply about their children. They may not show it in the same way that mothers do, but their love is deep and strong. There were a few very important events in my life in which my father showed his love for me.
One such story was way back in my early 20′s. I had decided that I was on my own. It was going to be me against the world, and I didn’t need my family. In fact, in my young rebellion, I had sort of disowned my family. I was on my own two feet. I moved out to Connecticut and applied to music school there. Then, for Christmas holiday, I decided to visit my parents. I drove from Connecticut to Detroit in a beat-up old van. While I was enroute, a massive snowstorm fell. The roads were terrible. And about an hour outside of Detroit, the battery on my van died. I was stranded in the blizzard. My friend and I tried hitch-hiking the rest of the way, but no one stopped to pick us up. In the cold and snow, we seriously began to question whether we would make it out of this situation alive–and the city just an hour down the road. Finally, we got a ride to the bus station in Detroit. It was about 3:00 in the morning. What do you suppose that this independent, self-sufficient young man who had disowned his family and stood on his own two feet, what do you suppose I did? I phoned home. My father answered the phone. I choked up and could hardly talk. I stammered out that I was at the bus station, could I get a ride home? Without a second thought, at 3AM, my father drove the 45 minute ride to the Detroit bus station and picked me up, and brought me back to a warm home. It was my father who did this. The next day, dad drove me to my van, jumped the battery, and followed me as I drove the van back to home.
Another example of my father’s love was when I was having problems with this denomination–again when I was in my twenties. Although I had attend our divinity school for 5 years, the Committee on Admission to the Ministry had their doubts about me. They opted not to recommend me for ordination. I appealed their decision to the Council of Ministers. A meeting was held of the entire Council of Ministers to decide my fate. I was told to wait outside the room. The meeting lasted two hours. And the whole while, my father sat next to me, as we awaited their decision. We didn’t say much. He offered a few words of consolation. But what mattered to me was just that he sat there with me.
These are a few examples of how my father showed his love for me. Examples I could see and feel. Unfortunately, my father belonged to a generation in which fathers were often the disciplinarians of the family. And my father was no different in this regard. Fathers were not encouraged to show their feelings. And my father was no different in this regard. I think that is why those examples I narrated meant so much at the time. They showed me that my father did care about me, and that he did love me.
Today we honor our fathers. We recognize that they were an essential part of our family life. And we acknowledge that they loved us too, perhaps, probably, as much as did our mothers.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we offer up this prayer of gratitude for our earthly fathers. We thank you for the guidance and love our fathers have provided for us. We thank you for the homes we grew up in. And Father, we thank you for always looking upon us with your heavenly love. We thank you for the care you lavish upon us, your children. For we are all children of one heavenly Father. We pray that you continue to lead us in all the ways of goodness, that we may come into our true eternal home with you.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

The New Church Is Coming and Is Come
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 9, 2013

Daniel 7:9-14 Revelation 21:1-5, 22-27; 22:1-7 Psalm 33 TCR 791

Swedenborg claims that a new Christian church has been formed in heaven, and that it is even now descending onto the earth. It is a new way of thinking about God, and a new way of living. It is a movement among all of humanity, so by a church, Swedenborg does not mean a denomination.
The New Church is predicted in various parts of the Bible. It is especially predicted in the beautiful concluding passage in the book of Revelation. There, the New Church is compared to a bride adorned for her groom, and it is said to be descending from heaven. It is also in the prophet Daniel. There, the New Church is said to be looked after by the son of man, and that his rule will be,
an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will ever be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).
This New Church will be the crown of all the churches that have existed in the past. There have been four churches in the past.
Four churches in general have existed on this earth from the beginning, one before the flood, another after it, the Israelitish Church third, and that called Christian fourth (TCR 786).
The New Church will be the final, the last, and the eternal church. It will be distinguished by the way it envisions God. The New Church will see God as the Divine Human whose soul is the Infinite Creator God.
This New Church is the crown of all the churches which have hitherto existed on earth, because it will worship one visible God in whom is the invisible, like the soul in the body (TCR 787).
Worshipping a visible God in whom is the Infinite Invisible God is crucial in Swedenborg. It is at the very heart of his theology. The whole reason for creation itself was so that God could have someone to love and who would love God back. So the purpose of creation is to form a mutual relationship between God and humans. Swedenborg claims that humans can be conjoined only with a visible God. He states,
Thus and not otherwise can there be conjunction of God with man, because man is natural and hence thinks naturally, and the conjunction must be in his thought and thus in his love’s affection, which is the case when he thinks of God as a man. Conjunction with an invisible God is like that of the eye’s vision with the expanse of the universe, of which it sees no end; it is also like vision in mid ocean, which falls upon air and sea and is lost. But conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like seeing a man in the air on the sea, spreading forth his hands and inviting into his arms. For all conjunction of God with man must also be reciprocally of man with God, and there cannot be this reciprocation on the other part except with a visible God (TCR 787).
Swedenborg makes the unique claim that the very incarnation of God in the form of Jesus Christ was so that we could visualize the Human God in Jesus. So not only did Jesus come to save us, He also came to give us an image of God we could relate to in love.
the one God who is invisible came into the world and assumed the Human, not only that He might redeem men, but also that He might become visible, and thus capable of conjunction (TCR 786).
This New Church worships the one Human Christ in whom is the invisible Creator God. That form of worship allows for conjunction.
That is Swedenborg’s claim. Is it ours? For me, the image of the Divine Human stretching out His arms for an embrace is beautiful. It certainly gives me a God with whom I can relate in love. But when I pray, I can’t say that I form a mental picture of God. It is more a kind of communication of my heart to God’s loving presence. I know of some Swedenborgians who even think that God can’t fit into a Human form. They think God is too big for that. As for that, I find no particular difficulty. Then there are Swedenborgians who think that this is all so much theological niceties, and that how a person pictures God doesn’t much matter–just so they believe. Here, I respectfully disagree. I do think it matters how a person pictures God. A person’s concept of God fills their whole mind and orients their theology. It forms their consciousness. I think it does matter.
Swedenborg wrote much about how the people of the New Church believe. Much of his book The Apocalypse Revealed is about the doctrines of the New Church and how the doctrines of the Old Church differ. Primarily, two basic doctrines distinguish the Old Church from the New Church. The first is the nature of God. The New Church worships the One Divine Human in whom is the Infinite Invisible God. The Old Church worships the God called the trinity. There are various ways to understand the trinity. But the Nicene Creed, by far the most universally applied creed throughout Christianity, states that God is three persons who have one essence. The understanding of the trinity from the Nicene Creed is as follows:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. . . . And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; . . . And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
Notice the triple use of the word “and.” What I mean is the passages that say “we believe in the one God, the Father . . . and in the Lord Jesus Christ . . . and in the Holy Ghost.” This triple use of the word “and” leads some to think of three beings. Notice, too, that the Holy Ghost is worshipped “with the Father and the Son together.” Language like this implies three persons. I think it is fair to say that many Christians think of three gods when they think of the trinity. It takes a supremely subtle reasoning to hold the idea of one God along with the statements from the Nicene Creed that sound like three persons.
Another doctrine that Swedenborg says the New Church will not hold as true is that of faith alone. The doctrine of faith alone says that no good works matter in our salvation. All that matters is faith, or belief, that Jesus died for our sins. In the New Church faith and charity are united. This perfect union of faith and charity is symbolized by the Holy City being in the shape of a square–as long as it is wide (Revelation 21:16). The length signifies charity, or good works, and the width signified faith, or truth.
When Swedenborg wrote, the New Church was just being born. Since then, I see many examples of its presence here on earth. One such example is the utter separation of church and state in the Christian world. Think of it! In Swedenborg’s day, a person could be brought to trial for the beliefs they held. Swedenborg himself was brought to trial in Sweden, and convicted of heresy. The ruling Lutheran Church forbad him to publish in the country of Sweden. Worse still might have happened, had not Swedenborg been friends with the Queen. Today, we can think and speak as we please without fear of religious persecution. As far as faith alone goes, I spoke with a Lutheran minister at the last Faith and Order commission. She told me that today, the official Lutheran doctrines speak not of faith alone, but of faith leading to good works. This in the Church that invented the doctrine of faith alone. And in the National Council of Churches I find a moving spirit of charity, love and mutual acceptance among different religions. These are religions that in the past have spawned wars and separation. Now we are sharing common meals and we relate to each other as friends. This is remarkable progress.
Some of the old ways of thinking are fading. And, unfortunately, so are many of the old institutions that held them. I mean the churches themselves. Maybe the passing of organized religion is a stage in the New Church and its new way of viewing the life of faith. Maybe it is how the old doctrines will be erased. Maybe the old ways need to disappear before the new ways of the New Church can descend to earth.
One final note about this denomination. There was a time when we thought that our denomination was that New Church. If you look at the wooden sign beside the church, it reads, “The New Church.” I grew up being told that my religion was, “The Church of the New Jerusalem”–that we were actually named after that vision in Revelation and actually were that New Jerusalem descending from heaven. It was in the late sixties, I believe, that we came to our senses, and realized that it was presumptuous to claim to be that New Church. As we are based on the writings of Swedenborg, we decided it made more sense to name ourselves after his theology. We are now Swedenborgians, with all the inconveniences that that clumsy name brings with it. But I think it is still easier to deal with than Church of the New Jerusalem, and all that that name implies.
I don’t know what the future holds for the churches we now know. But I firmly believe that the New Church described in Revelation and that Swedenborg speaks of is a fact. I have complete trust that this New Church is descending and is here in many ways even now. When we look out at the world we can see many things. Depending on how we wake up, I think, we can see either glorious progress in the world, or dismal decadence. It can very well be both. It is a central teaching that evil can only be dealt with and eradicated when it is seen. We should not be surprised to see cultural decay as we see great progress.
The Christian Bible ends with that beautiful image of the Holy City descending from heaven as a bride prepared for her groom. In this Holy City, God himself dwells so there is no need even for an altar. In it is the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of nations. This is a beautiful vision of the way things will be in the end of time. I suggest that it is also a vision of the way things are now and are becoming for those who have eyes.

PRAYER

Lord, we thank you for the gift of the church. For in the church we find community. In the church we find spiritual guidance. And in the church we worship you. We give you thanks for the heavens that flow into us and fill our minds with truth and fill our hearts with love and every good feeling. We realize that you are the very soul of heaven, and we realize that you are the very foundation of the church. We give you thanks for coming to us in your Divine Humanity, and building the church in our souls.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth.

What Is the Sabbath?
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 2, 2013

1 Samuel 3:1-10 Mark 2:23-3:6 Psalm 139

What is the Sabbath? Is it a certain day of the week like Sunday? Is it a day of rest? Is it a holy day? Is it a holy frame of mind? Is it a holy act? Perhaps it is all these things.
The Hebrew word for Sabbath means “rest.” The creation story hallows the Sabbath by saying that God rested on it after creating the world. The holiness of the Sabbath is also captured in the Ten Commandments. The third commandment says, “Honor the Sabbath to keep it holy.”
We see stories about the Sabbath in both our Old Testament reading and our New Testament reading. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that the Sabbath is for man. And he also says that doing good, and saving life is appropriate for the Sabbath. In the Old Testament, God calls the young Samuel, and the prophet responds with the words, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” This may not sound like a reference to the Sabbath. But when we consider the inner sense of what the Sabbath means, it is a powerful statement of the holiness of the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is indeed for man because it symbolizes regeneration. The Sabbath is the rest and peace a person comes into when his or her struggles against hell subside and we have God’s law written on our hearts. Swedenborg writes,
By this commandment in the spiritual sense is signified the reformation and regeneration of man by the Lord; by the six days of labor the combat against the flesh and its lusts, and at the same time against the evils and falsities which are form hell; and by the seventh day his conjunction with the Lord, and regeneration thereby. That as long as that combat continues man has spiritual labor, and that when he is regenerated he has rest, will be evident from what will be said hereafter (TCR 302).
This is why Jesus says that the Sabbath is for man. The Sabbath is the rest we have when our temptations are over and we are conjoined with the Lord. The Sabbath is for man in the sense that regeneration and salvation are for man.
So we see how our Old Testament story now relates to the Sabbath. For it is God’s call that brings us into the peace of regeneration. God calls us into relationship with Himself. And when we are conjoined with the Lord, we can be said to be regenerated and at peace. On our part, we need to respond to God’s call. We need to say, as did Samuel, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
The Sabbath is a holy day, because it symbolizes regeneration, or our salvation. In its highest sense, the Sabbath is the Lord Himself. It is the Lord in His Divine Humanity that saves and regenerates us all. And as the Sabbath symbolizes the Lord Himself, it is pre-eminently holy.
So we set aside one special day we call the Sabbath. We structure that day to be as holy as is possible. We take time off our work; we hold church services on it; we visit with family. We think about God and God’s love for us and our love for our neighbors.
The Jews of Jesus’ day had a long list of regulations that stated what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. There were rules about how far you could walk, what deeds constituted work–which was forbidden–and even food had to be prepared the night before because cooking was work and forbidden on the Sabbath. Neither could a person’s servants or animals work on the Sabbath.
In our New Testament reading, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees about how to observe the Sabbath. Jesus and His disciples pick grain on the Sabbath, which the Pharisees consider work. But the climax of this story about the Sabbath is Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath. The Pharisees had so many restrictions about what one could or could not do on the Sabbath that even healing was considered work. Jesus confronts the Pharisees on this issue. He asks them outright, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” The Pharisees refuse to commit, and remain silent. They know that it is good for Jesus to heal the man, but they also know that their codes of behavior on the Sabbath would prevent working, and healing could be considered work. Jesus is incensed at their stubbornness. In fact, the Bible tells us that Jesus is actually mad. We read, “And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5). I was amazed that the Bible said Jesus was angry. In fact, I was so amazed that I looked at three different translations: The NIV, the RSV, and King James’ Version. They all said anger. This couldn’t be right, I thought, so I checked the Greek. The word “orge” usually means anger, indeed. But it can also mean “indignation.” Maybe Jesus was more indignant than angry. Still, the dictionary I used preferred the word anger for this passage in Mark.
Jesus is angry because the Pharisees have forgotten the meaning of the Sabbath. They want people to conform to man-made rules of behavior. They have forgotten that God, and all God stands for, is what the Sabbath is all about. And what God is and what God stands for is love for the human race and salvation for all.
So we are not saved only by the rituals we have created for the Sabbath. We are not saved by the outward ceremonies we observe, any more than the ancient Jews were by observing their rituals. We are saved by listening for God’s call. This is where the Old Testament story of Samuel is relevant. Samuel heard God, and responded by saying, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
More than just a voice is meant by this story. God calls to us every moment of every day. God calls to us in the affairs of this world. God calls us to act well, to show kindness, and to do what is good in our lives. When we pull down our vanity, as Ezra Pound writes, when we are loving in our relations, when we thank God for our bounty, then we are observing the Sabbath. These are the deeds that God calls us into. And wherever there is goodness motivated by love for God and the neighbor, there God is dwelling. There dwells holiness. There is the Sabbath. There is regeneration and salvation.
Without this regard for God and our neighbor, our holy rituals are empty. Communion, worship services, the rites and sacraments all are empty rituals. But when we have God with us, when we respond to God’s call, then we bring to holy rituals the holy things of love and fill them with spiritual meaning. Then our ceremonies come alive with spiritual life and heaven is on earth. Then the church lives. Then our religion is living faith seeking charity. Then the Sabbath works its healing on our souls, and we are united with our Maker in peace.

PRAYER

Lord, speak, for your servant is listening. Lord, we listen for your voice guiding us into what is good, and steering us away from what is evil and false. We confess before you our shortcomings and imperfections, and we know that you forgive and see only good in us. You lead us out of darkness and discord, and into the light and harmony. It is you who call to us. Give us ears to hear your still, small voice calling to us in the midst of the turmoil of this world.’

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

Your Sin Is Forgiven
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 26, 2013

Isaiah 6:1-8 John 3:1-17 Psalm 29

The forgiveness of sins is a major topic in religion. Your could say that it is a central topic in religion. It is synonymous with salvation. And aren’t we greatly concerned with salvation.
For this church, salvation is all about character formation and reformation. It is about change. It is about the process by which we become heavenly beings, from a beginning as earthly beings. Swedenborg calls this process regeneration. And as I was suggesting just above, regeneration assumes a central place in our worship life.
all things of worship relate to purification from evils and falsities, to the implanting of truth and good, and to their conjunction, thus to regeneration (AC 10042).
We have two images of regeneration from our Bible readings this morning. First, from Isaiah we have the prophet encountering God in God’s glory. Isaiah sees God sitting on a throne, and we are told that this throne is “High and lifted up.” God’s train fills the whole temple. God is surrounded by Seraphim. This image of God is a royal image, and it shows God in glory and awe.
Isaiah’s response is one of fear and contrition. In this awesome appearance of God, the prophet becomes conscious of his sins. He cries,
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
This consciousness of sin is followed by a purification ritual. A Seraphim takes a burning coal from the temple altar and touches it to Isaiah’s mouth. Isaiah is purified from his sins, and the Seraphim tells him, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
This ritual is a symbol of the process by which we all have our sins forgiven. It begins with a consciousness of some sin in us. Then we approach the Lord and confess them to God. This is symbolized by the altar from which the burning coal is taken. For the altar symbolizes God. In Swedenborg’s system of correspondences, “The altar was the principal representative of the Lord” (AC 10042). The burning coal symbolizes God’s fiery Divine Love. And as we are touched by Divine Love, we are purified from our evils.
The Isaiah story can be a little misleading. It can give one the impression that forgiveness of sins can happen in an instant. But we need to remember that this story is symbolic. The coal that touches Isaiah’s mouth symbolizes a whole process. The process is one of character reformation over a whole lifetime.
Jesus talks about this process symbolically in our reading from John. First let us consider how God appears in this story. For Jesus is God in the flesh. In Jesus, God walked upon the earth. What a different image we have of God in the Gospels! People of all walks of life can come to Jesus. Jesus touches people; Jesus heals people; and Jesus talks with people. In our story, Jesus enters into a rabbinic dialogue with Nicodemus about being reborn. Their dialogue is a kind of stylized ritual of question and answer. Nicodemus appears simple the questions he asks Jesus. For instance, he asks Jesus how a person can re-enter his mother’s womb. Of course that is impossible, and on the surface Nicodemus would look like a simpleton to ask this question. But Biblical scholars tell us that this is typical rabbinic dialogue. The way this goes, is that a person prompts the teacher to reveal his wisdom by asking a series of questions, even simple questions like the ones Nicodemus asked. And in the process of his questions, Jesus tells us a powerful truth. He says that, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John3:5).
Being reborn of water and the Spirit has been interpreted in many different ways. Some say that baptism is what is meant by being reborn. Others say that confessing that Jesus is God and that He died for our sins is what being born of water and the Spirit means. This church teaches that being reborn of water and the Spirit means actually letting God’s Spirit into us. And as God’s Spirit enters us, we are purified from our sins.
Forgiveness of sins is removal of sins only. A sin that we endorse with our hearts and minds cannot be forgiven. How can we expect forgiveness of something we don’t think is wrong–something we keep doing? We are forgiven to the extent that we desist from evil thoughts and deeds. Forgiveness of sins is nothing other than resisting them. Forgiveness of sins is allowing God’s love into our hearts and God’s wisdom into our minds. Swedenborg calls this the implanting of good and truth in us.
The forgiveness of sins, expiation, propitiation, and redemption, are also nothing else than purification from evils and falsities, implanting of good and truth and their conjunction (AC 10042).
Purification fro evil and falsity cannot happen overnight or in an instant. It is a lifelong process. Swedenborg compares it to our conception and formation in our mother’s womb.
Sins are removed so far as a person is reborn, because rebirth is restraining the flesh that it may not rule, and subjugating the old man . . . . Who that yet has sound understanding, cannot conclude that such things cannot be done in a moment, but successively, as a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated . . . . For the things of the flesh or the old man are inherent in him from birth . . . as an infant grows, reaches childhood, then youth, and then begins to think from his own understanding, and to act from his own will. Who does not see that such a house which has been thus far built in the mind, . . . cannot be destroyed in a moment, and a new house built in place of it? Must not the lusts . . . be themselves first removed, and new desires which are of good and truth be introduced in the place of the lusts of evil and falsity? That these things cannot be done in a moment every wise person sees from this alone, that every evil is composed of innumerable lusts; . . . therefore unless one evil is brought out after another, and this until their connection is broken up, a person cannot be made new (TCR 611).
One by one, we become aware of evil we committed unintentionally–or by design. As we become aware that some of our behaviors are evil, we begin the struggle to desist from thinking and doing them. Since we are talking about really changing who we are, we must conclude that this takes a while.
If we are but striving to be good, we are on the heaven-bound path. I think that people of this church can be hard on ourselves. We become aware of some sin in us, and we can think that we are beyond hope–at least some of us some of the time. There are places in Swedenborg where he describes this state of mind. Indeed, he does say that we can despair of our own salvation at times.
But I have found some reassuring passages in Swedenborg that suggest that we may not be as bad off as we can think ourselves. He says that people who are essentially good have their slips and evils forgiven. We can be forgiven if we are not deliberately and intentionally doing evil. We are forgiven if our end, or purpose isn’t to be evil.
As to good spirits, if perchance they speak or do evil, they are not punished, but are forgiven, and also excused; for it is not their end to speak or do evil, and they know that such things are excited in them from hell, so that they do not come forth from guilt of theirs. This is also perceived from their struggling against such things, and afterward from their grief (AC 6559).
In this passage we see that we are forgiven if we do not do evils from a set purpose. We also see in it that good spirits, or people, struggle against such sins. We see further that good spirits or people feel grief when we act contrary to our conscience. There is an even more reassuring passage in Heaven and Hell. In this passage, Swedenborg states that hereditary evils do not even return in the next life, because it was not our intent to commit evil.
But good spirits are never punished, though they had done evils in the world, for their evils do not return; and I have learned that their evils were of another kind or nature than those of evil spirits, not being done purposely contrary to the truth, and not from any other evil heart than what they received hereditarily from their parents, into which they were carried from a blind enjoyment when they were in externals separate from internals (HH 509).
If we are of such a disposition, we can give ourselves a little break if we slip up. Although Jesus says, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” He would also know that this injunction is impossible for any mortal (Matthew 5:48). We need to admit with humility that we are earthy, broken creatures in need of God. In the course of my work, I have been around some people who are having a hard time with life. People who are broken and in fact, desperate. Yet in the presence of these downcast individuals I found a profound sense of love and openness. Sometimes we need to be broken in order to be open to God. Swedenborg says that people who are elated in heart have a hard time opening their souls to God’s love. He speaks of the
humbleness which is essential in all worship, and by means of which good can flow in from the Lord; for an elated heart does not receive at all, but a humble heart” (AC 2715).
Recognizing sin is one way we become humble. I do not mean chastising ourselves for our terrible disposition. I mean only acknowledging that we need God to elevate ourselves out of our native tendencies toward evil. Being conscious of sin reminds us that we are not the greatest individuals on the planet–nor the worst. We are simply a human with failings we are overcoming with God’s help. Knowing our finite capacity for good is honest. It is true. Another word for this is being teachable. No athlete can succeed who isn’t teachable. Nor can we Christian athlete find salvation unless we are teachable. And admitting who we are; admitting we need help; and asking God for help means we are teachable. Then we can receive the enlightenment and the love we need to be truly born of water and the Spirit.

PRAYER

Lord, we thank you for the gift of your living water which you offer to all who ask. This morning we ask that you send us your Holy Spirit, and baptise us with water and the Spirit according to your word in the Gospels. We ask that you fill us with all goodness which cleanses our heart. And we ask also that you illuminate our minds with all truth, in order to show us how to walk in your ways. Lord we know and admit that we fall short of your holy commands. And we also know that as often as we fall away, you, in turn, bring us back into the fold by the strong power of your mercy. Thanks be to you.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

The Breath of Life
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 19, 2013

Ezekiel 37 John 16:4-15 Psalm 104

A little while back I busted my knuckles on my apartment doorway as I turned my key against the steel doorframe. It broke the skin. I cursed at the time, but over the days a strange wonder overtook me. I watched as my knuckles began to heal. Soon they were just pink circles. Then they returned to flesh tones and you couldn’t tell they had been scraped at all. I was amazed that there is a force in my body striving for health. There is a power in me that restores my body to its normal functioning condition. There is a life force in me, in us.
What is this life force? What is this healing energy in my body? This isn’t just an accident of evolution. Sure, it is in an organism’s interest to heal. And organisms that heal will perpetuate themselves. But this doesn’t explain that healing power itself. That doesn’t tell me what mysterious life force restores my body to the condition it is meant to be in.
Reflections like this make me wonder about who and what I am. Reflections like this lead me to think that I am not all I am. I am something with a life force in it. Maybe I am a vessel, holding a power much greater than my own person.
We are told this very clearly in the Bible. In Genesis, God forms a person out of the dust of the earth. But that creature doesn’t come to life until God breathes into him the breath of life.
Then the Lord God formed a person of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7).
To the ancient people, wind, breath, life, spirit, and soul were all the same. So when God breathes into Adam the breath of life, it is the same as saying that God gave Adam a living soul, or gave him life itself. The Hebrew word for the breath God breathed into Adam is neshamah. And its definition is a “puff of wind, or vital breath, divine inspiration, soul, spirit.” There is such a close connection between breath, wind, and life that one could say that the ancient people saw God as the wind. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve encounter God. But God does not appear as a person. Rather, God is arguably the breeze blowing through the Garden of Eden in the early evening. The Complete Jewish Bible brings this out very nicely. It says that Adam and Eve, “heard the voice of ADONAI, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze.” So it was the wind blowing through the Garden that was God’s presence. We see now why the wind, or breath that blew into Adam and gave him life was the very divine Spirit.
It is this divine breath that gives life to the dry bones in our reading from Ezekiel. After the bones came together, and sinews and flesh covered them, there was no life in them yet. Then the four winds blow into the bones as breath and they become living beings.
“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet–a vast army (Ezekiel 37:9-10).
This relationship between wind, breath, and spirit is even more explicit in the New Testament. The same word, pneuma, is used for wind, breath, spirit and Holy Spirit. As an interesting aside, this word, pneuma is where we get the English word pneumatics from. And pneumatics is the use of air, or compressed air for power. Using the Greek pneuma for spirit appears early in the Gospel stories, as in John 1:33, 34. There, it is said that the Spirit descends on Jesus and remains on Him. And it also says that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. In both these cases, the word pneuma is used. And we find that word in our reading from John 16. There, it is said that the Spirit of truth will guide the disciples into all truth.
It is God’s Spirit that guides us into truth. It enlightens our minds, and it elevates our souls up into heavenly affections. This is what the story of the dry bones is about. It begins with dead bones. And God’s word brings the bones together, and clothes them with flesh. Then God’s Spirit comes from the four winds and breathes into them the breath of life, as was the case with Adam. We begin our spiritual journey dead to spiritual life, like the dry bones. In fact, bones correspond to the proprium. True, we do have remains of childhood innocence in us. And it is also true that we have God’s inflowing life force in our bodies and souls. But the process of elevation up, out of proprium–or selfhood–has not yet begun. That is why our early spiritual life is like that thick darkness and void described in Genesis 1.
A person before regeneration is called the earth, void, and empty; also ground wherein nothing of good and of truth has been implanted. A void is where there is nothing of good; and emptiness wherein there is nothing of truth; from which there is darkness, or insensibility and ignorance of all things that are of faith in the Lord and, consequently, of spiritual and heavenly life (AC 17).
This condition is also described in Jeremiah, “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty” (4:23).
But God is laboring unceasingly to lift us out of our proprium, and to shine light upon our souls. Swedenborg writes, “The Lord is constantly in the act of regenerating a person, because He is constantly in the act of saving him, and no one can be saved unless he is regenerated” (TCR 577). As I said above, the dry bones are our lives before regeneration. But we become increasingly human as we let God work His healing power on our souls. We put on sinews and flesh. And we ultimately become that human being created in the image and likeness of God when we breathe the breath of the four winds and come alive.
In the New Testament, it is said that the Spirit of truth comes to us. It is called the Spirit of truth because we need truth to lead us into the paths of righteousness. It is through truth that we come to good. I can say now, that I am learning about behaviors and thoughts that I had in the past. I am learning that some of them were spiritually harmful. I am sifting through memories, and situations in my past and I see the problems in them. These reflections are teaching me how to step into the light, and what attitudes and behaviors to avoid in the future in order to walk in the paths of righteousness. These reflections are truth guiding me into good.
What makes this process of regeneration possible is a desire for good. We need to remain open to God’s breath of life. And provided we remain open, God will enliven us with spiritual heat, with vital living water. Swedenborg writes,
God is in the perpetual endeavor to regenerate and thus to save man; but He cannot effect this, except as the man prepares himself as a receptacle, and so clears the way for God and opens the door (TCR 73e).
This whole process is not only about evil–evil in us or evil in the world. It is rather about letting good thoughts, feelings, and behaviors into our lives. As we progress spiritually, we come to know what is good, and we come to enjoy what is good. This sensibility to good feelings and thoughts increases as does our regeneration. Our enjoyment with goodness takes on a central place in our world. Even if we fall short, our endeavor is to be good. Even if we slip, we still want to be good. Swedenborg talks about this in a remarkable passage. He says that as good assumes a central role in our lives, our evils are softened, tempered, and do not define our character.
in the good [people], goods with truths are in the centre, and evils and falsities in the circumference: and in both cases [with the evil and with the good], the things which are in the centre diffuse themselves even to the circumferences, as heat from fire at the centre, and as cold from icy cold at the centre. Thus . . . with the good, evils in the circumferences grow mild from the goods of the centre. This is the reason that evils do not condemn the regenerate person (DP 86).
We are in process here on earth. We will find ourselves a mixture of good and evil. I will use a present-day metaphor from my home here in Alberta. We are like the oil sands. We are precious oil that is mixed with sand. Our process is to extract the oil and leave behind the sand. Swedenborg would probably prefer a metaphor from alchemy. In that mystical system, metals are purified of their dross in order to refine them into pure gold. This is how our process of regeneration works. From dead, dry bones, we rise up as living creatures, filled with the breath of spiritual life.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, we thank you for giving us the gift of life. For we freely acknowledge that we do not live by our own power, but by the breath of life that comes from you. We humbly ask you to fill us also with the gift of spiritual life. Elevate our thoughts and purify our affections that we may breathe the air and endure the warmth of heaven. Strengthen us in every good desire. Give us to seek you in your ways always. And though we may stumble at times, though we may fall away from you, we ask that you bring us back into your kingdom, into the heavenly pastures where you are our shepherd.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.

Only a Mother’s Love . . .
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 12, 2013

Isaiah 66:6-14 John 2:1-11 Psalm 71

Only a mother. Only a mother knows her children so well. Only a mother cares so dearly for her children. Only a mother is right there with her children in all the circumstances of their lives, lending her support to her children.
The word “mother” appears 395 times in the Bible, in the Revised Standard Version. But many of these references are very brief–sometimes only one line. There are indeed some powerful stories of mothers, though, such as Sarah and her son Isaac. Or Rachel and Leah and the 12 sons of Jacob. There are some in the New testament, too, such as the birth stories of John the Baptist and of Jesus. There is the story of Mary finding Jesus in the temple when He is twelve years old, and the scolding she gives Him for staying behind the family in their trip from Jerusalem. But these powerful stories are few in relation to the whole Bible.
Then there is the story of Jesus turning the water into wine, that I selected for this morning’s reading from the New Testament. I chose it because Jesus’ mother, Mary, figures prominently in it. And she acts as a present-day mother would. Mary knows her Son’s abilities, and basically goads Him into performing His first miracle. The Holy Family is at a wedding feast, and the host runs out of wine. Mary, Jesus’ mother, intervenes. She comes up to her Son, and says, “They have no wine.” We have an interesting picture of the young Jesus here. Jesus doesn’t want to get involved, apparently. He says, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” But Mary knows her Son’s abilities, and disregards His statement. She says to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Jesus is going to help out regardless of what He says, due to His mother’s prompting. This is Jesus’ first miracle, and He turns the water into wine. This story shows how a mother knows her child’ potential, and often brings out this best in her children.
Through the many turns my life has taken, my mother has always been on my side and supportive. When I had just graduated from high school, and was considering college, she saw way back then that I was destined to become a minister. I thought that I would make a good electrical engineer, and enrolled in an engineering university. My mother knew that this was a bad fit for me. But as I had saved up money for my first couple years of schooling, she didn’t say anything to discourage me. After two years, it became clear to me that engineering was a bad fit for me–something my mother knew all along. Then I flirted with the notion of becoming a musician, as I love music and enjoy performing. Now I actually scared my mother. For mothers often want their children to take music lessons, but no mother wants their children to actually become a musician! Probably looking after my better interests, my mother wouldn’t support me in this venture. But when it became clear to me that I was best suited for ministry, my mother breathed a sigh of relief and supported me fully.
Mothers support their children throughout their children’s journeys in life. When a child is struggling with employment, as so many are today, a mother will open her home to her child until they get back on their feet. Robert Frost captures this feeling very well in a poem called The Death of the Hired Man. The poem is about a farming couple. A hired man returns to the farm after being away for a while. It becomes clear that the hired man has come back to die, and that he wanted to be around familiar faces, as he had no other home. The husband in the poem grumbles, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” His wife responds in a motherly way, “I should have called it/Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.”
We don’t need to deserve our homes. We don’t need to earn our place there. They are there for us regardless of our successes or failures. This can be frustrating at times. For if our mothers love us regardless of our successes or failures, then our successes don’t matter all that much. I was pretty proud when I got admitted to Harvard University. But my mother didn’t seem fazed at all. This didn’t make her more or less proud of loving toward me. I was her son and she would be there for me regardless of success or failure. Later in life I wrote my dissertation for my Ph. D. at the University of Virginia, and that didn’t seem to change my mother’s attitude toward me. But a school counselor said something about a mother’s love. She told me that only three people will read my dissertation: me, my dissertation director, and my mother. And that was true. Later still I published a few articles and a book and felt pretty full of myself. But my mother remained the same in her unconditional regard for me. But she did buy a copy of my book for all her children and all my relatives. But none of these accomplishments changed the way my mother regarded me. Had I continued to work in the factory I was hired in just after high school, she would have loved me just the same. That is the glory of a mother’s love and the frustrating aspect of a mother’s love. Home is very much that place you don’t have to deserve.
There is a special bond between a mother and her children. I think it is perhaps the strongest bond of love. Or at least equal to any other bond. The love a mother feels for her children is unlike any other love we feel on earth. And when the Bible wants to talk about God’s love for humanity, it turns to maternal imagery. In this morning’s reading from Isaiah, God’s love and care for Israel is compared to a mother caring for an infant:
you shall be carried upon her hip,
and dandled upon her knees.
As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;

And when Jesus shows His love and sorrow over Jerusalem, He uses the image of a mother hen:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 38 Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Matthew 23:37-39).
Our mothers have a special connection to us. We have had their very blood flowing through us. We have been nourished by the very food they ate; and they feed us still after birth with their own bodies. Perhaps it is due to this visceral connection that mothers are that symbol of God’s divine love for humanity.
In Swedenborg’s theology, women correspond to love. I made that remark in a job interview for a teaching position. And the dean of the school, who had it in for me from the get-go, made the following statement, “I like to think that I love my children as much as their mother does.” What shall we say? Of course fathers love their children, too. But is it expressed in the same way as mothers express their abiding love for their children? Look at elementary school teachers. What is the ratio of men to women when it comes to educating children? I have worked in the mental health field, and almost all the social workers and counselors were women. Carol works with special needs individuals and all of her co-workers are women. Of course men care and nurture, too. Of course men are counselors and social workers, too. Of course men are elementary school teachers and special needs workers, too. But what is the ratio of men to women in these fields? I think that these nurturing roles are filled by women because care and nurturing are qualities in which women excel. I think that Swedenborg was right in saying that women correspond to love’s expression.
Only a mother. Only a mother knows her children so well. Only a mother cares so dearly for her children. Only a mother is right there with her children in all the circumstances of their lives, lending her support to her children. It is mothers that make a house into a home, into something you somehow don’t have to deserve. Today, and every day, it is right and fitting that we celebrate the mothers in this world.

God-Human Relations
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 5, 2013

Exodus 33:7-11 John 15:9-20 Psalm 98

Our Bible readings this morning bring up the topic of God-human relations. In our reading from Exodus, God speaks to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” While Moses speaks to God as to a friend, Jesus tells us that we are actually His friends,
You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:14-15).
There is a difference in the way God was perceived between Moses and Jesus. God appeared as a pillar of cloud to the Israelites. However, Jesus is God in Human form. Furthermore, the Israelites did not want to approach God directly. They feared God’s awesome power, and asked Moses to act as a intermediary between God and them.
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die. . . . The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was (Exodus 20:18-19, 21).
On the other hand, Jesus’ disciples spoke to Jesus person-to-person as friends.
In fact, according to Swedenborg, seeing God as a Human is what distinguishes the New Church from all the churches that came before. Before God’s advent, God was invisible. But with the birth of Jesus, God appears in Human form. Swedenborg calls the New Church the crown of all the churches that came before because of that very reason: we see God in visible Human form, in which the invisible Infinite God dwells, as soul in body.
This New Church is the crown of all the churches which have hitherto existed on earth, because it will worship one visible God in whom is the invisible, like the soul in the body (TCR 787).
Swedenborg claims that our minds are incapable of seeing Jehovah God as God is in His infinity. We need the Human Jesus for conjunction:
In the Word it is read that Jehovah God dwells in light inaccessible; who then could go to Him, unless He were to dwell in light inaccessible? that is, if He did not descend and assume the Human, and become in this the Light of the world (John i:9; xii. 46). Who cannot see that to go the Jehovah the Father, in His light is as impossible as for one to take the wings of the morning, and by means of them to fly to the sun? (TCR 176).
For Swedenborg, it is crucial that God appear as a Human. He teaches that we can be united in a love relationship only with a Human God. We are unable to picture an infinite God. And if we have no mental image of God, then God does not become a part of our mind and thus not of our heart.
Thus and not otherwise can there be conjunction of God with man, because man is natural and hence thinks naturally, and the conjunction must be in his thought and thus in his love`s affection, which is the case when he thinks of God as a man. Conjunction with an invisible God is like that of the eye`s vision with the expanse of the universe, of which there is no end; it is also like vision in mid ocean, which falls upon air and sea and is lost. But conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like seeing a man in the air on the sea, spreading out his hands and inviting into his arms (TCR 787).
Some people I know disagree with this doctrine. Some see God in plants and the created order. Others have told me that they see God in the unconditional love their dog has for them. Others, simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea that the infinite God can dwell in a Human body.
For me, seeing God as the all-loving Jesus works. Seeing God as a Human does give me a God I can love and relate to. And I like Swedenborg’s image: “a man in the air on the sea, spreading out his hands and inviting into his arms.” Remember, in Isaiah 25 and in Revelation 21, it is said that God will wipe away the tears from all faces. Wouldn’t God need a Human form to perform this tender act?
Furthermore, the idea of a Human God makes it possible for us to approach God directly, immediately, face-to-face. This is what our church teaches. We hold that every person can come to God directly, without any intermediary. Recall our story from Exodus. The children of Israel wanted Moses to act as an intermediary between them and God. This reminds me of some churches today. In some churches, the priest is seen as an intermediary between God and the congregation. But we teach that everyone has a direct connection with God. We do not need to go through a priest, or a saint, or angels, or any other intermediary. “Conjunction with the Lord is not given to any but those who approach Him immediately” (AR 883). God, in His Divine Humanity is intimately present with each and every one of us. That is one reason why God came to earth at all.
Since His coming He is present with people of the church immediately; for in the world He put on also the Divine natural, in which He is present with people (TCR 109).
Through the Human body that God took on in Jesus Christ, God is actually physically present with humans on earth and in the heavens. He has what Swedenborg calls the “natural” degree. The natural degree is that aspect of our soul that lives on earth. It is also the outermost level of our souls when we transition to heaven. God now has that part of His soul, since He took on a Human body in Jesus Christ. And when Jesus rose from the dead, He rose body and soul, so that nothing was left in the tomb. To prove His natural reality, Jesus ate a fish in the presence of His apostles when He appeared to them after His crucifixion.
The glorification of the Lord is the glorification of His Human which He assumed in the world, and the glorified Human of the Lord is the Divine Natural. That it is so is evident from this, that the Lord rose from the sepulchre with His whole Body which He had in the world; nor did He leave any thing in the sepulchre; consequently, that He took thence with Him the Human Natural itself, from the firsts to the lasts of it; wherefore He said to the disciples after the resurrection, when they supposed that they saw a spirit, “Behold my hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see Me have” (Luke xxiv. 37, 39). From this it is manifest that His natural body by glorification was made Divine (TCR 109).
So for us, God and Human are One. And in God’s Divine Humanity, we can approach God without any intermediary. And seeing God as the loving, gentle Jesus Christ, we can form a relationship of love. As the hymn goes that we sung earlier this morning, “Jesus is my best of friends.”

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks for coming to earth as a man, in a form that we mortals can see, understand, and love. Although God incarnate, you have called us friends. You put off your awesome powers and infinity and humbled yourself to the human condition. You even experienced the ultimate human fate of death. And yet, in your humanity, you filled yourself with the divinity of your origins, and God and Man became one. May we not seek any other way to call to you, than in your Divine Humanity. And in your Divine Humanity, we love you–person to person. You are no longer an invisible, unknowable power, but a person–the true and original person–a person who loves us, and whom we love, our friend.