Church of the Holy City

Yielding Fruit in Season
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 25, 2011

Numbers 13:17-27 Luke 6:43-49 Psalm 1

In honor of Johnny Appleseed Day I thought I would talk about fruit, bearing fruit, and multiplying fruit, or fructification. It would be nice if I could find Bible passages that talked only about apples. But there are only 10 passages in the whole Bible about apples. Four are references to “the apple of his eye.” One is a metaphor in which a fair ruling in court is compared to an apple of gold. Four are romantic verses from the Song of Solomon. And one is about fruits like the apple tree withering. None of these references seemed fitting to use as a text for a sermon. But when we consider fruit in general, we find many fruitful passages.
Our reading from Psalm 1 talks about a person whose delight is in the law of the Lord. Such a person is compared to a tree that yields its fruit in season; its leaf does not wither; and whatever such a person does prospers. We will talk about this comparison of a person to a fruit tree a little later. Our reading from Numbers is about the spies’ report concerning the Holy Land. They bring back fruit from it: a cluster of grapes, some pomegranates, and some figs. The fruit from the Holy Land was evidence of its richness. Jesus uses the metaphor of fruit to talk about His true followers. He says, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.” He explains the metaphor by saying that, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart.” What Jesus means is that just as a tree bears fruit, so a good man brings forth good things from his good heart. The lesson is to bring forth good fruit. And if this weren’t clear enough, Jesus says outright, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” This verse clearly teaches that to be a true follower of Jesus, we need to put into practice the things that He says. Bearing fruit means doing the good things that Jesus teaches. We need to do good.
Some protestant churches are uncomfortable when we talk about doing good. They are uncomfortable for two reasons. First, they think that Paul says that we are saved by faith, not good works. One classic passage they are fond of quoting is from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, 2:15-16. There, Paul says,
a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ Jesus. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. . . .
From this passage they find the doctrine that we are saved by faith. They interpret the law as meaning all the good deeds mentioned in the Old Testament. So they come up with the doctrine that we are saved by faith, not good works. The second reason why they are uncomfortable when we talk about doing good is their revolt against Catholicism. They think that Catholics claim that by doing good deeds we can earn heaven. So they think that Catholics claim that by giving to charities, going to mass, and saying prayers, for example, we earn the grace we need for salvation. Protestants call this putting merit in good works, or in other words, taking credit for doing good.
But we all know intuitively that we need to do good to be heavenly. Jesus’ words could hardly be clearer, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart.” When Paul says that we are not saved by works of the law, he is not referring to all good deeds. Actually he is referring to the purity rituals of the Jews of his time, such as circumcision, kosher diet, and the many rules of behavior compiled by the rabbis of his time. In fact, in the same letter to the Galatians, Paul says,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22, 23).
So it is clear that we need to be good to come into heaven. It is also true that putting merit in good works, or claiming that we deserve heaven because we have done good deeds, is harmful. How, then, are we to do good so that it is heavenly good and not meritorious good?
The answer is that we are to do good that comes from a heart of love. As Paul says,
Serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13, 14).
When our good will comes forth in good actions, then we are doing good in a heavenly way. Then our good deeds are like a tree bearing fruit.
Swedenborg says that, “By fruits are signified the goods of love and charity” (AR 933). He explains this idea in greater depth in the Heavenly Secrets. There, he makes clear that the fruits of faith are good deeds that come from good will, or a good heart. Then he goes into even more depth. He says that love to the neighbor comes from a love for God. And then ultimately, the fruits of faith are God Himself.
Good works are the fruit of faith in the external sense or that of the letter, but those good works have no life unless they proceed from charity; and thus the fruit of faith in the next interior sense is charity. But as charity or love toward the neighbor ought to proceed from love to the Lord, this love is the fruit of faith in the internal sense; and as all love is from the Lord, it is the Lord Himself. For thus in the good work is charity; in charity is love to the Lord; and in love to the Lord is the Lord Himself (AC 1873).
This passage tells us that love to the Lord is the source of our good works. Only when we are filled with love are our good works heavenly.
As Jesus says, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart.” This teaching tells us is that in order to bring forth good things, we need a good heart. Our good heart is the love we have in our souls. The good things that we bring forth are the deeds that we do from our loving hearts. This can be thought of as inner and outer. Or in Swedenborg’s language, internal and external. Our loving hearts are internal and our good deeds are external. So we read,
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).
This is how we are like fruit trees. Our good intentions are like seeds. When we use our wisdom to bring these good intentions into act, we are like the tree that prepares the way for flowers and fruit. Then when our good intentions flow through our minds into deeds, we produce fruit. Then our whole person is involved in the good deed. It may be easy to see that good intentions and good deeds are connected. But the place of wisdom in this process may be a little harder to see. When we want to do something good, we need to find the right occasion, and we need to know how to do good so that the result will also be good. Giving money to a beggar may not always be a good deed. He may use the money to fuel an addiction. Or he may beg to avoid taking responsibility for his own life. We may feel compassion for a homeless person and from love we may want to help him. Perhaps giving him some food would be a more appropriate way to show love than tossing him some money and walking away. I use this example to show why we need to use wisdom when we intend to do something good. As Swedenborg says, our mind shows us, “when and how” we are to act in order to bring about good deeds. This whole process–the good intention working through our understanding, or our mind, to bring about good acts–is like a tree bearing fruit.
The intention searches the understanding for the means and modes of arriving at its ends which are effects; and in the understanding it places itself in the light, that it may see not only the reasons but also the occasions, when and how it is to determine itself into acts, and thus produce its effects which are works . . . This may be illustrated by comparison with a tree. The person himself, in all that belongs to him, is like a tree. In the seed of the tree are concealed . . . the end, intention, and purpose of producing fruits; in these the seed corresponds to the intention with a person . . . Then the seed from its interiors shoots up from the earth, clothes itself with branches, twigs, and leaves, and so prepares for itself means to the ends which are fruits; in these the tree corresponds to the understanding in a person. And finally, when the time comes, and there is opportunity for reaching the use, it bears blossoms, and yields fruits; in these the tree corresponds to good works with a person (TCR 374).
Like trees, we can be fruitful and multiply. We learn more truths. We feel a greater variety of heavenly affections. And our life becomes more and more perfected in heavenly uses and loving acts of charity. Swedenborg says that,
he who is being regenerated, after he has imbued the truths of doctrine, regards the goods of life in the first place, and in proportion as he does this, he ripens like fruit; and in proportion as he ripens, the seed in him becomes prolific (AR 84).
As trees produce seeds and multiply, so all the goods of a heavenly life will grow more abundant in us.
There is one final point I need to make about this fruitful way of life. I have said that good deeds that are truly good must come from a loving heart. But where does our loving heart come from? As you may guess, it is God Himself who gives us the heart that loves. Our love is actually God’s love in us. This is Swedenborg’s crucial and theologically brilliant term, “as if of self.” We do good as if it is ourselves that are doing the good. This means that to all appearances, it looks like we are the ones doing the good. But it is only as if. It is actually God in us that is doing the good. While it looks like we are doing the good, God is doing the good. This doctrine is as brilliant as it is necessary. It is brilliant because it makes us responsible for doing good, since we are the ones who appear to do it. But it also takes away any claim of merit or credit for the good we do. We can’t take credit for the good we do because it is actually God who is doing the good. The Lord lives in the love we feel, in the truths we love, and in the good deeds we do. Swedenborg sums up this complex doctrine in a simple phrase,
By fruits are signified the goods of love and charity, which are called good works . . . in the inmosts of the truths of doctrine and of life in the church is the Lord in His Divine Love, from whom all the goods which a person does apparently of himself (AR 933).
So we can with all eagerness bear fruit as the Bible instructs us to do. We can be like that fruit tree in Psalm 1 that bears fruit in season. We can be the grapes, pomegranates, and figs in the Promised Land. We can be the good tree that bears good fruit that Jesus speaks of. We can be the doer of good deeds without any of the nervousness that some churches worry about. We can be all these things because when we are a true fruit tree, it is God, the gardener, the source of all nature and life that is doing the good in us.

True Adult Innocence
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 18, 2011

Ezekiel 34:11-15 Mark 10:13-16 Psalm 19

This Sunday I would like to reflect on the subject of innocence. We immediately think of children when we consider innocence, and for that reason, I chose the New Testament passage in which Jesus praises children. And for an Old Testament reading I selected a passage from Ezekiel in which God says, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.” Being led by God, as we will see, is an essential aspect of heavenly innocence, so the Ezekiel passage treats directly of innocence, and does so as well by the use of the most innocent of animals, the sheep. But in Swedenborg’a theology, true innocence is an adult property. Not only can adults be innocent, like children, only adults are capable of true innocence. Swedenborg calls this adult innocence the innocence of wisdom.
Innocence is a very difficult quality to describe. We know it when we see it, but to describe just what it is isn’t very easy. Swedenborg acknowledges this,
Not many people in our world know what innocence is or what its quality is . . . It is, of course, visible to our eyes–something about the face and the voice and the gestures, especially of infants–but still we do not know what it is (HH 276).
But it is a quality that is imperative for our regeneration. This is why Jesus singles out little children and says, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15). I would emphasize the phrase, “Like a little child.” We need to be like little children, not children themselves. Salvation is like the state of children. And this likeness to children is that elusive quality of innocence.
Swedenborg contrasts the innocence of children with the innocence of wisdom, which adults have. He says, surprisingly, that children do not possess real innocence. This is because they are not yet their own persons. They do not have a rational mind of their own. And all of our spirituality must be freely chosen according to our best understanding–or, in other words, according to adult rationality. So Swedenborg says,
The innocence of infancy, or of little ones, is not real innocence . . . because they do not have any internal thought–they do not yet know what good and evil are (HH 277).
Some may quibble with this passage and say that children know very well what it is to be good and bad. But I think that what Swedenborg means here is that children do not weigh options, consider choices, and decide on their best course of action. Children are spontaneous and unreflective. Furthermore, for the most part their understanding of good and bad is almost entirely what their parents tell them–not what they, themselves, have reasoned out on their own. The innocence of wisdom, however, is a property of an adult mind. It is chosen by the adult intellect and according to principles that an adult lives by. The exact age when a child attains the stage of rationality can be debated by child psychologists. For Swedenborg, it would be around late teen years.
The innocence of wisdom is real innocence because it is internal, being a property of the mind itself and therefore of our will and our consequent understanding (HH 278).
When Swedenborg does set himself the task of describing innocence, it is all in reference to a person’s relationship to God. Innocence is the acknowledgement that all the good a person does, and all the good things a person enjoys are from God. Innocence is the realization that God is the source of everything spiritual, and everything heavenly. This is the polar opposite of self-centeredness. It is God-centeredness.
Because they love nothing more than to be led of the Lord, and attribute all things they have received to Him, they are removed from self-centeredness, and as far as they are removed from self-centeredness, so far the Lord flows in (278).
When self-centeredness is removed, then a person desires the good things of heaven, which are love for God, of love of truth, and love for the neighbor. These qualities, these good things of heaven, then compose the person’s character and they are all acknowledged as coming from God, not from the self.
People in a state of innocence do not take credit for anything good, but ascribe and attribute everything to the Lord. They want to be led by Him and not by themselves, they love everything that is good and delight in everything that is true because they know and feel that loving what is good–that is, intending and doing good–is loving the Lord, and loving what is true is loving their neighbor (HH 278).
The most crucial point about adult innocence is this attribution of everything good to God. This, as I have said, is also a removal from self-centeredness. What makes this point so crucial is that only when God is acknowledged as the source of everything good, can a person open up to God’s influx. When we see and fully accept that all good is from God, then we are lifted out of what Swedenborg calls proprium. Proprium is a difficult concept, and it makes sense to import that Latin word into English since I don’t think that there is an English word that covers all that proprium means. Those who have been through spiritual growth can identify what proprium is. It is that sense of self, that self-driven action, that self-centered complex of desires, it is all that is self with a small “s”. Proprium is the source of everything evil in us. Spiritual rebirth, then, is to be lifted out of this psychological complex of self-orientation, and into a psychological complex that is God centered. Salvation, or the heavenly loves that save us, all come from God. In Heaven and Hell Swedenborg begins by saying that the Divine of the Lord is what makes heaven. Heaven is what proceeds from God. And when we have God in us, we have heaven in us. God is all the goodness, happiness, innocence, and joy that make heaven. When we have those qualities in us, we are in heaven. So this is why it is so crucial to acknowledge that God is the source of everything good. It lifts us out of proprium, and to the extent that we are lifted out of proprium God flows in, and all of heaven with Him. This is what Swedenborg means when he says, “as far as they are removed from self-centeredness, so far the Lord flows in” (HH 278). He says this again in another place. He says that the highest angels, “are separated from what is of themselves, so that they live as it were in the Lord” (HH 280). They live in the Lord. Or put another way, the Lord lives in them.
I don’t mean to diminish the innocence of children entirely. We all feel that God and the highest angels are close to little children. Try reading the Bible to a little child. The unconditional love that a child gives his or her parents comes straight from God. And children play together in a mutual charity that emulates that of angels filled with love for the neighbor. It is in this state of childhood that many of our feelings for God are born. These early feelings of love remain with us and are a dwelling place for God in our hearts. But children can’t lay claim to this innocence. And it sadly fades with the onset of maturity.
When an adult is in innocence, he or she desires nothing more than to be led by God, not by proprium, just as a little child is led by their parents. Swedenborg writes, “They want to be led by Him and not by themselves” (HH 278). Again, “they love nothing more than to be led by the Lord, and attribute all things they have received to Him” (HH 278). But let us not confuse this with being gullible or incapable of independent thought. In fact, those who are in true adult innocence are the wisest of people or angels. This is because they are filled with God. And God is Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom. Innocent people indeed appear at time to be simple, but their good nature leads them to do and love everything that is Godly and good. This is what wisdom consists in.
They appear simple in outward form, and before the eyes of angels of the lower heavens they seem like children, thus as little ones, and also as not very wise, although they are the wisest of the angels of heaven (HH 280).
Since they ascribe all they have to God, God’s wisdom can flow into them and they are given spiritual perception and intelligence that far surpasses worldly intelligence. So Swedenborg writes of the truly innocent,
These for the most part appear simple in outward form, but they are wise and prudent inwardly. These are those who are meant by the Lord, “Be as prudent as serpents, and simple as doves (Matt. 10:16) (HH 278).
Those who receive more and more of God’s Infinite Love and Wisdom and who attribute everything to God become like children, but, as Swedenborg says, wise children,
Innocence attributes nothing of good to itself, but ascribes all good to the Lord, and because it thus loves to be led by the Lord, and from this is all reception of good and truth, from which is wisdom therefore a person is created so that . . . when he become old [he] becomes again like a child, but a wise child (HH 278).
I would emphasize here that a person who ascribes everything to God receives what is good and what is true in a preeminent sense. This would make their spiritual wisdom very great, indeed. There is a remarkable passage in Heaven and Hell about truly innocent people. The channels to God are so open, they can actually receive intuitive messages directly from God,
Divine truth, which they hear either immediately from the Lord of mediately from through the Word and preaching, they receive directly in the will and do it, and thus commit it to life (HH 280).
So the truly innocent can receive instruction directly from God, and as they ascribe everything to God they receive more than others God’s Infinite Wisdom. Also, the innocent immediately apply what they know to their lives, and have it written on their hearts and minds. This means that they would make the best choices and decisions in their lives, and that is what intelligence means.
As we know when we are around little children, and sometimes when we are in a spiritually healthy community, we can feel a wonderful bliss. This bliss can also come in prayer, in meditation, and especially when we are reading the Bible devoutly. This bliss is the state of innocence and its pure, heavenly enjoyment. I will conclude this reflection on innocence with a remarkable passage from Heaven and Hell,
Because innocence is the inmost in all the good of heaven, it so affects the mind of one who feels it–as on the approach of an angel of the inmost heaven–that he seems to himself to be no longer his own, and hence to be affected and as it were carried away with such a delight that every delight of the world appears to be nothing in comparison. I say this from having felt it (HH 282).

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Providence’s Winding Pathway
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 11, 2011

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Matthew 14:22-33 Psalm 105

The story of Joseph is a striking example of God’s Divine Providence. While Joseph goes through severe trials, the result of his journey is beneficial for all the players in his life–including himself. The way we journey as pilgrims in this life may be similar to Joseph. We may go through difficult times, we may appear lost at times, but for those who have a faith in God’s Providence, in retrospect, we can see that all the winding ways of our lives have resulted in spiritual growth for us.
In our Bible reading, things do not look good for Joseph. Hated by his own brothers, he is sold into slavery to the Midianites, who sell him to the Egyptians. In Egypt, other tragedies befall him. He is thrown into prison on false charges. But ultimately, Joseph rises to a position of power in Egypt. He rules as the Pharaoh’s right hand man. All of Egypt is under his command, except the Pharaoh’s own throne. Later, when the land of Israel experiences famine, Joseph gives food to his family, who travel to Egypt for aid. There is a tearful reunion of Joseph and his family. And in his position of power in Egypt, he is able to give his family the food they need. The very tragedy he experienced in his young years ended up with Joseph prospering immensely.
For many of us, life is a winding pathway through times of happiness and also times of sorrow and even despair. But all the while, God is leading us to heaven and heavenly joy and happiness. In every turn of our life’s direction God is leading us into greater love for Himself and for our neighbors, which is the same thing as saying that God is leading us to salvation. Swedenborg writes,
Providence continually regards what is eternal, and continually leads unto salvation, and this through various states, now glad, now sorrowful, which man cannot possibly comprehend, but still all are conducive to his eternal life (AC 8560).
When we look back on our lives, we see that the path we have followed has made us who we are. When we are in the depths of despair, and things look overclouded with sorrow, it is hard to maintain faith that God is still with us. There is that famous poem that we have on the wall downstairs called, “Footprints.” In that poem there are two sets of footprints on the beach. Then, for a time, there is only one set of footprints. The writer says to God, “Where where you when there were only one set of footprints,” thinking that those were his own footprints in a time of grief. God’s response is, “Those footprints were mine, when I was carrying you.” We can’t see Divine Providence working in our lives in the moment. But we can see Divine Providence when we look back on our lives. Swedenborg tells us,
It is granted to see the Divine Providence in the back and not in the face; also in a spiritual state and not in his natural state. To see the Divine Providence in the back and not in the face, is to see after the Providence and not before it; and to see it from a spiritual but not a natural state is to see it from heaven and not from the world. All who receive influx from heaven and acknowledge the Divine Providence, and especially those who by reformation have become spiritual, while they see events in some wonderful series, from interior acknowledgement they as it were see the Divine Providence, and they confess it (DP 187).
I know that when I look back on my own life, I can see that wonderful series of events that Swedenborg speaks of. And in my own life, I have experienced dark times, times when there were only one set of footprints on the beach. And as I look back, sometimes I wonder why God was carrying me, considering how angry I had become with Him. It is a measure of just how all loving God is. When I was in my twenties, I was preparing for ministry. I fully intended to become a Swedenborgian minister when I was thinking about my career at the age of twenty-three. So I enrolled in our church’s college, Urbana College. Urbana College isn’t a very well-known college in the US. But for Swedenborgian ministry, it is the best place to prepare for divinity school. From Urbana College, I went to our divinity school, the Swedenborg School of Religion. I was in our divinity school for five years when the church decided that it wouldn’t ordain me. That decision was reached in a three-hour-long meeting of the Council of Ministers while I awaited their decision outside the room. Since it was a closed meeting, to this day, I don’t know the whole story as to why they decided not to ordain me. I do know that I was an active alcoholic, and quite a loose cannon personally. When I heard the decision, I was enraged. From the time of my college years at Urbana College through my years in divinity school, I had put seven years of my life towards Swedenborgian ministry. I felt I had given my youth to the church, and it was all for nought. Furthermore, with only a degree from the unexceptional Urbana College and an unaccredited diploma from the Swedenborg School of Religion, I wasn’t in a very good position career-wise. While I was wallowing in gloom, one of the students said to me, “Oh, David, this may turn into something wonderful in time!” I didn’t want to hear this, and didn’t receive it very well. But it turns out he was right.
The course of my life proceeded into accredited graduate schools. First, my Master’s Degree at Harvard, and the my Ph. D. program at the university of Virginia. In these programs, my mind grew and expanded as I studied great works of literature and of the world’s religions. I became much more open minded. Before this, all I saw and knew was through the lens of Swedenborg. I judged by Swedenborgian doctrines. I was very narrow minded and parochial. Graduate study in religions of the world opened me up to people of other faiths, and taught me the interesting beliefs of other traditions and respect for people of other faiths. Then after all that intellectual work, I ended up in the mental health field in which my intellect was cut off as I worked with people’s moods. This looked like another setback, but it was another growing experience. My heart grew. I became more compassionate and my counselling skills improved. Then there was the gift of sobriety, without which I wouldn’t be able to receive any of these other gifts. There were also unexpected treats from God, like the gift of playing in a rock and jazz band. In the long run, I did become the Swedenborgian minister I wanted to be in my twenties, but I had so much more to bring to the ministry. I am now a much different minister than I would have been had I been ordained back then. Furthermore, by being kicked around by life, I grew more humble and my pride diminished. I’m actually glad for the way things turned out.
This narration exemplifies the passage from Swedenborg that I read at the beginning of this talk,
Providence continually regards what is eternal, and continually leads unto salvation, and this through various states, now glad, now sorrowful, which man cannot possibly comprehend, but still all are conducive to his eternal life (AC 8560).
Through all this, I became open to my neighbor. I saw that the immediate needs I thought I had to have, I could get along without. This is what is symbolized by the passage we heard from the New Testament. Jesus’ disciples are in a boat and a storm breaks out all around them. They are fighting against the wind. Waves and the turbulent sea symbolize temptations. They symbolize the despair a person goes through from time to time in life, and especially in one’s spiritual life. In the midst of this storm, Jesus comes to the disciples, walking on water and stills the storm. This signifies the state of peace that comes when temptations are quieted and new good has been insinuated into our minds and hearts. This would be like the compassion and open-mindedness that came to me through the trials in my life.
Temptations are not just allurements of the forbidden fruit. They are soul-stirring trials when we can’t see our way back to God and it seems we are on a course heading nowhere and lost. We can even despair of our salvation, and think ourselves bereft of the light of God’s love. These are the times when there are only one set of footprints on the sand. These periods break up our pride and teach us that we need God every hour and that all the blessings we have are gifts from God. Swedenborg speaks of,
a state of desolation caused by the privation of truth, the last stage of which state is despair. That despair is the last stage of that state, is because the thereby the enjoyment of the love of self and of the world is removed, and the enjoyment of the love of good and of truth instilled in its place; for in the case of those to be regenerated, despair has reference to spiritual life, and consequently to the privation of truth and good, since when they are deprived of truth and good, they despair of spiritual life; hence they have a sweet and blessed joy when they come out of their despair (AC 5279).
Would we humble ourselves and turn to God without such trials, I ask? There is a lyric from a song written by a friend of mine in Florida that goes, “Without those desperate times would we ever turn to you, and recognize our weakness?” I need to be clear, here, though. God does not send us these trials. It is we ourselves who bring them upon ourselves. It was my drinking and wild behavior that gave the Council of Ministers their doubts about me. God moderates these periods and guides them so that good will come of them and we will become more heavenly as a result.
So the path we take in this world is not necessarily an easy one. As Swedenborg tells us, “now glad, now sorrowful.” But Divine Providence does not let anything happen to us that does not conduce to our salvation and to greater conjunction with God and with heaven. Furthermore, all these trials bring us into greater love and this means into greater happiness. Through these temptations, Swedenborg tells us,
the Lord enters with affections of the love of the neighbor, and opens the window of his roof, and then the side windows, and makes him see that there is a heaven, a life after death, and eternal happiness; and by the spiritual light and at the same time by the spiritual love then flowing in, He makes him acknowledge that God governs all things by His Divine Providence (DP 201).
Those who trust in God can see this happening in their own lives. Whether we are now in a good state or whether we are now in a difficult state, we need to trust that God is with us, that God never gives up on us, and that God will bring us safely home to port. We need keep in mind the story of Joseph, and what looks bad now may turn into something wonderful down the road.

The Power of God’s Word
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
August 14, 2011

Isaiah 55:10-13 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Psalm 119

Our Bible readings this morning speak of the power of the Lord’s Word. In Isaiah we read,
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish . . .
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire . . .
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace (55:10-11).
In these few words, the whole of our regeneration by means of God’s Word is described. When we take the teachings we find in the Word into our hearts, and live by them, then we are regenerated by God. Then, we “will go out in joy and be led forth in peace.” We find the same teaching in Jesus’ words about the sower.
What was sown on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.
These passages both speak to our need for God’s Word, and also how our lives can grow spiritually from hearing it and applying it to our lives.
God gives us everything we need for regeneration in His Word, or the Bible. The Bible teaches us about God; it teaches us about our neighbors; and it teaches us the good things we are to do in life in order to come into heaven. These are the truths that all come from the Bible. And regeneration cannot take place without truths. Swedenborg writes,
Regeneration cannot take place without truths, by which faith is formed, and with which charity conjoins itself. There are three agents whereby a person is regenerated,–the Lord, faith, and charity; these three would lie hidden, like precious things of highest value buried in the earth, if Divine truths from the Word did not reveal them (TCR 618).
So the Bible is what teaches us the things that we need for salvation.
The Bible is where our church doctrines are drawn from. Swedenborg wrote thirty volumes of theology. But this theology didn’t spring forth from his head. Every doctrine he taught is supported by Bible passages. The more I read Swedenborg, and the more I see his careful use of the Bible to support his teachings, the more I am in awe of his genius and his scholarship. He seems to find just the right passage for his assertions and very often supplies many passages from all through the Bible to support his doctrines. And this support is from the literal words of the scriptures. As he himself says, “Doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, and be confirmed by it” (TCR 229). It is true that there is an internal sense of the Bible, but the doctrines that lead to our salvation are in the Bible as it reads in its literal sense. The internal truths can be brought forth through Swedenborg’s special enlightenment, but the things we need for our salvation are in the literal sense. No one is without the truths he or she needs for salvation. So Swedenborg says,
The doctrine of genuine truth may also be fully drawn from the literal sense of the Word; for the Word in that sense is like a man clothed, whose face is bare, and his hands also bare. All the things which pertain to a man’s salvation, are naked there, but the rest are clothed; and in many places where they are clothed, they shine through, as objects seen by a woman through a thin veil of silk before her face (TCR 229).
What this means is that passages like the ten commandments or Jesus’ two great commandments to love God and the neighbor are perfectly clear in the literal sense of the Bible. Passages like those are the bare face and hands of the Bible. And if a person follows them, he or she will find salvation.
But the Bible can be a hard book to read. There are many passages in it that do not look Godly. For instance, Jacob having two wives and also siring children from servant women does not look like the way God wants us to live. Then there are passages that say God is angry and vengeful. This is in the first commandment, where God says that He punishes, “the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” But this is immediately followed by the words that God shows “love to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.” Then there are passages in Joshua and Judges where whole villages with their women, children, and even livestock who are all commanded by God to be put to the sword. These are difficult passages in the Bible for many to accept. I should say that there are equally many passages that are beautiful and show God’s everlasting love. One such passage is in Exodus 34, when God is telling Moses His very name,
The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin (6,7).
It’s my feeling that people who are already set against organized religion ignore those beautiful passages and see only the former disturbing passages. But the truth is, they are there.
When we read the Bible we need to remember two things. The Bible was written about 3,500 years ago in a very different culture and by a very different people. It was a warrior culture and a warrior people. They wrote about God the way they thought. They themselves were vengeful, so they projected their own vengeful ideologies onto God. The second thing we need to keep in mind is that the Bible has an internal sense. The stories we read about are symbolic of spiritual matters. While the literal sense of some stories may seem harsh, when we consider them in their spiritual sense they are more acceptable. Not only are they ameliorated, but we see how they can benefit our own spiritual growth.
Swedenborg teaches that there are three levels to the Bible: the natural, the spiritual and the celestial. The natural level is the Bible’s literal sense. The spiritual level treats of a person’s regeneration and the internal development of the church. And the celestial level treats of the Lord. Actually, there are different numbers of levels in different places in Swedenborg. In some places, the first level of the internal sense is said to treat the individual’s spiritual growth; the second level is the internal of the church; and the third level is of the Lord. Then in other places there are six layers of meaning in the internal sense. But when the Bible is seen to treat spiritual matters, and not matters that happen on earth, it becomes a book that we can embrace with all its apparent horror. For instance, the cities in Canaan that Joshua plunders signify evil tendencies in ourselves that need to be eradicated. Viewed this way, it makes sense that nothing in the city is to remain alive. We are to eradicate the evils it symbolizes completely. In fact, the whole story of the liberation of Israelites from Egyptian slavery to settlement in the Promised Land is a symbol of our growth from the bondage of sin to liberty in the heavenly freedom of God’s love.
Swedenborg wasn’t the only theologian to teach that the Bible is written symbolically. Before him, Philo of Alexandria interpreted the Old Testament symbolically. Then, the Christian Origen applied a similar method to the Bible, as well. So did Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine. Augustine wrote a whole book called On Christian Doctrine. In it, he said that any passage in the Bible that doesn’t teach love for God and love for the neighbor must be taken figuratively. He writes,
Whatever appears in the divine Word that does not literally pertain to virtuous behavior or to the truth of faith you must take to be figurative. Virtuous behavior pertains to the love of God and of one’s neighbor; the truth of faith pertains to a knowledge of God and of one’s neighbor (On Christian Doctrine Book Three, X, 14).
These wise men, along with Swedenborg, realized that those harsh passages can’t be taken at face value. They are rather passages that another culture generated in accord with their own ways of life and they symbolize matters that relate to our spiritual development.
But at the same time, the Bible is a holy book that teaches the way to God. The symbols that these theologians talk about for the Bible are what Swedenborg calls correspondences. For Swedenborg, the whole Bible is written by these correspondences, or symbols for spiritual realities. Without an understanding of correspondences, the Bible can indeed look like a savage book. We of the Swedenborgian Church are fortunate that we can see these hard passages as symbolic of the Lord’s life and of our own spiritual journey. I can’t say where I would be in relation to the Bible if I weren’t raised with this doctrine.
For some this isn’t enough. Some see the savagery in the Bible and reject it wholeheartedly. They ignore the beauties in it. They ignore the gentleness of Jesus’ sayings. They ignore the parts that make sense spiritually. I sympathize with their difficulty. But I also wonder if their rejection of the Bible isn’t based on a contempt before examination, and a wilful desire to reject anything that speaks of organized religion.
Well, it’s not for me to judge. I acknowledge the problematic nature of the Bible. But at the same time, I uphold its divine origin. For me the Bible is God’s Holy Word. And as such, for me, the Bible is like:
the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish . . .
For me, the Bible contains everything I need for regeneration. For me, the Bible is the meeting place for God and the whole human race.

Peace to the Nations
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
August 7, 2011

Zechariah 9:9-12 Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Psalm 145

Our Bible readings promise us peace. And it is a peace that only spirituality can give us. It is a peace that only God can give us. Our prophesy from Zechariah states that the king to come will “proclaim peace to the nations.” We are told to “Rejoice greatly,” and to “shout.” And in the New Testament we find those precious words from Jesus, promising rest:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
We need to look at our Old Testament reading in its internal sense for it to speak to us meaningfully. This morning’s passage speaks of a king to come whose rule will extend from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth. In other words, this king will rule the whole world. This king is the long awaited Messiah. Here, Jews and Christians are divided about the nature of the Messiah. Jews see the Messiah as a great king who will come to earth and unite the world under his rule. Christians see the Messiah as Jesus Christ. And the opening of our passage seems to predict Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It reads,
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey (9:9).
This sounds like Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, when people threw palm fronds in front of Jesus as He entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. We could say that this prophesy has been fulfilled, if we read it as talking about Jesus. Like the king in Zechariah, Jesus’ rule is indeed over the whole world. He is indeed the Prince of Peace.
This interpretation is good, so far as it goes. But there is just one problem if we read this prophesy as being about Jesus. The king is supposed to “take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war horses from Jerusalem.” The “battle bow will be broken” and “He will proclaim peace to the nations.” As we know only too well, the battle bow is not broken in this world. And Jerusalem is even one of the flash points of international strife with Palestine. We are very far from finding peace proclaimed to the nations.
No, for this passage to read true, we need to see it as treating spiritual matters, not worldly ones. For while a time of peace may well come upon this troubled world, but if it does, I do not see it coming soon, but much, much later. In general, nations signify the good things of charity. Nations also refer to the reformed heart and mind of a person who is regenerating. Another meaning for nations is the worship of the church. This is in keeping with the other meanings, since worship is nothing else than love in a person’s heart, and truth in a person’s mind.
When we let our Divine King into our lives, then we first feel peace. Peace is a holy feeling that comes right from God through heaven. Some think of peace as quiet, or of the lack of problems from the world, or of the cessation of war. But spiritual peace is a special feeling that pervades the whole heart and mind and brings with it a holy clarity of thought and a heavenly rapture of emotion. Swedenborg distinguishes between heavenly peace and worldly ideas of it:
It is called peace in the world when wars and hostilities cease between kingdoms, and when enmities and discords cease among people; and it is believed that internal peace is rest of mind on removal of cares, and especially tranquility and enjoyment from success in business. But the angels said that rest of mind, and tranquility and enjoyment from the removal of cares and from success in business, appear as of peace, but are not of peace, except with those who are in heavenly good; since peace is not given except in good (HH 290).
I struggled with language when I tried to describe spiritual peace just above. It is a feeling that is very difficult to put into words. Swedenborg himself says this, “I am able to describe it, yet not in words as it is in itself, because human words are inadequate” (HH 284). Then Swedenborg goes ahead anyway, and tries to describe peace by talking about where it comes from. I have wrestled with this passage for years, and still find it quite out of reach. Maybe for some of you it will be more clear. It is certainly important enough that we all should be aware of it at least:
The Divine of peace in heaven is from the Lord, existing from His conjunction with the angels of heaven . . . peace in the heavens is the Divine inmostly affecting with blessedness every good they, and giving all the joy of heaven; and that it is in its essence the Divine joy of the Lord’s Divine love, from His conjunction with heaven and everyone there. This joy perceived by the Lord in angels, and by angels from the Lord, is peace (HH 286).
I get mixed up here as to who has the joy from whom and in whom. This much is clear: heavenly peace comes from the Lord’s joy in being conjoined with heaven. The best explanation I heard about this passage is a mother watching her children at play. Their joy in playing becomes the mother’s joy as she watches.
Clearly, this kind of peace can only be given to those who love the Lord. This kind of peace is from God and is God in us. This kind of peace is heavenly joy from God when we are in God. So Jesus says in the Gospel of John,
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (John15:9-11).
This brings us to our passage from Matthew that we read today. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” If we learn from Jesus, we will find rest for our souls. If we become gentle and humble in heart, we will find rest for our souls.
Humility is a sure way to peace. No one is more frustrated than someone driven to greatness. Nothing is ever good enough. No deed comes out right. No possession is prestigious enough. No amount of reward is sufficient. No amount of wealth is large enough. But living in humility brings us to inward peace. Humility means that only God is great. It means we are content to sit in the last place at the dinner table. It means we are content with the goods we have in life. It means we do not need the praise of multitudes. And above all, it means accepting our finite condition. It means turning to God and turning away from ego.
Trying to make it according to the world’s standards is continual frustration. But living in relationship with God is peaceful. Jesus tells us, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I remember a time in my life not too long ago. I was working hard to publish articles, keep up my technique on the piano and bass, and to write poetry–all the while working full-time. A friend of mine asked me, “Do you have peace?” I replied, “I have satisfaction.” “That’s not what I asked,” She said. The fact is I was driven. I had ambition, but I did not have peace.
I still play the piano. I am still working on a book that I intend to publish. I have an article that I think is ready to send out. But my pace is much more balanced. And my attitude in doing these things is much different. I’m not driven to succeed. I don’t need to have these things. I see them as projects of love that will manifest in their due season. I am learning from Jesus and taking on His easy yoke and light burden. I now have moments of peace.
This is the peace that we all have open to us if we learn from Jesus and become gentle and humble. This is the peace we all have open to us when we let the Prince of Peace into our hearts and minds. This is the peace that results from God’s joy in being conjoined with heaven–in this world, or the next.

God’s Greatest Wish
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
July 17, 2011

Genesis 18:20-33 John 3:3-17 Psalm 86

God’s greatest wish is to save the whole human race. We heard about God’s forgiveness and mercy in our Psalm this morning, in God’s discussion with Lot, and in the words of Jesus. Today’s Psalm is full of statements about God’s love and forgiveness for us. David sings, “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.” And he says further, “Great is your love toward me.” From an earlier time period, Lot bargains with God. And in his bargaining, God says that if only 10 righteous people are in Sodom, He will not destroy the city. And then there are those comforting words of Jesus in John 3,”God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
Jesus came into our world for the sake of saving the whole human race. Swedenborg tells us that one of Jesus’ earliest perceptions was the state of humanity then. We are told that Jesus saw that the world was filled with self-love and that it was in grievous need of salvation. In fact, we are told that Jesus was horrified at the state of humanity then. But at the same time, Jesus had a perception that by the union of His humanity with the Divinity of His soul, He would be able to save the human race and establish a new church.
Jesus’ life on earth was one of total love for the whole human race. And so great was His love, that He wanted to save a fallen humanity. Salvation means giving all the Divine happiness and joy that God has to us. Salvation means lifting us all up into heaven, which is the same thing as saying, lifting us into God’s own sphere of love and happiness. Salvation of humanity, and giving us the joys of heaven to eternity was God’s greatest wish. Swedenborg tells us,
With the Lord, when He was in the world, there was no other life than the life of love towards the entire human race, which He burned with a desire to save to eternity. That is the very celestial life, by which He united Himself to the Divine, and the Divine to Himself–for Being itself, or Jehovah, is nothing else than Mercy, which is of love to the whole human race–and that life was of pure love . . . (AC 2253).
And the salvation of the whole human race continues to be God’s greatest wish. His unbounded love for us wills to bring us into union with Himself, and to fill us with the love and joy of His Holy Spirit.
The Lord wills the salvation of all, and therefore the salvation of all is His end . . . His coming, redemption, and the passion of the cross, were for the sake of the salvation of men . . . the salvation of men was and forever is His end (TCR 142).
When I was meditating on these passages, I began to see God in a different way. I thought about God’s will to save us. And I saw God as a Being who was asking me into His life. I saw God as a Being who wanted me as His friend. I don’t think that this is overly humanizing God. Remember that God is a Human Being. God is The Divine Human Being, with all the emotions that make us human. Swedenborg suggests that this is God’s nature. He says,
The Lord, from the Divine love or mercy, wishes to have all near to Himself; and so that they should not stand at the doors, that is, in the first heaven; but He wishes them to be in the third; and, if it were possible, not only with Himself, but in Himself. Such is the Divine love, or the Lord’s love (AC 1799).
This is a very different God from the one some think of. I hear again and again about people being turned off by organized religion because they have been taught that God punishes and casts into hell. But God can do none of these things. God is all love and can only wish to befriend us all. He can only do good to us, and strive with all His wisdom and power to bring us into a love relationship with Himself.
But salvation is only possible if we respond to God’s love. Like all lovers, God can’t force Himself on us. If God could force His will on us, everyone would be in heaven. I thought about our capacity to sin. My thinking about sin changed, also. I saw sin as turning our back on God. As sad lovers can tell, love can be rejected. Free will gives us the ability to spurn God, and to turn away from love. I began to think of sin as spurning God’s love. I saw it as letting God down. That passage from Luke came to mind where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. It is one of those few passages that really show Jesus’ human side. The passage is as follows,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Luke 13:34)
The truth is that God does long to gather us under His Divine wing, as a mother hen does her chicks. This may be the passage that the great German poet Schiller had in mind in his Ode to Joy. “All men become brothers wherever your gentle wing is.” Beethoven set this beautiful poem to music in his great ninth symphony. And when the poem gets to that line from Schiller, all the instruments drop off and in lovely four part acappella harmony, the voices all mix and mingle in the most beautiful and plaintive melodies that rise and fall in almost a plea, or prayer, for all humanity to be brothers under God’s gentle wing.
I think seeing God this way, and seeing sin this way are more positive ways of viewing both. God is supreme heavenly love that wishes to draw all to Himself, and sin is turning our backs on God. This gives us a much more positive way of viewing our role in spiritual life. Our role is simply to turn toward God’s love. Our role is to open up a channel in our hearts for God. Our role is to think of God’s love and orient our life toward it. Someone once told me that we give power to whatever we think of. He said it’s like this. What happens if I tell you, “Whatever you do, don’t think about a pink elephant.” What will be the one image that then enters our minds? Of course it will be that pink elephant! When we think of God’s love, and of His ardent desire to give us His love and joy, and when we think of our role as turning toward this love, what, then, will fill our minds? Won’t it be that very Divine Love and that God who wants to gather us under His wings as a mother hen?
This is not to say we can ignore character defects. When they appear, we need to see them, acknowledge them, and turn away from them. They do fulfill a use in our spiritual life. They remind us that we always need God in our life to fill our souls with His Holy Spirit.
That brings us back to God. All the good we have in our lives, all the love that we share with others, all the blessings and peace that we feel are from God. They are God’s gift to us, because He loves us. They are God’s gifts to us because God wants to give everyone all that He has. And since God is all good, and all loving, goodness and love are what he ceaselessly gives us. It is God’s greatest wish that we but receive them.

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

The Tie that Binds
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
July 10, 2011

Joshua 24:14-27 John 19:25-27 Psalm 26

Today I would like to reflect on the use of the church congregation in spiritual life. I believe that the church community, the congregation plays a vital role in our faith journey. So I chose Bible passages that relate to the formation of a congregation.
In our reading from Joshua, Joshua calls together all the tribes of Israel and challenges them. He tells them all the wondrous things that God has done for them. Then he asks them if they want to follow Yahweh or the other gods from Mesopotamia or Egypt. They all agree to follow Yahweh. This is one example of what a congregation is. It is a coming together of people all in the name of God. God formed the center of the life of Israel. It is their relationship with God that served as the binding force for their whole society. And this is what a congregation is. We all come here to this church in God’s name, to worship and connect with God together.
In our New Testament reading we have a slightly different approach to forming a congregation. Jesus is on the cross, and gathered at His feet are His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Also there is the disciple whom Jesus loved, which I take to be John. Jesus tells His mother that John is now her son. And He tells John that now Mary is his mother. This points to a relationship among Jesus’ followers. He is forming a bond of family between Mary and John. This is another way to view the congregation. It is a bond of love among the members and friends of the church. As Mary and John now become family, a church congregation is in many ways a family relationship among all the congregants.
So we could say that a congregation is a kind of sacred family. We are family in the good will we share for each other when we come together, and in the mutual support we give to one another. And we are a sacred family because we come together in the name of God.
I think that there is a power that grows when we come together to worship. Each of us alone can indeed approach God, but it just doesn’t feel the same as when we come together as a congregation. I think that there is a kind of resonance that occurs when we all come together in a group to focus on God. Somehow, all of our holy feelings reinforce each other and the whole church becomes filled with God’s presence and a deep feeling of love comes over the collective body. I suggest that this experience can aid us in our regeneration.
It is difficult to put into words what I’m talking about. But I have a couple metaphors that will help us to reflect on the uses that a congregation fulfils in our regeneration. One of these metaphors was in Rev. Gabriella Cahaley’s ordination speech at Convention this year. She is a life guard and told us about a life-saving technique. The technique she told us about was the human chain. When someone is floundering in deep water, a life-guard won’t go out alone to rescue the victim. Instead, they form a human chain. Someone stands in shallow water, and others join hands in a chain that reaches out to the floundering victim. It is dangerous for a person to go out all alone to rescue a victim. It is safe to rescue the individual by forming a human chains of hands all joined together.
I like this metaphor for the way a congregation works. We are religious because we are all in need of God’s salvation. And a church congregation is just that chain of hands that join together to bring God’s salvation to us all. In AA, we all join hands at the end of the meeting. The leader then says, “Hold onto the hand next to you, it may be the hand that saves your life.” Without the mutual support we give each other in the AA program, the power of alcohol would be too great for us to overcome alone. Likewise, without the mutual support that we give to one another as we worship and share our lives together, the temptations of the world may be too great for us to withstand all alone. Without the mutual support we find in a congregation, where would we be? Would we find that feeling of love, peace, and God’s presence so powerfully all alone? Members of this church have told me that when they have been forced to be away from the church, their spiritual life suffers. And when they come back, they feel so much stronger and more spiritually fit. How much do all those things that make up a congregation mean to us! A smile, the socializing at coffee hour, the knowledge that people are ready to help us when we are in need, the listening when we are in distress. A congregation is a vital life-line in God’s work of salvation in this world.
Another metaphor that comes to mind is a story I remember from my childhood. A father was on his death-bed and called his children together. He was concerned that the family would fall apart after his demise so he gave them a lesson to remember. He told one of his children to go out and gather a bunch of sticks. The child brought the sticks to him. He then told his children to break the sticks one at a time. This was easily done and soon the room was full of broken sticks. Then he told his child to bring in another bunch of sticks. This time he told him to tie the sticks all together in a bundle. “Try to break the sticks, now,” he said. His children took the bundle across their knees, stomped on them, hit them on the wall but they were unable to break the sticks when they were all bundled together.
We are all here for the same purpose. We are here to worship God and share fellowship in Christ’s name. Together, we reinforce each other’s faith. Together we are like the sticks tied in a bundle. With mutual support for one another, our journey to God will be greatly facilitated.
I would now like to do something that I haven’t done here yet. I would like to lead the church in a guided meditation.
I ask you to close your eyes.
Now imagine Christ standing in the center of the altar with His arms reaching out. Think about Christ’s qualities–His forgiveness, His unfailing love for the whole human race, and for each of you individually.
Now think of Christ surrounded by a dazzling golden light.
Now think of that golden light flowing out from the Christ and filling the whole church.
Now think of the positive feeling that you feel for this church. You may wish to remember specific good moments that you have experienced in this church. Now call to mind the love that you feel for this church, the love that makes you come back week after week.
Now while you are feeling that love for this church, think of the people you know in it, one by one, and hold them in that feeling of love you have for this church.
Then think of yourself as one person in the whole congregation.
Now think of where we are in the order of service today and open your eyes.
When Swedenborg talks about heaven, he compares it to a human body. He talks about angels of the heart, of the lungs, of the brain, and of other organs. Everyone in heaven is unique and each individual angel has a unique gift to bring to the whole of heaven. And so it is with the church. We are all individuals. Some of us are very different from others. And yet each of us has a special gift we bring to the church that no one else can bring. And our very diversity perfects this congregation.
This church is a vital and living organism. And each and every one of you have your own contribution to bring to the church body. Let us celebrate our walk together in this congregation.

Free will offerings of $5-$20 are gratefully appreciated and will contribute to the vitality and operation of this ministry. Cheques may be made out to The Edmonton New Church Society, and mailed to:
Church of the Holy City
9119-128A Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5E 0J6
Canada

The Lord God Jesus Christ Reigns
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 19, 2011

Revelation 21:1-16, 21-27; 22:1-7 True Christian Religion 791 Psalm 68

Today we celebrate New Church Day. On June 19, 1770, the Lord called the 12 Apostles together in heaven and sent them out to preach the message of the New Church. That message is that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns. This was the institution of the New Church in heaven that was prophesied in the book of Revelation. We heard about the New Church this morning. In the book of Revelation, the New Church is called the Holy City, New Jerusalem. It descends from heaven as a bride. The descent of the Holy City comes after all the terrible calamities of the Last Judgment. It is a picture of peace after turmoil. This is also the Second Coming of the Lord, which was prophesied in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. In the Gospels, the Last Judgment is prophesied, as in the book of Revelation. However, in the Gospels we don’t have the descent of the Holy City New Jerusalem. Instead, after the Last Judgment, Jesus appears in the clouds of heaven with glory and power. But this, too, is in the book of Revelation. Within the Holy City, the Lord Himself is present and we will see His face. Also, in Revelation 22:7, Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon!” So in both the Gospels and in the book of Revelation, the coming of the Lord is prophesied. We call this the second coming. But the Bible doesn’t call it that. The Bible simply calls it the coming of the Son of Man. That is what Swedenborg calls it, too, in his discussion in True Christian Religion. The coming of the Lord and the coming of the New Church are connected. But they are internal events that will not manifest to the physical eye.
The coming of the Lord is not an event that we will see with our physical eyes. The Gospels say that Christ will appear in the clouds of heaven in glory and power. Swedenborg tells us that this event will not happen in the physical world–that is, in the sky that we can see with our natural senses. In fact, Jesus Himself says the same thing. “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). So it looks like we have two contradictory passages in the Bible. One says that we will see the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven. The other says that we will not see it and say, “here it is,” or “there it is.” Swedenborg reconciles these two apparently contradictory passages by means of the internal sense of the Bible. Swedenborg says that the clouds of heaven refer to the Bible in its literal sense–that is, the Bible as it appears when we take it at face value. The glory and power of the coming of the Lord refer to the internal sense of the Bible–that is, the meaning of the Bible when it is seen as symbolic of deeper meaning. “By the clouds of heaven is meant the Word in the sense of the letter is meant, and by the glory and power in which He is then to come the spiritual sense of the Word is meant” (TCR 776).
Swedenborg tells us that Jesus cannot appear to the world so that we would see Him with our physical senses. He says that since the glorification, when Jesus ascended up into heaven, we can only see Him if our spiritual eyes are opened. This is why Jesus could walk next to two Apostles all the way to Emmaus and they didn’t recognise Him. They didn’t recognize Him until their spiritual eyes were opened.
He is not to appear in person, because since He ascended into heaven He is in the glorified Humanity, and in this He cannot appear to any person unless He first opens the eyes of his spirit, and this cannot be done with any one who is in evils . . . Therefore when he manifested Himself to His disciples, He first opened their eyes; for we read, “And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight (Luke 24:31) (TCR 777).
The appearance of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, then, means that the Lord will appear in the Bible in its literal and in its internal senses. So we will see the Lord through the Bible, not in the sky.
Swedenborg says that the coming of the Lord is when a person comes into relationship with the Lord. This first happens when Jesus Christ is recognized as the God of heaven and of earth, and a person’s Savior. This is the beginning of spiritual life with a person. From this beginning, a person advances in wisdom and into greater spiritual love all through life, and even through the next life to eternity.
The Lord is present with every person, urging and pressing him to be received; and when a person receives Him, which he does when he acknowledges Him as his God, Creator, Redeemer, and Savior, then is His first coming which is called dawn. From this time the person begins to be enlightened . . . and to advance into more and more interior wisdom; and as he receives this wisdom from the Lord, so he advances through morning into day, and this day lasts with him into old age, even to death; and after death he passes into heaven, to the Lord Himself, and there, although he died an old man, he is restored to the morning of his life, and develops to eternity the beginning of wisdom implanted in the natural world (TCR 766).
The recognition that Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth is at the very center of the New Church. The central truth of the New Church is that the invisible God is in the visible Christ as the soul is in the body.
This New Church is the crown of all the churches which have hitherto existed on earth, because it will worship one visible God in whom is the invisible, like the soul in the body (TCR 787).
This is still a novel claim in Christianity. Every Christian church today, still holds to the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed teaches that God is three Persons who have one essence. This teaching is impossible to understand, and Swedenborg claims that most Christians think of God as three Persons. He accuses Christians of being polytheists–that is, of believing in three Gods. Swedenborg is the only Christian theologian to radically reject the Nicene Creed, and to teach that God is only one Person–namely Jesus Christ, whose soul is the Old Testament God Yahweh.
Swedenborg claims that we can only form an emotional connection with a God we can picture in Human form. The Humanity of God is a central teaching in Swedenborg’s theology and central in the New Church. So Swedenborg says,
This New Church is the crown of all the churches which have hitherto existed on earth, because it will worship one visible God in whom is the invisible, like the soul in the body. Thus and not otherwise can there be conjunction of God with a person, because a person is natural and hence thinks naturally, and the conjunction must be in his thought and thus in his love’s affection, which is the case when he thinks of God as a Human. Conjunction with an invisible God is like that of the eye’s vision with the expanse of the universe, of which it sees no end; it is also like vision in mid ocean, which falls upon air and sea and is lost. But conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like seeing a man in the air on the sea, spreading forth his hands and inviting to his arms (TCR 787).
People have asked me, “How important is the way a person views God? How important is it whether they see God as the Human Jesus Christ, or as cosmic energy, or as Nature?” Well, for Swedenborg, the Divine Humanity of Jesus is extremely important. As we just heard, Swedenborg thinks that conjunction is not possible with a god who isn’t human. I, personally, hold with this view, as well. I can’t speak for others who claim that they feel connected to God in different forms.
The New Church was formed first in heaven, and will descend into the world gradually. Swedenborg says that it will descend as the falsities of the old Christian church dissipate. Sometimes it looks to me like even the most progressive Christian churches are digging in their heels and tenaciously holding onto the ancient falsities. At other times, it looks like this descent of the New Church is indeed happening. One example is in the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. They talk over and over again of Christ’s reconciling love. This puts Christ, or God in the Divine Human, if you will, in the forefront. It also puts reconciling love in the center. Now, I know that this wording implies one of the old falsities of Christianity. Traditional Christians believe that Christ’s death on the cross reconciled God to the human race. But I think that the NCCCUSA is taking reconciling in its broadest possible meaning. They mean reconciling all the hatreds and injustices in the world through Christ’s love. That’s a pretty New Church perspective.
Our Swedenborgian church was formed to embody the life and teachings of the New Church. Whether we are that New Church depends on each of us individually. The New Church will be one where the divinity and unity of God in Jesus Christ is at the center of worship. But it also means that love will be united with wisdom in each person’s soul. This is what is symbolized by the Holy City New Jerusalem being as long as it is wide. Length signifies what is good, or love, and breadth signifies what is true (AR 906). The New Church is formed in the soul of each of us, and then it exists in bodily form on earth. Whether this Swedenborgian Church is the New Church on earth is a question for each of us to answer as we look into our own heart and soul.

Receiving the Holy Spirit
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 12, 2011

John 7:37-39 Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost. As we heard from our reading from Acts, Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit was poured out into the Apostles and into the whole world. In the history of Christianity, Pentecost was a high feast day, celebrated by elaborate meals. So it is fitting that we are having a barbecue today, here at this church.
There were miracles associated with Pentecost. First, there was a noise as of a rushing wind. Then, flames came and rested above the heads of the 12 Apostles. Then, miraculously, the Apostles stood up and started speaking in foreign languages. Although uneducated fishermen from Galilee, they spoke in languages understood by Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Asians, Egyptians, Romans, Cretans, Arabs, and others–all in their own languages. Some cynics made fun of the Apostles and said that they were drunk. But Peter stood up and said, “These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!” Peter goes on to quote the prophet Joel about the days when the Holy Spirit would be poured forth upon the world. In our reading from John, Jesus breathes on the disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit from Him.
Different Christian churches vary in the weight they give the Holy Spirit. Some churches make the Holy Spirit the center of their worship life. They speak of being on fire with the Spirit. Some churches make it part of their services to act as if they are receiving the Holy Spirit. They roll in the church aisles and start talking in tongues. They think that talking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And they support this belief with the passage from Acts that we heard this morning. In the King James Version of the Bible, it says that the Apostles spoke in tongues. Now in Old English, speaking in a tongue meant speaking in a language. And the same is true of New Testament Greek. To say that someone is speaking in a language, you say that he or she is speaking in a tongue. And the passage from Acts is very clear. The Apostles were speaking in foreign languages. People from foreign lands heard the Apostles in their own tongue. But the Pentecostal churches think that speaking in tongues means spouting out nonsense gibberish. And they think that such babbling is what being filled with the Spirit means. They totally misread the Bible and the translation that they have. But these are extreme cases. Other churches speak of the Holy Spirit as one Person of the Trinity. They assign powers to the Holy Spirit like enlightenment, and sanctification.
It is difficult to briefly talk about how Swedenborg views the Holy Spirit. In one sense, it receives only minor treatment. In another sense, it is absolutely central to his whole theology. Like so much in Swedenborg, it is not a matter of either-or. Rather, it is a matter of both-and.
Traditional Christians speak of the Holy Spirit as one Person in the Trinity of persons who make up the Godhead. Swedenborg rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, so when he talks about the Holy Spirit it is done very carefully. He begins his comprehensive final book, True Christian Religion with his interpretation of the Trinity. We will have more to say about this next Sunday, which is called Trinity Sunday. This Sunday, we will discuss only the Holy Spirit.
As I said, Swedenborg is very careful when he talks about the Holy Spirit. In his discussion, Swedenborg says that he is talking about the Holy Spirit only because the church in his day talks about it. In Swedenborg’s day, different powers were associated with the different Persons of the Trinity. Creation was associated with God the Father, Salvation was associated with God the Son, and Sanctification and enlightenment with God the Holy Spirit. For Swedenborg, there is only the one Person who is God, and that Person is Jesus Christ. So for Swedenborg, the powers that the churches give to each Person of the Trinity are all contained in the one Person of Jesus Christ. So Swedenborg begins his discussion of the Holy Spirit by saying that it is none other than the Lord, Jesus Christ. “By the Holy Spirit is properly signified the Divine truth, thus also the Word, and in this sense the Lord Himself is also the Holy Spirit” (TCR 139). In this sense, Swedenborg minimises the Holy Spirit. He would rather talk about the Lord. But then, Swedenborg does go on to talk about the Holy Spirit. But he does so merely because it is a convention of his day. In his day, the Holy Spirit was said to justify, or save the human race. Swedenborg follows this convention, and attributes God’s justification to the Holy Spirit–but only because that is how people in his day understood it. So Swedenborg writes, “but because in the church at this day the Divine operation which is called justification is described by the Holy Spirit, therefore this is here assumed as the Holy Spirit . . .” (TCR 139). Swedenborg then goes on to talk about the Holy Spirit according to his understanding of justification and salvation. But he wants us to remember that he is really talking about the power of the Lord.
So the powers that Swedenborg ascribes to the Holy Spirit are all those powers that save the human race. In traditional Christianity, justification happens immediately when a person accepts Jesus as his personal savior. But for Swedenborg, justification is a life-long process of actual character reformation. For Swedenborg, a person is not justified in an instant, but by a long process whereby he is purified from evil. He calls this process reformation and regeneration.
The Divine power and operation which are meant by the Holy Spirit are, in general, reformation and regeneration . . . and, according to these, purification from evils and the remission of sins and finally salvation (TCR 142).
Again, purification from evil is a slow, life-long process. To be purified from evils, a person first must learn what they are. Once identified, a person then must desist from doing them. To learn what evil is, a person needs to be instructed by truths. Another way to phrase this is to say that a person needs to acquire faith. Faith is nothing more than truth. So whether one says truth or faith, it amounts to the same thing. So we need to acquire faith, or learn truths to show us the way into the light.
By means of Divine truth from good, that is, by means of faith from charity, a person is reformed and regenerated; also renovated, vivified, sanctified, justified; and, according to the progress and increase of these, is purified from evils, and purification from evils is remission of sins (TCR 142).
So purification from evil is the life-long process called reformation and regeneration. Reformation means to be reformed. And regeneration means to be reborn. The way this process works is to learn truth and use truth to guide us into good. Truth tells us what is evil, which we are to shun. And truth tells us what is good, which we are to accept. It is as the prophet Ezekiel says, “Make you a new heart, and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 18:31). Swedenborg’s commentary on this is, “By a new heart is meant a will of good, and by a new spirit, the understanding of truth” (TCR 143). Reformation and regeneration is nothing more than finding out what is good and incorporating that good into our life as we turn from evil. Since it is truth that shows us the way to good, we can say that reformation is the union of good and truth. As higher and higher truths lead us into higher and higher good, our soul is gradually lifted out of the world and into heaven.
But this exaltation of mind is not effected except from time to time; and it is effected as a person procures for himself truths and conjoins them to good (TCR 152).
This process of reformation and regeneration is all done by the power of the Holy Spirit, if we want to use traditional Christian language. In this way, the Holy Spirit is in the very center of Swedenborg’s theology. But the union of good and truth is also how the Lord is described. So Swedenborg would really say that it is that the Lord who reforms and regenerates us. It is only according to traditional Christian language that Swedenborg ascribes this power to the Holy Spirit.
In this process, God is completely on our side every step of the way. God wants nothing more than to lift us into heaven’s delights and into company with Himself. “The Lord wills the salvation of all, and therefore salvation of all is His end” (TCR 142). This is being filled with the Holy Spirit in Swedenborg’s sense. For Swedenborg, being filled with the Spirit means opening our minds to truth and letting good into our heart. This union of good and truth is God in us. God is Goodness and Truth itself. So when we have good and truth in us, we have God in us. This is what makes heaven in a person–whether they are still on earth, or whether they have passed over to the other side.
The angels taken together are called heaven, because they constitute heaven; but yet it is the Divine proceeding from the Lord, which flows in with angels and is received by them, that makes heaven . . . . The Divine proceeding from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith. In the degree, therefore, in which they receive good and truth from the Lord, they are angels and are in heaven (HH 7).
This Divine proceeding of good and truth from the Lord is what we could call the Holy Spirit. In order to be in heaven, we need to accept this divine good and truth into our souls. Since God is divine good and truth, we are actually accepting God into our souls when we do this. This is why Swedenborg is called a mystic. Mysticism means a direct experience of God. And in Swedenborg’s system, we all have that direct experience of God when we let His good and truth into our hearts and souls. When I talk about this with people from other churches, I say that we believe in letting the Spirit of God into our souls. And using this language, many understand and accept Swedenborg’s teachings. Swedenborg used traditional language to talk about the Holy Spirit. But he was clear in saying that actually, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who fills us with His good and truth. Call it good and truth, call it the Holy Spirit, call it what you will. Our final salvation is nothing more than letting God into our hearts and souls. This is what Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you” (John 15:4).

God’s and Human Forgiving
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 5, 2011

Numbers 15:22-31 Matthew 18:21-35 Psalm 103

The Bible passages for this morning concern forgiveness. I can think of two ways to consider the theme of forgiveness. There is God’s forgiveness of us and there is our forgiveness of our fellows. In our responsive reading from Psalm 103, we heard that God, “forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” Healing our diseases corresponds to healing our spiritual evils. And in the passage from Numbers, we heard about sacrifices to atone for sins that were committed unintentionally. In our passage from Matthew, we heard about a king forgiving the debt of his servant. And we also heard about this unthankful servant not forgiving his fellow servant.
It is in God’s very nature to forgive humans when we sin unintentionally. God is mercy itself. And God wants to enter into a loving relationship with the whole human race. God created us in order to have a heaven from the human race. And being in heaven is not going to a place. Being in heaven is being in a love relationship with God. So being in heaven is the same thing as being in a love relationship with God. This is what salvation means. Salvation, from a Swedenborgian perspective, is nothing else than being in a love relationship with God. This love relationship is what God longs for. So we can say that God wishes to save the whole human race, for salvation is that very love relationship.
Jehovah, or the Lord’s internal, was the very Celestial of Love, that is, Love itself, to which no other attributes are fitting than those of pure Love, thus of pure Mercy toward the whole human race; which is such that it wishes to save all and make them happy for ever, and to bestow on them all that it has; thus out of pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow, to heaven, that is, to itself, by the strong force of love (AC 1735).
There is a power emanating from God that lifts everyone up toward Himself. It is always operating. We may not be aware of it, but all through our lives, God has been elevating us toward Himself, into that heavenly love relationship.
There is actually a sphere elevating all to heaven, that proceeds continually from the Lord and fills the whole natural world and the whole spiritual world; it is like a strong current in the ocean, which draws the ship in a hidden way. All those who believe in the Lord and live according to His precepts, enter that sphere or current and are lifted (TCR 652).
It is out of pure mercy that God forgives us and draws us upward toward Himself by the strong force of love. But this forgiveness is not excusing wrongs that we continue to commit. We have a part to play in God’s saving love for us. We need to cooperate with God’s love and take action from the power God gives us. We need to restrain ourselves when we are moved by unholy desires. We need to ask God into our lives. And we need to ask God to lift us out of sin and error and into goodness and truth. We need to act as if our salvation were completely in our own hands–all the while acknowledging that it is God who actually acts to bring us out of our errors.
Divine mercy is pure mercy toward the whole human race to save it, and it is likewise with every person, and never recedes from any one; so that whoever can be saved, is saved. And yet no one can be saved but by Divine means, which are revealed by the Lord in the Word. Divine means are what are called Divine truths; these teach in what manner man is to live in order that he may be saved; . . . So far therefore as a person abstains from evil, so far the Lord out of pure mercy leads him by His Divine means, and this from infancy to the end of his life in the world, and afterward to eternity (HH 522).
So when we think of God’s forgiveness, or of God pardoning our sins, we are to think of the process of regeneration. We need to think of moving out of darkness and error and into light and truth. Regeneration is the purification from all that blocks the Lord’s inflowing love and wisdom. All that blocks love, in other words. So we can think of sin as anything that stands in the way of love, anything that inhibits our reaching out to our neighbor and to God with open arms and love. When we remove those blocks, love and truth enter us from God, and we are reborn. Then, what we did in the past is forgiven as we accept new life from God. So Swedenborg writes,
The pardon of sins . . . are nothing else than purification from evils and falsities, implanting of good and truth and their conjunction, thus regeneration (AC 10042).
One of the obstacles to love for our neighbor is when we harbor a grudge or a resentment against them. We can build up in our minds anger against others, so that it is hard for us to face them, let alone to reach out to them with love. Forgiveness is an essential aspect of love for our neighbor. When we feel we have been wronged, we have several ways of reacting. We can bury that wrong in our hearts, and let it build and build until it poisons our relationships with that person and makes us resentful, angry, and vengeful. William Blake wrote a poem that captures this attitude very well.

A POISON TREE

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see,
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.

We can take a perverse delight in meditating on all the things wrong in someone else, and all the things that they did to wrong us. But then we are just making a poison tree in our minds and hearts. Furthermore, we are filled with disturbing and unpleasant thoughts. If we don’t forgive, we will carry around with us the person we are upset with. They will live in our head. We will be giving them free rent in our head. Swedenborg tells us that whoever we are thinking about will be present in spirit. This means that if we are thinking about someone in anger, they will be present. And that’s the last thing we really want! We need to release ourselves of that bondage to the other person, and to release them from our own bitterness. Only then will we find peace of mind. Then, when we confront that person again, it will be as if it is the first time we have seen them, having let go of the difficult past.
Sweet forgiveness is the answer. Though we may feel that we have been wronged, we need to let it go. We need to release the bitter feelings that can develop. We need to forgive. Jesus tells us to forgive seventy seven times. The number seven means holiness, and the act of forgiveness is a holy act. It brings with it holy peace. Even on the cross, Jesus forgave the human race.
I can think of a few strategies to help us forgive. One is simply to stop thinking of the other person. Don’t fill your consciousness with them. Think of something else, something happy. Don’t dwell on them. Out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind, out of heart. Another way is to make allowances for why they may have acted in ways that bothered us. When Jesus forgave the human race on the cross, he made allowances for our terrible actions. He said, “They don’t know what they are doing.” Sometimes someone will cut me off in traffic, and I’ll say to myself, “He must be in a hurry to get somewhere.” Or, “Maybe he’s late for work.” At other times, I may say other things to myself, but this is a talk about forgiveness. If we can look into another’s heart, we would understand why they do the things that hurt us. There may often be some reason that causes others to act in ways that hurt.
But forgiveness does not mean that we are to be a doormat and let people walk roughshod over us. In the Blake poem, when his friend offends the poet, he confronts his friend. “I told my wrath, my wrath did end.” We do need to draw boundaries between what we find acceptable behaviors and what we will not tolerate. Even the forgiving Jesus confronted the Pharisees. Sometimes with strong language. In Matthew 23:25-26 we find one such confrontation:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”
Here, Jesus isn’t just denouncing the Pharisees. He is modifying their behavior. He tells them how to act in the future. “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean.”
It seems hard, sometimes, to live and let live. Yet this is what we are asked to do by Jesus. Only by forgiving can we live in peace with our neighbor. Only by forgiving can we reach out in love to our brothers and sisters. Only by forgiving will we be the image and likeness of God, who forgives us continually. Since we are forgiven, let us forgive. This is the message we heard this morning in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let us not build a poison tree, but instead let resentments fall away, forgive, and live in peace with the neighbor.