Church of the Holy City

The Messiah
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 18, 2011

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Luke 1:26-38 Psalm 89
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). So the prophet Isaiah speaks of the time of Jesus. Jesus came in the night, in the darkness. He came in the darkest season of the year. And He came at a time in human history that was equally dark. So the Apostle John says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). That one birth, in the darkness of night, in the darkest season of the year, in a dark time in human history, that one birth shone so brightly that now, 2,000 years later, His light still enlightens those who receive Him.
Jesus is called the Messiah. Messiah is a Hebrew word. The Greek translation for Messiah is Christ. So Jesus Christ isn’t just a first and last name. It means that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. We Christians immediately think of Jesus when we hear the name Messiah. We may think of Handel’s wonderful composition, “The Messiah,” which contains many Isaiah prophesies about the coming of the Lord.
But to fully understand who the Messiah is, we need to go back into Jewish history. Then we will better understand the hopes of the Israelites for the Messiah to come. And we will understand how dark the world appeared to them at the time of the incarnation.
In Hebrew, the word “Messiah” means “anointed.” Specifically, a messiah is a king in Israel, who is anointed by a prophet when he is chosen by God. Each time a new king was chosen by God, a prophet would anoint the new king with oil. Since all Israelite kings were anointed in this fashion, you could say that all the Israelite kings were messiahs. They were all anointed ones.
But there was one special Messiah, one special king, that we mean when we talk about The Messiah in capital letters. That king is David. A whole mythology developed around King David that no other king had. God made a special promise to King David that was not made to any other king. We heard this promise in our Bible reading from 2 Samuel this morning. God promises to King David that there will always be one of his descendants on the throne in Judah forever. Forever. The prophet Nathan tells King David,
The LORD Declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. . . . My love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul . . . Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever (2 Samuel 11, 12, 15, 16).
When God says that David’s house and kingdom endure forever, and that David’s throne will be established forever, God is saying that a descendant of David will always be ruling on the throne in Judah. This is called the Messianic promise. We see the Messianic promise in our Psalm reading this morning, too. Psalm 89 reads:
I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant,
‘I will establish your line forever
and make your throne firm through all generations.’” . . .
I will maintain my love to him forever,
and my covenant with him will never fail.
I will establish his line forever,
his throne as long as the heavens endure (Psalm 89:3-4, 28-29).
But history didn’t cooperate with the Messianic promise. First, Babylon conquered Judah in the sixth century BC. Jerusalem was pillaged, and the Israelites were deported to Babylon. There was no longer an Israelite king on the throne in Judah, let alone a descendant of King David. But this wasn’t all. Alexander the Great conquered Israel in the third century BC. In his wake, all the territories he conquered adopted Greek ways. At a particularly bad time during the Greek rule, things got so bad for Israel that the ruler of that province actually sacrificed a pig to Zeus on the altar in Jerusalem. Then came the Romans, who overthrew the Greeks in the second and first centuries BC. For hundreds of years, there was no Israelite king on the throne in Jerusalem, no descendant of David. It appeared that God had broken His promise. We see this in the Psalm we read this morning:
You have renounced the covenant with your servant
and have defiled his crown in the dust.
You have broken through all his walls
and reduced his strongholds to ruins.
You have put an end to his splendor
and cast his throne to the ground.
Lord, where is your former great love,
which in your faithfulness you swore to David? (Psalm 89:39-40, 42, 44, 49)
In this darkness, in this time when it appeared that God had broken His promise to the Israelites, hope persisted. Throughout the prophets remains the hope that one day, a descendant of King David would return and assume the throne in Jerusalem. The hope persisted that one day, the Israelites would be redeemed, and the glory of King David’s kingdom would be restored. The hope persisted that the Messiah would come.
Over the centuries the mythology of the Messiah grew. In time, the Messiah was conceived of in terms so grand that no human could fulfil these expectations. Consider the Psalm this morning. In it, we see that the Messiah is, in fact, the Son of God:
He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock my Savior.’
And I will appoint him to be my firstborn,
the most exalted of the kings of the earth (Psalm 89:26, 27).
Not only is the Messiah the Son of God, he will be the most exalted king in the whole world. It is hard to imagine a mere mortal who could fulfill these expectations. In the darkness of God’s broken promise, with the land promised to Abraham now under foreign rule, the Israelites waited for the coming of a divine king who would redeem Israel.
From our Swedenborgian perspective, we, too see the time of Jesus as a time of great darkness. Indeed we see it as the darkest time the world had ever known. It was a time desperately in need of Jesus’ redeeming light. It was a time in need of God’s incarnation.
Our theology teaches that the forces of darkness threatened to overwhelm heaven and earth before the incarnation. We believe that without God’s incarnation, humanity would have been lost. But with the advent of Jesus, God’s power came to humans. And through the Divine Humanity of Jesus Christ, God could come to humanity in a new way. Swedenborg writes,
in order that hell might be cleared away, and this impending damnation be thereby removed, the Lord came into the world, and dislodged hell, subjugated it, and thus opened heaven; so that he could henceforth be present with men on earth, and save those who live according to his commandments (TCR 579).
Jesus is that divine Messiah of Psalm 89, who calls God His Father. This is clear from His very birth, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary,
The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. . . . (Luke 1:35, 32-33).
And both Matthew and Luke are careful to trace Jesus’ genealogy through King David. But Jesus was just as much a human–fully God and fully Man. Let us think back to those days. Let us imagine what it must have been like in that special part of the world, when Jesus walked among us. Let us think about the disciples on the road to Emmaus walking next to Jesus. Walking next to a God so human that they saw Him as an ordinary man. But in retrospect, they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32) I would speculate here that the burning hearts of the disciples gave rise to the Catholic devotion of the Sacred Heart, in which the heart of Jesus is the focal image.
With the incarnation, God became present to humanity in a way that had not been possible before. Throughout His life on earth, Jesus grew progressively closer to God and God grew progressively closer to Jesus until ultimately God and Man became one. So Jesus says in John 10: 30, “I and the Father are one.” Jesus explains this to Philip,
If you really know me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. . . . Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me (John 14:7, 9-10).
This intimate union of God and Man is expressed in the Nicene Creed, as well. It says that Jesus is, “of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” Now God comes to us through His Humanity as Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus’ Divine Humanity that He can say, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And because Jesus is of the essence of the Father, because Jesus is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, of one substance with the Father, He can say, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).
With wonder I think back on those days when Jesus walked–O happy day! With awe I think back on those who felt their hearts burn within them in Jesus’ presence. With amazement I think of those holy feet dusty with the sand of Palestine. But Jesus is with us still. Jesus is with us in His Divine Humanity. So the question is, “Do you walk with Jesus?” Does your heart burn with a holy fire? Is the Messiah present in your life? I think it was with these questions in mind that the poet William Blake wrote of his own country and his own place,
And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon England’s mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England’s pleasant pastures seen!
It isn’t only a matter ancient times. If we are but open, we can see those feet in Edmonton’s pleasant river valley or city streets.

Living from Love
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 11, 2011

Isaiah 61:1-4, 6-11 Luke 1:39-55 Psalm 126

Today we consider the third of Swedenborg’s “3 R’s”. The three “R’s” are repentance, reformation, and regeneration. This Sunday we look at regeneration. Swedenborg’s terms can be a little confusing because he uses the same word for two ideas. Regeneration in a general sense means the whole process of rebirth, which takes a lifetime and even continues into the next life. But regeneration in a specific sense means the third of the three “R’s”. In its specific sense, as the third of the three “R’s,” regeneration means a final state which we achieve in our spiritual growth. It is when our struggles are over. It is when we act from love freely. It is a time when temptation ends and we are at peace. We live eternally in heaven’s joys, no longer burdened with vexations from the world and our lower selves. When we reach the stage called regeneration, then God is fully born in our hearts. The coming of the Lord is complete.
Our Psalm reading captures the happiness we know when we are fully regenerated. It is a time, when, as the Psalm says, “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.” We fully acknowledge that God has worked salvation in us, and we say, “The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”
The stage of regeneration is also captured in our reading from Isaiah. The prophet speaks for us all when he says,
I delight greatly in the Lord,
my soul rejoices in my God.
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (Isaiah 61:10).
When we have reached the stage of regeneration we have been saved. So we are clothed in garments of salvation. We are filled with love for God, so we rejoice greatly in the Lord. Filled with holiness and heavenly loves, Isaiah captures our regenerated condition, “You will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God.” Priests and ministers mean those who are filled with heavenly love and whose minds are filled with heavenly wisdom.
The processes of repentance, reformation, and regeneration go like this: First, we see sin in ourselves. We fully recognise our shadow and accept that it is in us. This is the process of repentance. Second, we learn the path that God would have us walk. We gather truths from many different sources. We learn teachings that instruct us about who God is, and what the heavenly life is. Then we work on our thoughts, our emotions, and our behaviors, and bring them in line with the way we have been taught. This is the stage called reformation. Finally, a great shift takes place in our personality. Instead of acting from what we know, we act from what we love. In this stage our heart takes the first place, not our thinking. We have trained ourselves to feel heavenly loves, and these are all we desire. Now, thought becomes subordinate to love. From what we love, we know what is true. Our hearts can feel truth when we hear it. We no longer have to figure things out with our minds. We have so learned what heavenly love is like that we instinctively do it and follow our hearts. We no longer need our minds to tell us what to do. As Swedenborg says, “the first is a state of thought from the understanding, and the second a state of love from the will” (TCR 571). This is the stage called regeneration.
I found this process well illustrated in a passage from Confucius. He describes this process excellently. In his analects, he writes,
The Master said, At fifteen I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground. At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven. At sixty, I heard them with docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right (Confucius, Analects, Book II, no. 4).
The Master begins his faith journey with a desire to learn. Learning the Way and how to walk in it is the beginning. This is at the age of fifteen. Then, learning all the while, it isn’t until he reaches the age of fifty that the Master can say, “I knew what were the biddings of heaven.” He has spent his life learning what the ways of heavenly life are. His faith journey implies struggle in applying what he knows about heavenly life to his own life. It isn’t until the Master gets to sixty that he hears the biddings with a docile ear. I take this to mean that he hears heavenly truth without resistance from his lower self and the ego and selfishness that can sometimes dominate our lower self. Then at the age of seventy, the Master enters the stage that Swedenborg would call regeneration. Confucius can follow his heart freely. He can do this because he has learned the biddings of heaven first. Then he has implemented them into his life and formed his life around what he has learned. Then, after training himself to love what he has learned about heaven, he can follow his heart. He says, “At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart, for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.”
So the stage of regeneration is a stage of love. We act from love, not from teachings about love. The stage called regeneration is also a stage of freedom. For we act freely from our hearts with no constraint or compulsion. We are no longer restraining our dark side, because we have overcome it. We are no longer compelling our feet to walk in God’s commands because we do them willingly. Our minds no longer tell us what to do. Rather, our hearts tell us what to think. We love doing what is good. And from our good feelings, we see what it true. Swedenborg writes of this process as follows,
When this latter state begins and is progressing, a change takes place in the mind; the mind undergoes a reversal, the love of the will then flowing into the understanding, acting upon it and leading it to think in accord and agreement with its love; and in consequence so far as the good of love comes to act the first part and the truths of faith the second, man is spiritual and is a new creature; and he then acts from charity and speaks from faith; he feels the good of charity and perceives the truth of faith; and he is then in the Lord, and in peace, and thus regenerate (TCR 571).
Love, after all, is the primary thing of religion. We do indeed seek out teachings and religious truths. But for Swedenborg, the point of spiritual truth is only to lead us into love and into a good life. He even says that truths fall away from us and dissolve like fall leaves if we haven’t incorporated them into our lives. For Swedenborg truth serves one function only–to lead us into love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson took issue with this aspect of Swedenborg’s theology. Emerson admired Swedenborg’s mind and intellect. He was impressed with Swedenborg’s philosophical and scientific accomplishments. And he was also impressed with how rational Swedenborg’s theology is. He felt that Swedenborg cheated his own mind by subordinating intellect to feeling–mind to heart. And as a philosopher in his own right, Emerson wanted mind to be preferred over heart.
I see so much humility in Swedenborg to make this statement. Here was a man who is credited as one with the highest of geniuses in the history of the western world. And yet, this ponderous genius claims that intellect can only go so far. He lays aside his intelligence in favor of a loving heart. He lays aside all his knowledge, to valorize a good life as the goal of knowing.
I think that our society, sadly, agrees for the most part with Emerson. I think that we value intelligence too much. We flatter a mother’s child when we say that he or she is smart, or intelligent. We look up to smart people. But how often do we praise others for being loving? Do we give kindness and gentleness the same praise we do intelligence? Would a mother be as flattered should someone say of her child, “He or she is so loving and kind.”
But love is where it’s at. Jesus tells us this plainly and simply, “My command is this: Love each other” (John 15:12). I am reminded of a story that one of the ancient church Fathers told. It was about the Apostle John. John was very advanced in years. He was so old that he had to be carried wherever he went. On one occasion he was asked to speak at a dinner of early Christians. All he said was, “Little children, love one another.” Someone spoke up, “Is that all you have to say? I have heard you before and that is all you ever say.” John replied, “That is all I remember, resting my head on Christ’s breast, and if you do that, it is enough.” Love is where it’s at. Little children, love one another.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 4, 2011

Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8 Psalm 80

In both our readings this morning we see the topic of reformation. Reformation is the second step in spiritual rebirth, or what Swedenborg calls regeneration. Last Sunday we talked about repentance. This Sunday we will look at reformation. And next Sunday about regeneration. These are the Swedenborgian 3 “R’s”.
In our reading from Mark, John the Baptist says that when Jesus comes He will baptise with the Holy Spirit. This means that Jesus will regenerate us. In the baptism services of this church, we talk about regeneration. We say that baptism symbolises the spiritual cleansing of regeneration. For we are born for this world by our biological birth, and we are reborn for heaven by the spiritual cleansing of regeneration. Jesus tells us that we need to be reborn in order to enter heaven. He says, “Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). For some Christian denominations, being reborn is an instantaneous act when a person takes Christ into their life. For us, it is a lifelong process of character reformation. Swedenborg calls this process regeneration, which in Latin means “rebirth.” The process of regeneration is the same as letting God’s Holy Spirit into our soul, so that we are living in Jesus, and for Jesus. Jesus talks about this in John 15:5, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”
To see how our passage from Isaiah treats regeneration we need to look at the internal sense. We are told to, “prepare the way for the Lord.” This means that we are to make ourselves fit to receive God. Then Isaiah talks about the process of reformation. He says,
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain (Isaiah 40:4).
The valleys are the lower things of our personality. They are external knowledges and, in general, our lower self, or natural person. Raising up the valleys means that our natural person will be raised up from worldly interests into heavenly interests. It means that our lower self will be filled with heavenly goods and truths and that it will accord with the loves and truths of our higher selves. Making mountains low signifies lowering of self-interest or pride. Mountains mean pride when they are said to be lowered. And our spiritual washing means a breaking up of self-will and the desire to make everything go our way. So our Old Testament reading also treats the subject of reformation.
We saw last Sunday that repentance is the identification of sin. Reformation is when we act on the truths we know. Reformation is when we form our actions and thinking in accordance with the spiritual principles we know.
Repentance and reformation are essentially the same process. When we get to regeneration, though, things are quite different. Repentance and reformation are when we act on the truths we know to form our lives into an image of heaven, and into a likeness of God, our Creator. The stage of regeneration is when we are no longer acting from truth, but we then act from love. When we are in the stage called regeneration, we are no longer applying truths to our lives. Rather, we are acting from heavenly love because we have formed ourselves into a vessel that can hold God’s Spirit. These are two distinct stages. Swedenborg breaks these two stages down for us.
There are two states that man must enter upon and pass through, when from being natural he is becoming spiritual. The first state is called reformation, and the second regeneration. In the first man looks from his natural to his spiritual state and longs for that state; in the second state he becomes spiritual-natural. The first state is formed by means of truths, which must be truths of faith, and through these he looks to charity; the second state is formed by means of the goods of charity, and by these he enters into the truths of faith. Or what is the same, the first is a state of thought from the understanding, and the second a state of love from the will (TCR 571).
I find it quite interesting that we don’t need to finish the work of reformation in this world. Swedenborg tells us that, “The man who while in the world has entered upon the first state, after death can be introduced into the second” (TCR 571). The stage of reformation is when we look from a natural state to a spiritual state. This means that we have a sense of what spiritual life is. In order to see what spiritual life is, we need to know about it. This calls for instruction. Spiritual education forms our understanding. There are two basic parts to our psyche: our will and our understanding. Our will is composed of all our feelings and emotions. The understanding is composed of all the things we know and think. The process of reformation draws on our understanding, in that our understanding tells us what spirituality is like.
that a person may be regenerated, it is necessary that his regeneration be effected by means of the understanding as the mediate cause; and this is done by means of the various kinds of instruction that the understanding receives, first from parents and teachers, afterward by reading the Word, by preaching, books, and conversation . . . The things which the understanding receives from these sources are called truths; it is the same, therefore, whether reformation is said to be effected by means of the understanding, or by means of the truths which the understanding receives; for truths teach man in whom he ought to believe, and what he ought to believe, also what he ought to do, thus how he ought to will; . . . so long as anyone sees and mentally acknowledges that evil is evil, and good is good, and thinks that the good ought to be chosen, he is in what is called the state of reformation (TCR 587).
Our understanding is formed from a variety of sources, as said above. It is formed from parents and teachers, from Sunday school, from personal reading of the Bible, from books, from conversation, and a whole host of other sources of input.
Forming our understanding into an image of heavenly truth is the first step in the process of reformation. Our higher self is where we are first made into a form of heavenly truth. Then, our task is to let this higher self shine down into the lower self. In Swedenborgian language, this would be called letting out internal shine forth in our external.
Swedenborg says that this process of making the internal external may not be easy. Our external person has been created as an image of the material world and to satisfy all that we need in the material world. Two great drives emerge in our external person: love of the world and love of self. These two loves can grow to unhealthy levels. Love of the world can turn into greed. And love of self can grow into a selfishness that looks down upon everyone else in the world. Love of the world needs to be transformed into a love for our neighbor. And love of self needs to be transformed into humility before God, who is to be loved above all.
Transforming our natural drives into spiritual loves can cause conflict. Our worldly self may rebel against heaven’s loves. Swedenborg describes this process in language that suggests Paul. Last Sunday we reflected on Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul writes,
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. . . . For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8: 5-6, 13).
This contrast between flesh and spirit finds its way into Swedenborg’s description of spiritual temptation,
A conflict then arises because the internal man is reformed by means of truths; and from truths he sees what is evil and false, which evil and falsity are still in the external or natural man; consequently disagreement first springs up between the new will, which is above, and the old will, which is below; and as the disagreement is between the two wills, it is also between their delights; for the flesh, it is well known, is opposed to the spirit and the spirit to the flesh, and the flesh with its lusts must be subdued before the spirit can act and man become new (TCR 596).
God is unceasingly in the act of reforming and regenerating us. And it is comforting to know that everyone can be regenerated. The processes that we all go through are as different as are our faces and personalities. Everyone has their own unique way of walking from the world into heaven. But all can make this journey–even those who grow up in hostile environments and have learned survival skills based on hatred and abuse. Swedenborg promises that,
Every person may be regenerated, each according to his state; . . . those who are principled in natural good from their parents, and those who are in evil; those who from their infancy have entered into the vanities of the world, and those who sooner or later have withdrawn from them; in a word, those who constitute the Lord’s external church are regenerated differently from those who constitute his internal church, and this variety, like that of men’s features and dispositions, is infinite; and yet everyone, according to his state, may be regenerated and saved (TCR 580).
I find it comforting to hear that even those who are in evil and those who are deeply immersed in the vanities of the world–even these can brought into God’s kingdom of love.
Our Bible passage from Mark this morning looks forward to the coming of the Lord, as does our reading from Isaiah. Isaiah tells us that “The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.” He tells us further to shout, “Here is your God!” As we work through the process of reformation, we are letting the divine rays of light into our hearts and actions. We are piercing the gloom of the material world and are looking into heaven’s dazzling light. As we let the baptism of the Holy Spirit fill our personalities, we will grow closer to our Lord and our love for Him and our neighbor will intensify. The glory of the Lord will be revealed in us and to us. God will “gather His lambs in His arms, and carry them close to His heart” (Isaiah 40:11). We will go up onto the high mountain and shout, “Here is our God!”

O Come Emmanuel
Rev Dr. David J. Fekete
November 27, 2011

Isaiah 64:1-9 Mark 13:24-37 Psalm 80

This Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent. There are four weeks of Advent during which we look forward to Christmas and Jesus’ birth into the world. Both of our Bible readings for this morning treat different approaches to the coming of the Lord. Our reading from Isaiah begins with a plea for the Lord to come down to earth. “O that you would rend the heavens and come down” (1:1). Our reading from Mark is about the second coming of the Lord, when the Son of Man will come in the clouds and in great power and glory. And in both readings we find a statement about how we are to receive the Lord when He comes. In Isaiah there is a consciousness of sin, and an appeal to God to forgive. In Mark there is the warning that no one knows when the Lord will appear. We are told to watch and be ever ready.
Our reading from Isaiah comes from the time of the Babylonian captivity. Scholars call this section of Isaiah “Second Isaiah.” They hold that this part of Isaiah was written by students of the prophet at a later date than when Isaiah actually lived. Throughout Second Isaiah is the idea of the coming of the Lord. This is also called the Day of the Lord. These passages look forward to a great and awesome day when the Lord Himself would come down to earth and set things right.
When these prophesies were written, things were terrible for the Israelites. The Northern kingdom of Israel had been erased by Assyria. The Israelites had been dispersed and the northern kingdom had been colonized by Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah had been conquered by Babylon and the Israelites had been taken captive and deported to Babylon. You could say that the nation of Israel had ceased to exist. The land promised to Abraham way back in Israel’s beginnings had been taken away and given to foreigners. Things looked so hopeless that the prophets thought no human power could ever make things right. They thought that only the Lord Himself had sufficient power to right the terrible wrong that had happened to the Israelite nation.
This hope for the Lord to come and right things in the world was part of the Christian belief system. The prophesies in Second Isaiah about the coming of the Lord were incorporated into Christ’s birth in the world. The early Christians made sense of Christ’s birth and life on earth in terms of these Isaiah prophesies. They saw Christ’s birth as the fulfillment of these hopes. They saw Christ’s birth as the fulfillment of those hopes that the Lord would come into the world and make things right. As the fulfillment of these Isaiah prophesies, Jesus is called God. The birth of Jesus is that coming of the Lord into the world.
But a problem arose about this understanding of the prophesies. While Christians see Jesus as God incarnate, Jesus didn’t set things right in the world as the prophesies said the Lord would. Thus arose the doctrine that there would be a second coming of the Lord, when Jesus would come back and do just what the prophets said He was supposed to do. The passage we read from Mark, in fact, begins with a quotation from Isaiah that is all about the dreadful day of the Lord. The day when the Lord would come and judge the world. The Isaiah passage is as follows:
See, the day of the LORD is coming
–a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger–
to make the land desolate
and destroy the sinners within it.
The stars of heaven and their constellations
will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light (Isaiah 13:9-10)
So the great and dreadful day of the Lord was postponed from Jesus’ birth and life on earth into a time in the future when He would come back to earth and fulfill completely the Isaiah prophesies.
Both our readings this morning speak to our relationship with God and His coming. In Isaiah, we find a consciousness of sin. And in our reading from Mark, we are told to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Jesus says, “Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” He compares the second coming to a homeowner who goes away and sets a guard at his front door. Jesus is the homeowner and we are the guards at the front door. So Jesus tells us,
Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back–whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: “Watch” (Mark 13:35-37).
What Jesus is telling us is to be ready spiritually for the time when we will see Him face to face.
The Israelites at the time of our reading from Isaiah, as I have said, were in captivity in Babylon. They saw the destruction of Judah and their captivity as the consequences of their sin. The prophet says,
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are as filthy rags . . . No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins (Isaiah 64:6,7).
Yet in all this despair there is hope. The prophet calls on God to come and redeem His people.
Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. O look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people (64:9).
These passages from Mark and from Isaiah talk to each one of us and our relationship to God. They suggest to me Swedenborg’s three stages of spiritual growth. In this and in the next two talks, I will discuss these three stages. The three stages Swedenborg talks about are repentance, reformation, and regeneration. In Catholicism these three steps are called contrition, confession, and satisfaction. These are three doorways we walk through in preparing to be ready to meet Jesus face to face. Through these three portals, we will be ready and not asleep when the owner of the house comes home.
Today I will talk about the first doorway. That is repentance. Repentance is the beginning of our progress to new life from God. It is a death to sin and it leads to a rebirth into new life. Paul talks about this stage as a death to the flesh and to new life of the Spirit.
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. . . . For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8: 5-6, 13).
Swedenborg is right in accord with Paul’s clear statement, “If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Swedenborg teaches that, “Acts of repentance are all such as cause one not to will and hence not to do evils which are sins against God” (TCR 510). Swedenborg gives us simple instructions as to the repentance process:
How ought a person repent? The reply is, Actually; and this is, for one to examine himself, know and acknowledge his sins, make supplication to the Lord, and begin a new life (TCR 530).
This means that it is incumbent on us to learn what sin is. Some people I have talked to say that conscience is an inborn thing, and that everyone can feel whether a thing is right or wrong, good or bad. That may be true. Some also say that God gives us a feeling of love and goodness and that we can feel when we are straying from that intuitive feeling. I think that there is merit in this too. I also think that some form of moral education is needed–whether it be from upbringing, religious instruction, philosophy, or social formation. Acts of repentance are all based on what we think is evil or sin. Swedenborg tells us that, “if a person, according to his knowledge of what sin is, examines himself, finds something in himself, and says to himself, ‘this is a sin,’ and abstains from it” then he or she has repented truly (TCR 525). Notice Swedenborg’s wording, “according to his knowledge of what sin is.” Repentance is a very individual thing. And it all depends on what we think evil is.
Our understanding of what evil is grows, deepens and changes over time. Our conscience is continually forming and expanding as we understand more and more about God’s kingdom, and as we acquire new truths. As our conscience expands, we become more responsible for our actions. We have a better grasp on God’s kingdom and we know more keenly when we are straying from it.
But repentance is not to be seen as a terrible and overly difficult process. We have the power to do it from God. And our main task is to align our lives with what we understand to be good–even as we turn away from what we understand to be bad. Sin is not something that we blunder into. It is a deliberate and purposeful act. Swedenborg writes,
he who from purpose and determination acts contrary to one precept [of the Decalogue], acts contrary to the rest; because to act from purpose and determination is wholly to deny that it is a sin . . . and he who denies and rejects sin in this way, thinks nothing of all that is called sin (TCR 523).
The other side of this coin is that if we, from purpose and determination, try to act according to what we know to be good, then we are on the heaven-bound path. Again on this point, Swedenborg writes,
they who by repentance have removed some evils that are sins come into the purpose of believing in the Lord and loving the neighbor; these . . . are kept by the Lord in the purpose to abstain from other evils; therefore, if they commit sin from ignorance or some overpowering lust, this is not imputed to them, because they did not intend it (TCR 523).
Well, this has been a lot of talk about sin–a subject no one likes to hear about. But I think it appropriate when we are preparing for Christmas, the time of Jesus’ birth in the world. I think that this is what Jesus means when He tells us to be ready and to keep watch. We don’t want to be caught sleeping when we see Jesus face to face. And as Paul says so plainly, ” but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Repentance is like a maintenance program. It keeps us honest. It keeps us humble. It reminds us that human potential is limitless. Repentance keeps us in the intention to do good, to love our neighbor, and to love God above all else.

He Shall Tend His Flock
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 20, 2011-11

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-27a Matthew 25:31-45 Psalms 95, 100

Through the image of the lamb, the Bible teaches about God’s love for us and also our response to God’s love. In our reading from Ezekiel, we heard about how God will call everyone to Himself and care for us as a shepherd does his lost sheep. We have the promise that no matter where we stray, or how far we wander from God, God will always be with us, and call us back to Himself. In Ezekiel we read, “I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness” (34:12). It is God who forms His church from the outpouring of His love and wisdom. But it is up to us to remain open to God’s call and to respond. When we accept God’s love in our hearts, we are lifted up into heavenly joy. This is the symbolism of the mountains on which the flocks will feed. Ezekiel says that God’s flock, “shall feed on rich pastures on the mountains of Israel” (34:14). The mountains are high places in our spiritual life. They are those times when we feel particularly close to God. The mountains also symbolize a final state in our regeneration. The mountains are when we are elevated up into heaven and we are acting out of love for God and love for our neighbour. When we are acting from God, we are in a state of rest. When we respond to God’s call, we will rest on His bosom, and find peace. So the prophet tells us, “The mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good pasture land” (34: 14). We can summarize our reading from Ezekiel as being about our relationship to God and God’s relations with us.
Our reading from Matthew is about how we integrate our union with God in our lives. It is about our relations with each other. We are called to show care to each other. Our spiritual relations are not only between God and ourselves. Our spiritual life is also about how we relate to each other. In fact the two—our relations with God, and our relations with each other—these two are intimately related. The one is the measure of the other. When Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats, the deciding criterion is how we relate to each other. The sheep, who will go to God’s kingdom, are those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, who welcomed the stranger, who clothed the naked, who took care of the sick, and who visited those in prison. Jesus tells these good people, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40). This is a clear statement about the relationship between God and our relations with each other. When we do good to each other, we do good to God. And when God is in us, we care for each other.
These two passages are all about the two great laws that Jesus gives us. There are no greater commands than love to God and love to our neighbour. These two commands are actually one. God is in each one of us. What we do to each other, we do to the God who is in each of us. We are each created in God’s image and likeness. And as images of God, we are creatures of God. And further, since all the life we have is from God, God is inside each one of us at our deepest and most profound level. God’s Divine Human gives us our humanity. Seeing each other as a finite image of God’s divine humanity makes us treat each other with great care and respect. Since God’s image and likeness is in us, we are to treat each other as we would Jesus Christ. I do not mean that we would worship each other. That would be carrying this point to an absurd conclusion. What I mean is that we regard each other with the same reverence that we would Jesus. For when we see one another, we are seeing the Divine Human; we are seeing Jesus’ face. “Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).
Swedenborg distinguishes between God’s image and God’s likeness in us. God’s image is the truth that we know. But we are not a likeness of God until we act upon this knowledge. God’s likeness is the love that we embody. We can be an image of God without being a likeness of God. This would be the case if we only know about spirituality. We can elevate our consciousness into the light of heaven and learn deep truths. But knowledge alone is dead without life based upon this knowledge. “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead,” says the Apostle James (2:17). And our passage from Matthew is clear. We are the sheep that Jesus gives His kingdom to when we treat each other well and with caring. When we act on our spiritual knowledge, we become likenesses of God. When we put into practice all we know about God’s love, then we are both an image and also a likeness of God. In different words, the image and likeness of God is the union of truth and good, or wisdom and love.
We are formed into God’s image and likeness over time. This process is done by God with our cooperation. God calls to us wherever we are in our faith journey. Our reading from Ezekiel is comforting and reassuring. Wherever we are, we can never stray beyond God’s voice. He calls to us wherever we have been “scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness” (34:12). The darkness that can oppress us in our lives will not have the final say. Wherever we have been scattered by worldliness, self will or other distractions of this world, God will call us into rich pastures and lead us to the mountain top. It is God’s will that everyone, everyone be joined in ecstatic love with Himself. Swedenborg tells us that, “the Lord wills the salvation of all” (TCR 142). God wishes to give joy to all through Himself. Swedenborg writes,
The third essential of God’s love, which is making them happy from itself, is known from the eternal life, which is blessedness, joy, and happiness without end, which God gives to those who receive His love in themselves; for God, as He is love itself, is also blessedness itself; for every love breathes forth from itself enjoyment, and the Divine love breathes forth blessing, joy, and happiness itself to eternity (TCR 43).
Through our lives, through struggles and setbacks; through uplifting and inspired moments, God is calling, calling, to bring us into His spiritual home, to our spiritual home. As we respond to God’s voice, we are formed into an image of heaven, and our whole personality becomes gentle, meek, and innocent. We truly become the lambs whom Jesus brings into His kingdom. We become the sheep who rest in Israel’s mountains. This innocence and meekness was caught beautifully by the poet William Blake. He was influenced by Swedenborg, and read some of Swedenborg’s works. I can’t help but think he had some of these ideas of heavenly progress mind when he wrote his poem THE LAMB:

THE LAMB

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, & bid thee feed
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, & he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

As we respond to God’s call, we acquire that tender voice of the lamb. We become meek and mild. And like the Holy One who is called the Lamb of God, we become like Jesus, who is in each of us with His innocence, peace, and loving joy.

Thy Kingdom Come
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 13, 2011

Exodus 19:3-6 Luke 17:20-21; Matthew 13:31-32 Psalm 145

This past week I was immersed in the business of our denomination, followed by the business of the National Council of Churches of Christ Governing Board and then I attended the Ecclesiology Summit of the National Council of Churches. These meetings led me to contemplate what God’s kingdom is. I see three aspects to God’s kingdom. First, God’s kingdom involves the individual. Second, God’s kingdom involves the church–this includes each individual church community, the different denominations, and also the church universal including all the denominations taken together. Third, God’s kingdom involves the transformation of the world.
I was privileged to enjoy two magnificent worship services at the National Council of Churches. The first was a service hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The second was one hosted by the Greek Orthodox Church. The Lutheran service was what we would call “high church.” There were responses, prayers, standing and sitting, as well as an invitation for all the Christian denominations to partake in the Holy Supper. The minister gave a stirring and moving sermon. Also for those denominations who forbad members to receive the Holy Supper in any other church tradition than their own, the Lutheran Church invited them to come up and receive a blessing. I also attended a Greek Orthodox service which was spectacular. The church had a large dome over the congregation with images of Christ and the saints painted around the inside. There were icons standing in front of the gate which led into the inner sanctuary. And there was a large mosaic of Mary and Jesus on the wall behind the altar. All the priests wore black robes and had capes and gowns put on over them. The bishop’s cape was so long that an acolyte had to hold up the train. A priest swung an incense censor with bells on it, and the Bishop came in with a beautiful staff. Chants were sung by five priests.
At the Ecclesiology Summit, we considered the very nature of the National Council of Churches. The question was raised as to whether the NCC could be considered a church. We all agreed that we are defined as a covenant of communions. We asked if the NCC was a super church, consisting of all its member bodies. Could the NCC define our identity as a church? The general opinion was that our identity as a church was defined by our separate denominations. But the question was a good one, looking to a time when all our brothers and sisters in the differing churches could all come together in the name of Jesus Christ.
The different denominations define the church differently. In the Lutheran tradition, the church is defined as an institution in which the Word of God is preached and the sacraments are administered. In the Orthodox tradition, the church is characterized by community, the sacraments, and worship administered by the priests. The Quaker tradition is not identified as a church, but rather as a fellowship. They do not ordain ministers nor do they perform the sacraments. In one of our meetings, we had a discussion about whether the church could sin, or whether only the individuals in the church could sin. This question was raised because some denominations say that the church is holy, created by God, and sinless. But the recognition was there, that humans do sin. So this distinction became one of how to define the church. Is it that perfect organization called by God? Or is it a collection of individuals who constitute the church?
Our definition of the church is twofold. It involves what Swedenborg would call externals and internals. Of primary importance is the internal of worship. The internal of worship is what goes on in the hearts and minds of us all. The internal of the church is love in our hearts and truth in our minds
Internal worship, which is from love and caring, is real worship; and that external worship without this internal worship is no worship (AC 1175).
So we think of the church primarily as what goes on inside the heart and mind of all the individuals of the church. The church as a whole, is the collection of individuals who embody God’s love and wisdom in their hearts and minds. So when we are individually in good and truth, we are a church in its smallest form. And when we all come together collectively, we are the church as a body.
Whatever is said of the church is said of each individual of the church, who unless he were a church, could not be part of the church (AC 82).
So far I have been talking about the internal of the church. But the church has an external component as well. These are the rituals and symbols that we call the church. The external of the church is this building in which we come together. It is the cross in stained glass above the altar. It is the hymns we sing, and the psalms we chant. It is the faith we recite together. The external church is all the things we see and do together in this church building. Swedenborg says that the externals are important, too. The relationship between the internal church and the external church is like the relationship between the soul and the body. The internal of the church is the soul; the external is the body. So the internal of the church is a caring heart and the external of the church is our collective worship together. We need both to be whole people. We need the external rituals of worship to ground our internals. Furthermore, the externals of worship excite and stimulate our internals. A feeling of reverence and holy love filled me at that Orthodox service, with its beautiful symbols. The external rituals of church open up our hearts to receive God and then give us an opportunity to express these feelings.
But a person, while he is in the world, ought not to be without external worship also. For by external worship internal things are called forth, and by means of external worship the external things are kept in a holy state, so that the internal things can flow in (AC 1618).
God’s kingdom, then, is what exists in the hearts of each one of us when we feel love and think truly. This is the aspect of God’s kingdom that Jesus means when He says, “The Kingdom of God is with.” But God’s kingdom is also what happens in the world. God’s kingdom is a powerful force that is operating on the world to transform it into heaven on earth. The book of Revelation describes violent wars and calamities. There are earthquakes and plagues. Angels pouring our bowls of God’s wrath. There are mythic symbols of dragons and horsemen flying through the heavens. But these calamities end with a beautiful picture of the heavenly city descending from heaven like a bride prepared for her groom. In this city there is no sun or temple, for God Himself will be the sun and the temple. Trees grow beside the river of life that heal the nations. This is God’s promise to us. This is the kingdom of God that will, I say that will come. This is the image of the mustard tree. God’s kingdom is advancing. It may be just a seed now, or a sprout. But it will grow into a great tree in which the birds of the air can make nests.
When we look out at the world, what do we see? Certainly, we see the calamities described by John in Revelation. But do we see God’s Spirit transforming the world? We can if we have eyes. There are peace initiatives going on in the United Nations and by groups like Amnesty International. There are the peace, justice, and hunger initiatives put forth in the National Council of Churches. There are philanthropists like Bill Gates who works to bring God’s kingdom on earth.
In our time, we see both the promise that God’s kingdom is coming like the bride, as well as the struggles like those described in the earlier parts of the book of Revelation. But the real question for us is this: Are we bringing God’s kingdom to earth? The power of God’s loving Spirit works through humans. And it is up to us to bring heaven to earth. So I ask again, are we agents of God’s kingdom? Are we transforming the little world that exists all around us? Are we a church in least form? Are we one of a kingdom of priests? God’s kingdom in us is a heart of love. Are we accepting God’s love in our lives? Are we showing God’s love in caring deeds to those around us? Are we giving of ourselves to make the world we know God’s church on earth? These are the questions that matter to us. These are the questions that make us a church in least form. And together we become a church collectively. Then all the churches together can call God’s power and presence into a troubled world. We can together call and give birth to a better tomorrow than we know today. When we pray “Thy kingdom come!” it is up to us to work with God to fulfill our petition and to participate with God in the coming kingdom which will not fail.

A New Heart and a New Spirit
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 30, 2011

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 Matthew 21:23-32 Psalm 25

The Prophet Ezekiel states something that sounds simple. He tells us that if we turn from wickedness we will live. He tells us further that God will judge each of us according to our ways. He enjoins us to get a new heart and a new spirit. We find in the prophet a beautiful statement about God’s love for the whole human race. God says in Ezekiel, I takes no pleasure in the death of anyone.” Our reading concludes with the statement, “Repent and Live!”
This reading is all about personal responsibility. We are to take an active role in our spiritual life. The prophet is very optimistic about human power. He simply says, “Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.” In this reading there is no suggestion that we may not have the power to turn from our offenses. It appears simply to be assumed that we have the power to refrain from evil.
Many Christian churches would have problems with this passage from Ezekiel. As I have said before, some mainline Christian churches think that faith is what saves us, not good works. They are suspicious of any attempts to do good and practice works as part of our salvation process. I once made a Reformed minister very nervous once when I talked about our understanding of regeneration. I told him that we need to act as if we have all the power to turn from sin and do good. The Reformed church teaches that we have no power to do good. All salvation is done by God without interference from human effort. They are suspicious of any human effort in the act of salvation. This is where the doctrine of predestination comes in. They teach that God has already decided who will be saved and who will not. It’s already done before we are born. And no human effort can change this predestination. Our destiny is written in stone. And Lutherans teach also, that faith is what saves. For those who believe that Christ died for them, Christ’s righteousness is given to them and they are saved. When I mentioned to a Lutheran bishop our doctrine that we need to act as if we had the power to change our direction and turn from sin, he called me a semi-Pelagian. Pelagius was a Christian living in the fourth century AD. He taught that we have the power to save ourselves without divine aid. He was declared to be a heretic. His teachings are called Pelagianism. The Lutheran bishop I spoke with was not far off in calling me semi-Pelagian. In fact, with the qualifying word “semi” I rather accepted this title.
As Ezekiel teaches us, we have to power to turn from evil and do good. God continually knocks at the door, but we must open it. We must respond to God’s call. We cooperate with God in our own salvation. We see our relationship with God as if it were a love relationship. God loves the whole human race. And as with all lovers, God asks us to love Him back. He gives us total freedom to love Him or to turn from Him. Only with free will can our relationship with God be a genuine love relationship. If we were powerless in our relationship with God, as the Reformed teach, then there would be no mutuality in our relationship with God. We would be programmed human computers. We all know that we cannot compel someone to love us who doesn’t. This is a law of love we all know. Think of all the love songs and poems that have been written about lovers being spurned by those they love. God’s love is the same. God wants us all to return His love and to unite with Him. So he gives us the power to reciprocate.
But we also need to keep in mind those two words, “as if.” While it looks like we are turning from evil and doing good by our own efforts, this is an illusion. It is God in us that is giving us that power. Without those two words, as if, we would be Pelagian all the way. We are, however, semi-Pelagian. We acknowledge that God gives us the power to turn from evil and to do good. Unlike Pelagius, we believe that we need God’s aid. But God’s aid comes in the form of personal responsibility. God gives us the water and soap, we need to wash ourselves. That is an image used by Swedenborg to show how we are to turn from evil and do good, as Ezekiel calls us to do.
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 will and ability; therefore use these My gifts and endowments as your own, and you will be purified” (TCR 436).
When I used this image with the Reformed minister I was talking about, he thought for a moment. Then he said, “But God gives us the soap and water.” “Yes,” I said. That seemed to satisfy him.
This process of turning from evil and doing good is a growth process. Swedenborg uses several images about growth to explain our regeneration. At first I had the idea that regeneration was linear. That is, we shun one sin at a time in a series. Thinking that way, I ignored those passages that suggested growth. But I now see that as we turn from evil, heavenly love enters us. The process is actually a separation of evil from our souls so that we can be filled with God’s love and goodness. So as our evil enjoyments are separated from us, we are filled with good enjoyments. Our whole personality is transformed. This is the new hearts and spirit that Ezekiel talks about. “Get a new heart and a new spirit.” Swedenborg comments on that very passage:
A new heart here means a new will, and a new spirit means a new understanding; for heart in the Word signifies the will, and spirit when joined with heart signifies the understanding. It knows from reason that a regenerate person has a new will and a new understanding, because these two faculties make a person, and they are what are regenerated. Therefore every person is such as he is as to those two faculties (TCR 601).
As evils are separated from us, heaven is implanted in us. We receive heavenly loves and enjoyments in exchange for evils loves and enjoyments:
It follows that evils with a person are removed and separated, . . . and that evils, as they are removed, avert themselves, and that this takes place in the same degree in which heaven is implanted, that is, as a person is made new (TCR 613).
All the enjoyments we know flow from the things we love. I love music, and so I enjoy writing it and listening to it. I love Carol, so I enjoy being with her. The process of regeneration is a process in which we grow out of one type of enjoyment into another type of enjoyment. Here, Swedenborg uses words that no one today likes to hear about. He talks about sin and evil. Perhaps it is a reflection of the Lutheran culture he inherited. In fact, Ralph Waldo Emerson was very annoyed by what he called the Lutheran preacher that kept rearing its ugly head in Swedenborg. Maybe today Swedenborg would have used different language. Maybe he would talk about behaviors being changed. Survival behaviors from dysfunctional environments being replaced with healthy bahaviors. However you call it, I agree with Swedenborg that spiritual growth is growth. We move from one state of being into another. We move from one way of enjoyment into another way of enjoyment. This is what is meant by the blessing we hear from time to time–”The Lord keep our going out and our coming in, from this time forth, and even for evermore.” The going out, is leaving behind our old way of being. And the coming in is acquiring the healthier, more heavenly ways of being. The main point, though, is that we come into healthier and more heavenly enjoyments. Our old enjoyments become distasteful, as we feel healthier enjoyments.
All affections have their enjoyments; but such as the affections are, such are the enjoyments. Affections for evil and falsity also have their enjoyments; and before a person begins to be regenerated, and receives from the Lord affections for truth and good, those enjoyments appear to be the only ones; so much so, that people believe that no other enjoyments exist, and consequently that if they were deprived of these, they would utterly perish. But they who receive from the Lord the enjoyments of affections for truth and good, see and feel by degrees the nature of the enjoyments of their former life, which they believes to be the only enjoyments–that they are vile in comparison, and indeed filthy. And the farther one advances into the enjoyment of affections for truth and good, the more does the person begin to regard the enjoyments of evil and falsity as vile, and at length to be averse to them (AC 3938).
As we feel healthy loves that are good, and as we delight in truth, maladaptive ways of life become distasteful to us. We just don’t like them anymore. I think of addictions when I read this passage. Addicts come to a point where they are sick and tired of their addiction and the ruin it causes. Then they become sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. When they reach despair, they put down their addiction. Then they begin to discover all the warm feelings of love and healthy enjoyments. Enjoyments that were masked by the numbing effects of substance abuse.
This is true on the spiritual plane as well. Lutherans and Methodists call this sanctifying grace, and the Reformed call this sanctification. The Reformed minister I talked with called it God shining a flashlight on our lives. We see in ourselves limitations and maladaptive ways of living, and begin to feel the enjoyments of spiritual love. We begin to turn from those areas of self on which God has shined the flashlight. As Paul says, we put off the old self and put on a new self:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 22-24).
And as we turn away from our limitations, we begin to feel the enjoyments of heaven. As we enlarge our hearts to receive life from God, with His love, we are elevated upward into heaven. The whole process is like our biological birth. It is like conception, gestation in the womb, birth, and education. Our conception is when we begin to see our evils, or survival mechanisms that no longer work for us. The gestation, birth and education are like the new heart and spirit we acquire. This biological process is a natural image of our spiritual rebirth. It is what Swedenborg calls a correspondence. The whole natural world corresponds to spiritual realities. And this is the case with the birth process. Swedenborg also compares it to the growth of a tree.
That a person can be regenerated only by successive steps, may be illustrated by the things existing in the natural world, one and all. A tree cannot reach its growth as a tree in a day; but first there is growth from the seed next from the root, and afterward from the shoot, from which is formed the stem; and from this proceed branches with leaves, and at last blossoms and fruits. . . . They who have a different conception of regeneration know nothing of charity and faith, and of the growth of each according to a person’s cooperation with the Lord. It is evident from all this that regeneration is effected in a way analogous to that in which a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born and educated (TCR 586).
As we are perfected by God, with our cooperation, we become that fruit tree planted by the still waters of Psalm 1. We become the tree bearing good fruit of Matthew 7:17. With the new heart and new spirit in us, we become angels–whether on this earth or in the next life.

The Lord’s Universal Mercy
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 23, 2011

Jonah 3:10-4:11 Matthew 20:1-16 Psalm 145

Our Bible selections this morning treat an important religious principle. They treat God’s relationship with the whole human race on the one hand, and on the other hand they treat our own personal feelings about each other. We find a reflection on God’s will and on our will. The readings point to a possible disjunction between the way God governs the world and the way we would like to see it governed.
In the story of Jonah we see that God’s love goes out to the whole human race. In this story we see that God hears prayers of everyone who call upon Him. This theme is first introduced when Jonah is in a boat. God has told Jonah to preach the Word of God to the city of Nineveh. But Jonah rebels against God’s call, flees and buys passage on a boat bound for another city called Tarshish. While he is on the boat a terrible storm breaks out and the sailors cry out to their several gods. The storm grows worse and they ask Jonah about his God. Here we find the first statement of God’s universal power and mercy. Instead of calling Yahweh the God if Israel, Jonah calls Him, “the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” So here we see that God governs the whole world, not only the people of Israel. Jonah admits that he is fleeing from God, and even tells the sailors to throw him into the sea. Hesitant to do this, the sailors pray to Yahweh and ask forgiveness for throwing Jonah into the sea. When they do so, the sea instantly becomes calm. God has listened to the prayers of the sailors, who weren’t Jews. Awed by this, the sailors offer sacrifices and make vows to Yahweh. God’s power and mercy is recognized by these non-Jews. As we all know, Jonah is swallowed by a great fish who carries him to the shores of Nineveh after all. Jonah preaches to the Ninevites, telling them that God will destroy their city in forty days. The Ninevites believe Jonah and they all repent, fast, and put on sack cloth. When God sees their humility and repentance, He has compassion on them and doesn’t destroy the city. This is the second instance in the story where we see that God’s mercy extends to the whole world, even to the inhabitants of Nineveh. Jonah admits that God loves everyone. He says to God, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”
Nineveh was chosen in this story for several good reasons. First of all, the Ninevites were considered idolatrous. They worshipped foreign gods and made statues and idols to their gods. Israelites would consider this breaking the first and second commandmenst. Second, and probably more important, Nineveh was the capitol of the Assyrian kingdom. And it was the Assyrian kingdom that had conquered and devastated the northern Kingdom of Israel. An Israelite would no doubt cherish hatred for this kingdom.
We see this hatred in Jonah. After he preaches the Word of God’s impending destruction, he sits under a shelter and waits to see if God will destroy this hated city. He already has told God his anger at being called to save the Ninevites. He is so angry that he wants to die. But the conclusion of the story tells us, in a final note, that God cares about the whole human race. God says to Jonah,
Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?
This story teaches us that God loves the whole human race. It teaches us that God can and does save followers of all faiths–Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and all the different forms of Christians we see in the world. This story calls us to see other people and faiths the way that God sees them–as our fellows, as our sisters and brothers, as fellow angels on the path. Swedenborg has a vision of hope that all of Christendom would come together and worship God as one church. He says that if only worship of God and love for the neighbor are held up as principles of faith, then all the theological differences that separate us would be seen merely as differences of opinion. The doctrines that divide us would be seen as varieties of ways to understand the mysteries of faith, which each Christian would leave to the conscience of each other.
In the Christian world the doctrines are what distinguish the churches; and from them people call themselves Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists, or the Reformed and the Evangelical, and by other names also. It is from what is doctrinal alone that they are so called; which would not be at all, if they would make love to the Lord and good will toward the neighbor the principal things of faith. The doctrines would then be only varieties of opinion respecting the mysteries of faith, which truly Christian people would leave to everyone according to his or her conscience, and would say in his or her heart that one is truly a Christian when he or she lives as a Christian, or as the Lord teaches. Thus from differing churches there would become one Church; and all the dissentions which exist from doctrine alone would vanish; yea, the hatreds against one another would be dissipated in a moment, and the Lord’s kingdom would come upon the earth (AC 1799).
When Swedenborg speaks of the hatreds among fellow Christians, this is no mere theological speculation. The thirty-years’ war that erupted just before Swedenborg’s birth was largely caused by Protestant rebellion against the Holy Roman Empire. It was a devastating war that ultimately engulfed all of Europe It left Germany decimated and reduced its inhabitants by half. The country of Sweden played a large role in this war. The thirty-years’ war, and other national hostilities based on religion, inspired the philosopher Immanuel Kant to create a system of morality that is based on reason alone–not religious affiliation. Even if war is not the result of intolerance, still Christians are often divided by their faiths. Some even think that other Christians are damned to hell for not thinking as they do. Swedenborg himself writes many damning passages against other Christian sects of his time. While he does want to put forth his doctrines, I don’t think it serves us to judge other faiths according to their beliefs. We can’t see into the hearts of other Christians and know whether they are good or evil. In my experiences with the National Council of Churches and with the Interfaith Centre, I meet such friendly people and people who show such good will. Their actions and spirit speak for themselves. And I am happy to be living here in such a diverse and cosmopolitan city as Edmonton is, in which so many cultures and faiths are represented.
Swedenborg shows a tension in this. In the passage I just quoted, we see Swedenborg accepting other faiths as mere differences of opinion. Then there are those passages in which he denounces what he calls falsities of other faiths. The tension is there. I think our best course is to assume sincerity in other faiths, and to see doctrinal differences just as Swedenborg sees them in the passage above–as “varieties of opinion respecting the mysteries of faith.” This does not mean that we are to give up our own voice and belief system. Not at all. Our opinions respecting the mysteries of faith need to be honored as much as we honor others. The image Swedenborg gives of religious plurality is not a melting-pot. Rather he sees it as complimentary jewels on a king’s crown. He sees,
the church in the whole aggregate, which in itself is one, but various according to reception. These varieties may be compared to the various jewels in a king’s crown; and they may also be compared to the various members and organs in a perfect body, which still make one. The perfection of every form exists from various things suitably arranged in their order (AR 65).
Perfection is in variety that works together, not in uniformity.
The same is true of faiths outside the Christian world. Some Christians think that only those who accept Jesus as their savior can be saved. I have met these Christians–here in Edmonton and in Florida. They refer to John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This doctrine is stated even more forcefully in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” I was going to do an internship with a Lutheran Minister in Florida. He did an internet search about our church and studied it diligently. When we met, he had many passages highlighted in yellow. One was our teaching that everyone can be saved who practices their religion as best as they know how. He pointed to that line and said, “I can’t accept this.” For him, it was Christ’s passion on the cross that saves us, and without faith in Christ’s sacrifice, one couldn’t be saved. This is the view held by many Christians. Swedenborg himself is aware of this. He writes,
It is a common opinion that those born out of the Church, who are called heathen or gentiles, cannot be saved, because they have not the Word and thus do not know the Lord, and without the Lord there is no salvation.
Reason alone tells us that God could not, that God would not damn all the billions of other faithful people who worship other religions. What kind of God would do that? We have seen in our Bible reading, too, that God’s love goes out to the whole world. It went out to the sailors on the boat, and it went out to the idolatrous nation of Nineveh. Swedenborg teaches the same God, whose love is universal for the whole human race. In Heaven and Hell Swedenborg writes about those born outside of the Christian faith.
But still it may be known that they also are saved, from this alone, that the mercy of the Lord is universal, that is, toward everyone . . . for the Lord is love itself, and His love is to will to save all. Therefore He has provided that all may have religion, and by it acknowledgement of the Divine, and interior life (HH 318).
So we say in our faith every Sunday, “God is present to save everyone, everywhere, whose lives affirm the best they know.”
Swedenborg’s vision of churches all uniting together in love of God, and appearing as beautiful jewels on a king’s crown is in reach. Movements like the National Council of Churches of Christ, movements like the Edmonton Interfaith Centre, and celebrations like the Parliament of World’s Religions are all testimonials to a greater unity in worship of the One God. Our church has a proud history in this. It was a Swedenborgian, Charles Bonney, who was president of the World’s Congress Auxiliary in 1893, of which the Parliament of World’s Religions was one convocation. It was no doubt his Swedenborgian faith that taught him God’s love for all peoples of good will and devotion to God. As always, Swedenborg’s theology is founded on the Bible. And the story of Jonah teaches us that God loves the faithful of the whole world. Will we be like Jonah and protest against God’s compassion for those we personally don’t approve of? Or will we embrace our fellows–Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians of other faiths. I think the answer for us is clear.

Complacency, Thankfulness, and Compassion
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 9, 2011
Thanksgiving Sunday

Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43 Luke 17:11-19 Psalm 118

We celebrate Thanksgiving Day this time of year because it is harvest time. In ancient Israel, the fifteenth day of the seventh month was the date of their festival called Sukkot. We translate this Hebrew word as the Festival of Booths, or Tabernacles. In ancient times, Israelites would fashion huts of branches in which they would live for a week.
This festival represented several things. One was the wandering in the wilderness that the Israelites did for forty years after their liberation from Egypt. Living in the huts was a reminder of the primitive conditions that the Israelites underwent in their wanderings. But more importantly, the Sukkot Festival was a celebration of thankfulness for the crops that had just been harvested. The very life of the Israelites depended on the harvest season. A bountiful harvest meant survival and prosperity, while a lean harvest threatened their very survival. In our urban society, we are quite removed from the harvest cycles. We go to supermarkets and Superstores whose shelves are never empty. Our only real connection with the fall harvest may be a slight annoyance at a price increase from a certain produce. Farmers do depend on the harvest in their own fields and in the fields of the global market for their livelihood. But we in the city take it for granted that there will always be food on the supermarket shelves.
It’s easy for us to get complacent about all manner of things in our lives. If we have worked hard, we may find ourselves in a comfortable retirement. If we have a good job with benefits, we feel secure in our lifestyle. So we may not realize just how much we have to be thankful for. It is holidays like this that make us pause and think, and take the time to realize that we do need to give thanks to God for all the good things we enjoy.
In our complacency, we may not realize that we need to give thanks for even the basics of life. We have food, shelter, transportation, clothing, and recreational activities and services. In our complacency we may complain that we do not have enough of these things. We may want more money, more luxurious foods, designer clothes, luxury automobiles. When we think this way we become discontent. We meditate on what we don’t have. The opposite of this discontent is humility and gratitude. When we are tempted to grumble about our lot in life, we will be well served to make a list of things we have to be grateful for. This list can be very basic. Food, a roof over our heads, transportation, clothing. When we consider these things from a grateful heart, we will find ourselves in a much more peaceful and tranquil state of mind.
All that we have is a gift from a loving and generous God. We cry out to God when we are in need. Why not give thanks to God for what we have, as well. In our New Testament reading, ten lepers cry out to Jesus when they are sick. But when they are healed only the Samaritan comes back to Jesus to give thanks. In this story, Jesus again calls attention to the hypocrisy of the Jews of His time. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews. And Jesus uses this despised race to demonstrate what genuine gratitude is, while pointing out the complacency of the Jews of His time.
Giving thanks for what we have, and living in contentment with what God gives us is a spiritual quality. Swedenborg says that those who are in heavenly innocence,
live content with what they have, whether it is little or much, because they know that they receive as much as is useful–little if little is good for them and much if much is good for them (HH 278).
The person who is in heavenly innocence doesn’t bother him or herself about tomorrow, or worry about the future. They know that God is watching over us and provides for our needs.
They have no anxiety about the future, but refer to anxiety about the future as “care for the morrow,” which they say is pain at losing or not getting things that are not needed for their life’s useful activities (HH 278).
To live this way may be hard for us. We may dwell only on what we want, but don’t have. We may be consumed with ambition to rise to the top of our business or work. Of course there is no harm in wanting to better ourselves in life. The problem comes when that is our only concern. While we are striving for a better life, we must also remain content with what we have. Only by maintaining this tension will we know true peace of mind. Living content in the present–the day, or moment–is ancient wisdom that goes back as far at least as Jesus. In Matthew 6:34, Jesus says,
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Twelve Step programs use this wisdom to great effect. One day at a time. Thinkers of our day have capitalized on this wisdom. For instance, Eckhart Tolle a while back rose to great acclaim by teaching us to live in the moment.
The real spiritual meaning of living in the moment, and of being content with what we have, is a profound realization. It means that we are content with the way God is leading us. God is always looking toward our spiritual welfare. We can often see only our state in this world. But God is always looking at our spiritual condition. And God will always give us what is good for our spiritual condition. So trust that God is taking care of our spiritual needs is what gives us the power to rest content with what we have in the world. When our consciousness is on eternity, as is God’s, then the affairs of this world become less important. God knows what is good for our souls; we don’t always see what we need. So, once again, those in heavenly innocence say that, “they do not know what is best for themselves–only the Lord knows; and in His sight everything He supplies is eternal” (HH 278). Trusting that God is leading us ever toward Himself and ever into heavenly happiness will give us a contentment and a happiness even in this world. Our happiness may indeed be darkened somewhat by our worldly needs, but it is there nevertheless. Swedenborg discusses this issue.
As regards the happiness of eternal life, the person who is in affection for good and truth cannot perceive it when he is living in the world, but a certain enjoyment instead. The reason is, that in the body he is in worldly cares and in anxieties thence which prevent the happiness of eternal life, which is inwardly in him, from being manifested in any other way at that time. For when this happiness flows in from the interior into the cares and anxieties that are with the person outwardly, it sinks down among the cares and anxieties there, and becomes a kind of obscure enjoyment; but still it is an enjoyment in which there is a blessedness and in this a happiness. Such is the happiness of being content in God (AC 3938).
Everything we have in this world is a gift from God, and everything we receive leads us toward greater heavenly bliss. When our hearts rest secure in God’s leading, then we see that what we have in this world is enough. I keep coming back to a line from Walt Whitman’s poem “The Sleepers.” In that poem Whitman writes,
It seems to me that everything in the light and air ought to be happy;
Whoever is not in his coffin and in the dark grave, let him know he has enough.
But our contentment in God’s providence should not make us indifferent to the world around us. Once again, we can become complacent in the gifts we have in this country or in the lives we live in Edmonton. We have food; many do not. In some developing nations starvation and thirst are common. In some nations the water from nature is so polluted that people have to buy bottled water. And if you are poor, as many are in these nations, this means that water is unavailable to you. Here in Canada, the bad economy has caused many to struggle for the basic necessities in life. And here in Edmonton, there are those who line up for sustenance in food pantries and soup kitchens through no fault of their own. In the light of these issues, we can be very thankful for the food we have. But our thankfulness means nothing unless it is colored by compassion for those who don’t have.
Compassion is a noble feeling that signals a solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need. Those who hunger; those who thirst are fellow humans with lives just as important to them as our lives are to us. In Buddhism, there is a class of worshippers who take a vow to postpone their final entry into bliss until the whole world is relieved of suffering. There are two cardinal virtues in Buddhism: wisdom and compassion. Some make compassion to be the core virtue of the whole Buddhist religion. I think that Jesus calls us to a similar compassion. The suffering of others is our suffering. We cannot be complacent while others hunger and thirst.
We are not all in a position to give to charities. Some of us can barely make our own ends meet. We don’t have the fortune of Bill Gates. But when we are able, we need to be ready to respond with compassion to the world around us. We can support humane legislation when our government proposes it. We can respond with humanity when we see those less fortunate than we are. Some are in difficult straits through no fault of their own. I heard an inspiring story about a friend of mine who had been homeless a year and a half ago. This friend now has a union job. With a heart overflowing with compassion, and in an effort to give back from all the help that she had received, she offered a ride to two people in need. One ride took her 2 hours out of her way to bring an acquaintance to a job he needed to get to. The other ride was for a down and out girl seemingly abandoned by society. She also gave this girl personal counsel about overcoming addiction. There are all around us ways for us to make our feeling of compassion tangible. We don’t need to be a Bill Gates to do a good turn in the world around us. If we keep open eyes, we will see opportunities to act on our compassion.
Well this sermon has turned out rather preachy. But please know that I am talking as much to myself as I am to you. I care deeply about these issues. And what I am saying, I believe, is what Jesus asks us to do. I am proud of all that this church does to help those in need. Food Bank Day today is just one such example. In this holiday season, let us all just take a few moments and give thanks for the good things we have, trust that God is giving us everything that our souls need for eternal happiness, and let us keep a compassionate heart and continually seek opportunities to show our compassion in loving deeds.

Happiness on the Natural Plane
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 2, 2011

Genesis 25:19-26 John 15:1-12 Psalm 148

This Sunday I would like to follow up on my talk about bearing fruit. Last Sunday I talked about how love flows forth into good works. This Sunday I would like to emphasize why good works matter. I will discuss first why good works matter, then how good works flow into us from God, then the benefits that come from doing good works.
Jesus says in the Gospel of John that he is the vine and we are the branches. He says further, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John15:5). The fruit that Jesus is talking about are all the good things that we do from a heart of love. Last Sunday we saw that willing good is internal and doing good is external. Swedenborg tells us,
Charity and good works are distinct from each other like intention and action, and like the mind’s affection and the body’s operation; consequently, also, like the internal person and the external . . . therefore charity, because it is of the internal person, is to intend well; and the works, because they are of the external person, are to do well from intending well (TCR 374).
The external person that Swedenborg speaks of is also called the natural level of our personality. So we can also say that doing good is an activity of the natural level of our personality. Let me take a moment to discuss the levels of our personality.
There are three levels to our personality: the internal, the rational, and the natural. The internal is our spirit, and it lives in the spiritual world. Most of us are not conscious of this level. The Rational level is the highest reaches of our mind. It can see what we are doing and make decisions about whether our emotions and actions are in keeping with God’s precepts. In our rational mind are all the teachings that we have learned about God’s kingdom. In it also are all the good feelings of love that God gives us. The natural level is the part of us that communicates with the world. In that level are all our worldly desires, attentions to the needs of the self, and the actions that we do in the world.
All of these levels need to receive life and love from God. The process by which we grow towards God is called regeneration. This is a life-long process. Over the course of a lifetime, we let more and more of God’s love into us and we learn more and more truths about God and what His will for us is. We are first regenerated in our higher levels. Our internal and rational level are regenerated before our natural level is. That is because our rational level needs to know what God wants for us before it can direct our natural level to do these things.
But regeneration needs to continue into all the levels of our personality. This means that our natural level needs to be regenerated too. The part of us that lives in the world needs to become oriented to heaven. All of our knowledge about God’s ways and all of our feelings of love for our neighbor and love for God need to show themselves in our behavior. It is important for all of our higher feelings and thoughts to become rooted in our actions. Unless the higher levels of ourpersonality shine forth in our natural level, we are like a house without a foundation. Swedenboerg is very clear about this. He says,
The natural, which is external, must be regenerated; for unless it is regenerated, the internal has neither foundation nor receptacle; and if it has no foundation nor receptacle, it altogether perishes (AC 6299).
Swedenborg uses an analogy to explain this doctrine. Spiritual thoughts and feelings without spiritual actions are like a head detached from the body.
Good will and faith are only mental and perishable unless they are determined to works and coexist in them, when possible. Has not man a head and a body connected by the neck? Is there not in the head a mind which intends and thinks, and in the body power which performs and executes? If therefore man were only to intend well or were to think from good will, and were not to do well and perform deeds from it, would he not be as a head only, and thus a mind only, which cannot exist without a body? Who does not see from this that good will and faith are not good will and faith while they are only in the head and its mind and not in the body? (TCR 375)
So this is why good works matter: without a life of good works, our spiritual loves and thoughts have no foundation and they will dissipate.
Swedenborg suggests that bringing our good will and faith into our natural level may be difficult. Our rational mind is an image of heaven, while our natural level is an image of the world. In our natural level are all the knowledge and emotions that are oriented toward success in the world. Thus in our natural level are desires for self-gratification, desires for worldly success, desires for income, and the knowledge to bring these things about. These things are not necessarily opposed to heavenly desires. We need to take care of ourselves or we will be a burden on society. But if our natural level is not rendered open to heaven, then we will become interested only in these worldly things. Then it will be difficult for God and heaven to flow into our lives. These worldly desires must be rendered compliant with heavenly and God-centered beliefs and loves. So Swedenborg teaches,
in order for a person to become spiritual, his natural must become as nothing . . . for the natural has drunk from infancy nothing else than the things of selfish and worldly lusts, thus contrary to charity. . . These evils cause that good cannot flow in from the Lord, . . . But it should be known that it is the old natural that must become as nothing; . . . and when it has become as nothing, a person is then gifted with a new natural, which is called the spiritual natural–spiritual from this, that the spiritual is what acts through it, and manifests itself through it . . . and when this comes to pass, a person receives good from the Lord; and when he receives good, he is gifted with truths; and when he is gifted with truths, he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom; and when he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom, he is blessed with happiness to eternity (AC 5651).
The way our natural level becomes compliant with our higher level is by removing the things that block God’s inflowing love. We need to let go of worldly attachments that concern only selfish ambition or worldly wealth. Then, when we have let go of these impurities that block God’s love and wisdom, we can feel heavenly joy even in our natural life.
The impurities of the natural man are all those things which are of selfishness and love of the world; and when these impurities have been washed away, then goods and truths flow in, since the impurities are all that hinder the influx of good and truth from the Lord; for good is continually flowing in from the Lord (AC 3147).
Swedenborg tells us that washing away the impurities in the natural level can be a struggle at times. He writes that, “before these two are conjoined, the person cannot be an entire person, nor be in the tranquility of peace, as the one contends with the other” (AC 2183). One contends against the other when we try to hold onto the things we love too much from this world.
But when we have reduced our natural level to compliance with the rational level, all our spiritual loves will flow from God down into our natural degree. Our behavior then will conform to what we know to be God’s will. Then our natural degree will become transparent and heavenly good will flow from our rational degree through our natural degree into our behavior. We will be living good lives. And then we will become truly happy and at peace.
I remember when I was learning jazz trumpet. I had a solid foundation in classical trumpet and I went to a jazz musician in Detroit to learn about jazz. My teacher of classical trumpet was very strict. If I started to play and my pitch was slightly off, or my articulation wasn’t solid enough he would shout, “No! Stop! Start over!” This gave me a fear of making mistakes that I took to Jimmie’s when I went to learn jazz. Jimmie taught me a song, and invited me to try to improvise in it. Things didn’t work that well. I sounded stiff and regimented. I didn’t have that free-flowing jazz sound. I was nervous playing in front of him and my girlfriend who had come with me. I felt inhibited. I still had that fear of making mistakes that my classical teacher had instilled in me. I was trying to apply those classical methods of perfect pitch and rhythm to the jazz I was trying to play. Well Jimmie talked with me for a while. He gave me some pointers about my breathing. He set me at ease and made me feel comfortable in his house and in this new musical format. Then he said, “Let’s try it again.” It worked. I was improvising freely and coming up with some really inventive melodies. My heart flowed freely through my horn into a free flow of sound. We stopped after a while and Jimmie said, “Yeah, you were blowing jazz. You can play jazz after the blocks get removed.” Jimmie hadn’t taught me anything new, he just relaxed me and got the blocks out of the way. He got rid of the inhibitions that were blocking my emotions and my creativity. He set me at ease and took away my fear of making a mistake. I blew jazz when the blocks were removed.
I use that as an example of regeneration on the natural level. We need to take action and remove the blocks that would interfere with God’s inflowing joy and love. In theological language, this would be called removing the evils that stand in the way of goods. This discussion has been to illustrate how good works flow into our natural degree.
When we do this spiritual work, then God can flow into our lives and give us all the blessings of heaven. So Swedenborg writes, “There is nothing, therefore, that can make a person blessed and happy, but that his natural should be conformed to his rational and both joined together (AC 2183). The heavenly life is not a drudgery. It is enjoyable and fun. It feels good to be good. All the anxieties from worldly care are dissolved. And all the frustrations that come from selfishness fall away. The heavenly life is meant to be enjoyed. This enjoyment of life occurs when our natural level conforms to the heavenly loves and truths of our higher levels. Swedenborg tells us that,
Truths of the good of doctrine are the doctrines of love to the Lord and of good will toward the neighbor, which are said to be conjoined with good in the natural man, when to know them for the sake of doing them is a pleasure and an enjoyment (AC 3709).
This is the fruit of spiritual growth. The fruits of spiritual growth are blessed happiness, pleasure, and enjoyment in the life we are living. When our natural degree is regenerated, we enjoy life in a much more full way than is the case before. Then, heaven’s joy and blessings make up the life we enjoy in our day to day living. These, finally, are the benefits of doing good works–a happy life.