Church of the Holy City

God Is Local and Universal
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 17, 2015

Isaiah 25:6-9 Luke 24:44-53 Psalm 47

Deciding on the title for this sermon was hard for me. It went through several versions before I decided, reluctantly, on the final version: God Is Local and Universal. One version that I liked was phrased as a challenge. It was going to be, “Is Your God Local or Universal?” There was so much in the readings for this Sunday that suggested that God is universal and not local. I wanted that to be the main idea. But careful reading and re-reading would not let me settle there. Finally, the readings suggested that God is both local and universal. Let’s walk through the Bible readings for this morning and see what they say about whether God is universal and/or local.
My thinking began with our reading from the New Testament. In it, Jesus tells the disiples that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. “Wow!” I said. “The message of repentance and forgiveness of sins is for all nations all over the world. It begins in Jerusalem and extends to the whole world!”
Then I looked at the Psalm for this Sunday, Psalm 47. It’s about God being God over the whole world. Then I noticed something very interesting. I noticed the word for God that Psalm 47 uses. Mostly, it isn’t Yahweh, the specific name for God that was given to Moses. Yahweh is translated as Jehovah in the King James Bible. Here is why I am so interested in the name for God: the name Yahweh is tied specifically to the Israelites. Yahweh is their God. The first commandment goes, “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2). These words tell the story of God’s name quite well. God is speaking to the Israelites specifically. He has delivered them from slavery in Egypt. God says, “I am Yahweh your God.” So by and large, the name Yahweh is associated with the Israelites specifically. He is their God. I had an “Aha” moment when I read Psalm 47. In the whole Psalm, Yahweh is mentioned only twice. Yet the Psalm talks about God a lot. God is mentioned 10 times. But only twice is God called Yahweh. The other 8 times the Psalm uses the old, universal term for God, Elohiym. This word for God is not tied to the history of the Israelites in the same way that Yahweh is. It simply means God, not the God of the Israelites. So Elohiym can be anyone’s God. This is the God who is God over the whole earth. The Bible translators use the word LORD in all capital letters when they translate the word Yahweh. Elohiym is simply translated as God. Listen to the Psalmist! (I invite you to follow along with this talk by referring to the Psalm as it is printed in your bulletin.)
Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the king of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!
8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted!
The Psalmist is bidding all people to clap their hands and shout to God with loud songs of joy. Loud songs remind me of the bands at Blues on Whyte. But it is all people who are being addressed, not just the Israelites. And the God who is to be praised is not the God of the Israelites. It is Elohiym, God. I was really glad when I saw that all the shields of the earth belong to Elohiym, not to Israel’s God. It is the Universal God who is king of all the earth; it is the Universal God who reigns over the nations; it is the Universal God who sits on his holy throne. This song isn’t exalting Israel or Israel’s God. It is exalting God. If I was really glad at all this, I was really, really glad when I read verse 9.
The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham (9).
This verse brings all the world under God’s care. It says that the princes of the peoples—that is, those who aren’t Israelites—gather as if they are the people of the God of Abraham. We all know about the God of Abraham, how God led Abraham to a new land, how God made Abraham the father of the Israelite race, how God nurtured the Israelites all through their history. Now that same God is the God of the peoples outside the Israelite race. They are as the people of the God of Abraham—God will nurture other peoples as God did the Israelites.
. This idea of a universal God is reaffirmed in the remarkable passage we read from Isaiah 25. In this passage, Israel’s God is the subject. But in this passage we find that Israel’s God is now a God for the whole world. Consider the following words,
On this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined (Isaiah 25:6).
This is clearly Israel’s God, Yahweh. But Isaiah says that Yahweh will prepare a feast for all peoples. Now Israel’s God is a God for everyone. This same God will destroy the shroud over the whole earth, God will wipe away tears from every one’s eye; God will swallow up death for ever. These things are for everyone. Then, the concluding lines are,
It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is Yahweh; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9).
When the people say, “Lo, this is our God” who are the people saying it? Whose God is “our God?” I think that by the time we get to that part of Isaiah 25 it is all people, everywhere, who are saying that. “Our God” means everyone’s God. Although it says finally, “This is Yahweh,” we now know that Yahweh is bringing Salvation to all the people.
This is exactly what I mean when I say that God is local and universal. In Psalm 47, God wasn’t attached very closely with the people of Israel. In Psalm 47, God is universal. But in Isaiah 25, it is Israel’s God who is universal. True, God is bringing salvation to all the world, but it is Israel’s God, Yahweh, who is doing it. God is acting universally, but the God who is acting is the local God of the Israelites.
This brings me back to my disappointment in the title of this talk. Yes, in Luke, Jesus sends out his disciples to the whole world to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins. This makes it look like Jesus’ message is universal. But when I read the passage more carefully, I saw that it wasn’t as universal as I had thought. The actual quote goes like this, “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations” (24:47). So Jesus’ real teaching is that repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be preached in Jesus’ name. The universal nature of Jesus’ message is tied to His specific name. It is not repentance and forgiveness alone that is the message. It is repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. Jesus is for the whole world. But it is Jesus’ name. Further, the passage ends with the disciples filled with joy and blessing God. But they are doing all this in the Temple. They are still worshipping God as good Jews would, in the Temple in Jerusalem. Their joy may spread out to the whole world, but now they are expressing it locally, in the Temple, within the context of their Jewish heritage.
So where am I going with all this? I started out going with an interfaith message. God is universal like the God of Psalm 47 and we can affirm God by any name. But then I was reined in by my careful reading of the texts. I think my message now is that we know God only by our own tradition. We worship locally. While we affirm our fellow believers of different faiths, we, ourselves, practice according to our own faith.
Finally, though, we live in a big world. We cannot afford to stay within the confines of our own church and our own traditions alone. We need to know what’s going on outside the walls of our church. What questions are being asked in our society? What issues are current? What are people talking about? For if we don’t know these things, we will be isolated from the world. And I think we can imagine the consequences of isolation.
So religion is both local and universal. We worship according to the God we understand. But the God we know is universal—for the whole world. And I’ll say further, that the God we don’t know is for the whole world and for us, too. For no one religion, and no one person understands God fully. I think what I’m finally trying to say is that we ought to worship according to our best understanding of God, while remaining open to growing our understanding of God. We grow in our understanding of God in many ways. One way is by listening to the many voices of revealers across the globe. Our world is too large for us to remain only local. God is local and universal.

PRAYER

Lord God, you are known by many names throughout the world. We know you as Jesus Christ. And we know that you love us as children. We know also, that you love each person in the whole wide world as you love us. We worship you according to the precepts of our religion. We know you from what we read in the Bible. And at the same time, we know that other peoples in the world also call on you. Other peoples use different names for you. Other peoples use different scriptures to learn about you. As we practice our own religion, may we also hear the voices of our brothers and sisters across the world. May we hear with respect. And may we also learn from what we hear. For you are an infinite God, and no single human or religion understands you completely. Though you are called by many names, you are One God. Praise be to you!

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

I Have Called You Friends
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 10, 2015

Leviticus 19:9-18 John 15:9-17 Psalm 98

Jesus calls us friends. I just can’t wrap my head around that. I can’t think of another religion that makes such a bold statement of a person’s relationship with God. Ancient religions had gods living way up on Mount Olympus, far above the affairs of puny mortals. So the poet Wallace Stevens writes,
Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.
No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave
Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind.
But in Christianity, we do have a God who had a mother who suckled Him, and a land that gave motions to his Human mind. How often do we hear that we are to fear God, not to approach God, that God is above humanity in the clouds, that God is to be held in awe. But none of these things seem to fit with these words of Jesus. “I have called you friends” (John 15:15). Wow! We sing a hymn every now and then that goes, “Jesus is my best of friends.” It was Swedenborg’s favorite hymn, and he used to sing it to himself when he was troubled of spirit and in temptations. But can it be? Can we say that we are friends with God?
We know that God loves us. But God can love us at a distance. I think the idea of friendship connotes a God who is near, always near as a good friend is. And I also think that the idea of friendship puts God emotionally near us. The King James Bible uses the words, “thou, thee, and thy” quite a bit. Since we no longer speak King James Language, we can get confused about what these words are supposed to convey. Obviously, they mean some form of the word “you.” But these words were written when we had a familiar form of the word you and an intimate word for you. Lovers would use the intimate form of you. Parents and children would use the intimate form of you. In French, the intimate form of you is “tu.” The formal word for you is “vous.” So what form of the word you do you think thou is? Would we use thou when we are talking to a king? Is thou a formal form of address? In fact, thou is the intimate form of you that a mother would use with her child. We could hear a 17th-century mother saying to her baby, “Mama loves thee.” Well it is this same intimate form of the word you that King James uses to speak to God. We say, “Hallowed be thy name.” It is as if we are addressing a dear friend, not a divine king. King James uses the familiar form of you to talk to God. In French, you don’t even address your teachers with the familiar word for you. It is always the formal form, “vous.” So the translators of the Bible want us to think of God in familiar terms. They want us to think of God as a dear friend. Someone we are intimate with.
Maybe we can think of Jesus as a dear friend. But Jesus asks us to do something that may be harder. He asks us to love one another. That is Jesus’ real command. In fact, Jesus says that the whole Bible is summed up in two laws, love God and love the neighbor (Mark 12:28-34). Paul says the same thing,
he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10).
And again in Galatians 5:14, “ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus emphasizes this idea in Matthew 25:31-46. That is the story about separating the sheep from the goats. The sheep come into heaven and the goats are sent to hell. The sheep are metaphors for people who have done good to God. These people ask when they did good things to God. Jesus replies that when they do good to the least of His brothers and sisters, they do good to God. That means that everyone around us is our brother and sister. We can view everyone we see, in a crowd, small group, or one on one—stranger or friend, as a friend. We can view everyone we encounter, in a crowd, in a small group, or one on one—stranger or friend as our brother or sister.
Is this hard? Is it hard to see a stranger and feel friendliness for them? Is it hard to see strangers and think of them as a brother and sister, as our comrade in this thing called life? Is it crazy to think that way? If so, why? When we are stuck in traffic, can’t we imagine that everyone else stuck with us is our friend and comrade? We’re all together as brothers and sisters. I don’t mean that we can presume to enjoy the same social relations as we do with actual friends. People would thing we were creepy if we came up to strangers and started talking or put our arm around them. But in our mind, the possibility of friendship can be there, and we can certainly view them as fellows.
Maybe you have wondered, “Why are there so many different people?” Or maybe you are wondering, “Why are there so many different religions?” And even more to the point, “Why are there people so different from me?” It is indeed true that there are no two people who are exactly alike. There are always differences between people, there are always differences in thinking, there are always differences in beliefs. You put two people together in a room—even people of the same family and the same religion—and you’ll have two different perspectives on life and belief. This is because God is infinite and we are finite. We each reflect one aspect of God. When we think of the whole world and all the different people in it, we can begin to see how infinite God is.
We are called to love people who are different from us. Even people of different religions. Jesus teaches this quite clearly in the story of the good Samaritan. The Samaritans were a different religion that the Jews. The story goes that a man is beaten and robbed by thieves. He is left for dead. Two Jewish priests walk by and cross the road to the other side to avoid the beaten man. It is a Samaritan, a member of a despised race and creed, who takes the man to an inn to heal and even pays the innkeeper for the beaten man’s lodging. Jesus uses the example of a foreigner and a member of a hated religion to teach the Jews that we are to love everyone, even people different from us.
But that’s not all! We are even called to love our enemies. Everyone who is honest will admit that it is hard to love people who seem set against us. But Jesus doesn’t say, “Love everyone but you don’t have to love your enemies.” No, He says the exact opposite,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).
Jesus showed us how to love. And he showed us how to love everyone—people who are different, people of different religions, even His enemies. This is His one command to us, to love each other. Every human is our fellow, our brother or sister, a potential friend. This is because what we do to our neighbor, we do to God. For Jesus is our best of friends.

PRAYER

Lord, you have given us one simple command–to love one another. This command sounds simple. Why, then, do we find it hard? Is it because our own self-will can come between us and our neighbors? Is it because other people can be different from us? Is it because of disagreements? Why, Lord, do we find loving one another hard sometimes? Lord, this morning, we pray that you show us why we may find it hard to love our neighbor. We would celebrate the good fortune of our neighbors. We would laugh with them and weep with them. We pray that you lead us into harmony and joy with our fellows.

And this morning, we especially pray for our mothers. We thank them for the love and support they have given us, and continue to give us. You have given us mothers to act your helpers on this earth. The love of our mothers may be the closest love we know to your own divine love. This day, let us remember our mothers and thank them for all they have given us.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

To Be Holy to Your God
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 3, 2015

Numbers 15:37-41 John 15:1-12 Psalm 22

Jesus is in our hearts. It is the love of Jesus that gives us life. When we accept Jesus’ love, then we are in Jesus. Jesus loves us and when we love Jesus back, then the circle of love is complete. Then, to use Jesus’ words, “Abide in me, and I in you” (15:4). We will be in Jesus and Jesus will be in us.
When we have Jesus in our hearts, everywhere we go will be holy. It will be blessed by the love that we have for Jesus. And it will be blessed by the love of Jesus which will be with us wherever we go.
We have Jesus in our hearts when we do Jesus’ commands. They are not hard to understand. They sound quite simple, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (15:12). There is a story recorded about the Apostle John. John was so old that he couldn’t walk anymore and had to have people carry him around. He was often asked to speak at the banquets Christians would hold together, since John knew Jesus personally. The story goes that at this particular banquet he was again asked to speak. John said, “Little children, love one another.” That was all. Someone complained. He said, “That’s all you ever say. Isn’t there something else you can tell us that you remember Jesus saying?” John replied, “That’s all I remember the Lord saying, as I would rest my head on his heart. And if you do that, it is enough.”
When we love one another, then we do good to one another. So Jesus also tells us to do good. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (15:8).
We do good to our neighbor directly and indirectly. We do good to our neighbor directly when we are kind and do things to our neighbor that benefit their souls. We don’t just do anything our neighbor wants. Rather, we do what we think is good for our neighbor. We do good to our neighbor indirectly when we perform useful deeds in the world. Poets who write poems that stir the heart to feel and stimulate the mind to think are doing good to their neighbor. Composers who write music that melts the heart or storms and rages in passionate tones are doing good to the neighbor. Artists who paint beautiful pictures are doing good to their neighbor. Merchants who sell products that consumers need in life are doing good to their neighbor. A mother and father who raises a family and so contributes to the welfare of the community is doing good to the neighbor. There are as many ways of doing good as there are of people who do it.
The artist who paints because she or he loves to paint is loving their neighbor. The actual feeling does not have to have people in mind. When we act from a love of what we do, we are loving our neighbor, too. If, however, the artist paints so that they can become famous and make a fortune, then I would question their motives. I actually saw a so-called “painting,” like that. It was by an artist named Jonathon Borofsky. I like a lot of Borofsky’s art, such as a gigantic silhouette of a “Hammering Man.” But I was disturbed by a plain white canvas that had some words written on it in black paint that went, “I want to be great.” There were other words, like “I want to do something different,” or something to that effect. But the main content of that painting was that Borofsky wanted to be great. I was with a photographer at that exhibit, and he had been attending our New York Swedenborgian church. He paused at that painting, and called it to my attention with a knowing nod of his head. Neither of us said what we were thinking. But we did question that painting and the mental space of the artist who painted it. Perhaps it was a confession. Perhaps it was only one aspect of what drove Borofsky to paint. He certainly is successful, anyway.
Our story from the Old Testament tells us to align our hearts with God’s commands. There is a command to make tassels to affix on the corners of their garments. The Israelites were to look at these tassels to remind them to follow God’s commands. They are told, “not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes.” Our own heart can lead us away from following God. The world is seductive, as are our own egos. When we follow our own hearts, we can end up hurt or entangled in destructive behaviors. We can follow our own hearts away from our neighbor and into ego gratification. When we want to gratify our own egos, we can run roughshod over our neighbor, should they get in our way. This is why Jesus tells us to abide in Him and to allow Him to abide in us. For it is only when we have Jesus in us that we are able to get out of our own head. It is only when we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us that we can love others besides ourselves.
I am reminded of the story of Faust by Goethe. Faust makes a deal with the devil so that he can have anything he wants on earth. Faust ends up with a kingdom and riches beyond anyone’s imagination. But as he stands in his castle, surveying his lands, there is one single thing that irritates Faust to no end. He hears the bells of a small chapel. These church bells annoy Faust to the extent that he sends out some thugs to get rid of them. The thugs burn down the chapel, and in doing so, murder the simple couple who maintain the chapel. Faust is grief-stricken because he didn’t mean for things to go that far. He only wanted the church bells silenced. Those bells annoyed Faust. They were reminders that despite Faust’s power and money, there was still God in his world. This story is clearly a metaphor for what can happen to us when we let our greed and worldly passions rule in our lives. Then, suggestions of God are hateful. We hate to be reminded that we are not the masters of the life we have created. We hate the feeling of humility, by which we recognize a power greater than ourselves. And when we try to silence God, we are capable of any sin. When we forget God’s ordinances, especially God’s command to love, we are capable of doing anything.
But when we are mindful of God’s ordinances; when we have Jesus in our hearts; then we are filled with neighbor love. Other people do not annoy us because we see them as fellows. The thought of God does not annoy us, because we love God. Everywhere we go is holy ground because we carry God with us in our hearts and in our minds.
There is a final verse in today’s reading that makes living with Jesus attractive. Jesus gives us a reason for following Him and holding His commands in our hearts.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:10-11).
If we have love for God and love for our neighbor in us—that is, if we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us—then our joy is full. Loving fills us with joy. There is no end to the joy that love brings.
And, on the other hand, there is no greater frustration than when we try to be self-directed and to follow our own ego. We can’t make the world go our way, which is what we want when ego drives us. There are too many other people. And there is God, who is really making things go the way they are going. We will always live under frustration if we want to do away with God.
So let’s not even try. Let’s surrender to the One who has our best interests at stake. Jesus came to earth and taught us so that we can know heavenly joy. Jesus taught us the way of love because that will make us happy. Heaven is a kingdom filled with souls who want to render kind services to everyone else. That is the nature of Jesus’ love. That will be our nature, when we abide in Him and He abides in us. Then Jesus’ joy will be in us, and our joy will be full.

PRAYER

Lord, this morning we pray that you come into our hearts. Fill us with your love. For apart from you we can do nothing. Drive out selfish motives and deeds. Give us a heart that is dedicated to you and to our neighbors. Lead us away from the promptings of our own desires. Fill us instead with direction from you. Fill us with heavenly loves instead of worldly passions. Inspire our minds to think about our neighbor and how we can make our neighbor happy from our own resources. Give us to think of distant neighbors in foreign countries and also to think of our neighbor who is right at hand. May we always seek to hear your voice calling and when we hear you, may we follow in the ways you ask of us.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

He Carries them Close to His Heart
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 26, 2015

Isaiah 40:9-11 John 10:11-18 Psalm 23

Our reading from Isaiah tells us that God tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in His arms, and carries them close to His heart (40:11). What a lovely image of God! This is the same God of the Old Testament who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. This is the God who freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This is a God who cares for His children. He carries us close to His heart.
Jesus is that Shepherd. He came to earth and became a human like we are. In John, we are told that Jesus is the good shepherd. He says that He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. So great is Jesus’ love that He even calls others who are strangers. Jesus says,
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (10:16).
Probably, the reference to the sheep that are not of the sheep pen means the Gentiles who weren’t Jewish Christians. This is an indication of how open Christianity was to other religions and to people who weren’t of the same belief as the Christian Jews. Paul speaks to this inclusion eloquently,
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28).
God is inclusive because God loves each and every human being. Swedenborg speaks about just how loving and inclusive God is,
The Lord, from the Divine love or mercy, wills to have all near to Himself; so that they do not stand at the doors, that is, in the first heaven; but He wills that they should 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).
As God loves everyone, God want to make everyone as happy as we can be.
Jehovah, or the Lord’s internal, was the very Celestial of Love, that is, Love itself, . . . 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).
And if we cooperate with God, we will all find a place in heaven which is uniquely suited to our own disposition,
. . . because the Lord wants to save everyone, he makes sure that all of us can have our places in heaven if we live well (DP 254).
Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus carries each of us near His heart. God sees only our good qualities. God is the true parent who understands us, who knows us, and who never ceases in His efforts to lift us upward.
All God asks of us is that we respond to God’s love. God only asks that we listen for God’s voice. And when we hear God’s voice, we follow the path that leads to where God is.
There is a lot of noise that can drown out God’s voice. There is anxiety. We can worry about a million things. Some of these things that we worry about–probably most–never happen. We can worry about things in the future that will never come to pass. We can worry about other people and what they are thinking about us. When it is entirely possible that they aren’t even thinking about us at all! Mostly we worry about losing something we have or not getting something we want. How can God’s peace come to us when we are blocking it with worries such as these? How much of our behavior is driven by fear, and not by love? Maybe we need to pause, breathe calmly and just let our worries and anxiety dissipate. And in the peace that will surely follow, we can see more clearly what actions we want to take. We can act in Godly ways, filled with God’s peace.
Then there is the issue of consumer culture. We live in a society that teaches us to crave more and more, to acquire things–expensive things, designer things, things like big, loud pick-up trucks–things we can show to other people and things we can point to to show we are a success. How can we feel contentment in God if we are consumed with acquiring things? Again, the peace that comes when we are united with God can be blocked by the lust for acquisition. I remember seeing a news story about a wealthy owner of a textile factory in the US. The factory was the basis for a small town’s whole economy. Most of the people in that town worked at the factory. Well disaster hit and somehow the factory burned down. The owner, however, took the insurance money and rebuilt the factory in the same town. He also paid wages to his employees while the factory was being rebuilt. The journalist was amazed at all this. He asked the owner why he didn’t just take the insurance money for himself. The man replied, “And do what?! Eat more food? Buy another suit?” It was due to this man’s religious convictions that he felt obligated to provide for his employees. Plus, he clearly felt he had enough for a happy life.
If we have things in our life that come between God and ourselves, we need to recognise them. There is no shame in having shortcomings. We humans are susceptible to sin. It is the human condition. Swedenborg writes,
From birth, each of us is like a little hell in constant conflict with heaven. The Lord cannot rescue any of us from our hell unless we see that we are in it and want to be rescued (DP 251).
What does it mean to be rescued from hell? It means to open our arms to God who loves us. It means to hear God’s voice and to follow God when God calls. When we hear God call, then God can free us from the slavery of sin. Remember this is the same God who heard the Israelites call out to Him and who rescued the Israelites from a mighty foreign power. This God has the power to bring all of us into His loving arms. This God has the power to fill us with His divine love and make us into an image and likeness of God.
If we have God with us, we have everything. We have contentment with what is our own. We have as much happiness as we can bear. We are never alone. We always have someone who is with us to rejoice in our happiness and to give us comfort when we are downcast. When we think of these things, the words of the 23rd Psalm come to mind. The Psalmist says it so well in his divinely inspired poetry. With God, our cup overflows. We can’t be happier. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” When we let go of worldly craving and anxiety, we feel that we have every good thing that we need. We live with God’s mercy. With our life full of good things, we think of our afterlife. And the Psalmist says we will live contented in this life and we will dwell with God in the next life forever,
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

PRAYER

Lord, you are the God of the universe; the God of earth and all its people, and the God of galaxies and planets. By your power the heavens are kept in order. By your power stars and galaxies are born. And yet an image you choose for yourself is that of a humble shepherd. In the prophets and when you were on earth, you call yourself our shepherd. And humanity–everyone who has ever lived and everyone who will live are all the sheep of your flock. You hold your lambs close to your heart. We know that you hold each one of us near your heart. You love each single person. You call to us and we know your voice. Help us to listen for your voice. And when we hear you call, give us the willingness to follow the path that leads to you. Help us to remove the worries and selfish cravings that come between you and us. And when you call to us with open arms, may we respond, and open our arms to you.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

The Beginning of Wisdom
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 12, 2015

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

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

PRAYER

Lord, this morning we reflect on your peace. It is not a peace such as the world gives, but it is heavenly peace. When you gave your Holy Spirit to the Apostles, at the same time you gave them peace. Give us, we pray, the same gift of your Holy Spirit, and with it heavenly peace. Take away our worries; calm our anxieties; and still our troubled hearts. The peace you give is filled with joy. We delight in every good deed and true thought when we are filled with your Holy Spirit and the peace it brings. Teach us your ways and confirm us in our faith in you. We know that you are, and are there for our salvation. Thanks be to you.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

The Light Shines in the Darkness
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 5, 2015
Easter Sunday

John 1:1-18 Mark 16:1-8 Psalm 118

In our reading from John, we heard a short poem about the entire life of Jesus. It is put at the beginning of John’s Gospel, as if it was a birth story, but it really covers the entire life and mission of Jesus. Talking about Jesus’ birth, John says, “The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world” (1:9). Then there is a verse that seems to stand for all time, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it” (4).
I would like to speak today about this eternal verse. This eternal truth that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. I want to call attention to an important Greek word. This word is very hard to translate into English. In the translation I read, the verse says that the darkness has not overcome the light. In the King James Version, it says that the darkness has not comprehended it. And in a third translation it says that the darkness has not understood it. So one Greek word has been translated as, overcome, comprehended, and understood. The word in question is katalambano. This is a very strong word. It means to violently seize. Another translation is to grasp. Maybe this word is the best translation. What does it mean to grasp something? It means to understand something. “I can’t grasp the meaning of this word.” And it also means to grab something. “I grasped his arm.” The Greek word means both. It means to understand something. And it also means to seize something by force.
I want to talk about both these meanings of the word katalambano–to grasp with the mind and to grasp physically by force. Both these meanings relate to Jesus. The angry mob tried to overcome Jesus by force on Good Friday. But also the forces of darkness cannot understand Jesus and His message. They don’t grasp what Jesus means, why He came, and what He brings to humanity. In fact, that is the very language Jesus uses when He forgives the mob who has seized Him and led Him away to be crucified. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Easter is the culmination of the greatest story that begins with Christmas and ends with Good Friday and Easter. The birth of Jesus on Christmas points toward this joyous culmination on Easter. On Easter Day Jesus rose from the dead and united His Humanity forever with God. In the resurrected Jesus Christ God and Man became One Person. Through the risen Divine Humanity of Jesus, the light continues to shine in our hearts and minds.
Christmas is the biggest Christian celebration these days. And it deserves joyous celebration as it commemorates that day when the light came into the world. And Jesus’ life on earth and His teachings follow that miraculous birth. But I think that Easter should be bigger than Christmas. Because it was for the purpose of rising up from the grave and uniting Himself with God that Jesus came into the world. As the living God-Man in the resurrected Jesus Christ, now the light shines forever into the world and into the hearts of all who accept Jesus.
Last Friday was Good Friday. And Good Friday brings us back to our opening remarks. On Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. All of nature grieved at the death of the light. Luke tells us that there was darkness over the whole land; that the sun stopped shining. The curtain of the temple in Jerusalem that separated God from the people was torn apart.
The forces of darkness thought that they could extinguish the light. They thought that by getting rid of Jesus, they could silence Him forever. The chief priests of the Jewish religion saw Jesus as a political threat, and wanted Him out of the way. The forces of darkness thought that by crucifying Jesus, they could put a stop to His teachings and the joy He brought to humanity.
But they were wrong. The light shined, continued to shine, continues to shine. They could not overcome the light. Jesus lived, continued to live, continues to live. With joy and astonishment, Jesus’ Apostles met the risen Jesus in person. And over the next decades, people remembered Jesus’ life and the things He said. They remembered the teachings that brought light to a dark world. They remembered the person who brought life to a spiritually dead society. And they wrote down the words and the life of the Light of the World. Jesus lives! Praise Jesus!
The efforts to extinguish the light were responses of ignorance. Many people in Jesus day, perhaps most, didn’t really understand who Jesus was. The mob turned against Jesus because He didn’t come as a conquering king and drive out the Romans. They turned against Jesus because He didn’t make Jerusalem a light to the whole world–a nation-state to which all the countries of the world would pay tribute. The leaders of the Jews didn’t understand Jesus’ teachings. They saw Jesus as a threat to the way they thought religion should be practiced. And indeed, He was, as Jesus’ understanding of religion was much different than the legalism and the temple cult of Judaism back then. They saw Jesus as a threat because Jesus had such a massive following.
But there was enough in Jesus’ words that people did see light in His teachings. People flocked to Jesus and followed Him. They felt something powerful in this teacher-healer. The light may have shined in the darkness, but that light was growing more bright by each day.
The way John words his verse about the light is important. John says, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness hasn’t grasped it.” He says that the light shines! He doesn’t say that the light shined. He doesn’t say that the light only shined when Jesus walked the earth. He says that the light shines in the present tense. The light still shines! Alleluia!
The same light that shined in Israel 2,000 years ago shines today. The same Jesus who walked the earth in Israel 2,000 years ago lives even now. Christ has risen from the dead and lives! He can come to us anywhere, at any time. He can walk beside us in our work lives. He can rest with us in our times of repose. He can enlighten our minds when we seek direction. He can enkindle the flame of love in our hearts when we do good deeds to our neighbor. The darkness hasn’t overcome the light.
There are some signs that seem to suggest that the light is being extinguished today. Church attendance is declining. Mainline denominations are closing their doors. Knowledge of basic teachings of the Bible are appallingly low. It looks like people don’t have a place for church in their lives anymore. People in my position, and many believers, wonder about the state of society.
But do these frightening facts mean that the light has stopped shining? Do these facts mean that the darkness is finally overcoming the light? I can’t believe that. I believe that the light still shines.
It may be that there is light outside the walls of organized religion. There are spiritual people who have been turned off by organized religion. There have been churches who teach harsh doctrines that thinking people can’t accept; that feeling people can’t stomach. There may well be good numbers of people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. There are organizations like AA that are spiritual, in which practitioners find a God of their own understanding.
The light shines. Darkness hasn’t overcome it. Darkness cannot overcome it. Darkness outside of church walls won’t overcome the light. Darkness inside church walls won’t overcome the light. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.”

PRAYER

Lord, this Sunday we think about the joy of your arrival in Jerusalem. We think of the joy you bring to us when we let you into our hearts. But in a short week, the people of Jerusalem turned against you. May we remain faithful to you in our lives and in our beliefs. You are our savior. Besides you, there is no God. May we always hold a place for you in the centre of our life. May we hold a place for love in the centre of all our affairs. And may we empty our hearts of anger and resentment and open the chambers of our hearts for your Spirit, Love, and forgiveness.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

Pilate and Christ
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 3, 2015
Good Friday

Luke 23:1-46 Psalm 22

The words of Pilate and Jesus capture the human situation. Jesus forgives, as God forgives. But Pilate shows us that in our human condition, we may yield to forces of darkness that are at work in our world. We are poised between God and chaos, between light and darkness, between heaven and hell.
It still moves me that Jesus is able to forgive His persecutors. He is unjustly accused; unfairly convicted; cruelly executed. Yet Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” I thought of another aspect to Jesus’ forgiveness. There is absolutely no retaliation, no divine retribution. Jesus is the Word made flesh; The Holy One; Emmanuel–God with us. This is whom the angry mob is murdering. They are killing God in the flesh. Think of the acts we read about in the Old Testament in which God punishes Israelites for turning to idols or to other Canaanite Gods. In contrast, Jesus’ message is one of forgiveness. The earth doesn’t open up and swallow the angry mob, as it did the Israelites who challenged Moses’ authority (Numbers 16). Fire doesn’t fall from the sky and destroy Jerusalem as it did Sodom. No. In Jesus’ unjust execution there is no divine revenge. There is only that plea from Jesus, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus forgives.
Lately I have been talking about the nature of God. I have stated that God can do only good to humanity. God loves the human race. God loves us so much that He came down to earth to re-establish a bond that had been severed by humanity. As I indicated above, there are places in the Bible where God is said to be angry and to take revenge on humans. I see this as a record of God written by a bronze age people–or maybe even a stone-aged people–in a warrior society. They would see God differently than we do, due to the society in which they lived. How can God really be angry or take revenge? Humans can’t! We are taught to put away angry feelings; we are taught not to take revenge. How could a loving God do the same things humans are forbidden to do? And as Christians, we are taught to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and embrace His forgiveness. My God is the loving, forgiving Jesus Christ that we read about in the New Testament.
God forgives; God loves us; God does only what is good to us. But that isn’t the whole story. For there is the very real specter of evil in the world. We live in a world so broken that it could crucify the very God who came to save us. We live in a world in which we witness unspeakable acts of cruelty, some even done in the name of peaceful religions. This brings us to the figure of Pilate.
Pilate was torn between two courses of action. One was to release Jesus whom Pilate knew was innocent. The other course of action was to appease the angry mob and surrender to their will.
I have always pitied Pilate in his predicament. Maybe it is because Pilate is so human. Maybe it is because Pilate is in a situation we all know only too well–whether we will follow our conscience or surrender to forces of darkness.
Pilate tried to release Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel Pilate tries to set Jesus free three times. In each case the mob cries out for Jesus’ death. As we know, Pilate finally surrenders to the will of the mob. Luke’s wording is interesting in this. Luke says that Pilate doesn’t convict Jesus. What Luke says is that Pilate, “Surrendered Jesus to their will” (23:25). Pilate doesn’t sentence Jesus to death. Rather he hands Jesus over to the mob and lets the mob do what it will.
While I am sympathetic to Pilate, I do not mean to let him off the hook. Pilate knew what the right thing to do was. Pilate knew Jesus to be innocent and Pilate knew that the right course of action was to release Jesus. What Pilate did was to surrender to the powers of darkness. In our reading at the beginning of this service we read from John, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it” (1:5). Pilate surrendered the Light of the World to the darkness. In doing so, Pilate demonstrated the potential we all have to succumb to the darkness. While I think that Jesus forgave Pilate, as He even forgave the angry mob, Pilate still remains culpable for his failure to act according to his conscience.
We who call ourselves Christians follow the light. But we exist in a world that contains darkness. In this world, we will have trouble and struggles. We will be put in situations in which we are torn between doing good deeds and so turning to the light, or doing evil and so turning from the light. John tells us this,
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God (John 3:20-21).
Jesus loves every one of us, and forgives everyone of us. Jesus does nothing but good to us. Jesus will not be angry; will not take revenge, or punish. But the message of Good Friday is that we live is a world that is broken, and that we are broken humans. Still, the message that began with the incarnation on Christmas and continues through Good Friday into Easter is this, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12).

PRAYER

Lord you have given us the Bible to teach us your ways. In the stories and sayings, we learn what you would have us do and what we ought not to do. We learn from all the characters in the Bible. We learn from your life how to follow in your footsteps. We see in your Word the potential we have to fall away from you. We see the betrayal of Judas, we see the denial of Peter, and we see the horrors of mob violence. And we also see your unfailing forgiveness. Lord, we pray that you guide us ever toward you. Lead us, Lord, away from our potential to sin. Strengthen our faith in your saving grace, and plant our footsteps firmly in godly deeds. And bring us, we pray, into eternal joy with you in your heavenly kingdom.

He Will Proclaim Peace
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 29, 2015
Palm Sunday

Zechariah 9:9-12 Matthew 21:1-11 Psalm 118

Today we think about the triumphant arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem. This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. In less than a week, we will go through the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday. And then we will celebrate the happiest day in human history in Jesus’ resurrection and triumph over death.
This Sunday is all about the celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. But since we all know the whole story very well, we can’t help but feel the irony of this triumphant entry. While a large crowd celebrates Jesus arrival, we know that within a week a large crowd will cry for Jesus’ death. I can’t help but think that Palm Sunday is a lesson in mob mentality.
I think that the reason why the crowd turned against Jesus is because he didn’t live up to the mob’s expectations. The mob was set up by the prophesies about the coming Messiah. We heard one such prophesy today from Zechariah. Matthew quotes this passage from Zechariah to explain Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. So I think that this passage deserves some attention.
I can see how Jesus fulfills some of this prophesy. And I can also see why Jesus didn’t fulfill other parts of it. I think the problem is that Zechariah 9 sends out a mixed message. The passage is about a king coming to Jerusalem. Verse 9 states, ” Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you.” This is a special king. The king is gentle, righteous, and brings salvation. The king also proclaims peace to the nations. This much fits with what we know about Jesus.
But there is more. This king will also rule the nations. The king will bring peace, but he will do so by wielding power. Zechariah says that the king will,
Take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the war-horses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken (Zechariah 9:10).
This king will rule the entire known world,
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
The reference to the River is the Euphrates. To rule from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth means that the king’s rule will cover the whole world. The king is to restore the lost fortunes to Israel, “Even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you” (9:12).
This is what the people of Jerusalem were expecting. They were expecting a king who would restore the fortunes of the Jews twice over. Yes, the king would bring peace. But he would bring peace by driving out the foreign powers now in control of Jerusalem and Israel. The prophesy in Zechariah says that the great Egyptian power and the Assyrian empire will be brought low. And the people read that prophesy as especially pertaining to Rome. The king when he arrives will destroy the grip of the Romans and liberate the Israelites. The prophesies promised this and everyone was expecting this. Upon the birth of John the Baptist, Zechariah twice exclaims his hopes for the deliverance of Israel by Jesus,
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us– . . .
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies (Luke 1:69, 74).
Not only will Israel be freed from her oppressors, she will be a light to all the rest of the world. Isaiah is one prophet replete with these prophesies.
I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6).
All the nations surrounding Jerusalem will flock to her and pay her tribute.
Nations will come to your light;
And kings to the brightness of your dawn . . .
the wealth of the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come . . .
Foreigners will rebuild your walls,
And their Kings will serve you. . . .
The sons of your oppressors will come bowing before you;
all who despise you will bow down at your feet
and will call you The City of the LORD,
Zion of the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 60:3, 5, 10, 14)
Anyone whose expectations are that high are going to be terribly disappointed when they don’t come to pass. These were the expectations put on Jesus. He seemed to have fulfilled much of the prophesies that people were hoping for in those days. For there were prophesies about a servant who would do these miraculous things,
Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations. . . .
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he established justice on earth. . . .
to open the eyes that are blind ((Isaiah 42:1, 3, 6).
“Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy (Isaiah 35:4-6).
It was clear that God’s Spirit rested on Jesus. He did open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, and gave the lame man to leap like a deer. The people in Jesus’ day had high hopes for their redeemer. And high hopes for what He would do for them, and to the Romans.
But Jesus did none of these deeds of warfare and rule. He was the humble Suffering Servant who did not resist the authorities when they came to arrest Him.
And the irony is that Jesus did and does bring peace. But it is not a peace such as the world understands it. It is not peace from war or conquest of nation against nation. When He was questioned by Pilate during His trial, Jesus said,
My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place (John 18:36).
The kind of peace Jesus brings us is peace of the heart. The peace that Jesus brings is the peace that comes when we turn from vengeful feelings and anger. The kind of peace that Jesus brings is when we are filled with love, joy, and forgiveness.
Jesus does have a kingdom. That kingdom is spiritual, not material. And the spiritual world is not located in any place. Rather, it is everywhere, inside us.
That means that wherever we are, at any time, we have access to the peaceful kingdom that Jesus rules. We have the power to open our hearts to Jesus and find His peace. When we empty our souls from hateful feelings, anger, and resentments, we find peace and love flowing into us in their place. Some call this serenity.
I don’t think that even Jesus’ closest followers were aware of this truth while Jesus was alive. It was after the horror of Good Friday, and the joy of Easter that the disciples were able to ponder Jesus’ teachings and come to terms with this remarkable life, this remarkable God-Man.
Unfortunately, the history of Christianity has not lived up to its founder’s beatific vision of inner peace. There have been squabbling and even wars between fellow Christians and other religions. The message of peace that Jesus brings is as near to you as the person next to you and as distant as injustice and oppression around the globe.
And as we consider how we will respond to our immediate neighbor or our neighbors around the globe, I think the starting point is in our own hearts. We will not be in a place to foster peace if we are not peaceful in our own hearts. You cannot give away what you don’t have. Let us, then joyously welcome Jesus into our hearts. Let us welcome Him as the king of our spirit. And let us reflect on his teachings of peace, forgiveness, and healing. Then we will not be disappointed, bitter, or vengeful in our lives. For Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, it is in our souls. Let us prepare a place for Him now.

PRAYER

Lord, this Sunday we think about the joy of your arrival in Jerusalem. We think of the joy you bring to us when we let you into our hearts. But in a short week, the people of Jerusalem turned against you. May we remain faithful to you in our lives and in our beliefs. You are our savior. Besides you, there is no God. May we always hold a place for you in the centre of our life. May we hold a place for love in the centre of all our affairs. And may we empty our hearts of anger and resentment and open the chambers of our hearts for your Spirit, Love, and forgiveness.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

When I Am Lifted Up
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 22, 2015

Jeremiah 31:31-34 John 12:20-33 Psalm 51

John 12 is all about the glorification of the Lord. It is captured in verse 32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” This is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection. And it says that when Jesus is resurrected He will draw all men to Himself. When Jesus says that He will draw all persons to Himself, He means He will draw us into heaven with Him. This is stated earlier in verse 26, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also.” These statements support this church’s view of salvation. We believe that it is the resurrected Jesus Christ whose divine love and wisdom lifts people into heaven. So John’s Gospel says, “and I when I am lifted from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
Notice what this Gospel does not say. It does not say that Jesus’ death on the cross is what saves. It says nothing about the atonement doctrine. It does not say that Christ’s death is what saves. It does not say that Jesus bore the sins of humanity when He was crucified. It does not say, “When I am crucified I will save humanity.” No. It says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” This is very important. This statement says that it is the resurrection that truly matters. Not the crucifixion.
There are many references in this passage to the word glorification. Jesus says that He will be glorified. So John 12:23 reads, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” References to glorification are scattered throughout the passage. The glorification of Jesus is the complete unification with God. When God and Man are completely one, then Jesus is glorified. And when Jesus became glorified, He was then able to save humanity in a new way. Now through the glorified Humanity of God, God was and is able to come to humanity through God’s own Human Body. Jesus was fully God and fully Man according to the Athanasian Creed. And John’s Gospel tells us just how human Jesus was. Jesus had material form. John tells us that, “The Word became flesh.” And Jesus Himself tells us that He has a material body and gives proof. In an Easter story, Jesus appears before the Apostles,
Jesus Himself stood among them. But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? Se my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them (Luke 24:36-43).
This spiritual and material Jesus Christ–God and Man–comes to each of us through His own power and Humanity. It is the inflowing love and wisdom from the Divine Human that saves.
Jesus explains the power of the resurrected Divine Human in the parable about the grain of wheat in today’s reading. He says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24). The metaphor here is that a grain of wheat does nothing unless it is planted. But when it is planted, a sheaf grows up that produces heads of grain and much “fruit.” The plant of wheat that grows up is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection. Just as the wheat seed grows up and bears fruit, so Jesus’ resurrected Divine Humanity draws humanity to Himself, saving all who follow Him. The imagery is the fruit that grain of wheat produces–not the grain of wheat dyeing. So it is the resurrection that is spoken of here.
Jesus grew up in the world and put off the humanity He inherited from Mary. The process of putting off the maternal humanity and putting on Divine Humanity is the process called glorification.
We follow a similar process. Jesus says, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me” (12:26). We follow a similar process of putting off what we inherit from our parents and put on what flows in from God. The process we go through is called regeneration, or rebirth.
We grow up learning coping mechanisms that fit us to life in the world. Our first mind is a worldly mind. Our first way of acting is matched for survival in the world. It can be said that we are an image of the world upon first attaining adulthood. But we need a second birth in order to become spiritual. Our souls need to be formed into a spiritual body that is an image of God. Jesus teaches this in the story of Nicodemus in John 3.
We need to accept spiritual life by living according to spiritual principles. Some people grow up with ineffective behavior patterns. These people need to re-learn better, more constructive behavior patterns. In theological language, this would be putting off worldly lusts and putting on heavenly affections. Some people are born generally good people. But even such people need to live according to spiritual principles. We need to do good because it is Godly. Doing good out of mere habit, or because we want to be respected and honored, or to advance our standing in our communities–none of these approaches to doing good are spiritually beneficial. Doing good for those reasons is really doing good to ourselves. We are doing it to make ourselves look good or we’re just doing it out of habit. It is serving self, not God.
There are many examples of this kind of good. Some people do good to their friends. But this is serving self. Their friends are people that they have made their own. So friendship is a kind of second self. Likewise, doing good to family members is also serving self. We are bound to family by blood or marriage. This is a kind of second self, too. I knew a man who was so filled with love for his grandchild that he thought himself on a par with Christians, whom he held in contempt. He thought himself equally loving. But when I asked him if he felt equal love for other children, he was stumped. His love actually didn’t extend past his own bloodline, and his own.
The real test of spirituality is whether a person can and will do good for a stranger. Will a person do good to a stranger who embodies good qualities. Or even further, and I think that this is hard for any of us, will we do good to enemies? That is the real test of spirituality. If we do good only to people who do good to us, we are serving self. Who wouldn’t do good if they think that the other person will sooner or later do good back to them? But to do good to someone who is a good person according to all appearances but is at odds with us is truly serving God. In a case like this, we are looking at what is good, not what we get out of it. Looking at good wherever we find it is serving God. God is good; good is God. So when we love what is good, we are loving God.
That is why doing good to an enemy is spiritual. That is why doing good for a cause is spiritual. That is why it is not enough to do good out of habit or because we want to look good. To be spiritual, we need to do good out of love for what is good in and of itself.
I don’t think that we are born with this love for goodness. I think that it needs to be implanted in our hearts from heaven and from God. That is the new covenant spoken of in our reading from Jeremiah 31.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . I will write it upon their hearts (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).
This is the second birth that Jesus teaches. We need to grow up out of our families. We need to realize that the world is bigger than father and mother and brother and sister. We are becoming spiritual when we begin to see the world as brother and sister. And we are becoming spiritual when we begin to see God as our Father and the Church as our mother.
Jesus united God with His Humanity. We become spiritual from being born worldly. The process Jesus followed is called glorification. The process we follow is called regeneration, or rebirth. The risen Jesus comes to us and fills us with His love and wisdom. So He says that when He is lifted up He will draw all men to Himself. And in the resurrected Divine Humanity, God saves us struggling humans. So the wheat seed falls to the earth dead and raises up a head of grain. Jesus’ death and resurrection gives humanity the power to be with Jesus eternally in heaven. That is the fruit born of the dead and resurrected Jesus Christ in His Divine Humanity.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks for coming to humanity when we were in need of your presence. You came to earth and showed us the way back home to you. You struggled with temptations and overcame them all. You taught us that we need to follow in your footsteps. We, too, must struggle with temptations. And as you put off everything mortal that you inherited from Mary, so we, too, must put off our worldly inclinations and put on heavenly ones. We pray this morning that you inspire us with heavenly loves as we turn from worldly passions. We pray that you teach us from your divine wisdom, as we turn from the appearances that the world teaches us. And as you were resurrected on the third day, we pray that we may be reborn a new creation, in your image, and in heaven with you forever.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

That the World Might Be Saved
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 15, 2015
Numbers 21:4-9 John 3:14-21 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
John 3:17 is one of my favorite Bible passages. It reads, “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” This is the Jesus I believe in and the one whom I love. This is the loving Jesus, the saving Jesus, the Jesus who dedicated His whole life to serving and saving humanity.
Unfortunately, just before this lovely verse is one that has caused much harm and misunderstanding in the history of Christianity. That verse is the infamous John 3:16. Conservative Christians who know little about the Bible seem to know this one verse well and have committed it to memory and heart. That one verse reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Conservative Christians—and there are a lot of them—take this to mean that Jesus saves. Not only that. They take this verse to mean that only Jesus saves. They take this verse to say that every other religion in the world is false and their followers will be damned for not believing in Jesus. I’m not kidding. This is what they truly believe. This idea is patently false.
I can give you a couple examples I’ve run into to show just how prevalent this erroneous belief is. When I was seeking a minister to do an internship with before ordination, I approached a Lutheran minister in Florida. This minister gave me serious consideration—even to the extent of looking up the Swedenborgian Church online. He had printed up several pages from it and even highlighted some lines. One line he particularly drew my attention to was one that said we believe that everyone of every faith can be saved. This line was highlighted in yellow. He pointed to it and exclaimed passionately, “I can’t accept that!” For him, Jesus bore the sins of humanity on the cross. And you are saved only if you have faith in Jesus. And just recently in my trip to Urbana University in Ohio, I ran into this issue again. After I had talked to a world religions class about Swedenborg and Hinduism, a student approached me and the teacher when class ended. He said that this practice of accepting different religions was a sign that the “one world religion” foretold in the book of Revelation. This class was promoting that one world religion by showing tolerance to other religions than Christianity. Then the student said he was offended. He thought that only Christianity saved and that he could prove it from the Bible. These are only two of many encounters I have had with conservative Christians who cling to that one passage, John 3:16.
Reason alone tells us that this idea is false. Can it be that the billions of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists are all damned because they don’t believe in Jesus? The God I know and worship could never be that narrow, heartless, and cruel. The God I know and worship came into the world, “not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
John’s Gospel explains just how Jesus saves the world. And that explanation is open to all the world’s religions. John tells us that Jesus is the light. People who hate the light turn away from it because their deeds are evil. While people who love the light turn to it because their deeds are wrought in God..
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God (John 3:19-21).
This statement could have been lifted from almost any sacred text from the world’s religions. These categories of light and darkness are used in almost every religion in the world, in fact, probably every one. It even finds its way into the mythology of the Star Wars movies where warriors of the light battle the dark side of The Force.
So this is why and how Jesus saves—because He brings the light to humanity. And students of the world’s religions know that Jesus isn’t the only revealer to bring light to humanity. Notice, too, that this passage speaks of judgment. It begins with the words, “And this is the judgment . . . .” See, too, that the judgment is self-judgment. Jesus doesn’t cast people away. It is people who turn themselves away from the light—“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light” (3:20). People who love the truth come to the light—“But he who does what is true comes to the light that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God” (3:21). So the judgment is self-judgment. People either come to the light or turn from the light of their own accord. Swedenborg completely agrees with this idea–heaven or hell are chosen. It is a person’s own choice whether he or she wants to live in heaven’s light or hell’s darkness.
That is how we are to understand the condemnation mentioned in verse 18, “He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” The salvation here described is not a matter of accepting Jesus as a person’s savior in one ecstatic moment during a religious frenzy. And the condemnation is not because a person hasn’t accepted Jesus as one’s personal savior in one ecstatic moment of religious frenzy. How shallow Christianity would be if that were the case!
The issue here is stated plainly. Those who do evil turn from the light (3:20). And those who do good turn toward the light that it may be clearly be seen that their deeds have been wrought in God (3:21). How clearly this is stated! It isn’t a matter of believing in Jesus at all! It is a matter of godly deeds or evil deeds. This passage states plainly that faith alone doesn’t save. Deeds that are wrought in God are what save and cause a person to turn to the light.
That is how I understand this problematic passage. And this is why I am Christian and also open to the world’s religions.
Likewise, our passage from Numbers requires careful reading. In it, the Israelites complain about the worthless food they have to eat in the desert. By way of punishment, God sends them fiery snakes and many Israelites get bitten and die. If we read this story as written, God looks angry and punishing. But this church teaches that the Bible is written in appearances. These appearances are not actually true. The appearances are how God appeared to people when the Bible was written. And some of the Bible stories are 4,000 years old. People who lived back then saw God in a fearful, childlike way. God can look like an angry parent, or a furious warlord—personalities that primitive peoples knew. We understand God differently today. We see God as loving and doing only what is good to humans. The story that makes God look like He is punishing is an appearance. I have quoted Swedenborg on this a few Sundays ago. But as it is so critical to understanding the Bible, I would like to quote him again on this issue.
In many places in the Word anger, wrath, and vengeance are attributed to God and He is said to punish, . . . [but] the genuine truth . . . is, that God is Love itself, Mercy itself, and Good itself, and such a Being cannot be angry, wrathful, or vengeful. These things are attributed to God in the Word, because such is the appearance. These are appearances of truth (TCR 256).
This is the loving, saving God I know, believe in, and worship. And, in fact, in this story, when the Israelites repent, God sends them a means of healing. So this story is actually about sin, repentance, and divine forgiveness.
In both our Old Testament reading and our New Testament reading, God is seen as a Being who is in relationship with humanity. In the Old Testament reading, God listens to the Israelites and sends them healing when they turn toward God. And in our New Testament reading, we have a God who actually comes to earth to save us. As one of my theology teachers said, “God plays ball with you.” And coming to humanity in order to save us from ourselves is the best ball game we can play with God. This God, Jesus Christ, is the loving God I worship and adore, and He loves me, loves us more than we can imagine.

PRAYER

Lord, you have told us that you came not to judge the world, but to save it. We pray this morning that you enter our hearts and minds with your saving love and wisdom. You came to bring light to the earth. And you continue to bring light to the world. Enlighten our minds, we pray, this morning and each day. Enkindle in our hearts the flame of your holy love. Inspire our footsteps to walk in the path of your righteousness. And give us to perform deeds wrought in God.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.