Church of the Holy City

Whoever Loses His Life for My Sake
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 4, 2012

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Mark 8:31-38 Psalm 22

Our Bible readings this morning are all about spiritual transformation, and it follows last Sunday’s talk about the proprium very well. Last Sunday we talked about the problem of the proprium. This Sunday we will talk about breaking up the proprium and changing our souls into an image and likeness of God.
In our reading from Genesis, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham by adding the letter “H.” This letter “H” is taken from God’s name, Yahweh. In a literal reading, it doesn’t look like much is going on here by changing Abram’s name to Abraham. But from a spiritual perspective it is highly significant. In the Bible, names all signify qualities. And by adding the letter “H” from God’s very name, it signifies that Abram is bring transformed into a person endowed with spirituality from God. Changing Abram’s name is symbolic of being reborn. It symbolizes spiritual transformation into a new self. It signifies the breakdown of proprium and the implanting of heavenly qualities. In short, changing Abram’s name signifies being spiritually reborn, or being regenerated.
This is what Jesus means when He says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 17:35). This short statement contains the whole process of regeneration. Jesus first says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it.” To save your life means to save the proprium. or all those selfish and worldly drives that vex the soul and come between us and God’s inflowing love. In this sense, to save yourself means to hold on to the things we are accustomed to in this world. It means to hold onto self-interest and to worldly ambition. This is why we lose our lives when we try to save it. We lose our lives, or die spiritually, when we try to save the things of this world we are accustomed to. But notice the second part of this profound statement. Jesus talks about losing our lives. But He says, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” This means to dedicate our lives to the teachings of Jesus, which are the same as the gospels. If we dedicate our lives to Jesus, and if we lose our life of self-interest and proprium, we will save our lives spiritually. This is another way to talk about spiritual rebirth, or regeneration.
For Swedenborg, being reborn is a process. Some churches teach that being reborn comes in an instant when a person accepts Jesus into their heart. Though they say this, if pressed a little bit, they will inevitably say that a person still needs to be aware of the reality of sin. They will admit that combating sin is still part of the spiritual life, even though they are saved. Methodists and Lutherans do indeed talk about purification from sin. Even though Lutherans will insist that faith in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice saves a person, they still speak of the process of purification from sin. They and the Methodists call this “Sanctifying Grace.” They are careful to call it an act of grace, because they want the process to be all God’s doing. Calvinists have a similar notion. For them, the process is called “Sanctification.” I heard a Presbyterian minister say it is like God shining a flashlight on our soul. For Swedenborg, it is called regeneration. The process of regeneration involves the spiritual conflict of temptation.
Temptations are mortal struggles. They are conflicts between the life we used to live and the things we used to love–the life that must die–and the new life we are progressively growing into. The process is like this. Temptations begin with knowledge. We learn the ways of God and heaven. We then examine our lives and see if it matches up with what we know of spiritual life. We look at what we love. We look at our priorities. We look at our relationship to the world. We see if the life we live fits with the life of heaven. As we are doing this, God flows into our souls and minds, filling us with His love. Then, when God’s love meets our worldly loves, a conflict takes place. We want to tenaciously hold onto the way of life we know. We want to hold onto our comfortable life in the world. We want to hold onto our self-interest and all the drives and desires that come with it. We are torn between our old ways and the new life flowing into us from God. It is our old loves and life that must die in order to let in the new life from God. This is why Jesus says, “whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Swedenborg’s description of this process is almost a paraphrase of Jesus’ words,
a man when he is in temptations is in vastation as to all things that are of his proprium, and of the body–for the things that are his proprium and of the body must die, and [this] through combats and temptations, before he is born again a new man, or is made spiritual and heavenly (AC 730).
Swedenborg grew up a Lutheran. His father was a Lutheran bishop. And there is much of Lutheranism in Swedenborg, such as Luther’s dependence on Paul in his sermons and theology. I think that Swedenborg had Paul in mind when he wrote passages like the one I just cited. Paul, too, talks about dying to the flesh and living by the Spirit. In Galatians, Paul writes,
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5: 16-25).
There is a question about temptations, though. It is a question I’ve been pondering over the past months. The question I’m thinking about is how tumultuous and difficult they have to be. The question I have in mind, is how much old life needs to die. There is no doubt that we need spiritual rebirth. Last Sunday, I referenced Jesus’ words to Nicodemus. Jesus told Nicodemus,
Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again” (John 3:3, 5-6).
We all need to be born again of water and the Spirit. We all need to remove blockage that shuts out the sunlight of the soul. But how tumultuous a process this is, is an open question. It all hinges on the question of how attached to the world and to our own selfish gain we have become. If we are dearly attached to self and world, our transformation into a person oriented to God and the neighbor will be difficult. Those are the things that need to change. We need to become God-and-neighbor oriented from starting out self-and-world oriented. Swedenborg describes just how mortal a conflict this can be.
By continual sensuous pleasures and by loves of the self and the world . . . a person has acquired a life for himself of such sort that his life is nothing but a life of such things. This life cannot accord at all with heavenly life. For no one can love worldly and at the same time heavenly things. To love worldly things is to look downward; to love heavenly things is to look upward. Much less can a person love himself and at the same time the neighbor, and still less the Lord. He who loves himself hates all that do not render him service; so that the man who loves himself is very far from heavenly love and charity, which is to love the neighbor more than one’s self, and the Lord above all things. From this it is evident how far removed the life of a person is from heavenly life. And for that reason he is regenerated by the Lord by means of temptations, and so turned as to bring him into agreement. This is why such temptation is severe, for it touches a person’s very life, assailing, destroying, and transforming it (AC 759).
Temptations, then, touch our very life. Temptations assail our complacency and break up our old ways of living. Our very life must change. And this won’t be easy.
The open question I have been pondering over the years, though, is this. Does it have to be that hard? In the quote just above, Swedenborg says, “By continual sensuous pleasures and by loves of the self and the world . . . a person has acquired a life for himself of such sort that his life is nothing but a life of such things.” But what if a person hasn’t indulged in “continual sensuous pleasures” and “loves of the self and the world?” What if a person has been essentially good, gone to Sunday school and learned about God and tried to live according to what they learned? Is it possible that such a person would just naturally grow oriented to God, the neighbor, and heaven? It’s a point worth considering, and I don’t have an answer just yet. Swedenborg even says that it is not so difficult to live the life that leads to heaven. I’ll close with his words on this from Heaven and Hell,
It is not so difficult to live the life that leads to heaven as is believed. Some believe that to live the life that leads to heaven, which is called spiritual life, is difficult, because they have been told that a person must renounce the world, divest himself of lusts called lusts of the body and the flesh, and live spiritually. And by this they understand that they must reject worldly things, which consist chiefly in riches and honors; that they must walk continually in pious meditation about God, about salvation, and about eternal life; and that they must pass their life in prayers, and in reading the Word and pious books. . . . That it is not so difficult as is believed to live the life which leads to heaven may be seen from what now follows. Who cannot live a civil and moral life, since everyone from childhood is initiated in it, and from life in the world is acquainted with it? . . . Almost all practice sincerity and justice outwardly, so as to appear as if they were sincere and just in heart . . . The spiritual person should live in like manner–which he or she can do as easily as the natural person–but with this difference only, that he or she believes in the Divine, and acts sincerely and justly not merely because it is according to civil and moral laws, but also because it is according to Divine laws. For the spiritual person, because he or she thinks about Divine things when he or she acts, communicates with the angels of heaven, and so far as he or she does this, is conjoined with them . . . (HH 528, 530).
This passage suggests that it is possible to start out life good, and stay there.

Repent and Believe
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 26, 2012

Genesis 9:8-17 Mark 1:9-15 Psalm 25

Our Bible readings this morning touch on a topic I’ve been meaning to talk about for some time. It involves a strange Swedenborgian word that is unique to his theology. That word is the proprium. The meaning of this word is “what is a person’s own.” You may notice its relationship to our English word, “proper.” In this case, it means “what is proper to a person.” So it means the self. In general, the proprium has negative connotations. It is often used to mean the self in its lowest sense. This would be self-interest, selfishness, and self-importance. But it does have positive connotations, too. Remember, its primary meaning is the self, or what is a person’s own. And after spiritual rebirth a person’s self is transformed into a lovely image and likeness of God. Then, we have a heavenly proprium. Our self is really not our own anymore. It is God in us. But we still have a sense of self. We all have our own ways of receiving God. And even when we are filled with God’s love and wisdom, we have a self that receives these qualities in our own unique way. This is proprium in a good sense. This is our heavenly proprium. You could say that the whole process of regeneration is a process of lifting us out of proprium in a bad sense and gifting us with a heavenly proprium. Another way to put this is to change from a self that is only self-interested to a self that is God and neighbor-interested.
There seems to be no way out of the idea that we need to grow up spiritually. There seems to be no way out of the idea that we need spiritual transformation to find heavenly joy. This is clear from our reading from Mark. Jesus travels to Galilee to proclaim the good news. I think that the good news is a mixed blessing. Jesus says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near.” This sounds pretty good. But then He adds, “Repent and believe.” So the coming of God’s kingdom also carries with it a charge to repent. And John the Baptist’s message was the same. Mark tells us that, “John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” We see here that the forgiveness of sins is dependent on repentance. And after Jesus was baptized, he was tempted in the wilderness. Temptation is part of the process of repentance. Finally, Jesus tells Nicodemus a message that applies to us all: we all need to be spiritually transformed, or reborn:
Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again” (John 3:3, 5-6).
Swedenborg talks about spiritual rebirth in the context of the proprium. It is the proprium that is self-interested and world interested only. When we are acting from our proprium, our attitude is only, “What’s in it for me?” We are only interested in what benefits us. And what doesn’t favor us we care nothing about. Furthermore, when we are self-interested, anyone that comes in our way is an enemy. Anyone who threatens our self-interest is our foe. So Swedenborg defines the proprium as follows:
To make known what proprium is:–proprium is all the evil and falsity springing from the love of self and of the world; and from not believing in the Lord or in the Word, but in self (AC 210).
And Swedenborg also talks about the consequences of this view on life.
The love of self is nothing else than the proprium; . . . From self-love, that is, the love of self, or from the proprium, all evils flow, such as hatreds, revenges, cruelties, adulteries, frauds, hypocrisies, impiety (AC 1326).
The Buddhists have a similar idea about the self. They claim, too, that from the idea of the self arise all human evils. The Buddhists, like Swedenborg, believe that the self is an illusion. Someone once challenged the Buddha about whether there is a self. The Buddha’s answer was very practical. He said that wherever you have the self, you have greed, violence, lust, and hatred. “Show me an idea of the self in which there are none of these things,” he said, “and I will agree that there is a self.”
One of the problems of self-interest is that it is based on falsity. When proprium dominates a person’s life, a person thinks that he or she is self-made. A person thinks that they are independent and self-sustaining. In short, a person thinks that they live by their own power. they think that the life they live and the deeds they do are all done by themselves. But this is an illusion. The life we have is given us by God. God alone is life itself. We are mere vessels of life. And furthermore, our very thoughts and emotions are all influenced by influx from heaven’s grand human form. Angels and demons inspire thoughts and feelings in us. There is very little of us that is actually our own. The real idea of self is only what we choose to let into our minds and hearts. So our true self is only the choices we make. Thus the idea that we are living by our own power is an illusion. The Hindus call this illusion Maya. Maya is the illusion that we are independent poles of life and not connected to the One Source of everything, or God, or Brahman. This illusion of self-independance is Swedenborg’s proprium. And Swedenborg says that when proprium rules, we are in a deep sleep.
Man’s state when he is in his proprium or when he thinks that he lives of himself, is compared to a deep sleep . . . The man who thinks he lives of himself is therefore in a false persuasion (AC 150).
The illusion of self and all the evils that stem from it is a powerful illusion. To be spiritually reborn we need to have that illusion broken up. Our proprium, and all the evils that come with selfishness and worldliness, needs to be destroyed. Then we become open to God’s inflowing love and wisdom. Breaking up the illusion of self, and subduing the evils that come with it, is called temptation. Temptations are “the heartache thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,” to use Shakespeare’s words. Temptations are all those calamities, and frustrations that break up our self-interest and make us realize that we aren’t in control and that we need God. And finally, temptations make us want God and they soften us so that we see our neighbors as friends, not means to self-interest.
Through the process of temptation, self is broken up and love and truth flow into our consciousness. These glowing qualities make our self shine with heavenly rays. Through temptations we are gifted with heavenly virtues that radically change our proprium. It is as if we are lifted up out of proprium. Or it is as if we are given a new proprium from God. Swedenborg says,
Man’s proprium is all evil and falsity. So long as this continues the person is dead; but when he comes into temptations it is broken up, that is loosened and tempered by truths and goods from the Lord, and thus is vivified and appears as if it were not present (AC 731).
We are actually born again. We become different people. We are given a heavenly proprium. We are given a sense of self that regards God and the nrighbor in everything we do, not only what’s in it for me. Swedenborg describes this radical transformation.
As regards the heavenly proprium, it exists from the new will which is given by the Lord, and differs from man’s proprium in this, that they who have it no longer regard themselves in each and every thing they do . . . but they then have regard to the neighbor, the public, the church, the Lord’s kingdom, and so to the Lord Himself. It is the aims of life that are changed. The aims that are fixed on lower things, that is, on self and the world, are removed, and aims that look to higher things are substituted in their place. . . . He to whom the heavenly proprium is given is also serene and full of peace; for he trusts in the Lord, believing that no evil will befall him, and knowing that lusts will not infest him. . . . From this it may be evident that they are in blessedness and happiness, inasmuch as there is nothing to disturb them, nothing of self-love, and consequently nothing of enmity, hatred, and revenge; nor is there any love for the world, consequently no insincerity, fear, or anxiety (AC 5660).
This, finally, brings in our Old Testament reading–believe it or not. The rainbow that God put in the clouds symbolizes a regenerated person. And Swedenborg says that such regenerated people actually are surrounded by rainbows. I think that this is a description of what some people see as auras around people. Swedenborg tells us,
Spiritual angels who have all been regenerated men of the spiritual church, when presented to sight as such in the other life, appear with as it were a rainbow about the head. . . . These angels are those who those who are said to be born again, of water and the spirit . . . There is in the regenerate spiritual man an intellectual proprium in which the Lord instills innocence, charity, and mercy. According to the reception of these gifts by man is the appearance of his rainbow when presented to view–the more beautiful as the proprium of the man’s will is removed, subdued, and reduced to obedience (AC 1042).
Well, I know that this is a difficult subject. Perhaps one of Swedenborg’s most elusive concepts. But I think I can sum it up in a short sentence that I heard from an AA speaker. “There is a God, and you’re not it.”

This Is My Beloved Son
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 19, 2011

2 Kings 2:1-12 Mark 9:2-9 Psalm 50

In our reading from Mark, something awesome happens on the mountaintop. Jesus’ clothes become dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus. A cloud envelops the mountain and a voice booms from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” All of these things say something about who Jesus is. And in this question of who Jesus is, we confront a very difficult problem.
Swedenborg tells us that Jesus is the Word incarnate. Or should I say that the Gospel of John tells us that. John 1 reads,
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (1-2, 14).
So Jesus is the Word in the flesh. What does this mean? It means that all the wisdom taught in the Word, and all the good that the Word points us to is embodied in Jesus. The Word, in fact, came from God. It was God’s words to the prophets that became the prophetical books of the Bible, and it was the law given on mount Sinai by God that Moses wrote down. Taken together, the Law and the prophets mean the whole Bible. That is why Elijah and Moses appear with Jesus when He is transfigured on the mountaintop. Moses represents the Law, and Elijah represents the prophets. So the Bible contains God’s wisdom and goodness; it was given by God. And when Jesus came to earth, He embodied all God’s wisdom and goodness. And it was this wisdom and goodness that made Him radiate the brilliance that He did on the mountaintop.
As the embodiment of all God’s wisdom and goodness, Jesus was God in the flesh. As John tells us, the Word was with God and the Word was God. So the Word was God and Jesus was the Word in flesh. So Jesus is God. Thus far, we have been discussing Jesus’ identity according to Swedenborg’s understanding of the Bible.
But the language of the Bible can cause a vexing difficulty when it comes to who Jesus is. While Jesus is transfigured on the mountaintop, the disciples hear God’s voice, “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” This statement is similar to the one the crowds head when Jesus is baptized. Then, the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, and we hear God’s voice, “This is my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). It is language like this that leads to the belief that Jesus is God’s Son–the Son of God. This is not surprising. The words of God are clear enough in the literal sense. God calls Jesus His Son. And the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that, “the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). The difficulty with this Biblical language occurs when we apply ordinary human genealogy to this Biblical language. When I think that I am my father’s son, I am thinking about two different human beings. My father is a very different person than I am. There are two of us, and we are two different humans. This kind of thinking leads us to the Jesus problem when we think of Jesus as the Son of God. Thinking from mortal genealogy, there is a tendency to think of Jesus and God as two separate beings, as my father and I am. But things are very different if God is your Father and you have a mortal mother. Then you won’t have two humans as you would with ordinary human birth. If God is your Father and you have a mortal mother, then the child will be divine and the humanity from Mary will be as a sheath clothing God’s soul. Father and Son will not be two separate humans. Father will be the soul clothed in a human form. There will be a connection between Father and Son that isn’t the case between two mortals.
Thinking about Jesus from the perspective of human genealogy causes huge problems. If Jesus and God are two beings, like my father and I are, immense problems arise. I see two basic problems. Problem one arises when we think of Jesus as divine. If Jesus is God, and God is God; and if they are two beings, then we have two Gods. Problem two is just as bad. In order to reconcile God and Jesus, Jesus can get demoted to a status in which He is not fully God.
People don’t usually think critically about these problems. They call Jesus the Son of God, they see that Jesus prays to God, so they think that Jesus and God are two distinct beings. This is when Jesus can get demoted. By this way of thinking, Son of God means that Jesus isn’t God. I once asked someone who held this view if she thought that Jesus is divine. She said, “Yes, just not as divine as God.” I told her, “Then you’ve got a God and a half.” In fact, the Nicene Creed, which was developed in the fourth century AD, is a bit more complex when it comes to this question. When it comes to the relationship between Jesus and God the Father, the Nicene Creed says that the two are of one substance. It goes as follows:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. . . . And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father . . .
So the Nicene Creed says that Jesus and God the Father are of one substance. How two beings can be one substance is impossible to understand. I think that most people who ascribe to the doctrine of the trinity ignore the one substance part.
But ignoring the one substance part of the Nicene Creed leads to the worst possible conclusion. If Jesus is God and if God the Father is God, and if they are two beings, then there are two Gods. This is a huge problem. Everybody knows that there is only one God. Swedenborg thought that Christians, in their hearts, really believed in three gods. They said one God with their lips, but in their hearts they thought of three gods, God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I said this in a religious studies class at Urbana University a few years ago, and the teacher emphatically agreed with me. He said that most Christians, and he was one, uncritically think of three gods when they use the language of the trinity. I think that other religions like Jews and Muslims think the same about Christians. I remember in Boston I saw graffiti spray painted on the sidewalk in front of a Christian church. It read, “You worship gods I cannot understand.”
To resolve these difficulties, we need to use reason. One way to resolve these difficulties is by not taking the language of the Bible literally. This will give us one way to preserve God’s unity and Christ’s divinity. “Son of God” must be taken symbolically. In fact, in the original Aramaic language, “Son of God” doesn’t even mean God’s Son. It means God Himself. In Biblical Aramaic we also find the words “Son of Man.” This doesn’t mean “Man’s Son.” It means “a man.” So “Son of God” is how you say, “God” and “Son of Man” is how you say “Man” in Biblical Aramaic. So in the original language, by calling Jesus “Son of God,” the writer is actually calling Jesus “God.”
But this doesn’t solve the whole problem. There are times when Jesus prays to God. There are times when Jesus calls God His Father. There are times in the Bible when it looks like Jesus and God the Father are two different beings–which cannot be. Swedenborg has an answer to this problem. Whether it satisfies is up to you. Remember, Jesus took on flesh in Mary’s womb. And according to Swedenborg, Mary was an ordinary human. By taking on flesh in a mortal woman, Jesus had a human nature that partook of ordinary humanity. Swedenborg calls this the Mary humanity. Jesus had a human nature that He took from Mary. Jesus was both fully man and fully God. He had a human nature and a divine nature. When His Mary humanity, or His human nature, was in charge, Jesus saw His divine nature as different from who He was. These were times when His humanity overwhelmed His Divinity, and Jesus’ divine origins were obscured. When He looked up from His Mary humanity, He called out to His divine nature as to His Father.
We can understand this by reflection on our own spiritual evolution ourselves. The process by which Jesus became united to God is analogous to our own regeneration. We will find that for us there are times of ecstasy. Ecstasy literally means “standing outside one’s self.” And in moments of ecstasy, we feel filled with God to the extent that we feel not to be ourselves. These are times when we seem filled with God’s divine love and we are lifted up out of what Swedenborg calls our lower self, what is our own, or the proprium. Then there are times when our lower self, what is our own, our proprium overwhelms us, and our higher nature seems distant. Jesus went through processes like this. He had times of ecstatic union with His divine origins. And He had times when the Mary human obscured His divine origins. But Jesus became fully united with the God of His origins. We will never be one with God in this way. We are only vessels that receive God’s life and love. Jesus and God became one. We will always be in relation with God as finite to infinite.
The complete union of Jesus and God in one Person is clear in some of Jesus’ statements. For instance, in Matthew 28: 18 Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” How could all authority in heaven and earth be given to Jesus unless He is God? Then there is Jesus statement in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” However we might interpret this statement, the Jews who heard it wanted to stone Jesus because He claimed to be God (John 10:33). Then, finally, Jesus claims that seeing Him is seeing the Father. This could only mean that Jesus is the Father in human form. Jesus says, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen Him” (John14:7).
There is one very practical application for all this difficult theology. In the life of Jesus we have a model for all we need to do to be saved. By learning about Jesus’ ways, we learn about what God would have us do to be saved. By imitating Jesus, we will come into heavenly love and joy. We don’t really need to fully understand the complexities of the trinity. All we need to do is to worship, love, and imitate Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John14:6). Those of us inclined to theological inquiry can discuss, analyze, and reason about the trinity. But for salvation, the simple stories Jesus told and the simple narratives about His life are all we need. I recall the words of one of my theology teachers named Stanley Hauerwas. Professor Hauerwas enjoys a powerful reputation in the world of Christian ethics. He is the Dean of the Divinity School of Duke University. He is respected and learned. When he introduced himself to a friend of mine, all he said was, “I just love my Jesus.” He could have said something about Immanuel Kant, Karl Barth, Aristotle, William James, Thomas Aquinas, Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, Iris Murdoch or any of the plethora of theologians and ethicists he was expert on. Instead, he said the words we can all take to heart, “I just love my Jesus.”

That Is Why I Have Come
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 12, 2012

Isaiah 40:21-31 Mark 1:29-39 Psalm 147

After Jesus had preached in the synagogue and healed all the sick in the whole town of Capernaum, his disciples found Him praying the next morning. Jesus told them that He wanted to go to the nearby villages to preach there also. And He said the words that characterized His whole incarnation on earth, “That is why I have come.” Jesus’ whole ministry on earth was to heal humanity. In the story we just heard, Jesus teaches in the synagogue. Then he goes to the home of Simon and Andrew, heals their mother-in-law, and then the whole town brings the sick to Jesus to be healed. This was a typical day in the life of Jesus. Think of it! Think of what an average day in the life of Christ was. Teaching, preaching and healing. His whole life was one of service to the human race. His whole life was dedicated to our salvation. When the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest, Jesus told them the least would be greatest and the servant, not the master. Here we find another statement as to why Jesus came to us, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).
Our Bible readings this morning talk about God’s two great qualities: divine love and divine wisdom. In Isaiah we hear first about God’s infinite wisdom. We hear about how God created the universe and how He knows all the stars by name. The Prophet then says, “His understanding no one can fathom (Isaiah 40:28). When we think of the vastness of the universe and think of the God that made it and keeps it all in balance, we are lost in wonder. And yet, this vast, unfathomable God is also a God of love and compassion. Just as He sustains the tiniest atom or quark, so He cares and sustains the least of each human being. After praising God for His unfathomable wisdom, the prophet then turns to God’s care for the human race. He says,
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:29-31).
We see these two qualities of God in our New Testament reading, too. Jesus demonstrates His divine love and wisdom in His ministry to the world. His wisdom is shown in His teaching in the synagogue. He amazed His listeners because, “he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law” (Mark1:27). And immediately after enlightening His listeners, Jesus showed His love for the human race by healing the sick.
We can think of love and wisdom as two separate things. But in fact they work so closely together that they are one. In fact, love and wisdom flow out of God as one. Swedenborg begins his discussion of God’s love and wisdom by discussing them separately. Swedenborg’s discussion sounds quite personal even in this somewhat abstract topic.
No one can deny that in God we find love and wisdom together in their very essence. He loves us all out of the love that is within him, and he guides us all out of the wisdom that is within him (DLW 29).
Swedenborg then goes on in a rigorous philosophical way to say that God’s love and wisdom are, in fact, one:
Since the divine reality is divine love and the divine manifestation is divine wisdom, these latter are distinguishably one. We refer to them as “distinguishably one” because love and wisdom are two distinguishable things, and yet they are so united that love is a property of wisdom and wisdom is a property of love (DLW 34).
We can see how God’s love and wisdom are united when we consider Jesus’ ministry. His healings are united with His teachings. And His whole ministry was to save us and bring us into a loving relationship with God. The miracles that Jesus performed showed His love for the human race, in that He wanted to relieve our suffering. But the healings were also symbolic of what Jesus was doing for our souls. All the illnesses that Jesus cured symbolized spiritual illnesses that Jesus teachings cured. So as Jesus healed bodies through His miracles, He also healed souls through His teachings. Healing both body and soul is how Jesus’ teachings and Jesus’ miracles were united. Through His healing miracles, Jesus opened the eyes of the blind. And through His teachings, Jesus opened the eyes of the spirit to heavenly truths. As Jesus’ miracles healed the lepers, His teachings showed us the way to purify our souls from sin and base instincts. Love and wisdom came together in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus showed his care for the human race by providing for the wellbeing of their bodies. But more important was Jesus care for the wellbeing of our souls. Swedenborg tells us that all Jesus’ miracles symbolized what He was also doing for the souls of the human race,
All Divine miracles represent states of the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, and of the Lord’s kingdom in the earth, that is, of the church. This is the internal form of Divine miracles (AC 7337).
So all Jesus miracles had a spiritual significance, too. Swedenborg explains,
All the miracles which the Lord Himself wrought when He was in the world signified the coming state of the church; thus that the eyes of the blind were opened and the ears of the deaf, that the tongues of the dumb were loosed, that the lame walked, and the maimed and also the lepers were healed, signified that such men as are represented by the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, maimed, and leprous, would receive the gospel and be spiritually healed, and this through the coming of the Lord into the world. Such are Divine miracles in their internal form (AC 7337).
So we can think of Jesus’ miracles and Jesus’ teachings as outer and inner. The healing miracles were physical, or outer. And the teachings that purify the soul are inner. We can also see them as love and wisdom. Love heals us and wisdom enlightens us.
The story of Jesus’ miracles is just as relevant for us as it was 2,000 years ago. We need the healing of Christ’s Gospel in our lives. We need to receive the Gospel message of love in order to become angels in God’s heavenly kingdom.
What was that Gospel message around which the Christian church grew? Let us again think about Jesus’ life. He did not come to rule but to serve. His entire life was dedicated to relieving suffering from people–both physical and spiritual. This is the Gospel message of love. We are not here for ourselves alone. We are here for each other. We are all going through life together and we are all each other’s responsibility. Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to make the people we know happy and to relieve their suffering. I think that His Holiness the Dalai Lama said it best, and I’ll close with a citation from his book, My Spiritual Journey. In this passage, His Holiness explains the nature of compassion–the cardinal virtue of Buddhism,
We sometimes wrongly liken compassion to a feeling of pity. We should analyze the nature of true compassion more deeply.
True compassion does not stem from the pleasure of feeling close to one person or another, but from the conviction that other people are just like me and want not to suffer but to be happy, and from a commitment to help them overcome what causes them to suffer.
This attitude is not limited to the circle of our relatives and friends. It must extend to our enemies too. True compassion is impartial and bears with it a feeling of responsibility for the welfare and happiness of others (My Spiritual Journey, p.20)
We can only pass on what we, ourselves, have. Let us take to heart the teachings of Jesus, the Dalai Lama, and other great masters of religion. Let us remember that we, too, are not here to rule, but to serve. Let us remember that others are just like us, and want to be happy, too. Let’s do what we can to make that happen.

Come, Follow Me
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 29, 2012

Jonah 3 Mark 1:14-28 Psalm 62
Our reading from Psalm 62 ends with a simple, and seemingly obvious statement: “You reward everyone according to what they have done.” It is self-evident that our spirituality shows in what we do, not just what we believe or think. As self-evident as this may be, there are Christian churches who think that it is faith that saves. They will argue with great conviction that good works do not contribute to our salvation. This, despite the plain sentence from Psalm 62, “You reward everyone according to what they have done.”
Our Bible readings this morning call our attention to what we do, and to what we are. They bring up the unwelcome topic of evil and of repentance. I see three steps in these Bible stories. The first is leaving our home and family to follow Jesus’ call. The second is to repent from evil by our own effort. And the third is to allow God to purify us through a recognition that everything good that we do is God acting in us. In preparing this sermon, I drew on a lecture by Rev. George Dole called, “A Four-Step Model.”
Jesus’ call to Simon, Andrew, and James represents the first of these three steps: leaving home and family to follow Jesus. On the natural level, this story speaks of the maturing process whereby a person comes into their own. In a sense, we all leave our parents when we become adults and start to think for ourselves and make life decisions for ourselves. Whether we actually leave home or not, we come to a point where we outgrow our parents as authorities in our lives, and become our own person. On a spiritual level we go through an analogous process. We outgrow what Swedenborg calls proprium. The very sense of self that we acquire upon attaining adulthood becomes a stage we need to move past. The early self is self-interested, egotistical, and filled with worldly ambition. We have drives and passions that are unhealthy. Swedenborg claims that we inherit a tendency to evil that we may or may not act upon. All these things are in the part of our personality called the proprium. We must grow out of the proprium. Nearly every world religion sees spirituality as a growth process. Some see the process as one of moving from ego and limited consciousness to all-loving compassion and expanded consciousness. I like the symbol used by Hinduism and Buddhism. They both see our spiritual development in the lotus flower. The lotus flower begins as a seed in the mud at the bottom of a pond. As it grows, it raises up through the murky water of the pond. Then it reaches the air and sunlight and becomes a beautiful flower. The Hindus and Buddhists compare our growth to enlightenment to the growth of the lotus flower up into the sunlight. It is God’s voice that calls us out of the murky depths of our proprium. When we hear His voice, we begin our spiritual journey into heavenly joy.
The story of Jonah represents the second step in our spiritual growth. The people of Nineveh are told to repent by the prophet Jonah. And they heed his word. They fast and put on sackcloth. The king even issues a proclamation for everyone and all the animals to fast and for the residents to call upon God for compassion. In this story, we have what Swedenborg calls an appearance of truth. An appearance of truth is a statement in the Bible that is not factual, even though it is in the Bible. In the story of Jonah, we are told that God planned to destroy the city of Nineveh. This is how God appeared to the writers of Jonah. But God never destroys any person, let alone any city. God is only love, and cannot do any evil thing to humans. Stories about God bringing destruction to people or cities are all appearances of truth. But let us not stray too far from the main point of our Bible stories. That is, the subject evil and repentance. When the people of Nineveh hear Jonah’s preaching they respond to him. They repent of their evil ways. We are not told exactly what is evil about them. The Bible does mention violence. And the Israelites would have considered the Ninevites idolaters. But whatever they did wrong, they repented and called on God.
I consider this a second level of repentance because it is done by human effort. The people of Nineveh act by their own power and strength. They do public displays of repentance such as fasting, wearing sackcloth, and the king, himself, sits down in the dust, calling upon God. In our early stages of repentance, we fight sin as if from our own will power. Some people do outward acts as the people of Nineveh do. Protestants as very leery of human effort in the process of salvation. They are suspicious of people who repent and who do good acts as a way to salvation. They are suspicious for good reason: they think that people who do these things believe that they have earned heaven by their good deeds. The truth is, if we do good deeds, we cannot think that we have earned heaven or deserve it in any way. When we do good, it is because we love what is good and do it for good’s own sake–not for the sake of reward. But we must by all means do good deeds. We must flee from or fight evil intentions, thoughts, and actions, and we must to good, kind, and loving things.
These considerations bring us to the third step in spiritual growth. I find this stage in the story of Jesus and the evil spirit. The man who is possessed by the evil spirit says nothing to Jesus. He does not cry out to be healed. It is all Jesus’ doing. As Jesus is preaching, an evil spirit cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” I find the way this story develops interesting. Jesus doesn’t set out to heal the demon possessed man. Rather, He is preaching in a synagogue and suddenly the evil spirit cries out. I take this to mean that the power of Jesus’ presence was felt by the evil spirit, and he couldn’t bear being in Jesus’ presence. This is the way spiritual temptation happens to us. As God enters our souls more deeply, our own sins become more apparent in the presence of all Goodness. God is indeed always in our souls at the deepest level. But our consciousness is not always filled with God’s love and wisdom. God needs to enter all the levels of our lives from the lowest to the highest. And as God flows down into our lives, we make room for Him by removing all that would block His love.
God gives us the power to remove any and all obstacles to His love and life. Swedenborg tells us that,
a person must purify himself from evils and not wait for the Lord to do this immediately; otherwise he may be compared to a servant with face and clothes fouled with soot and dung, who comes up to his master and says, “Wash me, my lord.” Would not the master say to him, “You foolish servant, what are you saying? See; there are water, soap, and towel. Have you not hands, and power in them? Wash yourself.” And the Lord God will say, “The means of purification are from Me; and from Me are your intentions and ability; therefore use these My gifts and endowments as your own, and you will be purified (TCR 436).
So God gives us the insight to see what we need to work on, and God gives us the power to make changes in our lives. But I cannot stress how important it is for us to realize that the power to make changes in our lives is from God. If we try to battle the evils in our proprium with our own strength it is like one of those Chinese handcuffs. You know, those woven tubes that you can easily put your fingers into, but when you go to pull them out, the tube tightens around your fingers and you can’t pull your fingers out. Our very effort is what makes the tube tighten up. Or it’s like the story of “Tar Baby” by Uncle Remus. Tar Baby was a doll made of tar. When Br’er Rabbit gets mad at Tar Baby and punches him, his fist gets stuck in the tar. Then Br’er Rabbit punches Tar Baby with his other fist and it gets stuck. So both Br’er Rabbit’s hands are now stuck to Tar Baby, which makes him even madder. He kicks Tar Baby with his foot and it gets stuck. Finally, Br’er Rabbit kicks tar Baby with the other foot and now all Br’er Rabbit’s hands and feet are stuck to Tar Baby. The more he tried to overcome Tar Baby, the more Br’er Rabbit became stuck to him. Or it’s like that joke where a person says, “Whatever you do, don’t think about a pink elephant.” What is the first thing that will come into our minds? When we dwell on our shortcomings and try to fight them by our own power, spiritual progress will be a never-ending struggle. We need to consciously realize that God gave us the illumination to see where our lives need amendment, and we need to realize that God can lift us up out of the murky waters into the light.
This is all contrary to appearance. It looks like we are doing the good work. It looks like we have decided to follow Christ’s call. But what we are actually doing is allowing God into our lives and minds. In Divine Providence #191, Swedenborg writes, “Our own prudence is nothing. It only seems to be something, as it should. Divine Providence, since it involves the smallest details, covers everything.” Our own prudence is nothing. Everything we direct ourselves to do; every choice we make, every evil we recognize, every prayer to God for help, none of this is done by our own power. It is all God acting in us. This is the meaning of Swedenborg’s statement that human prudence is nothing. All those little choices we make in our lives; all those little decisions we make moment by moment, all our best decisions are God working in our minds to lead us out of proprium and into heaven. When we look back on our lives, and see where we have come in our development, we are at a loss to say just how we got to where we are. It was the sum total of all those small decisions–God working in us–that brought us to where we are today, and made us who we are today. Swedenborg compares this process to the shooting of an arrow. If the arrow was just slightly off when it leaves the bow, it will miss a target meters away. God watches over these small increments of our spiritual direction and corrects us when we veer from the mark. In Divine Providence, Swedenborg writes,
What else can the Divine Providence have for its end than the reformation of the human race, ans its salvation? And no one can be reformed by himself, by means of his own prudence, but by the Lord, by means of His Divine Providence. It thus follows that unless the Lord leads a person every moment, even every part of a moment, the person falls back from the way of reformation and perishes. . . . It is like an arrow shot from a bow, which if it missed the direction of the mark in the least when leaving the bow, at a distance of a thousand paces or more, would miss it immensely. So would it be if the Lord did not lead the states of human minds every part of a moment. The Lord does this according to the laws of His Divine Providence; and it ids in accordance with these laws for it to appear to a person as if he led himself; but the Lord foresees how he leads himself, and continually provides accordingly (DP 202).
This is how I see the miracle of Jesus casting out the demons in our Mark story. Jesus saw the sickness, and acted to purify the demon-possessed man. So God sees what we need, purifies us, and brings us into ever more clear heavenly light–without our even knowing it.
When we realize and accept that it is God that is giving us the insight and power to change, the Chinese handcuffs magically fall off and we are delivered. When we recognize and accept that it is God that is giving us the insight and power to change, we don’t get angry at Tar Baby and end up stuck in its sticky tar. When we recognize and accept that it is God that is giving us the insight and power to change, we won’t conjure up the pink elephant. We will see heaven’s beautiful sunbeams. We are lifted up into the light. As we approach God, God approaches us. I have heard it said that when we take one small step toward God, God takes three giant steps toward us. Let us, then, make room in our souls for the descent of the Holy Spirit, which begins when we hear the call of God, of His prophets, and when we make room for His divine love in our hearts.

The Call of God
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 22, 2012

1Samuel 3:1-10 John 1:43-51 Psalm 139

The theme connecting our Old Testament reading and our New Testament reading is God’s call. In these Bible stories, I identify a series of four different responses to God’s call. First, ignorance and maybe even skepticism. Second, openness to God’s voice. Third, realization that God knows us intimately and knows what is good for us. And fourth, when we follow God’s voice, a greater and greater revelation of God’s glory and power comes to us through our partnership in God’s work.
Both Samuel and Nathanael initially respond with ignorance. 1 Samuel 3:7 tells us that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” Samuel heard God’s voice, but did not know that it was the voice of God. He thought that it was the voice of Eli. It was the prophet Eli who told Samuel that God was calling to him, and to respond to God next time He calls. We are told that the next time God calls, the Lord stood before Samuel, and then Samuel understands that it is God calling. Samuel then says, “Speak, for your servant hears.” In our New Testament reading, Nathanael did not know Jesus. In fact, you could say that Nathanael’s response was somewhat contemptuous. Philip runs up to Nathanael all excited and says, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was located in Galilee, and Galilee was looked down upon by the inhabitants of Judah. The Galileans were thought to be crude, uncultured, and backward. This actually fits with Jesus’ ministry. He was often in the presence of people whom society looked down upon. He is accused of befriending thieves, prostitutes, tax collectors, and other sinners (cf. Matthew 11:19). So at first, Nathanael responds with skepticism about just who this Jesus of Nazareth is.
Now we are into the second response to God’s call. Samuel is open to hear what God has to say. And although skeptical, Nathanael keeps an open mind. In response to Nathanael’s skepticism, Philip says, “Come and see.” Come and see. Nathanael is open minded enough to at least go to see Jesus.
The third aspect of God’s call is full knowledge of humanity. When Nathanael sees Jesus, Jesus tells him that He knows him. We see that Nathanael is honest, as Jesus says, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” Nathanael is surprised. He asks Jesus how He could know that about him. Jesus replies that He saw Nathanael when he was under the fig tree, before Philip called him. Nathanael then sees and openly confesses that Jesus is the Son of God.
Recognition of God brings us to the fourth aspect of God’s call. We see the power and greatness of God when we respond to God’s call. Jesus tells Nathanael that he will, “see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.” When Nathanael sees that Jesus is God incarnate, and when he follows Jesus, more and more of God’s nature is revealed to him. The same is true of the prophet Samuel. The Bible tells us,
The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. And Samuel’s word came to all Israel (1 Samuel 3:19-21).
So we can identify a series of four different responses to God’s call. First, ignorance and maybe even skepticism. Second, openness to God’s voice. Third, realization that God knows us intimately and what is good for us. And fourth, when we follow God’s voice, a greater and greater revelation of God’s glory and power comes to us through our partnership in God’s work.
God does call to us. God calls us into partnership with Himself. We are agents of God’s will on earth. God works through us in bringing His kingdom to earth. And as we work with God, we come to know more about His kingdom and about His Divine nature. We learn what it means to love and what God’s love is like. And ultimately, by working together with God to bring His kingdom on earth, we ourselves are transformed into an image and likeness of God.
Although God calls to us, we may not hear His voice, or understand the nature of His call. God may call us into a service that seems contrary to the purposes we have set for ourselves. I think of the prophet Jonah. God called to Jonah asking the prophet to go to Nineveh and preach to them to change their ways. But Jonah actually rebelled against God’s call. We are told that Jonah, “ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish” (Jonah 1:3). But there was no running away. God caused a great wind to rise up at sea, and the frightened sailors asked Jonah what was wrong. Jonah told them about God and the sailors worshipped. Jonah then tells them that he is the reason for the tempest and tells them to throw him overboard. When they do so, the sea becomes calm. A whale swallows Jonah up and brings him to Nineveh after all. Even after Jonah preaches to the people of Nineveh, and even after the people of Nineveh repent, Jonah wants God to destroy the city, rather than save it.
My own life followed a pattern like that of Jonah. I think of my life immediately after graduating from my Ph.D. program at the University of Virginia. I had no work lined up in Virginia and I needed to live with my parents temporarily until I found work. So I moved down to Naples, Florida. The culture of Naples was very different from what I was used to in Virginia. In Virginia I was in a college town and had a lot of opportunity to exercise my intellect. But when I got down to Florida, I found that there were no major universities in the town. I could find no opportunities to expand my mind, as I had in Virginia. At first, I was very much upset. I missed the academic climate I had grown used to in 13 years of graduate study.
But God had other plans for me. God knew me and knew what was best for me. In school, I had studied so many world religions that I had lost my own faith. I was lost in all the intellect I had been exposed to. I was almost too smart for God. I was like Nathanael, thinking, “Can there be any good thing in Naples?”
I took work in a mental health facility. There, I worked with persons who had cognitive and affective disorders. Here, again, my intellect was of no use to me. I had to relate to my clients through my heart. My work was all emotional. I had to cut off my head. By the way, this was exactly what my AA sponsor had told me earlier. “Cut off your head,” he used to say. It was as if God were saying to me, “Your intellect has had enough of a work-out for now. But where is your heart?”
In doing my work, my own emotional life got richer and richer. I discovered that too much mind could be a handicap. I also saw that too much knowledge about religions could be a hindrance to my own faith life. Living in Florida and working in the mental health facility changed me. Doing the work that God called me to do, in the place that God called me to, made me into a different person. I found faith. My soul sifted through all the information I learned about religion in school. And I discovered what I considered most true and most reasonable from what I had learned. Out of all that information, God led me into a faith of my own. I saw that through my life in Florida and through my work with cognitive and affective disorders, God was calling me back to Himself.
As with all of us, I discovered that when I found room for God in my heart, God revealed more and more of His Divine nature to me. We never work alone. God is working with us in all our affairs. And as God and I worked together, I came to understand what Divine Love is like. I understood Divine Love because I, myself, was becoming more loving. God was forming me into an image of Himself as I did His work.
God works through each and every one of us to bring His kingdom to earth. In great and small ways, we are God’s hands in this world. We may partner with God in an occupation, or in individual interrelations with the people in our little world. If we hear God’s voice–or if we are but open to hearing God’s voice–God will come into our lives and show us where and how we can bear witness to His glory. Jesus tells us, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Let us, then, listen for Jesus’ voice. Let us be open to His call. Let us see where and how we can be an agent to help bring His kingdom to earth.
I’ll close the lyrics to a song. The song was called to my attention by a teen at this Christmas’ youth retreat at Almont. She recited these lyrics in our closing worship service. The song is by Marie Cain & Steve Schalchlin and can be found on an album called THE BONUS ROUND SESSIONS:
Did you see Sally Struthers on TV the other night?
All concerned and bothered by the starving children’s plight?
It seems to me like Sally could have spared them all a bite
But she didn’t. She stood there asking Where Is God
The Channel Seven newsteam did a special live report
‘Bout how cold the homeless man was in his corrugated fort
I bet that cozy newsroom would have seemed like a resort
They didn’t take him there. They asked him Where Is God
My grandmother told me just before she passed away
She said she had the answer to the question of the day
She said the saints and sages have been telling us for years
But no one wants to listen
No one seems to have the ears
Then she turned to me and said,
“If God has hands they’re our hands
If God has eyes they’re our eyes
And if God has love, it’s our love.”

Your smallest or greatest free-will offering would be greatly appreciated for this important work. Cheques may be made out to The Edmonton New Church Society, and mailed to:
Church of the Holy City
9119-128A Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5E 0J6, Canada

The Voice of God
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 15, 2011

Genesis 1:1-5 Mark 1:4-13 Psalm 29

There is a wonderful coherence in the two Bible passages we heard this morning. The controlling metaphor is the voice of God. In the beginning of the creation story, light is created when God speaks the words, “Let there be light.” In our New Testament story, when Jesus is baptized the heaven are torn open and God’s voice speaks, saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Both of these passages treat the new creation of a person, or, in other words, a person’s regeneration.
The whole creation story in Genesis is about the stages a person goes through as he or she is formed into an angel. For us, the creation story is not about how the physical world came into being. It is now scientific fact that the world is billions of years old, and could not have been created in seven days. In our understanding of the Bible, this is not a problem. We do not think of the creation story as a history of how the world came into being. We understand the creation story symbolically. The imagery in the seven days of creation represent aspects of a person’s regeneration. And in our reading this morning, we heard about the first light that God created. This light, in general, is the very beginning of a person’s regeneration. It is when a person realizes that there is more to life than what the world can offer us. The first light is when it dawns on a person that there are higher things to strive for than what the world has to offer. It is when a person takes seriously spiritual realities. It is when we begin to think about being loving, rather than acquiring wealth, status, and power. So Swedenborg writes, “The first step is when a person begins to know that good and truth are something higher” (AC 20). So the first day of creation is when a person begins his or her spiritual journey. The light of the first day is when we realize that there is a God and that God is the source of every good thing.
Baptism also symbolizes regeneration. And this morning we heard about the baptism of Jesus. The water of baptism symbolized the spiritual cleansing that regeneration is. Regeneration is a process whereby what is spiritually impure is cleansed from our souls and we are filled with the pure love and wisdom that comes from God. So regeneration is indeed a spiritual washing. Seen from the perspective of regeneration, our Bible readings both point to the process of spiritual rebirth.
In both readings, we are dealing with a process. When the first words of God are spoken, “Let there be light,” what follows is the whole process of regeneration. So when the light dawns, it is a beginning of the work of spiritual regeneration. So, too, when Jesus is baptised, the heavens open and God speaks of His love for Jesus. This is a moment of connection between Jesus and His higher Self who is called the Father. But as with the creation story, Jesus’ baptism is not the end of His spiritual journey to save us. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism he goes into the wilderness and is tempted by the devil.
So these readings point to processes. Even though the first day of creation is the beginning of regeneration, it is also a beginning that happens again and again over a person’s life and into eternity. When Swedenborg talks about regeneration in his interpretation of Genesis 1, he talks about two processes. First, the light of the first day is the beginning of regeneration. It is when a person realizes that there is more to life than the goods of this world. But then, Swedenborg says some intriguing things. He indicates that the first day is a continuing process. The first day is not just a hoop we jump through on our way to the 7th day. It is with us all our lives. We are continually evolving in our spiritual development. And so we are continually coming into brighter and brighter light. This means that we are always moving from relative shade into relative brightness. We are always living through God’s words, “Let there be light,” because God is continually enlightening us. So throughout our lives, there is evening and there is morning, a new day. Swedenborg describes this process,
Evening is every preceding state, because it is a state of shade, or of falsity and no faith. Morning is every succeeding state, because it is a state of light, or of truth, and of knowledges of faith (AC 22).
It is he voice of God that moves us into greater light. The voice of God means the truths that shine light on our path. Some of these truths we acquire externally. That is, by reading, by conversation, by the arts and literature, or by experience. But we also discover truths internally. We can perceive within our minds and hearts what is good for us. This is the voice of God speaking to us through the heavens. It is also God coming to us through His Divine Human. Swedenborg writes,
they who are in good and thence in truth, and especially they who are in the good of love to the Lord, have revelation from perception; . . . Angels, especially the celestial, have revelation from perception, as also had the people of the Most Ancient Church, . . . For genuine perception comes through heaven from the Lord, and affects the intellect spiritually, and leads it perceptibly to think as the thing really is, with an internal assent, the source of which it is ignorant of. It supposes that it is in itself, and that it flows from the connection of things; whereas it is a dictate through heaven from the Lord, flowing into the interiors of the thought, concerning such things as are above the natural and sensual, that is, concerning such things as are of the spiritual world or of heaven (AC 5121).
Now this is a difficult and clumsily written passage. But what I take from it is that they who are in good discover truths intuitively. We think about things as they really are and when we are on the right track, there is an inner feeling that a thing is so. This inner voice may be a truth that we heard a long time ago, but had no meaning for us at the time. But when the time is right in our spiritual journey, this truth suddenly becomes filled with meaning and power and comes alive. We say, “So that’s what that statement means!” I think that this is one of the things meant by the inner perception of truth.
Another way to consider this is that we will feel that a certain aspect of our lives is a failing or wrong, or maladaptive. We realize that coping skills we have been living with are no longer useful in our lives. They are getting in the way of healthier ways of living. Of more loving ways of living. This is when temptations come in. When we feel that something we had previously enjoyed is a debased pleasure, our inner voice tells us that we need to destroy our inclination to indulge in it. Removing debased pleasures is a long and tumultuous process. It involves struggle; it involves effort; and can cause despair. In this process, Swedenborg talks about a condition called “vastation.” I’m not aware of any other theologians who use the term vastation and we need to talk about it briefly. In fact, it is such a strange word, that my computer tells me that it is a misspelling! Vastation is also part of the first day of creation. It is a time when our former pleasures no longer please us. Or we feel the old pleasures we are trying to move past with pain and regret. We want to move beyond them, but we still cling to them as part of our life. When we are brought to a condition when the old pleasures no longer rule in our emotional life, and they are dead, then we are then vastated; our old feeling are laid waste. Vastations make me think about something my grandmother told me once. She said, “When you get older you find out you can’t have things your way so you give up trying.” I take this to mean that after banging your head against the way the world works for so long, you give in and cooperate with things more. This strikes me as a king of vastation. Your self-will is broken and you become more compliant. In my AA program they call this accepting life on life’s terms. Giving up a life based on self will to one that accommodates others is a form of vastation. This is what is meant in the creation story by the darkness that precedes light in the first day.
The same words involve, in general, the vastation of a person which precedes regeneration–of which many things are said in the prophets; for before a person can know what is true and be affected by good, the things must be removed which hinder and oppose. Thus the old man must die before the new can be conceived (AC 18).
I don’t think that this is a once-for-all process. I don’t think that we are vastated for everything all at once. I think that this process happens to us as one by one the various falsities and evils in us are separated from us and truths and good flow in in their place. Swedenborg suggest this in AC 1917,
In temptations there are vastations and desolations, and there are states of despair, and thence grief and indignation, besides other painful emotions; and this with variety and alternation, according to the states of evil and falsity which are excited by evil genii and spirits, and against which there is combat (AC 1917).
Here, Swedenborg uses the term vastation in the plural–vastations–as if there are many vastations we go through. He also says that there is variety in these processes, and that there is alternation of our states.
Through all this turmoil, God gives us hope. We know that God has all power. And our inner voice tells us that God is leading us toward the truth and into good. We have been called into spiritual combat by God’s mighty voice. This is the voice we heard about in Psalm 29 this morning.
The God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
The mighty power of God’s voice calls us into spiritual battle, gives us hope for victory, and shakes up our complacent world. This spiritual battle is what the Poet William Blake sings about in his poem Jerusalem. Blake was one of those great literati who were influenced by Swedenborg. It is clear to me that Blake means the combat of temptations and vastations when he writes the following,
Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green & pleasant Land.
I don’t think that Blake is talking only about social reform in England. He talks about arrows of desire and mental fight. The Jerusalem he means is the heavenly city brought into his own life. When we hear God’s thunderous voice, it may be a call to mental fight. But along with the struggle and turmoil that can occur in our spiritual life, there is that hope that Jerusalem will be built ultimately in the pleasant land of our soul.

Finding Jesus
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 8, 2012

Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12 Psalm 72

We seek out Jesus for different reasons. This Sunday is called Epiphany, and on it we celebrate the arrival of the wise men to the manger. When the wise men found baby Jesus, they were overjoyed and gave Him expensive gifts. But they had to search for Jesus. They had to seek out where Jesus was. When they arrived in Jerusalem from the east, they had to ask where Jesus was. This Matthew tells us in 2:1-2, “Behold, wise men came from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.’” Acting on the counsel from the chief priests and teachers of the law, Herod told them to go to Bethlehem. They then followed the star to the manger. When they saw baby Jesus they were overjoyed. They worshipped and gave Jesus precious gifts.
The story of the wise men plays out in our lives. We, too, have to seek out Jesus in order to bring Him into our lives. We cry out for Jesus to come to us from different places in our lives. There are times when we seek him out to give thanks for all the joy that has come our way. These are the times when we are filled with a holy happiness from God and we thank God from the bottom of our hearts. This is what the wise men represent in our lives. Then we also cry out to Jesus sometimes when we are in darkness and want to be brought into the light. In our Isaiah passage for this morning, we heard about a time of darkness. Isaiah 60:2 reads, “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.” This is our condition when we feel distant from God. Yes, there are times in our life when the heavenly joys of God’s kingdom seem distant. There are times when we seem to be sinking into darkness, and we need God’s loving hand to lift us up. As the Psalmist says,
Rescue me from the mire,
do not let me sink;
Do not let the floodwaters engulf me
or the depths swallow me up
or the pit close its mouth over me.
Answer me, LORD, out of the goodness of your love;
in your great mercy turn to me.
Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
Come near and rescue me (Psalm 69:14, 15, 16, 17, 18).
But we have God’s assurance that when we do call out to Him, He will come. Isaiah 60:2 reads, “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.” When we hear that darkness covered the earth, we think about the time of Jesus’ birth. Then the world was in great darkness then, and needed Jesus to come and show humanity the way back to God. On a personal level, we think about those times when we seem distant from God. We may feel lost or overcome with problems. In the midst of our distress, we seek God. In the darkness we look for that guiding star. We say with the Psalmist, “Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; . . . answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.”
There are times indeed darker than this, when we question our very spirituality. I have known times when the world closes around me, and I become immersed in my own selfish desires. I almost feel like Herod. He sought out Jesus, too, but with a different motive than that of the wise men. He wanted to find Jesus in order to get rid of Him. Now in the depths of my heart, I am fully committed to Jesus. But I do admit that there are times when I don’t want Jesus to disturb my worldly pleasures. Or I may be taking credit for the achievements in my life and do not want to acknowledge that it was all God’s work. During these times, I don’t even cry out, “Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble” (Psalm 69:16-17). For when I am too involved with the world, Jesus and His heavenly kingdom are a threat. Jesus was a threat to King Herod because He was called the King of the Jews. Herod took this literally, and saw Jesus as a threat to his rule. When the world is too much with me, Jesus is a threat. I know that He will break up the pleasures I am enjoying.
But no matter where we are in our hearts, God is always with us. God is always close to us, no matter how we feel and no matter what state of mind we are in. Though we may reject God–perish the thought!– God will never reject us. Though we may try to escape God’s love, God will love us still. Psalm 139 speaks about this in lovely poetry:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139:7-12).
When I was mad at the church years ago, I deliberately tried to rebel against the teachings I grew up with. In my AA program, they told me to make a list of people and institutions I could forgive, people and institutions I could forgive but it would be hard, and people and institutions I would never forgive as long as I lived. At that time in my life, I was so angry with the church that I put it on the list of people and institutions I would never forgive as long as I lived. And look at me now! An ordained minister in the church I said I would never forgive as long as I lived! My life is an example of our reading from Isaiah 60:2, “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.” God came to me in my thick darkness and His glory arose upon me. He brought me home as a good shepherd does a wandering sheep.
Now my life is like the wise men. Now I give thanks to God with every breath I breathe. I am so grateful that God did not leave me in the pit. I am so grateful that God did not leave me to wallow in my self pity and bitterness. He lifted me out of the pit. He made his light shine upon me. In my night, God shone like the day.
The wise men brought gifts to Jesus. They were expensive gifts–gold, incense, and myrrh. How can we bring gifts to Jesus? What would we do that would be like bringing these gifts to baby Jesus? I suggest that the answer to this question is your very self. I suggest that you, yourself, are the gift. Each one of us is a unique individual. Each one of us has a personality that is like no other. Each one of us has a gift, a talent that we do best. I minister to this church first and foremost and then in every other opportunity I have to do so. Sometimes it is with the youth, sometimes it is with the members of the interfaith centre, sometimes it is with a couple I marry. I minister wherever God calls me to do so. Some people are plumbers. They keep the water systems running in our houses so we can shower, keep our home clean, and in many homes it is the plumbers work that keeps our homes warm in the winter. Some of us work with people in need. Some give care to people with special needs. Some work in hospitals. Some work with mental illnesses. Some people are construction workers. They build the houses we live in or the buildings we shop in or where businesses have offices. Some people give off their love for God through their personal interrelations. They make the people they know feel better. They give off the love that God has for us all. The poet Walt Whitman tried to capture the vastness and diversity of each individual in the world in a poem called “Leaves of Grass.” The poem goes on at great length and the sheer number of verses makes the impression that the world and its individuals are infinite. No one of the few vocations I have mentioned is more valuable to society than another. No one of these vocations is more valuable to God. Was gold more precious than myrrh? Not at all. Was the worship of the wise men more pleasing to God than that of the shepherds? Of course not. It was the humble shepherds who saw the angel Gabriel, and it was the humble shepherds who heard the angelic choir praising God.
Let your light shine, Jesus tells us. Let your light shine in whatever way is uniquely yours. Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of His children we do to Him. However we treat our neighbor, whatever good we do him or her is our gift to Jesus. When we seek Jesus to bring Him a gift, we are also seeking out who we are. Take stock of who you are. Consider the goods that you bring to the world. Thank Jesus for every opportunity He gives you to serve. Thank Jesus for the gifts you can give to the world. Thank Jesus for who you are. For only you can be the person you are. Only you can bring forth the gifts you do. You, and only you, manifest the image of God that you do. We each one of us are one shining spark showering forth from the Sun that gives life to heaven and earth.

Why Is Holy Communion a Sacrament
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 1, 2012

Exodus 24:3-11 Luke 22:7-20 Psalm 104

We are beginning our New Year in an appropriate manner. The first day of the New Year is a Sunday, and this Sunday is one on which we will celebrate Holy Communion. So we are welcoming in the New Year by welcoming the Lord into our hearts by the Holy Sacrament of Communion. But what does Communion mean. Why do we do what we do? How does Communion bring God into our hearts in a special way?
First, let us consider communion from a Biblical perspective. We heard in Exodus about blood being sprinkled upon the children of Israel in order to consummate the covenant between them and God. It was called blood of the covenant. After this ritual, there was a sacred feast in which Moses and the elders of Israel ate in God’s presence. Then, in the New Testament reading Jesus talks about blood of the new covenant. He broke bread and served wine and called it the blood of the new covenant. The language used in the New Testament referred to Jesus passion on the cross. He refers to the bread as his flesh broken for humanity, and He refers to the wine as blood that he sheds for humankind. So the Biblical imagery of the Holy Supper is a remembrance of Christ’s passion on the cross.
Traditional Christianity teaches that by Jesus’ crucifixion we are redeemed from sin. They see the crucifixion as a sacrifice of atonement. The atonement sacrifice comes from the book of Leviticus. The Jews thought that if a person had committed a sin, they could sacrifice a lamb and the sacrifice would take away their sin. So traditional Christians see Christ’s crucifixion as a sacrifice for the sins of all humanity. If one believes that Christ was sacrificed for our sins, then one is saved.
But Swedenborg’s theology differs greatly from traditional Christianity. We do believe that Christ saves us, but we emphasize the risen, glorified Christ. It is Christ resurrected that fills us with His spirit of love and wisdom. To the extent that we receive Christ’s love and wisdom, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. This is salvation because the very atmosphere of heaven is God’s Spirit emanating from Himself. We are in that Divine atmosphere when we let God into our hearts and minds. So for us, salvation is not a matter of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, but rather a matter of us allowing Christ’s spirit into us.
This brings us to a consideration of Holy Communion. Holy Communion derives its power from the power of symbols. Here on earth, we have both a material body and a spiritual body. Our material body takes care of our earthly needs. We are not conscious of our spiritual body, but it is living in the spiritual world all the while we are on earth. The spiritual world is connected to the material world. Our material bodies have life because they are filled with life from the spiritual world. The connection between the spiritual world and the material world takes place through symbols. The symbols that particularly bring spiritual life to us are the symbols in the Bible.
The Bible is God’s Word. As such, God is present in the words of the Bible. We don’t see the Bible as a historical document. Instead, we see it as a set of symbols. The imagery we read in the Bible conjoins us with the angels in heaven, and ultimately with God Himself. So when we read about heat in the Bible, for instance, the angels understand love. And when we read about light, the angels understand truth. So the spiritual world is connected with our material life here in this world according to symbols.
The power of Holy Communion is based upon this symbolic connection between the spiritual world and the material world. Like the words of the Bible, the symbols in communion connect our material world with the spiritual world. The bread of Holy Communion symbolizes God’s love, and the wine symbolizes God’s wisdom. When we live a life of love, and when our minds are perfected by truths of wisdom, then we are conjoined with God. When this is our nature, the symbols of the Holy Communion come alive. God is actually present in the symbols of Communion, and the ritual serves to bring us into God’s presence.
Perhaps I can make this clearer by a consideration of how symbols function in our lives. We have various rituals in our society that have symbolic power. Rituals are physical acts that stimulate spiritual states. By spiritual I mean the psychological part of our makeup, the emotional and mental aspects of our persons.
If you think about our social symbols, you can see that physical acts play an important role in our emotional life. Consider the handshake, for instance. When we want to express affection, or to let another know that we are glad to see them, we shake their hand. This physical act forms a bond between two people. We could just say, “Hi, it’s great to see you,” and leave it at that. But in our soul, or in our internalized social symbols, we want to shake hands to signify our friendship. Meeting someone has greater significance when we shake their hand. The physical act of shaking someone’s hand evokes an emotional response of friendliness.
Or consider the act of holding a door open for someone. As we look back at the person we are holding the door for, there is exchanged a brief pleasantry; there is an exchange of affection. By holding the door open, we are affirming the humanity of the other person. We are, in fact saying, “I care about you.” The physical act of holding open a door, communicates a brotherly love for another person.
Then there are symbols that communicate anger or rage. When people get into a serious argument they almost inevitably resort to symbolic language. When people have shouted at each other enough, and the argument concludes with a remark like, “I hate you.” Then they slam the door. Closing a door separates the two people from each other, even as their anger has thrown a wedge between them. But just closing the door, doesn’t contain the same symbolic power of slamming the door. Slamming the door behind a person says so much more than the mere words, “I hate you!” It is a symbol that contains all the emotion of the whole argument and finishes off communication with a powerful emphasis.
So physical acts can elicit emotional responses. Certain signs stimulate our psychological states. I have been discussing social symbols, and we all can see the power they have. But if social symbols have so much power, how much more do religious symbols have! Religious symbols, or rituals, bring out deep spiritual states in us. Spiritual symbols open up our souls and the religious affections we have cultivated over the years. But the power religious rituals possess depend on our spiritual condition. Religious rituals only work if we bring the internal mindset and heart to them. Religious rituals depend on whether we have been taught to respond to them by our religious upbringing and our life.
Eating a meal with someone is an intimate act. When we eat dinner with someone, we are sharing their home, their food, and their company. We are taking in nutrition that will feed our bodies. Eating the food of Communion is dining with God. It is like that sacred feast we heard about in Exodus, and it is like the feast of Passover that Jesus ate with His disciples. When we taste the bread and wine, our bodies respond to the sensual stimulation. Our souls also respond to the stimulation from our bodies. If we are conscious of God’s inflowning life, then God can flow into us through this particular set of symbols. But the bread and wine don’t plant God in us through magic. It is the way we live that gives the physical act of eating and drinking their symbolic power. If we are hateful and deny religious truth, then the bread is just bread and the wine is just wine. Eating the bread and drinking the wine doesn’t give us God’s love and wisdom. Rather, the ritual awakens the love and wisdom we have incorporated into our lives. And eating and drinking also brings our consciousness into God’s presence. The communion opens our souls, and stimulates these spiritual powers. If our life has been an encounter with God, then the material symbols of Communion bring God to us through our souls. Communion is a complete joining of our bodies and our souls. Our bodies take in the bread and wine, and the spiritual world that is running parallel to the material world fills our soul with God’s presence.
The physical act of eating the bread and drinking the wine has the power to bring God’s presence for those who have asked God into their lives. As with all ritual, the power of the sacramental symbols of the Holy Supper are only available if we approach the Lord’s Table with the proper internal mindset. But ritual does have spiritual power. The physical act we do in communion brings heavenly communion and actually brings God’s presence to us. If we approach holy communion with a holy life, then God is present as He was to the Israelites when the blood of the covenant was sprinkled on them and they ate the sacred feast in God’s presence. If we approach communion with a holy life, then God is present as he was with the Apostles at the last supper. Ritual is powerful. Doing a symbolic physical act brings to bear our whole emotional complex in a special moment. As with a handshake, a smile, or a wedding vow, taking the Holy Communion opens our souls to heaven, to God. When approached with the proper mindset and heart, communion brings God to us.

Peace Amid Chaos
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Christmas Eve, 2011

The Christmas story is one of peace in the midst of chaos. Sometimes we can get caught up in the frenzy of buying and shopping. We fight our way through crowds, traffic, and parking lots. In all this hubbub we can lose sight of why we are doing all this. We can lose touch with the peace that is at the heart of the Christmas message.
Not too long ago, I was driving on 97th Street. I had two malls to get to in one hour. So there I was panicking, wanting traffic to move faster, hoping that I could find what I was looking for in time to get to the malls before closing. As I was driving, I had my iPod on and was listening to Earl Klugh–a great jazz guitar player. A beautiful, serene song came on. It was such a peaceful and pretty song that I wondered about Mr. Klugh, himself. I wondered what kind of spirituality he was in touch with that such a blessed piece of music could flow through his soul into his practiced fingers. As I listened, my tension dissipated. And for a few minutes, amid my frantic shopping spree, I had a moment of peace as I listened to that serene song, driving down 97th Street on my mission to get to two malls in an hour.
This experience led me to ponder further the Christmas story. I thought about how the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was a moment of peace amid utter chaos. I imagine that the pushing and shoving of Christmas shopping is nothing compared to what was happening around Jerusalem back in the time of Jesus’ birth. The Bible gives us some interesting historical details about that time. Luke tells us that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for the whole known world to be enrolled. This was what we would call a census. Our history books tell us that Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. Luke provides another historical fact. He adds that this was when Quirinius was governor over Syria. Caesar wanted this census for one very common reason: he wanted a role of all his subjects so that he could tax them. This whole affair was for tax purposes.
Everyone had to go to the city of his family’s origins. Joseph went to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of King David, and David had been born in Bethlehem. Imagine the crowd scene that must have occurred in Judah at this time. We are told that the Holy Family had to sleep in a barn because all the inns were occupied. Can you imagine what was going on in the hotels in Judah? Can you imagine the pushing and shoving that must have gone on as people crowded the hotels in search of the last rooms to be had for the night? How many hotels did Mary and Joseph go to before they resigned themselves to the fact that all the inns were full? Perhaps they counted themselves lucky that they found that barn to sleep in. And they did all this while Mary was pregnant and ready to deliver.
In the midst of this mob scene, Jesus was born. The Prince of Peace entered the world in the midst of all this chaos. And I can imagine that the presence of that little baby brought calm and serenity to the Holy Family as they gazed upon His tender, tiny features. I can imagine the holy awe that God’s infant form evoked, and the sphere of innocence and love radiating from this One Sacred Baby. With the birth of Jesus, Luke’s narrative immediately takes us to the quiet of the Judean night, where shepherds are watching their flocks under a starlit sky. An angel appears to them, announcing the joyful news of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. A choir of angels praises God and sings about peace and good will among humanity. In all the crowding and worldly interest concerning taxes and the census, a sacred moment transpired in which peace and good will among humans broke forth from heaven.
This same story plays out in our lives today. We can become overwhelmed with life in this material world. We can become overcome with despondency over the bills we have to pay with an income that barely stretches from paycheck to paycheck. We can become fixated on the material toys we want to acquire: nice cars, a big screen TV, designer clothes, computers with massive memory and light speed, and other worldly goods. We can become lost in the things of this world, which is only a temporary home for us. We can lose sight of what is truly lasting. We can lose sight of the eternal blessings that are always available to us when we turn to them.
The Christmas season reminds us of some of those eternal blessings. We gather around those we love, and celebrate the joy of family and friends. We are filled with the spirit of giving. The interchange of receiving and giving gifts is a symbol of the way love works–the way love flows out from us to others and back to us to complete the circle. These are some of the eternal blessings that make life really matter. These are the blessings we need to pause to remember, however we find ourselves materially.
The Christmas story also plays out in our lives in a still more profound way. There are times when sorrow and turmoil dominate our lives. We may lose a job. We may experience the heartbreak of the loss of a loved one. There are times when a life we have constructed for ourselves and settled into becomes disrupted and everything we thought we could depend on comes crashing down all around us. With a single sentence, the poet Robert Frost captures how vulnerable we are to forces of chaos. In the poem called Home Burial, Frost writes, “Three foggy mornings and one rainy day/ Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.” The life we construct for ourselves is subject to so many forces beyond our control, it is as a fence that can be rotted by three foggy mornings and one rainy day. The good things in our lives can be so tenuous that Martha Nussbaum wrote a book about this whose title is, “The Fragility of Goodness.”
But there is one Source of stability that will hold us up in the midst of any chaos the world can threaten us with. That one Source of peace and comfort is that baby born in the midst of the Judean crowds. No matter what we experience in life, Jesus is with us. When we celebrate joy, Jesus redoubles our joy. When we are troubled, Jesus comforts us. When we feel abandoned, Jesus is our friend. Having come into this world, Jesus walks with us in this world. In whatever way we are walking, we never walk alone. In whatever we face, we face Jesus. Jesus tells us that life in this material world may not be quiet and comfortable all the time. In John 16:33 He says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
In Jesus we have peace. In Jesus we have love. In Jesus we have life. In all the rushing around of the season, let us be mindful of why we are celebrating. As we sit down for Christmas dinner, let us be mindful of the love of our families and friends that gather together for the season. As we exchange gifts, let us remember the circle of love that we are surrounded with even after Christmas–the giving and the receiving. In our celebrating and in our trials, let us remember that one night in the Judean countryside when peace came to this troubled world. And let us ask that peace into our lives. Tonight, throughout the season, and in our lives forever.