Church of the Holy City

If You Abide in Me
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 6, 2012

Deuteronomy 7:7-15 John 15:1-8 Psalm 98

Both of our Bible readings this morning connect love of God, love for God, and bearing fruit. Both of our readings are very clear about God’s boundless love for us. In Deuteronomy, God says,
Know therefore that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations (7:9).
This beautiful statement shows the circle of love between God and humanity. It talks about God loving us and we loving God. This is the nature of love, that it wants to be loved back. There are also moving passages about God’s forgiveness that accompanies His love. For their sheer beauty and comfort, I would like to share just a few of the many passages in the Old Testament about God’s love and the forgiveness that accompanies it. When God passes in front of Moses, He says,
Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin (Exodus 34:6-7).
And David, too, sings of God’s love and forgiveness,
Yahweh is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:8-12).
Likewise the Prophet Micah praises God for His forgiveness and mercy,
Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy (7:18).
And the Psalmist comforts us, telling us that with God is unfailing love,
If you, Yahweh, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption (Psalm 130:3, 4, 7).
Some think that the God of the Old Testament is an angry, punishing God. Indeed there are passages that make Him look so. But that is far from the whole story. The Bible is a huge book. And we have just seen only a few of the many passages that show the Old Testament God to be loving and forgiving.
It is this loving, forgiving God that we encounter in our reading from John. In Jesus, we have the loving God of the Old Testament personified. Through Jesus we have the complete union between God the Father and humanity. For it is the Old Testament God the Father who is living in Jesus. And through Jesus, God comes to us and we come to God. So Jesus says,
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:9-10).
Love wants to shine forth divine rays into the world around it. God’s love and our love for God show themselves in bearing fruit. When we have God in our hearts, we want goodness to flow forth from us in loving deeds of kindness. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (15:5). We all have a sense of calling, and we all have our own special ways of doing the good that is uniquely our own. There are grand ways of showing God’s love. I think of the words of Beethoven. He said on one occasion, “O it is wonderful to approach the divine more closely than most and to shower the world with His divine rays.” Listening to his music, I don’t think Beethoven was being conceited when he claimed to approach the divine closer than most. He did have the leisure to do so, as his life wasn’t consumed with the worldly concerns so many of us have to contend with. Then there are modest and humble ways of letting God’s love shine forth. I knew a man whose career was waste disposal–a humble garbage man. He was proud of his calling and said, “That’s being useful!” Where would we be without our garbage men? In fact, I knew a man who made a good living at waste disposal. He took me and a group of friends out to breakfast one morning. When we all wanted to pitch in and pay our own portion of breakfast, he insisted on paying for us all with the words, “The waste industry has been good to me.” God’s love will, God’s love must shine forth in good works, good deeds of kindness.
Our passage from Deuteronomy connects love of God with bearing fruit, also. Hearkening to God’s ordinances will multiply good things.
And because you hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love which he swore to your fathers to keep; he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock (7:12-13).
For an agrarian community, children, grain, and cattle were extremely important. Such a culture struggled to maintain its numbers alone. And their prosperity depended on fruitful harvests and multiplied cattle and flocks. We see in this reading the belief that honoring God would have power over the forces of nature.
We find many today, too, who believe that good things will come to them if they are faithful in their religious practice. Some even think that wealth and prosperity will come to them if they believe and pray correctly. This church looks at these matters differently. We see the fruitful harvest that God promises the Israelites in symbolic terms. The frutful of crops from the land symbolize truths multiplying in our consciousness. The increase of livestock we see as symbols of healthy and loving emotions arising in our hearts. So we understand the blessings that God promises the Israelites as all spiritual. These are the blessings that God gives to the faithful. I was very interested in talking with a rabbi about this. He said the most interesting thing. He told me that modern Judaism has a way of spiritualizing the agrarian imagery in the Bible. I didn’t have time in my interview to go into details about this, but that short statement of his really caught my attention. Perhaps I can pursue this discussion with some of the rabbis I am getting to know at the Interfaith Centre.
Spiritual gifts are what John has in mind as well. Jesus’ words are sometimes taken to refer to material things when we ask for them in prayer. Jesus says,
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7).
Sometimes this statement is abbreviated to mean only, “ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” But that isn’t the whole statement. I think that the preceding line is very important. Jesus doesn’t say we’ll get anything we ask for. He will give us what we ask for if we abide in Him and His words abide in us. We need to have Jesus in our hearts when we ask for things. We need to ask from a Christ-centered heart. This means that we need to ask for Godly things, Christian things, things that are of Christ and His words. These will surely come if we ask for them.
Wherever we are in our spiritual journey, we can always ask Jesus to show us where and how to let our light shine. We can start our day by asking God to show us what His will for us is. We can always call out for direction if we feel we are lost. We can always ask for patience and love when we are inclined toward judgment or resentment. We can always ask for a more loving, a more caring disposition. These are prayers with Christ’s words abiding in us and we abiding in Jesus. These prayers will be granted. These are the blessings which will be multiplied in us as grain, oil, wine, and flocks. These are the blessings that a loving God will hear, remain faithful to His covenant of love with us, and fulfill, in His own way, in His own holy time.

PRAYER

Lord, you have told us that you are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. We trust in your promise of forgiveness and compassion. If you, dear Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness. We put our hope in you and in your unfailing love. Lord, as we are filled with your Holy Spirit, we wish to shine in the world in which we live. We wish to flow forth in good fruit and kindly deeds. Give us the awareness of how and upon which occasions we can bring forth the love we have in our hearts for all those around us. Give us insight into where we can let our light brighten the lives of those we touch, and the world we know. For our love for you will, must bear good fruit in the society in which you have placed us.

Lord, we ask for your peace to descend upon this troubled world. Where there is conflict and war, let there be understanding and peace. Inspire our leaders, and the leaders of other nations to govern their people with compassion and with your Holy Love. Where there is famine and thirst, may good hearted aid come and satisfy the needs of those who want. Where there are natural disasters, may help come from good neighbors and from compassionate governments. Where there is hardship and unemployment, lend your patience and hope.

Lord, send your healing love to all those suffering in body and soul. We ask you to give the gift of health to all in need.

So God and Man Is One Christ
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 29, 2012

Isaiah 53 John 10:11-18 Psalm 23

Last Sunday we speculated on how Jesus was conceived. This speculation involved a discussion of the relationship between the soul and the body. As controversial as it may be, I favored Swedenborg’s theory that the soul comes from the father and the body from the mother. He speaks to this point in several places in his writings. In True Christian Religion, we find a clear statement of the relationship between soul, body, and parents,
The soul which is from the father is the person himself, and the body which is from the mother is not the person in itself, but is from him. The body is only a covering of the soul, composed of such things as are of the natural world; but the soul is of such things as are in the spiritual world. Every person, after death, lays down the natural which he had from the mother, and retains the spiritual which he had from the father, together with a kind of border (limbus) from the purest things of nature, around it . . . for in the seed from which everyone is conceived, there is a graft or offset of the father’s soul, in its fullness, within a certain envelope of elements of nature. By these its body is formed in the womb of the mother, which may grow into a likeness of the father, or into the likeness of the mother (TCR 103).
We also saw that with Jesus we do not have the usual relationship between father and son that ordinary humans have. By that I mean that with Jesus, we do not have sperm and egg uniting to form a new person. In ordinary human birth, father and son are two distinct persons. But when we think of Jesus’ birth, we do not think of two distinct persons, but one person with a divine soul and a human body.
The Athanasian Creed affirms this understanding of Jesus’ nature. There are parts to the Athanasian Creed that we reject, but I have edited them out and cited those passages that affirm the unity of God and Man in Jesus Christ:
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the Essence of the Father . . . and Man, of the Essence of his Mother, born in the world. Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead . . . Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ. . . . One altogether; not by confusion of Essence; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ . . . .
In Jesus, as the Athanasian Creed says, God and Man are one even as soul and flesh, or soul and body are one. God lives in Jesus as our soul lives in our body. We have Jesus’ testimony to this in John 14. There, Jesus says to Philip,
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells within me does His works, Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me (10-11).
So when Jesus uses the language of Father and Son it does not mean Father and Son the way ordinary humans use the words. For us it is two different beings. For Jesus, it is a matter of inner and outer; of higher and lower; of internal and external; of essence and manifestation. When Jesus said that God is His Father, the Jews understood this to mean that He is One with the Father, not a different person from the Father. John tells us that calling God His Father made the Jews so angry that they plotted to kill Jesus. And they were angry because calling God His Father made Jesus equal with God. At least that is what John tells us,
This is why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he . . . called God his own Father, making Himself equal with God (5:18).
So when Jesus uses language of Father and Son, it is to be understood as a figure of speech meaning identity. That is, when Jesus calls God His Father, it is a figure of speech that means He is from God and He is God.
That is how we understand the divine aspect of Jesus. But there is also the human aspect to consider. Jesus received a humanity from His human mother, Mary. And Jesus made His humanity divine by a process similar to the way our souls are regenerated. I have talked in other sermons about the three “R’s”–repentance, reformation, and regeneration. This isn’t the place to review what the three “R’s” mean. Suffice it to say that we need to turn toward God of our own free will and to ask God into our lives. Jesus needed to do the same thing. The human Jesus needed to turn toward His origins and ask God into His life. So the Human approached God and God approached the Human.
We need to keep in mind how thoroughly human Jesus was. His human consciousness needed to prepare a place for God in Himself, just as we need to prepare a place for God in our souls. So in Jesus, the Human turned to God in the same way that we need to turn to God. God and Human could unite in Jesus only because Jesus asked God into His life and prepared the way for a full union of Human and Divine. So Jesus experienced two different states of consciousness. In one state He was fully Human and asked God into His life. In the other state God filled Jesus’ Humanity with Divine Power and God and Man were closely united. Christians have talked about these two states of consciousness in Jesus. Or at least Christians at the time of Swedenborg spoke of these two states. Swedenborg tells us,
That the Lord, while He was in the world, was in two states, which are called states of exinanition and of glorification, is known in the church; the former state . . . was the state of humiliation before the Father, for in it He prays to the Father and says that He does His will, and ascribes to the Father all that He has done or said. . . . Moreover, without this state He could not have been crucified (TCR 104).
Alternating between these two states, Jesus brought His Humanity to God and God came to dwell in Jesus’ Humanity. This is like our own process of regeneration. For us, we need to open our hearts to receive God’s love and wisdom. Then we need to bring that love and wisdom into our outer life. Our process is an alternation between inner and outer even as Jesus’ process was an alternation between God and Human.
The reason that the Lord had these two states of exinanition and glorification, was, that there is no other possible way of progressing to union, since it is according to the Divine order, which is unchangeable. The Divine order is, that man should dispose himself for the reception of God, and prepare himself as a receptacle and habitation into which God may enter and dwell as in His temple. . . . According to this order every person proceeds and must proceed, that from being natural he may become spiritual. In like manner the Lord, that He might make His natural human Divine . . . In like manner the Lord united Himself to His Father, and the Father united Himself to Him; in a word, the Lord glorified His Human, that is made it Divine, in the same manner in which He regenerates a person, that is, makes him spiritual (TCR 105).
This state of exinanition is when Jesus’ divinity is as if withdrawn. That is the time when Jesus’ Human nature seeks God. Even so, as we are regenerated, we need to freely seek God and make our lives a fit place in which God can live. Recall what God says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Those simple words tell the whole story, “I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” The process is mutual–we come to God and God comes to us. There needs to be effort on our part, in order to complete the cycle. God comes to us only when we come to God. We need to push proprium out to the periphery of our consciousness and allow God’s Holy Spirit to fill our souls in its place. We need to transform proprium with good emotions called remains. So Jesus’ too, needed to expel the maternal humanity He received from Mary and put on the Divine Humanity in its place. This is why Jesus talks to God as to another sometimes. There were times in His life when He was in the humanity from His mother and that very humanity needed to turn to God just as we, too, need to turn to God.
There is one difference, though. Jesus’ soul was God. Our soul is the mortal and finite soul we receive from our parents. God’s Holy Spirit can enter our lives and transform us. But it can never make us one with God. Jesus was different. Since His soul was God, when Jesus’ Humanity was completely mature spiritually God was in His Human fully and completely. So it can hardly be put more clearly and more succinctly than those ancient words of the Athanasian Creed, “So God and Man is one Christ.”

PRAYER

Dear Lord, we are beset at times with a flood of worldly concerns. We can lose our trust in your divine guidance and we can become fretful and discontent with life. Help us to hold fast to confidence that no worldly concern is overwhelming, and that you are with us always and will lead us ever upward to you. Help us to see that inner good that lies within each of us as a gracious gift from you. Give us the confidence to let that innate goodness shine in all our affairs. let our lives bear witness to the truth that we are Christians and that we are yours.

Lord, we ask for your peace to descend upon this troubled world. Where there is conflict and war, let there be understanding and peace. Inspire our leaders, and the leaders of other nations to govern their people with compassion and with your Holy Love. Where there is famine and thirst send your generosity. Where there are natural disasters, may help come from good neighbors and from compassionate governments. Where there is want and unemployment, lend your patience and hope.

Dear Lord, we ask you to send your healing love to all suffering in body or soul. Lord, be with all who are in need of your healing presence and power.

To Understand the Scriptures
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 22, 2012

Isaiah 41:14-20 Luke 24:36-53 Psalm 4

Luke says something that is very important for our denomination and the teachings we believe. And we find it said twice in Luke. In our reading this morning, Jesus says, “These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). Then Luke says those all important words, as he explains what Jesus means. Luke writes, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (24:45). So Luke tells us that Jesus opened the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures. This means that what is written in the law and the prophets and the psalms are about Jesus. By the law and the prophets and the psalms, Luke means the whole Bible. So in other words, the whole Bible is about Jesus. Earlier, Luke tells us the same thing in the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. In that story, Luke tells us, “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself” (24:27). Luke doesn’t say that Jesus opened their minds to only those scriptures that concern Jesus. He says that every scripture is about Jesus (en pasais tais graphais ta peri eautou).
I say that these verses are important for our denomination because we believe that there is an internal level to all the scriptures. As Luke says, we believe that all the scriptures treat the Lord, who He is, and His development on earth. This is the highest level of the internal meaning of scriptures. We also believe that the scriptures treat the course of the church’s progress through the ages. This level of scriptures begins with the earliest humans and progresses to the present day. This is the next level of inner meaning to the scriptures. Finally, the scriptures treat the processes of spiritual growth and development that we as individuals go through. This is the lowest level of inner meaning. So there are three levels of inner meaning to the scriptures. The highest treats the Lord. The second describes the church. And the third treats the individual. Luke tells us only about the highest level. That is, Luke tells us that all the scriptures concern the Lord.
Our church is not alone in claiming that there are deeper levels to the scriptures. Philo of Alexandria in the first century BC explained the Old Testament by means of a symbolic system. (From comparisons with Swedenborg, I believe that Swedenborg not only read Philo, but was influenced by him.) Then in the second century AD, the church Father Origen described an internal sense of scriptures by interpreting them symbolically also. Then in the fourth century, Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa came up with symbolic systems of Bible interpretation. In fact, Augustine wrote a book that tells us when and how to interpret the Bible symbolically, and when to take it on face value.
When Swedenborg talks about the highest level of inner meaning, he describes mostly the process by which Jesus united His Human Nature with His Divine Origins. On Easter we celebrate the final union of God and Man when Jesus rises from the grave and is one with the Father. This miracle of God and Man becoming one is celebrated in all the resurrection stories. And it is in our Luke story. Jesus appears to the disciples apparently out of thin air. Startled, the disciples think they are seeing a ghost. But Jesus reassures them. He shows them that He is still the material, physical Jesus they knew before the crucifixion. He says, “See my hands and feet; for a ghost has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” To further prove His humanity, Jesus eats a broiled fish. But it is also clear that Jesus is more than just flesh and bones. He appears before the disciples from nowhere. He is both spirit and flesh even as He is both God and Man.
Isaiah prophesied Jesus’ coming. In our reading this morning, Isaiah talks about a time when God will come to humanity and bless us with miraculous gifts. For the poor and needy who seek water, God will “open rivers on the bare heights,” He will “make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah 41:18). When the poor and needy seek God, “the Lord will answer them.” He promises, “I the God of Israel will not forsake them” (17).
If all the prophets are about Jesus, as Luke says, then this passage from Isaiah is about Jesus, too. I think that it does sound like Jesus’ ministry. He cared about the poor and needy. He answered those who sought Him, nor did He forsake them. And when Isaiah speaks about God giving water to those who are parched with thirst, the Gospel of John speaks about Jesus telling the woman of Samaria that He will give her living water. By Looking at Isaiah in this way, it does appear that he is talking about Jesus.
There is one problem, though. Isaiah is talking about Jehovah God doing these things. If Jehovah God is supposed to be doing these things, but we see Jesus doing them we have a contradiction. But this is only a contradiction is Jesus and Jehovah God are two different deities. This contradiction is resolved if Jehovah God is Jesus are the same Being. This contradiction is resolved if Jesus is Jehovah God in the flesh.
This brings up the issue of the Trinity. For throughout the New Testament, we hear about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This makes God sound like three persons. But Deuteronomy 6:5 says what we all intuitively know, “The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” There is only one God. To reconcile these two ideas, the Nicene Creed speaks of a trinity of persons who have one essence. This means that there are three persons but one essence. Some may profess to understand how three persons can have one essence. I cannot.
This Sunday I will begin a discussion on the unity of God and the Biblical language that suggests the trinity. I have mentioned these concepts in other sermons, but I haven’t given them the thorough discussion they require. In the next few sermons, I hope to clarify this profound and difficult problem. I hope I won’t only make it all murkier.
In the New Testament, we hear Jesus Himself addressing the Father as if the Father were a different person. In beginning our discussion on the trinity, it makes sense to start at the beginning. That is, with the birth of Jesus. For with birth we have the primary relationship between Father and Son.
I am going to speculate a great deal in considering the birth of Jesus. For we don’t have theology to tell us exactly what happened. Nor do we have science to tell us, either. Since we believe that Jehovah God was Jesus’ soul, we need to begin by considering the relationship between soul and body. Swedenborg tells us that our soul comes the father and our body from the mother. Today, science tells us that our bodily traits come from both parents. But science doesn’t tell us anything about the soul. I think that Swedenborg’s system is plausible as we know that it is the father’s sperm that swims up the birth canal to the egg. We know also that the life process starts to happen when the sperm pierces the egg’s membrane and the two DNA strands of father and mother unite. This looks as if the sperm has life in it.
Now back to the issue of the soul. Swedenborg claims that the sperm has the soul in it. And the sperm comes from the father. But clearly, the soul in the sperm is not the same as the father’s soul. The son or daughter’s soul is different from the father’s soul. When children become adults, father and son are two different adult persons who have their own individual souls. Son and daughter grow up to become different persons from their father. In the case of us humans, father and son are indeed two separate persons. My father is not me and I am not my father.
Things are very different when we speculate about the relationship between Father and Son in the case of Jesus. Science can tell us nothing about how Mary’s egg became fertilized. All we know are the enigmatic words of Luke:
The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God (1:35).
I take this to mean that God gave life to Mary’s egg by uniting His own soul with Mary’s finite egg. In this way of thinking, there was no sperm and egg. There was God’s power uniting directly with Mary’s egg, giving it life. Somehow, God caused Mary’s DNA to live and to produce a baby. So the soul of Jesus was the power of God, or Life Itself, or God Himself.
So when we talk about the relationship of Father and Son in the case of Jesus, we are always dealing with a metaphor. Everyone has a father and mother. In the case of Jesus we know that His mother was Mary. That’s simple enough. The other parent is God, who in ordinary language would be the Father. But Father in the case of Jesus is very different from human fathers and sons. Our soul is different from our father’s. So in our case, father and son are two persons. But Jesus’ soul is His Father. Father and Son are not two different persons. Jesus’ Human body came from Mary. But His soul was God Himself. Father and Son are one Person, one Essence, one Body.
So when Jesus talks about His Father, He is always using figurative language. God is a sort of Father in that He is the origin of Jesus’ life. But the connection between soul and body in Jesus is an intimate union of God and human. God is only Father sort of, not as our fathers are. His relationship to His Father is not the same as humanity’s relationship to our fathers. He did have a humanity as we do, but His soul was divine. I don’t know exactly how God caused Mary’s DNA to live and conceive a child. I don’t know if we ever can. But we do know that a Divine Human was born 2,000 years ago. We do know that that child grew up as humans grow up. We do know that that child served in a ministry to all Palestine. We do know that that child died on the cross. But we also know that that child rose from the grave as no ordinary human can. With the resurrection, God and Man were fully united. And in that One Holy Person, matter and spirit are united in the Divine Humanity of the risen and Glorified Jesus Christ.
This is a difficult doctrine to accept. Indeed, Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not scandalized by me” (Matthew 11:6). And Paul says,
the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:18, 25).
A Divine Human is hard even for ministers in this denomination to accept. But as the Doobie Brothers, a great rock band from the 70′s say, “I don’t care what they may say; I don’t care what they may do; I don’t care what they may say, Jesus is just alright with me, O yeah.” And on a more sublime note, there is a beautiful 14th century hymn that Mozart set to music that seems to sum up all I’ve been talking about,
Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria virgine
Hail true body, born of Virgin Mary
All this speculation I have done about the biology of the incarnation may indeed be foolishness. But I wanted to establish some kind of groundwork to talk about Jesus’ language in the Gospels, when He addresses God as if another person. And I wanted to provide some speculation on how to preserve the unity of God to contrast the doctrine of the trinity. If I have failed to convince, or if my speculation seems forced, is it really any weirder than the doctrine that says there are three persons with one essence?

The Beginning of Wisdom
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 15, 2012`

Isaiah 54:9-14 John 20:19-31 Psalm 111

Today I would like to reflect on this connection between belief in God and the peace that is associated with it. When Jesus appears to His disciples after the resurrection, He says, “Peace be with you.” And next, as if He were filling their souls with that very peace, Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” For it is when we accept Jesus into our hearts, and when His Holy Spirit fills our souls, it is then that we find peace.
Likewise, we find similar statements about peace in our reading from Isaiah. There it is said that God’s love for Israel will not be shaken nor His covenant of peace be removed. We find here that God’s love is associated with peace. And in following verses we read, “Great will be your children’s peace. In righteousness you will be established” (54:13, 14). Here we find a connection between righteousness and peace.
Finally, in our reading from Psalm 111 this morning we find the well-known words, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” God’s works are said to be just and his precepts are said to be upright. So fear of the Lord leads us into wisdom and God’s justice and uprightness. When the Bible talks about fearing God, I don’t take it to mean being afraid of God. I think of fear of the Lord as more akin to awe, or respect, or reverence. I think that to fear God is to respect His ordinances and to follow them. The Psalmist connects fear of God with following His precepts. He writes, ” The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.”
But God’s peace, His uprightness, and His justice all hinge on the question of belief. In our New Testament reading we see some familiar reactions to the question of belief. We find the disciples overjoyed when they see the resurrected Jesus Christ. Then we have Thomas who wants to be convinced by means of his senses that Jesus has risen. Thomas represents those who refuse to believe in God until it can be proven. We confront these issues every day in the world today.
Swedenborg talks about two principles we can apply when we approach the problem of belief. There is the affirmative principle and there is the negative principle. The affirmative principle is to begin with the assumption that spirituality is true and that spiritual life is real. From a positive belief in religion, one then investigates science, or philosophy, or we look at our experiences, or any other system of knowledge to find support for religion. The negative principle is to doubt spirituality until one finds proof of it in science, or philosophy, or other systems of knowing. This is the way Thomas was. He wanted to see the nail holes and touch them. Thomas wouldn’t believe until he saw and touched, or until his senses were convinced. About these two approaches to spirituality, Swedenborg writes,
There are therefore two principles; one of which leads to all folly and insanity, and the other to all intelligence and wisdom. The former principle is to deny all things, or to say in the heart that
we cannot believe them until we are convinced by what we can apprehend, or perceive by the senses; this is the principle that leads to all folly and insanity, and is to be called the negative principle. The other principle is to affirm the things which are of doctrine from the Word, or to think and believe within ourselves that they are true because the Lord has said them: this is the principle that leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and is to be called the affirmative principle (AC 2568).
The consequences of these two approaches are either to strengthen faith by confirming spiritual truths with facts, knowledges, or experiences, or to deny faith because the proof one was looking for wasn’t found. So Swedenborg tells us,
The more they who think from the negative principle consult rational things, the more they consult systems of knowing, and the more they consult philosophical things, the more they cast and precipitate themselves into darkness, until at last they deny all things (AC 2568).
But with those who believe first, faith becomes more solid when it is supported by reasons and facts. For those who believe first and then look for proof, faith is strengthened.
to regard rational things from the doctrine of faith is first to believe in the Word, or in the doctrine therefrom, and then to confirm the same by rational things. [This] is genuine order, and causes the man to believe the better. . . . they who think from an affirmative principle can confirm themselves by whatever things rational, by whatever systems of knowledge, and whatever things philosophic they have at command; for all these are to them things confirmatory, and give them a fuller idea of the matter (AC 2568).
In our reading from John, it is when Jesus appears to His disciples that He gives them the Holy Spirit, and with it the blessing of peace. For it is only when we have Jesus in our hearts, or whatever God you worship, only then will we know what spiritual peace means.
The Psalmist says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. I take this to mean that reverence for God is the start of spiritual growth. Or belief in God is the beginning of wisdom. There is so much that follows belief. It is belief in God that leads us to live a Godly life. It is belief in God that leads us to learn what is good and what is bad. Then belief in God leads us to strive to follow God’s precepts or to walk in the ways of Jesus. After we believe in God, we begin the process of repentance, reformation, and regeneration. Belief in God is just the beginning. It is far from the end or goal of spirituality.
I was asked by the editor of the Paulhaven Journal to write an article on, “How can our faith help us to create heaven here on earth?” And to respond, I thought about a seminar I attended at the Interfaith Centre. The question there was whether religion is a positive force or a negative force in society. Rabbi David Kunin brought up and interesting point. He told about asking an atheist friend whether this friend felt called to love and help everybody, or just his family and friends. The atheist said that he felt no obligation to help anyone but his friends and family. Without a love for God and our neighbor, why would we do good to anyone but those who benefitted us? How often do we hear, “What’s in it for me?” Or, “What will I get out of it?” These are not religious questions. These are questions we are likely to hear in this self-oriented society we live in. But in order for earth to be heaven, we need to extend our love to everybody. We need to be good to everybody we see. We need to try to make everybody as happy as we can. We need to see that everybody–not just our friends and family–is just like us and wants to be happy. We need to care about others even if there isn’t something in it for us. We need to good to others, even if no one knows about it. This, only religion teaches.
And there is one truth that stands out from this approach to living. Loving God and others makes us feel good. Expressing love to others gives us the peace that Jesus breathed on His disciples. Peace isn’t just relaxation. Peace is an active feeling of joy when we are doing what is good. And in order to find this joy, we need to know what is good. When I gave a talk about spirituality at a university in the US, many of the students and some of the faculty said that children have an inborn sense or right and wrong, and don’t need to learn it from religion. I’m not sure that is true. And even if it were true, do children have the sense that self-sacrifice is a virtue? Do children have an inborn feeling of generosity and do they naturally share their toys with their little playmates? Does anyone have an inborn sense that forgiving our enemies rather than retaliating is a virtue? Does humanity in general have the sense that trying to make as many people happy as we can in our lives and through our work, that this is a virtue. Do people today have the inborn sense that there is a God and we are not the centre of the universe?
I think not. I think we need to learn these things. I think that heaven can only be created by heavenly principles. Imagine a world in which everybody wants to make everyone else happy. Imagine a world in which everybody tries to understand each other, and tries to give each other what each one needs for their own welfare. Imagine a world in which everybody cares about everyone else. Wouldn’t living there be heaven? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live there? Wouldn’t you want to live there? This is a very basic image of how Swedenborg describes heaven. This world would have that peace of Jesus in it and we would have that peace living in such a world.
But it seems to me that such a world depends on religious principles. Such a world depends on the uprightness that God’s precepts lead to. Such a world depends on the fear of God, which is the beginning of such a world. Such a world depends on the acknowledgment of God who alone can fill us with His Holy Spirit and the joy and peace that follow from our receiving it.

Our Blood, Commingling, Virginal, With Heaven
Rev,. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 8, 2012
Easter Sunday

Matthew 28:1-20 Psalm 136

In our reading from Matthew this morning, Jesus tells his disciples, “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” This is the promise of the incarnation. This is the promise of the story that begins with Christmas, when the Light came into the world, through the story’s climax on Easter, when God and Man became fully one. It is the incarnation of God in the form of Jesus Christ that brings God to us mortals here on earth and in the spiritual world when we cross over. The incarnation which climaxes in Christ’s resurrection, makes God a power that we can understand. It makes God a person with whom we can communicate in a love relationship. And it gives God the power to reach us whatever state we are in through His own very Humanity.
I would like to expound these points by reflecting on a poem by Wallace Stevens. It is a poem all about religion, and has references to God’s incarnation, to Jerusalem, and to heaven. One stanza in particular contrasts Christianity with the Roman view of gods. It compares Jove, the Roman king of the gods, with Jesus. Wallace Stevens is difficult to understand, but I think if we let his words wash over us, and if we just let the images arise in our minds, we will get at his meaning. The passage goes as follows:
Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.
No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave
Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind.
He moved among us, as a muttering king,
Magnificent, would move among his hinds,
Until our blood, commingling, virginal,
With heaven, brought such requital to desire
The very hinds discerned it, in a star. (Sunday Morning, Stanza III)
The Roman god Jove lived high on a mountain top, up in the clouds. He presided over the affairs of humanity according to his divine whims. We had essentially no free will according to the Roman world view. Fate determined our whole existence. The course of our lives was woven out in a thread at the time of our birth. When Jove wanted us to do something, we had no power to resist his divine will. He was a god in the heavens, we were humans on earth and there was no bridge between us. So Wallace Stevens says,
Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.
No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave
Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind.
There are myths about Jove coming down to earth. And when he does so, he interacts with humanity however he pleases, without regard to our consent. So Stevens, again,
He moved among us, as a muttering king,
Magnificent, would move among his hinds.
These lines conclude Stevens’ reflection on the Roman god Jove. The stanza then moves on to a reflection about Jesus. In the lines about Jesus, we see a different God entirely. Jesus is a God whose very blood commingled with our own, when He was born a baby by Virgin Mary. About Jesus, Stevens says,
Until our blood, commingling, virginal,
With heaven, brought such requital to desire
The very hinds discerned it, in a star.
The star Stevens mentions is, of course, the star that the wise men followed, that came to rest above Baby Jesus. And I think that Stevens captures the idea of incarnation beautifully. Our blood commingled with heaven in the form of Jesus Christ. While no mother suckled Jove in the clouds, Stevens implies just how human Jesus was by suggesting that the infant was suckled by His very human mother.
Jesus’ humanity gives us several gifts. First, through His own Humanity, God can come to us through Himself. Jesus has a Human form that partakes of the very matter that He created. Before the incarnation, God came to humanity through inspiration from the heavens. With the resurrection, God comes to us through His own Human Form. You could say that God comes to us Human to human. Jesus went through every developmental stage that we go through. Jesus learned truths as we do; Jesus formed a rational mind that made decisions for Him; Jesus lived an adult life of service. This means that wherever we are on our own developmental path, Jesus was there and can come to us through His own Humanity. This gives Jesus total power to cut through any infernal blockage we might be experiencing and to bring us His infinite goodness. This, Jesus does through the power of His resurrected Humanity.
Another gift that Jesus’ humanity gives us is a way for us to understand and relate to God. We can understand a God in Human Form. We have stories about Jesus’ life on earth. We have stories about God in the flesh that give us an understanding of what God is like and how God acts. Jesus is a God we can understand. Jesus is a God we can relate to. We can love a human being. This is what Jesus gives us. We know that God is infinite. But our minds are now and always will be finite. Our minds can never understand infinity. In fact, when we try to comprehend how vast the universe is–and even in its vastness it still is finite–we have difficulty grasping its dimensions. How much more difficult would it be to comprehend God’s infinity! If God were only infinite, there would be no way for us to grasp God’s nature. There would be no way for us to relate to infinity. The infinite God would be forever beyond our finite grasp. But we can understand and relate to God’s Divine Humanity. The Infinite God is within Jesus as our soul is in our body. And we come to that infinity through Jesus. That is why Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). It is through Jesus, that we come to the infinite God. It is through the humanity of Jesus, that we can approach God’s infinity. It is Jesus’ Divine Humanity that we can relate to and form relationship with.
Finally, Jesus as God on earth shows us the ways of God. In the Old Testament we have prescriptions and directions about how to live. With the New Testament we see these prescriptions acted out. With the stories about Jesus, we can see how God would act and react to various situations. We can thus understand how we are to act in those same situations. And we can figure out how to act in other situations by considering those stories. I once asked a friend of mine what I should do in a certain situation I was perplexed by. His response illustrates perfectly what I am talking about. He asked simply, “What would Jesus do?” We know enough about Jesus’ life that I think we can answer that question in most of the situations we go through. Our footsteps can walk the same path that Jesus walked. We can follow Jesus and live a life in accordance with His own Divine life. That would be our goal, anyway. We can embody the love, the patience, the forgiveness, and the compassion that Jesus showed while He was on the earth. The Human God Jesus showed us the way for us humans to approach godliness in our own lives.
Jesus said, “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” He will be with us as a presence in His Divine Humanity. He will be with us in our hearts as we form a loving relationship with this God-Man. And He will be with us in our own lives as we embody the things He stood for, the things He lived for. God came to earth on Christmas. He lived the life an ordinary human would, but with this difference: Jesus completely united this Humanity with His own Divine soul. While we weren’t on the earth when His own feet walked the dust of Palestine, Jesus still walks beside us on the streets of Edmonton as the risen and glorified Divine Human.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks that you have taken to yourself your great power and that you reign. You have conquered death in your resurrection and shown us the glorious gift of eternal life in you. We pray that you be with us always, as you have promised that you will be. Give us open hearts so that we may receive the inflowing love from your Divine Humanity. Be with us as we walk this path here on earth, and be with us as we make ready our souls for our eternal life in heaven with you. Enlighten our pathway so that we may follow in your footsteps. For you came to earth to bring us back home to you; you came to earth to show us the ways of God; you came to earth, lived, died, and were reborn in order that we may be one with you and you one with us. Praise be to you!

Lord, we ask for your peace to descend upon this troubled world. Where there is conflict and war, let there be understanding and peace. Inspire our leaders, and the leaders of other nations to govern their people with compassion and with your Holy Love. Where there is famine and thirst send your generosity. Where there are natural disasters, may help come from good neighbors and from compassionate governments. Where there is want and unemployment, lend your patience and hope.

Dear Lord, we ask you to send your healing love to all suffering in body or soul. Lord, be with all who are in need of your healing presence and power.

And He Surrendered Jesus to Their Will
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete’
April 6, 2012

Luke 23: 1-49 Psalm 22

On Good Friday we see Jesus especially in His humanity. He works no miracles. He teaches no multitudes. And He submits to the ultimate human experience of death.
Nevertheless, our reading from Luke shows Jesus as a truly Godly Man. He endures a terrible fate with calmness, patience, and compassion. He shows us how God on earth acts toward the human race that He loves. And He shows how humanity can act when our best nature is called forth.
Swedenborg tells us that the crucifixion was the final and worst of Jesus` temptations. Jesus went through grievous temptations throughout His life. But in the crucifixion Jesus` deepest love was assailed as was the most basic human drive for life.
Let`s see if we can imagine the crucifixion might have meant for Jesus. Of course we cannot enter the Divine Mind and plumb its depths. We do not have a mind that in any way can compare to His. But I still think there is value in speculating about some of what the crucifixion may have meant for Jesus. Jesus is the Divine Human, and He has a Human Nature as we do.
To begin with, we need to say something about temptations. Temptations are struggles in which our loves come under attack. One form of temptation is when God helps us to deny a profane pleasure. In this form of temptation, our profane love and delight comes under attack. We seek to flee from these unhealthy drives and rep-lace them with healthy, holy loves. Another form of temptation is when heavenly loves and delights are polluted by profane passions that evil spirits inspire into us. We feel horrified at these feelings and fear that our heavenly loves are being overwhelmed. This form of temptation has the benefit of strengthening our hold on heavenly loves, as we fight to keep them in our hearts.
I think that when Jesus was on the cross, His deepest love was threatened by the human race and by the hells. Jesus` deepest love is for the whole human race. He came to the earth in order to save us. He came to earth to teach us the ways of God, and the heavenly life. He came to earth to call us home. Yet one of Jesus` earliest perceptions was about how depraved the human race had become. He saw that humanity was consumed with destructive self-interest and that humanity had ceased to regard each other with love and care. A history book about some of the things that happened in the Roman Empire will give us some indication of just how horrible humanity was capable of being. When Jesus looked at the human race, and saw its character, He was horrified. Swedenborg tells us,
the thought . . . concerning the human race, that this was their quality, struck horror; for the Lord’s love toward the human race was so great that He wished to save them all to eternity, by the union of His Human Essence with the Divine, and of the Divine with the Human (AC 2222).
How did we appear to Jesus as He endured that horrible death–a death that was commonplace in the Roman Empire? Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, it may have looked like humanity had a chance. Multitudes were moved by Jesus’ presence and His teachings–from as far north as Phoenicia all the way south to Jerusalem. In fact, that was one of the very charges that the chief priests brought against Jesus. They told Pilate, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by His teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here” (Luke 23:5). Now these very multitudes had turned against Jesus and were calling for His death. Luke tells us that the chief priests and teachers of the law were the primary orchestrators of Jesus’ death. But Mark makes it a mob scene. Pilate releases Barabbas in order, “to satisfy the crowd” (Mark 15:15).
I can imagine the humanity of Jesus looking at the violent crowd and wondering if they would accept His teachings, turn, and be saved. It sure didn’t look like it at the time of the crucifixion. Jesus’ only thought was for the salvation of humanity. Even as He endured the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Enduring the insults, the mockery, the trumped-up charges against Him; watching humanity go amok with the frenzy of blood; Jesus forgave, and saw that they didn’t know what they were doing.
Let’s shift gears a little, now. Let’s see Jesus as a mere man–not as the Son of God. With Good Friday, we emphasize the crucifixion and death of Jesus: things that happened to many human beings during the Roman Empire. And we, too, will face death in our given time. Let us, then, for a minute, look at Jesus’ humanity and his death. What quality of a man would, could, go through all that Jesus did, and forgive the mob scene that led to His terrible death? Can you imagine any mere man forgiving his murderers, forgiving the church orthodoxy that brought him to Pilate on trumped-up charges? Can you imagine any mere man bearing this tragic reversal in fortune with the calmness and acceptance that we see in Jesus of Nazareth? Such a man is hard to imagine and is worthy of our utmost respect, admiration, and emulation.
To me, the way Jesus died is almost proof enough that He is indeed God in the flesh. In Mark, the Roman centurion who witnesses the way Jesus died, exclaims, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). To endure all that Jesus did with a compassionate heart; to forgive in the face of humanity at its worst; to submit to death without a struggle or fight–these are the qualities of God. This is the love of God. This is the example we all are called to follow. In all our small or large difficulties in this life, compassion and forgiveness are the qualities God wants us to embody. Love for our enemies, doing good to those who persecute us, forgiving those who oppose us–these are the lessons of the crucifixion. And with the crucifixion, we see that even in death, Jesus had a final lesson yet to teach the human race He so loves.

PRAYER

Dear Lord Jesus, we love you and you are our God. But we sometimes fall short in our devotion to you. And we fall short in our dealings with each other. Too often we think of ourselves first, and forget about those around us and how we treat them. We come to you conscious of our own failings and shortcomings. Yet we know that you came to bring a fallen humanity back to you. And we know that today you are still with the human race, that you are still with each of us, calling us home to you and to your kingdom. Enlighten our minds and soften our hearts so that we may respond better to our loved ones and our neighbors. Fill our hearts with devotion to you. And may we never forget that we are your children, and that you, our Father, wish nothing more than to live eternally together with us in heavenly joy.

The Apocalyptic Kingdom
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 1, 2012

Zechariah 9:9-17 Mark 11:1-11 Psalm 118

Our Bible readings this morning deal with the subject of apocalypticism. This big word refers to a vision of the world that comes in the late prophets. Much of the apocalyptic writings are vast and sometimes terrifying visions. One large group of apocalyptic writings is the whole book of Revelation. The visions in Revelation are all apocalyptic. Apocalyptic writings speak of a whole new world order. They see the world as absolutely devastated of justice and God’s peace. They envision a time when God Himself will come into the world and set things right. Much apocalyptic writing refers to a grand cosmic battle between God’s angels of light and the angels of darkness. We find such an apocalyptic vision in our reading from Zechariah 9 this morning minus the angels of darkness and light. We first hear about God coming and destroying the world:
Then Yahweh will appear over them
and His arrow go forth like lightning;
The Lord God will sound the trumpet,
and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.
The Lord of hosts will protect them,
and they shall devour and tread down the sling stones;
and they shall drink their blood like wine,
and be full like a bowl,
drenched like the corners of the altar (Zechariah 9:14-15).
Then God ushers in a time of peace,
On that day the Lord their God will save them
for they are the flock of his people;
for like the jewels of a crown
they shall shine on his land.
Yes, how good and how fair it shall be!
Grain shall make the young men flourish,
and new wine the maidens (16-17).
The apocalyptic time in Zechariah is associated with the coming of the Messiah, as are many prophesies about the end of days. And the prophesy about the Messiah is how the Jews interpreted Jesus’ triumphant arrival in Jerusalem. So the Gospel writers reference Zechariah 9 when they describe the Palm Sunday arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem. Zechariah reads,
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
Humble and riding on an ass,
on the colt the foal of an ass (9:9).
According to Zechariah, when the Messiah comes, he will rule over the whole world, bringing peace, “from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth” (9:10).
Apocalyptic prophesies like this appear in several places in the Old Testament. They are in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zephaniah, and other books. We find them also in the Dead Sea Scrolls. One notable text is called The Scroll of the War Rule. In it, we find expectations of a cosmic battle between the sons of light and the sons of darkness.
These apocalyptic expectations were very much in the air at the time of Jesus. In fact, the Essenes, a monastic group of Jesus’ time, were waiting for this battle in war readiness so that they could fight alongside the sons of light. And these apocalyptic expectations were all bound up in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus Himself talked much about the nearness of the kingdom, and of the coming of the kingdom. Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem was seen as the arrival of the very Messiah of the prophesies. That is why the Gospels reference the passage from Zechariah that we heard this morning,
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
Humble and riding on an ass,
on the colt the foal of an ass (9:9).
And because of the way that the Jews understood the apocalyptic prophesies, they did not understand how Jesus could have died. Even if He did rise from the grave on Easter. Last Sunday we heard Jesus predict His death. He compared His death and resurrection to a grain of wheat falling to the ground. But John tells us that the Jews questioned Jesus about this. They asked,
We have heard from the law that the Christ [Messiah] remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?” (John 12:33).
The crucifixion of Jesus was a crushing blow to those who were hoping for the final days and a restored earth.
The Jews of Jesus’ time were not alone in their belief that the final battle and the coming of the kingdom would happen physically on the earth. Paul thought that these events would happen very soon–probably in his own lifetime. Therefore he urges people not to make any major changes in their life. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul advises the churches,
Everyone should remain in the state in which he was called . . . Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are. . . . What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. . . . For this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7:20, 26, 29, 31).
And at the end of the book of Revelation, Jesus says, “Surely I am coming soon” (22:20). And an even more mystifying statement is in Luke 21, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place” (21:32).
So here we are 2,000 years later and the great cosmic battle hasn’t come. A look around us will tell us that God hasn’t set the world right. What are we to say? How do we reconcile these prophesies?
There are people today who, as did those in Jesus’ day, are still waiting for the end times. It is my belief that the end days will not come in the form of a great cosmic upheaval in the physical world. I read these prophesies in the light of Luke 17:20-21. There, Jesus says,
The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Lo, here it is!” or “There!” for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
The battle of darkness against light happens inside our souls. The coming of God, with God’s reign of peace happens in our souls. The world to be restored is the inner world of our hearts and minds which need to be reformed and regenerated.
When we go through difficulties and trials; when we go through soul shaking temptations, when we are confronted with hardships that threaten to overwhelm us; when these inner battles take place in our souls, we welcome with great rejoicing and cheer the coming of Jesus into our lives and the peace He brings. We are going to have difficulties in this world. Jesus tells us that we will:
“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The mountains of our self-interest will be shaken and toppled. Earthquakes will shake our complacency. And our understanding of reality will be darkened as we are brought from false views of the world into more enlightened views of it and our place in it.
When we read the prophesies about the end times, how can we understand them except as archetypical symbols of the great tribulations of our souls. Consider the following passage from Matthew 24:
The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory (24:29-30).
It seems to me that if we read these symbols as referring to physical events, we rob them of their spirituality. Does not the sun and moon darkening mean more than an eclipse? And when the stars fall from heaven, where will they go? We now know that the stars are spread through the whole universe and are not pinpoints of light above the earth. And what is meant by the power of the heavens shaken? The sky can’t shake. That line has to mean something inside us, even as heaven and hell reside within the human consciousness.
After these trials and psychic calamities, we will see the risen and glorified Christ appear to us. Jesus will shine through the broken up shards of our worldliness and proprium. This is a time after temptation, when we are receptive to Christ’s peace. We will gratefully welcome the appearance of our Savior and God and let Him into our hearts and minds. As did the joyful residents of Jerusalem, when Jesus comes to us we will welcome Him with song and rejoicing. And we will sing with the Psalmist,
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. . . .
The LORD is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever (Psalm 118).

PRAYER

Lord we ask for your love and mercy to descend upon all sorts and conditions of humanity. May the whole human race welcome you into their hearts, as the joyful residents of Jerusalem did in ages past. May we face the tribulations of this life with patience and courage. May we see your face shine through all sorts of adversities and may we be filled with your peace as we pass through the difficulties that will come to us in this fallen world. Lord, send us your love and peace and make us willing to receive the spiritual gifts you would freely give us.

Lord, we ask for your peace to descend upon this troubled world. Where there is conflict and war, let there be understanding and peace. Inspire our leaders, and the leaders of other nations to govern their people with compassion and with your Holy Love. Where there is famine and thirst send your generosity. Where there are natural disasters, may help come from good neighbors and from compassionate governments. Where there is want and unemployment, lend your patience and hope.

Lord, send your healing love to all those suffering in body and soul. We ask you to give the gift of health to all in need.

Whoever Serves Me Must Follow Me
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 25, 2012

Jeremiah 31:31-34 John 12:20-33 Psalm 119

Last Sunday I talked about the name of Jesus. I said that the name of Jesus is everything that Jesus stands for. It is all He lived out; it is all He teaches; it is all He is. This morning we heard about the name of God. Jesus says, “Father, glorify your name!” And a voice is heard from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:28). In the story this doesn’t make a lot of sense. When had God glorified His name? What name was glorified? Was it Jehovah? Was it Zeus (the story begins with Greeks asking about Jesus)? Was it Jesus? I think that in the light of this story, God’s name is one and the same as Jesus. Glorifying God’s name means the glorification process of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ glorification was the process by which the human Jesus became fully united with God in one Person.
The story opens with Jesus talking about His glorification. He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). In many places, Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, as He does here. And clearly, Jesus is going to be glorified. So when Jesus says, “Father glorify your name,” He means for God to glorify Himself. Jesus is the name of God. Jesus is the perfect embodiment of God’s love. God is love. So we can say that God’s name is love. Since God’s name is love, and since Jesus is the perfect embodiment of love, Jesus is the name of God. Jesus is the body of God the Father. God the Father is Jesus’ soul. When Jesus rose from the dead, soul and body became perfectly one. God the Father became fully and completely united with Jesus. The risen and glorified Jesus Christ is now one with His Divine origins. Father and Son are one in the body of Jesus Christ. This is what the Glorification means. Christ’s glorification is at the heart of everything Swedenborg writes about.
The passage we heard in John talks about this process of glorification. Jesus uses the image of a kernel of wheat. He says that if a kernel of wheat falls to the ground, it produces many seeds. This is one image of Christ’s glorification. After Jesus’ resurrection, He took on a new power to save humanity. This is why the kernel of wheat produces many seeds if it falls to the ground. Jesus’ complete union with God the Father gives Him a power to reach us that He didn’t have before His glorification.
This is also why Jesus says ,”But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). Clearly, being lifted up means Christ’s resurrection. And it is with the resurrection that Christ and God the Father become fully united into one Person. Again, with the resurrection and glorification of Jesus Christ, Jesus has a new power to reach humanity. So the kernel of wheat must fall to the ground and be lifted up. Jesus must be glorified.
What, then, is this process of glorification? The process of glorification is the process by which Jesus united His human nature and His Divine Nature completely. This is a wondrous and awesome process. At the heart of Jesus’ glorification we find His utter and complete humanity and we find His utter and complete divinity. When I read about this, and when I contemplate it, I am carried away in ecstasy with the miracle that Jesus’ glorification was.
According to Swedenborg, Jesus was born just as an ordinary human is. He grew up just as an ordinary human does. He had a physical body the same that an ordinary human does. Swedenborg writes the following startling words,
That the Lord might make the human divine, by the ordinary way, He came into the world; that is, it was His will to be born as a man, and to be instructed as a man, and to be re-born as a man (AC 3138).
The process of glorification is the process by which Jesus made His human divine by the ordinary way. I must immediately clarify this statement. There is no ordinary way to make humanity divine. But there is an ordinary way for a human to be regenerated. And it was this process of human regeneration that Jesus followed when He made His humanity divine. Let me explain a little.
Jesus was born as a man. This recalls our Christmas story. He was instructed as a man. Jesus had to learn the law the way we have to learn it. Jesus wasn’t born with all knowledge. Recall the words of Luke. Jesus parents find the young Jesus in the temple with the teachers of the law. And listen to what Luke says! “They found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46) Jesus was learning. When we read this passage, we usually emphasize the astonishing wisdom Jesus showed at the temple. We pass over entirely that Jesus was listening and asking questions. This section of Luke concludes with another emphasis on Jesus development. “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). Again, we so often pay attention to Jesus’ favor with God and men and pass over completely those few words, “And Jesus grew in wisdom.” Jesus grew. Jesus went through all the stages of human development that we go through. And Jesus, too, had to be re-born, or regenerated, as we are. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus’ humanity had to put off the impurities of its earthly nature and put on the Divine Humanity. That process is called Jesus’ glorification.
We follow an analogous path as we are regenerated. We need to learn God’s law. We need to put off earthly loves and desires and accept God’s love. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever serves me must follow me” (John12:26). We must follow the path of glorification that Jesus walked, which for us is called regeneration. Our regeneration is a dim image of Jesus’ path of glorification. So Swedenborg writes,
Hence it may be seen that the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord; or, what is the same, that in the process of the regeneration of man, may be seen in an image, although remotely, the process of the Lord’s glorification (AC 3138).
But there is a huge difference between our regeneration and Jesus’ glorification. Jesus made Himself divine by His own power. God’s Divine Love fully entered Jesus’ Human form. We, on the other hand, are regenerated by God’s power. We accept God’s love into our lives. It may look like we are doing the works, but God is the one who is making us new. God regenerates us, Jesus glorified Himself.
that the Lord might make the human divine, by the ordinary way, He came into the world; that is, it was His will to be born as a man, . . . and to be re-born as a man; but with the difference that man is re-born of the Lord, whereas the Lord not only regenerated Himself, but also glorified Himself, that is, made Himself divine; and further, that a man is made new by an influx of charity and faith, but the Lord, by the Divine Love which was in Him and which was His (AC 3138).
It was God’s Divine Love that took human form in Jesus Christ. And the human Jesus became fully united with His origins in Divine Love when He was fully glorified. Divine Love came to earth physically in the body of Jesus Christ.
And we are regenerated when God’s love finds a place in our souls. We follow Jesus, when we allow God’s love to come into us, even as Jesus became Divine Love itself. Jesus calls us His friends when we do what He commands, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14). And His gentle command is simply to embody God’s love. It means to love in all the areas of our lives. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Showing love in all the affairs of our lives is also at the heart of the Law in the Old Testament. This law of love is the new covenant that God will make with the human race. We heard about it in our reading from Jeremiah. This law will not be written down in any book. It will be written in our minds and on our hearts as we come to embody Jesus’ love.
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel . . .” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write in on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they all will know me,
from the least to the greatest,” declares the LORD.
It is this law of love that is the delight of the Psalmist. This is the word of God that the Psalmist hides in the depths of his heart. Seeking God with all his heart through God’s law, the Psalmist says,
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
My soul is consumed with longing
for your laws at all times.
Your statutes are my delight;
they are my counselors (Psalm 119).
And this law is our great delight. For only when we are living God’s law of love will we find true happiness. This is what is meant by following Jesus. We follow Jesus when we have His law of love written in our minds and on our hearts. Then we are Jesus’ friends. Then, where Jesus is, we, His servants will be (John 12:26). Then, we walk the path that Jesus walked. Then, our feet tread in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior. Then, as Jesus was glorified and unified with God, we will be regenerated and united with Jesus Christ.

PRAYER

Lord, as you did of old, glorify your name in our lives. Even as you glorified your humanity and made it divine, so we ask that you regenerate us and make us angelic. You trod the winepress alone and cleared a pathway for us to follow. Give us the willingness and the vision to plant our feet firmly on the path that you walked. Even as you became one with your Divine origins, so we ask that you make us one with yourself–that your infinite love find a place in our finite hearts. Write your ways on our hearts. Teach us your laws. May we find the delight in your word that the Psalmist of old sang about.

Lord, we ask for your peace to descend upon this troubled world. Where there is conflict and war, let there be understanding and peace. Inspire our leaders, and the leaders of other nations to govern their people with compassion and with your Holy Love. Where there is famine and thirst send your generosity. Where there are natural disasters, may help come from good neighbors and from compassionate governments. Where there is want and unemployment, lend your patience and hope.

Lord, send your healing love to all those suffering in body and soul. We ask you to give the gift of health to all in need.

The Light Has Come into the World
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 18, 2012

Numbers 21:4-9 John3:14-21 Psalm 107

The Bible passages we heard this morning bring up some long-standing Biblical problems. One problem is how God deals with humanity. Related to this problem is the issue of all those snakes. Then there is the problem as to what Jesus means by believing in His name.
Let’s begin with the snakes. The Israelites grumble about their life in the desert. The Bible then tells us that God sent fiery snakes to punish them. We are told that many Israelites were bitten by snakes and died. The people then repent, admit their sin, and Moses prays to God for them. Then there is an interesting episode in the story. Moses makes a bronze snake and puts it on a pole. If an Israelite gets bitten by a snake and looks at the bronze snake Moses made, he or she won’t die. This story has profound depth when we look at it from the internal sense, which we will do just after I clarify some theological problems.
We are told that God sent the Israelites snakes because they grumbled against God. This is an appearance of truth. Swedenborg says that the Bible contains many statements that aren’t strictly true. And the idea that God would punish the Israelites by sending them venomous snakes is not true. God never punishes anyone. Swedenborg makes this very clear.
in the Word it is frequently said that God is angry, takes vengeance, hates, damns, punishes, casts into hell, and tempts, all of which pertain to evil, and therefore are evils. But . . . the sense of the letter of the Word is composed of such things as are called appearances and correspondences . . . when such things are read these very appearances of truth, while they are passing from a person to heaven, are changed into genuine truths, which are, that the Lord is never angry, never takes vengeance, never hates, damns, punishes, casts into hell, or tempts, consequently does evil to a person (TCR 650).
God is pure love and does only good to people. God cannot even look at us with a stern countenance.
as He wills only what is good he can do nothing but what is good. . . . From these few statements it can be seen how deluded those are who think, and still more those who believe, and still more those who teach, that God can damn any one, curse any one, send any one to hell, predestine any soul to eternal death, avenge wrongs, be angry, or punish. He cannot even turn Himself away from humanity, nor look upon anyone with a stern countenance (TCR 56).
So when we read that God sent snakes to punish the Israelites, we are dealing with an appearance of truth. When we understand this story from the internal sense, there is profound depth to this story about snakes in the wilderness.
The story of the snakes in the desert works very well with the passage we heard in John about Jesus saving the human race. John even says that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Both of these images of lifting up relate to salvation–Moses saves life when he lifts up the bronze snake, and Jesus saves our souls when He is lifted up in the resurrection. To begin this comparison, let us consider the story about the snakes in Numbers.
The snakes appear when the Israelites grumble against God. Snakes symbolize the lowest part of our personality. The snakes symbolize the part of us concerned with our senses. We have many levels to us, some higher, some lower. Our senses are the lowest part of our personality. When we reject God we become increasingly interested in the life of our senses only. We believe only what our senses tell us. Since we can’t see God or heaven, a person who lives only by their senses denies God. Since it looks like we are all individuals separated from one another, a sensual person is only interested in self and what benefits self. This is when the snakes come. All the evils and falsities in which a person becomes involved stem from paying too much mind to our senses. When we deny God, or when we turn from God, we let evil and selfishness into ourselves. This is the affliction of the snakes. These evils are not imposed on us by God. Rather, we freely take them on of our own accord.
Now the way the story unfolds is critical for us to understand how Jesus is our savior. The next thing that happens in our story is that the Israelites repent. They say, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you.” Just as one skinks into sensuality when one turns away from God, so one wakes up when he or she turns toward God. God offers a means of salvation. God doesn’t take the snakes away. But God does render them harmless. If an Israelite gets bitten by a snake, he or she will live if they look at the bronze snake that Moses put on a pole. Our fallen nature will always be with us. We will always have proprium. We inherit tendencies to evil and we act on some of these and make them our own. These tendencies, distorted feelings, and incorrect ideas about life are part of who we are. They are all in our proprium. But God plants holy loves and innocence in our proprium and gives it spiritual life. God lifts us up out of our proprium and into heavenly love. This is what is symbolized by looking at the bronze snake that Moses put on the pole. The affliction of the snakes are healed by the upward gaze to the bronze snake. And it is Jesus who lifts us up out of the affliction of our proprium; that saves us from the evils and sensuous thinking that the snakes symbolize. This takes us to our New testament story.
John compares Jesus’ resurrection to Moses lifting up the bronze snake in the wilderness. In John 3:14 we read, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” When John says that the Son of Man must be lifted up, he means several things. First, he means that Jesus rises from the dead on Easter and takes on all power and dominion. This is one meaning of the Son of Man being lifted up. He is lifted up from the grave and completely unified with God. It is the risen and glorified Jesus that leads us into heaven. It is the risen and glorified Jesus that fills us with His love and enlightens our minds. It is the risen and glorified Jesus that lives in us and us in Him that makes us Christians and makes us an image and likeness of God. So John says, “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” But being saved by Jesus is not something that just happens.
We need to take action in order to let Jesus save us. Here we run into religious controversy. Some Christians use John 3 as proof that all we need for salvation is to believe in Jesus. They base this belief on John’s words, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). That looks like believing in Jesus would give us eternal life. But if we read further, things look different indeed. We find John talking a good deal about our deeds, and we see clearly that belief is not enough. John tells us, “And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil” (3:19). John says further that when we do evil deeds, we turn away from Jesus and love the darkness. “For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (3:20). Then we find that coming into the light happens when we do good deeds. “But he who does what is true comes into the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God” (3:21). So coming to Jesus means doing deeds that are wrought in God. Deeds matter a great deal. In fact our salvation depends on the deeds we do that are wrought in God. Believing in Jesus is not enough.
This is how I read that controversial line that comes up very often in religious discussions. John 3:18 goes as follows, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” This line depends on what John means by the name of the only Son of God. To Christians who read the Bible strictly on the surface, the name means Jesus. Since Jesus is the Son of God, the name of the Son of God is Jesus. In this reading, only those who believe in Jesus are saved. But I think that John means more than just a name, like John Doe. A person’s name is all that they stand for. This is what we mean when we say that a person has a good name. When I say that I am known by my name, I mean I am known by what I stand for, not just David Fekete, my first and last name. When we say that those are saved who believe in the name of the Son of God, we mean what that all stands for. What does the name of the Son of God mean? It means all the things that God is known for: love, forgiveness, peace, innocence, wisdom, purity of heart, humility, and infinitely more than these few qualities. These qualities are the things that save, not just confessing Jesus’ personal name. If we believe in forgiveness, peace, innocence, wisdom, purity of heart, love, and humility, then we will seek out these qualities and make them our own. That is what we mean when we say something like, “I believe in love.”
These qualities are the light that came into the world with Jesus’ birth. But they are not unique to Jesus. The great religions of the world have their own words and traditions that bear witness to the light. The great world religions have their own list of deeds that are wrought in God. Notice how John moves from talking about Jesus first, and then generalizes his discussion to light and darkness, and finally opens it up to deeds that are wrought in God. This passage is a text that includes all who do Godly deeds and who believe in those qualities that the name of Jesus stands for. It is not a text to condemn other religions that are not Christian. Rather, it is a text that includes all the peoples and religions that believe in the name that Jesus stands for. When we lift up Jesus’ qualities, as Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness, then we are saved.
In this Lenten Season we look forward to Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead with power and might. This Sunday, we look at the name of Jesus and consider how it saves. We believe that when Jesus rose from the dead, He took onto Himself God’s infinite power. And the gentle God who showed compassion to the whole human race took on the power to fill the whole human race with that compassion. And we are filled with that compassion when we lift up the name of Jesus in our own hearts, as Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness. When we lift up the name of Jesus, let us lift up who He was and what He stood for in our hearts, and in our thoughts.

The Law of the Lord Is Perfect
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 11, 2012

Exodus 20:1-17 John 2:13-22 Psalm 19

We heard the Ten Commandments this morning. These Ten Commandments sum up God’s law. When we hear these Ten Commandments, we can think of them as a bunch of do’s and don’ts. We can think of the law of God as a list of rules of conduct that we must adhere to. We can think of the law of God as a list of things to do and things not to do.
But consider the words of the Psalmist. The Psalmist tells us that the law of the Lord refreshes the soul. We don’t often think of the Law of God as refreshing. But God’s law is refreshing. God’s law cleanses the soul. God’s law purifies our hearts. God’s law leads us into heavenly innocence and joy. These things are refreshing indeed.
The law of God does give us behavioral guidelines. It teaches us to have compassion, to love God, and to love our neighbor. The law of God guides our footsteps and points the way to God and to God’s kingdom.
But God’s kingdom is a kingdom of joy. God’s kingdom is not a dismal place where someone is watching over us to make sure we obey each and every rule God has laid down. No. God’s kingdom is a place where everyone loves everyone else. God’s kingdom is a place where everyone puts God first, not their own will. God’s kingdom is a place where everyone is trying to make everyone else happy. What great happiness and joy such a place is! So the Psalmist is right on when he says that the precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. God’s precepts point the way to His kingdom, and His kingdom is a place of joy. Whether we experience it here, or after we transition over to the other side, when heaven is in us, we are in joy.
When we consider the things that make us truly happy, we will find that most of them are not material, or physical. There is much truth in the old saying, “The best things in life are free.” What can compare with friendship? Let’s consider a Mercedes car and the gift of a loyal friend. Each time we see our friend, we enjoy his or her company. And when we are apart, we think happy thoughts about them. When we are in trouble, our friend helps us. And when we rejoice, our friend shares in our rejoicing. It’s a very lonely and sad life without friends. Let me elaborate on this idea with a story from my school days. This story is about my dissertation defence. In order to complete a Ph. D. degree, a person has to write a book-length thesis called a dissertation. But that’s not the end of it. A committee of professors reads this dissertation and for a couple of hours drills you on every imaginable aspect of what you’ve written. If you pass this verbal examination, then you get your Ph. D. Well when my turn came, I planned out the whole thing. I reserved a hotel room near my favorite bar, so that after the examination I could go out and celebrate and walk to the hotel room from the bar. Well I went into the conference room where my dissertation committee was waiting for me. They kicked me around for about an hour and a half. Then they told me to leave the room so they could deliberate. After about fifteen minutes they called me back into the room. Now they were all smiles. They shook my hand. They congratulated me. I passed! I then proceeded to go to the bar to celebrate. I started drinking with the intention of getting really plastered. There was only one problem, though. I didn’t bring any friends with me. Many of my friends had already graduated and moved away. Furthermore, I was in Florida when I finished writing my dissertation and took the train up to Virginia where my interview took place. I was all alone. What happened was I just got drunker and drunker all alone. Nobody else in the bar cared about me or that I had just passed my Ph. D. oral exam. Instead of the celebration I thought I was going to have, I just got drunk all alone. It wasn’t a celebration at all.
Now I’m in a foreign country. I’ve only lived here for five years. And yet I have people who do celebrate with me when I am happy. I have people who help me when I am in need. I have people who care about me. Foremost among these people is the love of my life, Carol. Here in a foreign country that I’ve only been in for five years I have more than I did in my homeland drinking the night away in that bar after my dissertation defense. For that I thank this church and my friends in the program of AA–both spiritual enterprises. True friends are just one of the many spiritual gifts that the law of God gives us when we and others are following it.
But what about the Mercedes? I haven’t forgotten it–although my story was so long some of you might have forgotten about it. If we have the good fortune to buy a Mercedes, we may feel happy with it for a little while. When it’s really new, we may think about it with glee when we are away from it. But it won’t be long before the thrill of a new purchase wears off. In fact, it will wear off pretty quick. And you know what will happen then? We will only feel happy when someone else says to us, “Hey, nice car.” Our happiness with the Mercedes will depend entirely on someone else’s evaluation of it. And even when they say, “nice car,” it isn’t as if we’ve done anything. They aren’t complementing us. What has the Mercedes to do with us except that we have a title for the car with our name on it.
So the Psalmist is right when he says that in keeping the law there is great reward. He is talking about the spiritual treasures we get like friendship. The Psalmist says further that God’s laws “are more precious than gold, than much pure gold.” The rewards we get from keeping the law far exceed any other reward we can find in this world.
Jesus came into the world as the Word incarnate. This means that all the good and true teachings of the Bible were embodied by Jesus. Another way to say this is to say that Jesus was the law in the flesh. Therefore He demonstrated what the law means by the life He led. He showed forgiveness. He showed compassion. He showed love. He showed us the ways of God, which are the heart of the law.
This is why Jesus was so zealous to cleanse the temple. Cleansing the temple symbolized Jesus cleansing our souls. This is what the law does for us. This is how the law is refreshing–it refreshes our soul. In order to understand the symbolism of Jesus cleansing the temple, we need to consider a few things about the temple in Jesus’ day.
The temple symbolized God’s presence on earth. It was a holy place. At the temple, God and man met. The temple was different from our churches. In the temple, people didn’t gather to worship and sing hymns or listen to preachers. Rather, they would bring an offering for the priest to sacrifice to God. This offering was either an animal or grain. The priest would then sacrifice the animal and cook it over a flame, or roast the grain on behalf of the individual. The priests would eat the food that was cooked themselves. God would get the portions of food that were burnt up in the flames.
In Jesus’ time, the temple would sell animals for sacrifice at a profit. These transactions were a healthy business and the temple was making money off the devotions of the Jewish people. The temple had become a business institution run for profit.
The holiness had gone out of the temple. The temple was impure. God’s dwelling on earth was corrupt. The temple needed to be purified. The temple needed to be restored to its holy state as a symbol of God’s connection with humanity. As God incarnate, Jesus was intimately concerned with the symbol of God’s presence on earth–the temple. When Jesus cleansed the temple He performed a highly symbolic act. Cleansing the temple symbolized the power of Jesus to cleanse our souls. The temple was seen as the place where God came down to reside with humans. The temple was supposed to be a connection between God and humans. Driving out the priests who were profiting by the trade in the temple was an act of purification. God’s connection with humanity had been restored when the temple was cleansed. This symbolizes how Jesus cleanses each and every one of us. It is Jesus who restores our souls. It is Jesus who drives out the impurities that would block God from flowing into our hearts and into our thoughts. We can grow up with dysfunctional and limiting ways of dealing with others. We can have mistaken thoughts about the world and our place in it. We can be too attached to things that benefit us only and we can long for recognition from the world. Things like this interfere with care and mutual concern for our fellows. Things like this can interfere with our love and worship of God. We need Jesus to drive out these thoughts, desires, and behaviors so that God’s great love for everyone can be our own. Just as Jesus purified the temple, so He must purify us.
These things are driven out when we reflect on the life of Jesus. We change and grow when we look at how Jesus lived and the things He taught. This is what I mean by saying that Jesus is the law in the flesh. Jesus embodied the law, lived it out, and taught us about it. So it is, in fact, the law that is cleansing us. Jesus as the law in the flesh is opening up the windows of our soul to let in the refreshing spring air and sunlight of new birth. So the Psalmist is right when he says, “The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.” God’s laws enlighten. They make us bright. So let us welcome into our hearts the law of God. Let us recognize how much it can do to and for us. And when our heart shines with a holy brilliance, let us thank the Lawgiver, and say with the Psalmist, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”