Church of the Holy City

Sweet Forgiveness
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 31, 2009

Forgiveness is one of the sweetest aspects of Christianity. God is all mercy and forgiveness, and asks the same of us. Both our Bible readings this morning treat the subject of forgiveness. In Jeremiah, God says, “I will cleanse them from all the sins they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me” (33:8). The subject of the Jeremiah passage is the attack of the Babylonians. The prophet Jeremiah interprets the Babylonian attack as a sign of divine punishment for the sins of the Israelites. God says that he will slay the inhabitants of Jerusalem in His anger and wrath. Our church takes this to be an appearance of truth. We know that God can never be angry or kill people in wrath. We see this as an appearance of truth, according to the mindset of the people living in 6th century BC Israel. But even in this tale of anger and destruction, God’s forgiveness and mercy shines through. God will heal His people and bring peace and security to Jerusalem. Before all nations of the earth, Jerusalem will be filled with God’s joy, praise, and honor. People around the world will be filled with awe because of the prosperity and peace God gives Jerusalem. This is all to show God’s mercy and forgiveness.
And in John, we heard the beautiful story of the woman caught in adultery. According to Jewish law, punishment for adultery was stoning to death. But Jesus asks the Israelites to search their hearts. “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” One by one they dropped their stones and left. When all her accusers have left, Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you” (8:11). God on earth does not condemn the woman caught in adultery.
God is all goodness and love, and so does not remember our wrongdoing. “The Lord imputes good to every person and evil to none, consequently that He does not condemn any one to hell, but so far as a person follows raises all to heaven, . . .” Swedenborg tells us in TCR 652. God looks upon the whole human race from love and views only goodness in us, and wants to give us every good thing,
The appropriation of the life of the Lord comes from His love and mercy toward the universal human race, in that He wills to give Himself, and what is His, to every one, and that He actually gives, so far as they receive . . . (AC 3742).
But we have a role to play as far as God’s love for us is concerned. In the passage I just cited, Swedenborg says that God gives Himself to everyone “so far as they receive”. So we need to respond to God’s call. God calls us constantly into heaven and into heavenly joy, but we need to respond and live in accordance with God’s infinite love and mercy,
There is actually a sphere proceeding continually from the Lord and filling the entire spiritual and natural worlds which raises all towards heaven. It is like a strong current in the ocean which unobservedly draws a vessel. All who believe in the Lord and live according to His precepts enter that sphere or current and are elevated . . . (TCR 652).
We need to examine our lives and to take action. We need to remove obstacles to receiving God’s inflowing love and forgiveness. In traditional Christian language, this is called repentance.
The Lord forgives to everyone his sins, and never takes vengeance, nor even imputes sin, because He is love itself and good itself; nevertheless, sins are not thereby washed away, for this can be done only by repentance. For when He told Peter to forgive until seventy times seven, what will not the Lord do? (TCR 409)
What will not the Lord do? If we put ourselves in the stream of God’s strong, upward flowing current, we will be drawn into heaven and company with our Maker. As we remove the limitations that block God’s life, then God’s forgiveness can be a reality. We need to see ourselves through God’s eyes. We need to see the good qualities God has given us. We need to walk in the light. Then God’s forgiveness means communion and mutual joy in God and God in us.
But God also asks us to forgive our neighbor. In the story from the Gospel of John, Jesus asks the Jews to look at themselves before condemning the woman. What started out as judgment against her becomes forgiveness. It is nice to think that God forgives. Meditating on God can lift us into ecstasy. But then we have to deal with the real world. We run into people who rub us the wrong way. We get resentful. We carry grudges. We form dislikes. And the forgiveness God so freely gives us becomes a very hard task for us to do to others.
Forgiveness works on two levels. There is the forgiveness between us and God. Then there is the forgiveness between us and our neighbors. We find forgiveness from God when we repent, and let go of vices. Then God shines through us and fills us with everything He has. Shall I say this is easier than the forgiveness that we confront in other people? We are all fallen and broken people. We are finite, and we all have character flaws. By the same token, we all have God’s image and likeness in us. I see God as an infinite human being. And I think that this is an important image of God because it makes me see other humans as reflections of God. When I see others as sparks of God, or when I reflect that God’s humanity is in others, it hallows my relations with other people. When I reflect that what I do to others, I do to God, then how I relate to other people matters all the more.
God sees us from goodness. We need to see each other in the same way. Our view of others can take two forms. We can become indignant when we find something we don’t like in our neighbor. Or, we can overlook the issue and look for the positive qualities in others. When I take offence, it seems that inevitably my own wants and ego has been challenged. When I look at my part in the encounter, and take ownership for my part in the difficulties I feel, then relationships work much better for me. This requires the courage to fully admit that I have my own shortcomings, as others do, and if I expect forgiveness then I need to show forgiveness. It was the recognition of sin in themselves that made the Jews forgive the adulterous woman. I’m not saying that we need to go around feeling terrible about ourselves. I guess what I’m saying is that we only be honest about ourselves. And the kind of honesty that will heal relationships is an honest recognition of our own part in personality conflicts
I don’t mean to say that we need to be a door mat. We need to establish boundaries about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in our personal relations. This is most evident in abusive relationships. If we find ourselves being treated in demeaning ways, we need to confront the other. It is not healthy for us, nor is it healthy for the other to remain in an abusive relationship. Sometimes the fear of confrontation is so great that people will remain in abusive relationships rather than stand up for their personal integrity. Or if we find ourselves in a relationship in which we are continually giving and sacrificing while the other is only taking, again the relationship is not healthy for either party. Again, we need to confront the other. Jesus frequently confronted the Pharisees and teachers of the law for twisting God’s laws for their own ends. And if confrontation does not work, then it may be necessary to terminate the relationship.
As we go through life, we grow and develop in our capacity to relate to others. The destruction of Jerusalem described in Jeremiah symbolizes the wearing down of our selfish orientation. Only when our personality has been softened by trials and temptations are we in a place to receive the glorious promises God will give to Jerusalem. Then we are more compassionate. Then we are better able to understand others. Then the wants of our ego matter less than peaceful relations with others. Then we are better able to forgive. Then, as Jeremiah writes, “there will be sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying,
Give thanks to the LORD Almighty,
For the LORD is good;
His love endures forever” (33:10-11).

The Mighty Force of Mercy
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 17, 2009

1 Kings 8:31-40 Matthew 18:21-35

We work so hard to achieve what we have in life; and we can, at times, struggle so painfully against some of our defects, that we can be tempted to think we deserve the good things we get. Or, still, we may pride ourselves on the fact that we have attained our achievements by our own hands. There is a common phrase about being a “self-made man.” And along these lines we don’t want to be beholden to anyone, but stand on our own two feet.
We don’t want a hand out. We want to earn our keep. We want no one’s pity. But these are all sad myths. And they are the kind of myth that will drag us down into even more misery. In spiritual things, this mindset is dangerous.
The fact is, everything we have is given to us. It is a gift of God, and a gift we haven’t earned. The good things we enjoy are given by God out of pure mercy. The illusion is that we are the agents of our own destiny. The illusion is that we are the sources of our happiness. The illusion is that the very life we have is our own. And when we’re feeling good, when we’re pleased with some kind of spiritual advancement we’ve made, we may not want to thank God for it. We may want to enjoy ourselves without realizing that God gave us the happiness we have. The God gives us the very life we have.
And that idea—the idea that we do it all ourselves—the idea that we have attained the good things we have by our own hand—that idea will be the very thing that drags us down into more misery. That idea of self needs to be broken. We need to know and acknowledge from the heart that we have no power to lift ourselves out of the mire of selfishness and greed. We have no power to give ourselves the happy things of mutual love. All the things that make us truly happy, all the joys of love, all heavenly happiness that we feel here on earth, are pure, unmerited gifts. And when we don’t acknowledge that, we lead ourselves into temptation.
In all temptation there is a state of doubt concerning the presence and mercy of the Lord, and concerning salvation, and such things; for those who are in temptation are in interior anxiety, even to despair; in which they are for the most part kept, to the end that they may be at length confirmed in this, that all things are of the Lord’s mercy, that they are saved by Him alone, and that with themselves there is nothing but evil; respecting which they are confirmed through combats in which they overcome (AC 2334).
Now this is a hard teaching to hear. It is hard because no one likes to hear about their own evil. No one likes to hear about our natural tendencies to the lusts of ego and greed. And no one wants to admit that it is God alone who lifts us out of the hell we would make for ourselves without His help.
But it is through temptations that our ego is deflated. When we find ourselves in a state of misery brought on by our own evil desires—and there is none of us who doesn’t have them—we fall to our knees and ask for God’s help and mercy. It is not that God wants us to feel misery—that is our own doing. But without God, we would be left with the anxieties of our selfishness and greed and the frustrations we feel when the world doesn’t go according to the way we want it.
All right. I’ve said the bad part. Now comes the good part. There is no sunrise without the darkness of night. The fact is, God is all love, all mercy, and all forgiveness. God wants us to be happy. God wants to give us happiness as a gift. Like all lovers, God wants to give us all He has—and God is infinite love and infinite wisdom and to the extent that we are open, we have no bounds as to the depth of joy we can receive from God.
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).
Let me emphasize those last phrases. God wants to make us all happy for ever; to bestow all that He has on us, and to draw us all into heaven. I really like the last line—by the strong force of love. Swedenborg makes another reference to how powerful God’s love is when he says, “From the mercy of the Lord [we are] withheld from evil, and kept in good; and this with a mighty force” (AC 7206).
All we have to do is to let this happen. And in order to let this happen, we need to realize that this is God’s mighty force, not our own. And when we are feeling good and happy, we need only give God thanks for it.
Yet when we are most in need of God, we most think we can save ourselves unaided. I once knew a man in Florida. As was common for me, I found myself in a religious conversation in the cigar parlor I used to hang out at. I said that everyone, everywhere, could be saved if they are doing the best they know. That remark really set off this guy. He was drunk, and I try to get away from drunks, especially when religion is brought up. But he demanded over and over, “Why do I need to be saved?” This man was very successful and rich, and was driven around in a limousine because his driving privileges were revoked. I got to know him in a little while. One night, when I was riding around in his limo, he was in a fit of desperation, “I’m done. If you can’t tell me why, I won’t be alive tomorrow.” Then he recanted. He said, “No, that’s not fair to you.” This is the man who asked me why he needed to be saved. I’m happy to say that he later joined AA, and even accepted the spirituality of the program.
But it takes such states of grief and despair to break that illusion that we do it all ourselves. And the real kicker here, is that we do indeed have a responsibility in this process. God gives us heavenly joy out of pure love and mercy, but we have to respond to God’s call and live a Godly life.
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).
Our part is to clean the inside of the cup, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 23:25-26,
“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.”
This process is called reformation in Swedenborg and as we heard just above, it begins in infancy and proceeds to the end of our life in this world, and then, he goes on to say, afterward to eternity. Not only does this reformation process go on into eternity, it can happen in the next life if it hasn’t happened here. I found a really interesting quote in Swedenborg as I was preparing for this talk. It is in a passage about the despair a person goes through in temptation. It goes as follows:
That they who are being reformed are reduced into ignorance of truth or into desolation, even to grief and despair, and that they then first have comfort . . . They who are such that they can be reformed, if not in the life of the body, yet in the other life are led into this state of reformation . . . and are at length taken away into heaven, where they are instructed among angels as it were anew in the goods and truths of faith (AC 2694).
So reformation can happen in the next life even if it hasn’t happened here. This makes me think of those unfortunates I see who it looks like they haven’t gotten a fair break. They come from abusive parents, or drug abusers, and they follow the circle of dysfunction in their own life. They don’t seem to have been given a fair start in life, and seem to have no one to fall back on. I think of these cases in relation to this passage from Swedenborg. Perhaps these are the ones who are reformed in the next life, taken up into heaven, and instructed anew by angels.
How much misery and grief we go through ultimately depends on how tough a case we are. How much is it going to take to break that ego that tells us we made ourself in our own image? What is it going to take to realize that every good thing we have is a gift, from a God who loves us immeasurably. How much will it take us to be genuinely thankful at heart, and humble. I think the blues musician Roy Buchanan has some fitting words to conclude this talk,
Thank you God, saw your sun rise today
Bless you God, got to see my little children play
It may not be the right way to pray
But I want to thank you anyway
Thank you God

A Mother’s Wisdom
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 10, 2009
Mothers’ Day

I like the New Testament passage for this morning because it shows an interaction between mother and child that we all can relate to. Jesus’ mother knows her son’s abilities, and prompts him to do something he apparently wants to get out of. This interaction becomes Jesus’ first miracle. Mary, Jesus, and His disciples are at a wedding feast and the host has run out of wine. Mary tells this to Jesus, and He says, “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not come yet” (John 2:4). Mary ignores Jesus’ comment and tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She doesn’t let Jesus get out of it. Essentially, Mary pushes Jesus into his ministry which he takes up from that point forward.
Sometimes, perhaps often, our mothers know our capabilities better than we do. They also know what is good for us to do. And they sometimes, perhaps often, get us to do the right thing, when we might not feel like it.
From the moment we are conceived, we are constantly on our mother’s mind. We grow in her womb, she nurses us when we are born, and has our interests close to her heart all our lives. And even when we don’t, our mothers know what is best for us, what is best for us to do, and she will get us to be and do our best.
A mother’s love is perhaps the closest thing we will know to unconditional love. She is always ready with open arms to help us when we go through trials. And no one is prouder, and more happy in our successes. There are a few lines form a Robert Frost poem that capture this unconditional love well. There is a discussion between husband and wife about home. The man says, “Home. The place that when you have to go there they have to take you in.” The wife says, “I should have called it a place you don’t have to deserve.” Our mother’s home is just that. It is a place you don’t have to deserve. In many areas of our life, perhaps most areas, we are measured by what we do and how we do it. We constantly have to prove ourselves. In the job world, we have to show ourselves competent to perform our task. And advancement depends on how good we are. In many of our friendships we are judged by what we bring to the relationship. Are we funny? Are we good company? Do we have good manners? But whether we are a success in this world or not, we will always have our mother’s love. Home is truly a place we don’t have to deserve. And a mother’s love is so generous, that we can never make it up. No matter what we do, flowers, cards, visits, phone calls, we will never do enough to deserve the love our mother’s give us. It is the closest thing we have to God’s love. It is like grace—freely given without our meriting it. It is the closest thing we will know of God’s grace. For a mother’s love is given freely, without our needing to earn it—just as God’s love and grace is.
With the intimacy of mother’s love, it is strange that in Protestant Christianity there is so little feminine imagery. When I was looking through the hymnal for this church service, there was only one hymn that mentions mothers specifically. It was our opening hymn, Mother Dear Jerusalem. There are many hymns about fathers, since in Protestant Christianity, God the Father and Jesus assume such a prominent place in our religious symbols.
Catholicism venerates Mary, and her elevated status elevates motherhood and the feminine in religion. Catholics pray to Mary as their spiritual mother and implore her mother’s tender care. Jesus has a feminine side, and there are a few feminine references in the Bible associated with Jesus. One is his sorrow for Jerusalem. He presents Himself as a mother hen to the children of Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Luke 13:34). This is a poignant and touching side of Jesus. But it is still Jesus the divine-man speaking. He is not a mother, as Mary is.
Some of our ministers try to include God’s femininity in their prayers. They pray to Father and Mother God. There is Biblical support for this kind of prayer, as both man and woman are created in the image and likeness of God. I take a different approach to the question. I think of God as the divine human in the glorified risen Jesus Christ. For me, the feminine side to Jesus is his soul of love and his masculine side is his form as truth. But even with this formulation, it doesn’t capture that intimate love I found from my mother. Seeing a motherly God might change my perception of God’s love and how I interact with God in my prayer life.
In Swedenborg’s system of correspondences, the church is called our spiritual mother. In the book of Revelation, the establishment of the New Church is symbolized by a mother giving birth. This is because the church nurtures our spiritual development in a like fashion as our natural mothers nurture our growth and development. We turn to the church as we do to our mother. We grow up spiritually in the church. The church teaches us religious truths that lead us into spiritual life. The church gives us some of our most tender religious feelings, as our mothers home gives us tender feelings of family. The holy feelings of love we find in church serve us as an emotional cushion throughout life’s harsh realities. These holy feelings are called remains in Swedenborg and are God’s connection with us. When we go through emotional trials, we turn to our church community for support as we would our mothers. In the great life stages we go through, we turn to the church. We are baptized in the church. We are married in the church. Our children are baptized in the church. And our memorial service is given in the church.
Another aspect of motherhood is receiving much needed attention these days. I mean Mother Earth. We think of the earth as our mother because mother earth provides us with all our needs. Mother earth gives us plants and foods to eat. We are nurtured by Mother Nature. We need especially today to take care of this wonderful and precious mother. Global warming from pollution is threatening Mother Earth, and she is turning from a gentle, nurturing mother into a raging, stormy home. We can’t keep disrespecting our natural mother and expecting things to be alright. Mother Earth will continue to nourish and provide a home for us if we respect the forces that govern her. Recycling, biodegradable materials, and renewable energy sources are ways our 21st century technologies can take care of our dear Mother Earth. We celebrated Earth Day recently, and I would include caring for Mother Earth in this Mother’s Day talk.
Many mothers today are self sufficient. They can take care of themselves. But that does not mean that they need our love any less. It is fitting that we set aside a special day to honor our mothers. Too often in our hectic lives we don’t take time to touch base with mom. Often a phone call from time to time is all a mother wants. For however old we get, we will always be our mother’s child, and our mother will want to know how we are doing and what is going on in our lives. Our mothers may know that we love them, but we need still to tell them. So it is fitting that this special day be set aside to honor our mother’s love and to complete the circle of love by giving her back our love. On this Mother’s Day we honor not only our own mothers, but that special contribution mothers everywhere make to life on this Mother Earth.

Crisis and Faith
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 3, 2009

Numbers 13:17-20, 26-33 Matthew 8:5-13

Today I selected two Bible passages that treat the issue of trust in God. The Old Testament reading represents a failure to trust God. The New Testament reading represents astonishing trust.
In the Old Testament passage, the Israelites sent out spies to explore the land of Canaan. They came back afraid of the tribes in Canaan. They said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:31, 35). Only Caleb trusted in God’s power and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can surely do it” (Numbers 13:30).
In the New Testament reading, a Roman Centurion has a paralyzed and suffering servant. He asks Jesus to heal him. Jesus is about to go to the home of the Centurion, but the Centurion says that that wouldn’t be necessary. He says, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8). He trusts Jesus that much. He doesn’t need a demonstration of power; he doesn’t need Jesus to perform a healing ritual. He trusts Jesus’ power so much that he knows Jesus needs only say the word, and he needs no other proof of Jesus power to heal.
I bring up this issue because I have been going through a crisis personally this week. I have been so immersed in worldly concerns that I have found it very difficult to concentrate or ponder theology. I’d like to share what I went through, because I think the best theology comes from experience. I assure you, I will get to the theological point eventually in this story.
You may have noticed that the big, old red van isn’t parked outside the church this morning. And if you are a keen observer, you may have noticed a new, white Honda Civic parked in front of the church. Over the past week I have been in the process of buying a new car. Between when I started shopping for the car until I finally drove it out of the dealership parking lot has been a nightmare.
I went shopping for a Honda Civic upon the advice of Nikhil, who knows a lot about cars. I found a beautiful ’07 Civic that looked like new. I immediately put down $500 to hold it for me while I made up my mind if I was going to buy it. Meanwhile they called a bank and told me that a loan had been approved for me. Midway through the week, I called the dealership and told them I wanted the car, that I would put down another $1,000 and could they have it ready by Saturday. They assured me there would be no problem. The mechanic at the Husky gas station on the corner of 82nd Street and 127 Ave wanted to buy the van and offered me $100 more than the dealer would have. My plan was to pick up the Civic, sell my van, and drive my new Civic down to Calgary, where I was preaching that Sunday.
Saturday arrived. I drove my van to the Husky gas station and sold my van to Chong, the mechanic. Carol and I drove in her car to the dealership with the license plates from the van. My salesman was there. He asked me, “Are you excited?” “You bet,” I said. He took me into the finance office. The finance officer asked me, “Are you excited?” “You bet,” I said. He then said, “Oh, we never got your ID, can I photocopy your driver’s license?” “Sure,” I said, and handed him my Florida driver’s license. He looked at it and said, “I’m not sure if we can use this.” Then came those words, “Just a minute.” He left the office for a while and then came back. “We need a Canadian driver’s license,” he said. I told him that I couldn’t get one because I was here on a Visitor’s Permit. “Do you have an Alberta Health card?” he asked. “Yes,” I said, “But it’s not with me.” “We can take an official Alberta ID card from the Registry and your Alberta Health card as ID.” They called over to the Registry, and the Registry told them that I couldn’t get an official Alberta ID card with a visitor’s permit. And, since ministers don’t need a work permit, the Canadian Government won’t give me a work permit. I told the dealership that my own bank had approved me for a loan and that if I had known that I was going to run into this, I would have taken out a loan from them before today, and that now the bank was closed and wouldn’t open again until Monday. I also told them that I had already sold my van because they said everything was in order and my loan was approved. They said, “Just sit tight, we’ll work something out.” Two hours went by while I sat tight. Then Carol said, “If I get involved, can we get this resolved?” I asked them. They said Carol could be a cosigner if her credit is approved and I could drive out of the lot in my new Honda Civic that afternoon. Carol’s credit was approved shortly. She was at home while all this was going on, because she needed to get groceries for her son. They said for Carol to come to the dealership with a voided cheque and we could drive away today. Carol showed up, and they told us how it would work. The car would be registered in Carol’s name, and automatic car payments would be deducted from her bank account. At this point, Carol said, “Just a minute.” Carol and I had a talk in her car and decided that that was no solution. I told them to hold the car, I would talk to my bank on Monday. After sitting around the dealership for two hours over a car sale that they said would be OK, I wasn’t feeling, or acting, very ministerial. So I went back to the Husky station, and asked Chong if I could buy my car back. He looked upset, but said, “Well, what can I do?” So I gave him back his money and drove my old, red, Chrysler van down to Carol’s house so she could pick up her things for our trip to Calgary.
When I got to Carol’s house, the battery in my van died. Now on top of everything else, I didn’t know what was wrong with my van—the battery or the alternator. And I really didn’t want to put more money into a car I was going to get rid of. It was now 6:00PM and too late for a bus to Calgary. Carol heroically volunteered to drive us down in her 2001 Civic. By now I was hating the dealership, my van, the whole Chrysler car company, and all American cars in general. On the way down to Calgary all this was churning around in my head. My own bank never asked me about my Florida driver’s license. Would they be able to give me a loan? Would I ever get my new Civic, or was I stuck with the old, big, red Chrysler van that seemed to break down about every month and a half.
I found it very hard to focus on the church service I had to give the next morning. In fact, I wasn’t feeling very spiritual at all. All I could think about was that car. Furthermore, we had plans to hear Lorrie Lipski sing Bach’s B-minor Mass after church. I love the B-minor Mass, and even own 2 recordings of it. And I didn’t want to spoil the concert with anxiety about the car deal. None of the theological doctrines I preached about seemed to make sense in this whirlpool of materialism.
Then it came to me. A single line from the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread.” To me, that line meant that our daily bread is given us this day—not tomorrow, not Monday when the banks open, not into the distant future, but this day. I remembered what we learned from Ekhart Tolle about living in the moment. The moment is all we have. So the moment is where I dug in. I also remembered a phrase I’ve heard over and over again, but it had a special meaning in this day. “Let go and let God.” There was nothing in the moment I could do about the loan, the Civic, or the broken down red van. So I let them all go and focused on what I had. I had Carol’s love, the service, and the concert. And that is where my life was in that moment. The church service went well, I enjoyed the concert immensely, and, finally I got my new Honda Civic and dumped the van on someone who could take care of it, Chong, my mechanic.
These kinds of things can be extremely valuable in our spiritual development if we react to them well. What I went through fits well with Swedenborg’s idea of temptation. Temptation isn’t just an inner debate about eating a chocolate bar or some fresh fruit. Temptations are visceral struggles in which our self-will is ground down, and our soul is made more flexible and open to receive God’s love. Temptations change us from saying, “I want,” into saying, “Thy will.” And I’ll tell you, those two hours when I was sitting in the dealership, “I want that car, and I want it now” was all that filled my mind. But those two gems of theology helped me through my struggles: “Give us this day,” and “Let go and let God.” Crises like the one I went through grind down our worldly desires and our self will. We learn that what we want isn’t always going to be what we get, and we need to give up that desperate attachment to, “I want.”
There’s a long passage from Swedenborg that talks about temptations and how they soften our self-will. I ran into it 30 years ago, when I didn’t really understand it. I even asked my minister about it. Now, I think I’m getting a feel for it. With your kind permission, I’d like to read it for you at length.
Man is nothing else than but an organ, or vessel, which receives life from the Lord . . . The life which flows in with man from the Lord, is from His Divine Love. This love, or the life therefrom, flows in and applies itself to the vessels which are in man’s rational and which are in his natural. These vessels in man are in a contrary position in respect to the inflowing life because of the hereditary evil into which man is born, and of the actual evil which he acquires; but as far as the life which flows in can dispose the vessels to receive it, so far it does dispose them. These vessels in the rational man, and in the natural, are those that are called truths . . . . When therefore these vessels . . . are in a contrary position and direction in respect to the life, as was said, it may be evident that they must be reduced to a position in accordance with the life, or in obedience to it. This can in no way be effected so long as the man is in that state into which he was born, and to which he has reduced himself; for the vessels are not obedient, being obstinately resistant, and opposing the heavenly order . . . for the good which moves them, and with which they comply, is of the love of self and the world . . . . Wherefore, before they can be rendered compliant and fit to receive anything from of the life of the Lord’s love, they must be softened. This softening is effected by no other means than by temptations; for temptations remove what is of self-love . . . .When therefore the vessels are somewhat tempered and subdued by temptations, then they begin to become yielding to, and compliant with the life of the Lord’s love, which continually flows in with man. . . . he is afterward gifted with another genius, being made mild, humble, simple, and contrite in heart (AC 3318).
When we get really shook up—and all of us have in one way or another—we become more accepting of things. Everything doesn’t have to be the way we want it to be. This is what Swedenborg means by saying that temptations soften the vessels in our rational mind, and grind down love of self and of the world. When we are filled with self-will, we rage against everything and everyone who doesn’t go our way. But as Swedenborg says, after temptations we receive a new personality that is mild, humble, simple and contrite. That is when crises become crises and faith instead of crises of faith.

Our Spiritual Home
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 19, 2009

Genesis 12:1-8 Matthew 2:13-23

I’ve just returned from a trip to the US. The occasion for my travel was a seminar in which ministers from the Mid-West region gathered together to share thoughts on ministry. I found it a stimulating seminar and very helpful. I was able to ask questions and hear insights on effective ministry from ministers who have served for much longer than myself.
After being in Canada for so long, I had the strange feeling of re-accustoming myself to my homeland. I now feel like a citizen of two nations—Canada and the US—and I feel better for living in both worlds. Even though Canada is right on the US border, there are some real differences in the cultures of the two nations. This is only to be expected about travel over great distances. Even within just the US, traveling across several states brings differences in culture. Fortunately for me, here in Canada I have Carol who can help me to present myself in a proper Canadian way. One amusing way she helps me is when I feel like speaking out when I’m upset with some experience here—be it poor service over the phone, or in a restaurant, or with the airlines. Canadians are more polite than I’m used to, and in the US it’s not at all unusual for someone to speak their mind when they’re dissatisfied. We have a saying between us about this. We call it “going American.” So when I want to take someone to task, I tell Carol, “I’m going to go all American on that guy.” She usually disassociates herself from me when I go American on someone. That TV show Corner Gas also had an episode on this. An American is visiting in Canada, and his Canadian friends are trying to help him fit in. Well he says something harsh to someone and his friends tell him he has to say he’s sorry. The American says, “Why do I have to say I’m sorry? I’m not sorry!” To which his Canadian friends say, “You don’t have to be sorry, you just have to say you’re sorry.” “Why,” the American asks. “It’s the Canadian way,” is the response.
So I picked today’s Bible readings with the idea of changing homes in mind. In our Old Testament reading we have Abram moving from Mesopotamia to Canaan. And in the New Testament reading we have Jesus and his family moving from Israel to Egypt. About Abram’s move from Mesopotamia, God tells him that he shall be a stranger in a strange land. In Canaan, Abram found different Gods and different peoples. The foreign gods that Abram encountered were associated with places such as mountains and wells. There is El Bethel, who was worshipped at Luz, El Elyon, who was worshipped at Jerusalem, El Olam, at Beer-sheba, and other gods associated with holy places. But what is striking for religion at this time is that Abram’s God traveled with him even on that great migration from Mesopotamia to Canaan. The God of the Patriarchs was not tied down to a specific place. The relocation of Jesus’ family after His birth was also a major upheaval. To move from the small town of Nazareth to the great empire of Egypt would have been a wondrous and also intimidating experience. There were Jewish communities in Egypt, so Jesus’ family would at least have some Jewish culture around them in Egypt. But there were also those huge statues and temples to the Egyptian gods and goddesses, as well as monuments to the Greek pantheon which had conquered Egypt in the time of Christ. Egypt would have felt like home, as he grew up there. We can only guess at how much of the Greek and Egyptian wisdom Jesus learned in Egypt. We only know that He astounded the teachers in the temple at the age of 12 with His wisdom.
There are advantages and disadvantages in moving from one place to another. The great advantage of moving from place to place is that one can shed ideas and beliefs that are only products of a locality. Then there are new ideas and beliefs to learn from new environments. Staying only in one place can be limiting. When I moved from Detroit to Boston, I experienced a whole new world. People acted differently, education had a high value in Boston, which it didn’t have in Detroit, and I gained an independence in Boston which was far removed from my family. But the disadvantages can be a loss of feelings of home and family. I envy people who still maintain friendships with people that they grew up with, as is the case with my parents. And I think that the place in which a person grows up will always have a feeling of home. When I drive down the roads of Detroit, it still feels like home—even after 20 years away. And I still root for the Detroit teams: the Red Wings, the Pistons, the Tigers, and unfortunately for me, the Lions, who have yet to win a Superbowl.
As we grow older in life, we are on a spiritual journey like that of Abram. We are gradually growing up spiritually as we grow older naturally. We are leaving one state of mind for another. We are exchanging early affections for more spiritually mature ones. Like a snake, we shed old skin for new skin. And as with travel, these changes are not easy. When we move from one place to another, we feel a good deal of stress and anxiety as everything which we knew and took for granted is lost; and everything we now encounter is unfamiliar. The case is similar with spiritual changes. We are actually exchanging old feelings and perceptions for new ones. We feel anxiety when our former pleasures are left behind and also we feel anxiety when from a higher place we look back on where we were, and regret our lower condition.
While man is being regenerated and conjunction is being effected of the good of the internal man with the truths of the external, a commotion takes place among the truths, for then they undergo a different arrangement. . . . The commotion then made, manifests itself by an anxiety arising from the change of the former state, namely, from a privation of the enjoyment which had been in that state. This commotion also manifests itself by anxiety concerning the past life . . . (AC 5881).
Swedenborg describes this process in another place. Our growth is from an interest in the world and self out of which we journey into an interest in the neighbor and God. Make no mistake, this change is real and it affects our goals in life and our enjoyments. Such a change is not comfortable.’
. . . When a man is being purified from those lusts [self and the world], as is the case when he is being regenerated, he is in pain and anxiety, and it is the lusts which are then being wiped away, that are pained and cause anxiety (AC 4496).
While we are undergoing spiritual rebirth, and we are exchanging one emotional complex for another, we are forming a spiritual home. We don’t know it while we are in the material world, but our souls are alive in the spiritual world. We are forming company with spirits and angels who are in similar emotions as we are. The emotions that we cultivate will determine our communities in the next life. Swedenborg tells us that in the next life, we will find our way to others who share a like emotional state as our own. We will feel at home with them, because on earth we had been cultivating emotions like theirs. “Like are brought as of themselves to their like; for with their like they are as with their own and as at home, but with others they are as with strangers and abroad” (HH 44).
We feel at home with surroundings that are familiar to us. When I cam back from the US, I sat in my favorite chair and scanned the walls, looking at my favorite works of art that were hanging there, and I felt like I was home. Our best friends are friends who have been with us over the years, through different experiences. When we come to our spiritual homes in the next life, we will meet with people whom we seem to have known all our lives. This is because they are in a like love to us.
All who are in similar good also know one another, just as men in the world do their kinsmen, their near relations, and their friends, though they have never before seen them . . . This has sometimes been given me to see, when I was in the spirit, . . . and so in company with angels. Then some of them seemed as if known from childhood, but others as if not known at all. They whom I seemed to have known from childhood, were those who were in a state similar to that of my spirit; but they who seemed unknown to me, were in dissimilar state (HH 46).
I think that it is an important thought to keep in mind, that with the actions and intentions of our day to day lives, we are forming our homes in the next life. But of one thing we can be sure—it will feel like home.

Like Nonsense
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Easter Sunday
April 12, 2009

Luke 24:1-11 John 20:1-31

The women ran from the tomb of Jesus, all excited, to where the Apostles were. They told the Apostles what the angels said about Jesus’ resurrection. But the Apostles did not believe them. Their words sounded like nonsense. When Thomas heard that some of the Apostles actually saw the risen Christ, he didn’t believe it. He said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25).
Jesus’ resurrection can sound like nonsense. There is a scholarly committee that is studying the New Testament. Their mission is to try to find out what Jesus really said in the Gospels, and what was added by the church. A friend of mine talked with one of these scholars. The scholar told my friend that the stories about the resurrection were late additions to the Gospel stories. He said that he didn’t believe in the resurrection. I suppose it sounded like nonsense to him.
How many people today are like Thomas! How many today will not believe in the resurrection unless Jesus appears to them, and they can put their fingers in the nail wounds and in Jesus’ side. The claim that Jesus rose from the dead, body and soul, is quite a claim. But you know, for some reason, it isn’t hard for me to believe it. Jesus told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). That’s where we are today. And that’s where Christians were ever since the passing on of the Apostles.
In the resurrection, the infinite God of Creation merged completely with the human Jesus so that they became one person. God became fully man and man became fully God. This indeed can sound like nonsense.
But what if it were true? What would that mean to us if it were true? If this were true, then a whole new aspect of God in relationship to the world and to us in the world, would have occurred. The resurrection means that God has a material form that is united with His divine spiritual origins. It means that there is a seamless connection between God and the material world. It means that God can become present to us in this material world in whatever stage of spiritual development we are. God can come near to us in His risen material body and reach our hearts through His own Divine Humanity. It means we do not walk this world alone, but God can always be with us. To me, this is a doctrine I eagerly embrace. To me this is a comforting doctrine. And it is also a fantastic idea to ponder.
The power of Jesus’ presence on the earth and the power of his teachings transformed Western Civilization. We can forget that for the first three hundred years after Christ it was against the law to worship Jesus. The Christian martyrs suffered horrible deaths simply because they worshipped Jesus Christ. And yet, even in the threat of such a punishment, Christianity spread like wildfire. All around the early Christians there were statues and shrines and temples devoted to the gods of Classical Rome. The Roman gods had physical reminders all over the Mediterranean world. Yet the criminal Christians held fast to the words of Jesus Christ, whom they could not see nor touch as Thomas did. That historical fact sounds a bit like nonsense to me. But it’s true. What was it about Christianity that was so appealing? So appealing that Christians were willing to face criminal punishment to worship?
I think that one answer to this question is in Jesus’ message of love. It is a message still vital in this world today. Jesus’ message of love. As materialistic as this world can get, I think we still carry the belief that love is the way we are meant to live. I went to a Lester Quitzau concert a few weeks ago. And as with a previous concert, I left feeling better than when I arrived. At this concert, the power of Lester’s personality transformed the venue. I felt overtaken by a gentle power of love. He turned the club into a church of sorts, as the spirit he poured out was poured back from the crowd. Lester doesn’t strike me as someone who is religious in the traditional sense. Yet he lives a life of love. This comes through in his songs. In one of his songs, the lyrics go, “One thing I know for sure, loving one another is the only cure.” In another, he sings, “There’s a light that shines, it shines so true. It’s the same light in me, in you. Like a smile, or the touch of hearts, it’s the light of love holds us up through. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” And it seemed to me that Lester’s message of love touched the hearts of everyone in the house. This sick and ailing society still values Christ’s message of love. We hunger for words of love. There’s an inner conviction that we are meant to live a life of love. That is why, it seems to me, that is why Christianity flourished under the most direful conditions.
There is much in the world today that begs for transformation in love. The new technology created to advance society is in danger of becoming a sacred cow. Material toys are chased after with an insatiable greed. Cars, advanced video equipment, iPods, computer games, GPS’s, Blue Ray disks—the list goes on. We are a society that craves material possessions as the measure of self worth, and as the measure of how we judge others. We are still much in need of Jesus’ message of love. The media flood us with images of shooting, explosions, and violence. Computer games that the young play are too often games of killing. We see the callous indifference of the wealthy toward the working poor who are just trying to make ends meet. The fracture between the Muslim world and the Western world begs to be transformed by Jesus’ message of love. I heard an interview on TV with one of the world leaders. He came to the realization that war will not solve the problems in the Middle East. He spoke of opening diplomatic channels with moderate groups in the Taliban. We are sick with war. As in so many areas in this sick society, it seems that here, too, “loving one another is the only cure.” Yes, there is still a great need today for the transforming power of love.
Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are both a testimony to the power of love. Even on the cross, Christ’s words were words of forgiveness. And in His resurrection, He showed that love cannot be stopped. Jesus rose in the spring, when all of nature bursts forth with new life. And the joy we all feel in the spring can be redoubled when we think of the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. It is as if all of nature celebrates the risen Christ. And the joy of spring and the resurrection is a call to each of us who call ourselves Christians. Are we a messenger of love? Do we fill our world with love? Does our light shine?
The resurrection means that the God of love is alive. Jesus is alive now. But it also means that Jesus is alive in our hearts. The resurrection is a call to us all. Is Jesus alive in us, too? Is Jesus’ message of forgiveness and love alive in our hearts? Is the joy of springtime, and Easter in us? Do we bring Easter, and springtime, and joy to the world we touch? Because if the resurrection is not in us, then Jesus’ life was to no avail. Jesus came to show us the way of love. And He calls us to follow Him in the way of love.
The message of love was powerful enough to cause Christians to risk their very lives to worship the Source of love. And in this world we live in, the message of love is still dearly needed. Some call this society a “Post Christian Society.” They point to the diminished role of the church in people’s lives. They point to falling numbers in churches across denominational lines. While these statistics are true, I still have faith in the power of love. Capitol punishment didn’t deter Christians from responding to Jesus’ call to love. And materialism, violence in the media, fractured relations with the Middle East, and all the other ills of this society will not stop the power of love today. If the church’s role in society is dwindling, then I have faith that from some new voice Jesus’ message of love will be proclaimed. And wherever it comes from, I believe that humanity will respond to it today, as it did 2,000 years ago. On this Easter Sunday, let us all rejoice in the growing warmth of spring and in the conviction that love will not be silenced. That is what the resurrection means to me. And it is not nonsense.

It Didn’t Happen
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Palm Sunday
April 5, 2009

Zechariah 9:9-17 Matthew 21:1-11

Many of the Jews in Jesus’ time did not accept Him as the Messiah. And many today, in fact most Jews don’t see Him as the Messiah. Why is this? The reason is, Jesus did not come as the Messiah that they were expecting. I’d like to take you back about 2,000 years and talk about the expectations that were in the air at the coming of Christ.
The coming of the Messiah was going to be a cosmic event. It was going to be a judgment on the whole earth. At Christmas we listen to the prophesies in Isaiah about the mountains being leveled, and the valleys raised up, and the rough places made smooth. This was taken literally as what would happen to planet earth when the Messiah came. There were also prophesies about the Day of the LORD. On this dreadful day the whole earth would be judged. Yahweh Himself would come down to earth and set things straight. The Dead Sea Scrolls talk about a cosmic battle. In it, angels of light would fight against angels of darkness. The residents of the Qumran were waiting for this battle to take place. They observed celibacy according to the Biblical prescriptions about holy war. They were literally going to fight with swords on the side of the angels of light.
Then there is the issue of the Messiah Himself. The Hebrew word “Messiah” literally means “anointed.” It refers to the anointing of a king when he assumed office. So the Messiah that the Jews were expecting was to be an earthly king. But this was to be no ordinary king. The Messiah was to be from King David’s lineage. A promise was made to King David that one of his descendants would rule Israel forever. In 2 Samuel 7:16 God says to King David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” But this is not what happened. First Babylon conquered Judah, deposed its king and took the Israelites into captivity. They were restored under the Persian King Cyrus, but they were not allowed to have their own king, as Cyrus was the king. Then Alexander the Great came and conquered Judah and imposed Greek ways. Then Rome conquered Israel and it was under Roman rule that Jesus came. What does all this have to do with the Messiah? Well, there was no king from David’s lineage as promised by God, none since Babylon conquered Israel in 597 BC. But the prophets prophesied that a descendant of David would come and conquer the foreign rulers and sit on the throne in Jerusalem. This coming of the king would usher in a period of world peace. We heard one of these prophesies in Zechariah today. The passage reads:
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gently and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
And the war-horses from Jerusalem,
And the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
And from the River [the Euphrates] to the ends of the earth (Zechariah 9:9-10).
The king would rule from sea to sea and he would bring peace to all the nations. This is what the Jews expected Jesus to do. But it didn’t happen.
We who grow up Christian hear the Isaiah prophesies and we immediately apply them to Jesus. We don’t associate the cosmic battle with Jesus’ first coming, nor do we think about a king from David’s lineage ruling from sea to sea. We think of Jesus and we see His kingdom as a spiritual kingdom—“the kingdom is within.” So it is hard for us to imagine what was going on in the minds of the first-century Jews, or of Jews today, for that matter. It is hard for us to imagine why they don’t accept Jesus as the Messiah.
But are Christians so different from the Jews in Jesus’ time? Many Christians today are expecting just the same thing that the Jews of the first-century were expecting. Most Christians today are expecting a great cosmic event to take place on the material earth. They are expecting Jesus to appear in the clouds and to execute judgment on the whole earth. There will be plagues and earthquakes and a final war called Armageddon to take place right down here in this material world on this physical earth. And in this both Christians and Jews are in agreement. Both faiths are expecting this great Day of Judgment enacted right here on this physical earth. As a witty rabbi once told my class, when the Messiah comes, all we need to do is ask him, “Have you been here before?” The answer would tell us of it was the second coming or the first coming of the Messiah.
But what about Jesus’ words in Luke 17:20-21, “The Kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Or what of Jesus’ response to Pilate’s questions, when Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). If Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, and if Jesus’ kingdom is within you and me, why are Christians expecting some kind of great battle on planet earth outside you and me? It seems to me that Christians today are missing the point in the same way that Jews in Jesus day missed the point. And I’m here to tell you that just as the first coming of the Messiah didn’t result in a global conflagration, neither will the second coming.
The cosmic battle spoken of in the Prophets, the Gospels, and the book of Revelation takes place within you and me. Jesus’ kingdom is within you and me, and that is where the battle takes place. Here on earth we live in a middle world. Angels of light and angels of darkness are fighting within our souls every moment of every day. Sometimes we may be aware of this inner conflict; at other times, our absorption with work and mundane affairs dull the sensitivity of our spirit. The great Day of Judgment occurs every time we make a choice for good or evil. Ultimately, we will have formed a character that is in harmony with God and heaven, or a character that is separated from God and heaven. The final judgment will occur in the next plane of existence when we are free to follow our heart’s desire. We will then either find a place in heaven or in hell. But the judgment will be self-judgment. The spiritual community we find a place in will be the spiritual community in which we have placed our souls in this life. If our souls are filled with God’s love and wisdom, we will be free to grow and expand in love and wisdom to eternity. But if we have deliberately and consciously rejected God and love; if we have deliberately and consciously chosen hate, selfishness, and ego, we will have our heart’s desire in a kingdom separate from God and love.
The coming of the Messiah didn’t happen the way the Jews expected it to happen. And the second coming of the Messiah won’t happen the way traditional Christians are expecting it to come. My message today is to recognize that the Day of Judgment is something that we experience in each choice we make in this world. And the coming of the Messiah, the second coming of Jesus Christ is when we admit the Christ light into our hearts. Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world. . . . The kingdom of God is within you” (John 18:36, Luke 17:21). When Jesus comes to you in the midst of your day-to-day affairs, will you recognize Him? Or will you be expecting some other Christ, some other time, some other place?

You Are My Friends If
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 29, 2009

Exodus 33:7-17 John 15:9-17

Last Sunday we saw that love is the final measure of good and evil. A so-called sinful woman poured out love for Jesus and in this outpouring of love her sins were forgiven. The passage is challenging because it confuses our notions of judgment. It challenges traditional categories of right and wrong. Today I thought I’d explore the difficult terrain of judgment in relation to love.
It seems that the issue we will look at today is captured by Jesus’ words to His disciples. Jesus calls them friends, but He also adds the important word IF– “You are my friends if.” In this line, we see that entering into a relationship with God is conditional. That phrase contains the very important and very conditional word “if”. And the “if” means that we are Jesus’ friends if we do what He commands. Jesus as God incarnate loves everyone. But not everyone is Jesus’ friend. Friendship requires mutuality. Those are Jesus’ friends who love Jesus back. And not everybody loves Jesus back. And loving Jesus back is doing the things He commands. What is involved here was said well by Aristotle. Aristotle says that only the virtuous can be true and lasting friends. He says further that friendship is actually friendship with virtue itself, when we see it in a person. Swedenborg, with his excellent Classical education, adopts Aristotle’s teachings on friendships of virtue and states it in Christian language.
Even a bad man can love the neighbor for the sake of the good or the use that there is in the neighbor for himself; none but a good man, however, can love the neighbor from the good or the use that there is in himself for the neighbor; for it is from good that he loves good, or it is from affection for use that he loves use. . . . One does not love the neighbor interiorly unless he is himself in what is good, and from this loves the neighbor’s good; he is thus in charity, but the other is a friendship which is not charity. He who from charity loves the neighbor, conjoins himself with his good, and not with his person, except in so far as and as long as he is in good. This is spiritual; and he loves the neighbor spiritually. But he who loves the neighbor from friendship alone, conjoins himself with his person, and then at the same time with his evil. After death, the latter can scarcely be separated from the person who is in evil, but the other can (Doctrine of Faith #21).
Our Friendship with Jesus is like the friendship of the virtuous. Our friendship with Jesus occurs when we are like Jesus. Our friendship with Jesus occurs when we are Christ-like. Our friendship with Jesus occurs when we do the things he commands. We are friends of Jesus when we are in good.
So friendship involves mutuality and virtue. Love, on the other hand, is different. There can be a kind of love that is purely giving. There is a kind of love that doesn’t need to be returned. This kind of love wishes what is well for everyone. It wishes that everyone find what their heart most desires. This kind of love is happy when it sees another in happiness. But this kind of love is not friendship. It doesn’t seek a mutual relationship. It doesn’t join its life with the other in the kind of intimate union of friendship.
These two different forms of affection relate to our spiritual life. Jesus calls upon us to love everyone—even our enemies. But He doesn’t call us to friendship with everyone. As we saw above, friendship with evil can be harmful to us. It can bring us into spiritual company with evil, and it can cause evil delights to flow into our own affections. Furthermore, we are finite creatures. There are going to be people we resonate with better than others. There is nothing bad about befriending people with whom we get along well. And there is nothing bad about not befriending people with whom we don’t seem to click.
But this is far different from withholding spiritual love from others. That, we are not permitted to do. We are called to extend love unconditionally to others. This means we are to wish well to others, we are to forgive others, we are to want the best for others—whether we are their friends or not. We are not allowed to withhold love from people we judge to be undeserving. We are not in a position to judge who is or who is not worthy of love. As we saw last Sunday, this is what God does with us. He sends His infinite love to everyone. It is how we respond to God’s love that makes us His friend or not.
I do not mean to suggest that we ignore judgment altogether. When we are in good, and love good, we will seek to encourage those qualities in others. Remember that spiritual friendship is friendship to what is good first and foremost. In some cases, our expressions of love will look like correction and discipline. This is how judgment enters our love relationships. Swedenborg comments on this in a rather black and white way. But I think we can all get the main point he is trying to express. He writes,
To love the neighbor is not alone to wish well and do good to a relative, a friend, or a good man, but also to a stranger, an enemy, or a bad man. But charity is to be exercised toward the latter in one way and toward the former in another; toward a relative or friend by direct benefits; toward an enemy or a bad man by indirect benefits, which are rendered by exhortation, discipline, punishment, and consequent amendment. This may be illustrated thus: A judge who punishes an evil-doer in accordance with law and justice, loves his neighbor; for so he makes him better, and consults the welfare of the citizens that he may not do them harm. Everyone knows that a father who chastises his children when they do wrong, loves them, and that, on the other hand, he who does not chastise them therefore, loves their evils, and this cannot be called charity (TCR 407).
This may be a hard teaching for us. It means that we care enough about someone who is heading in a bad direction, that we remain in relationship with him or her. We struggle with them. We work to help them back on their feet, point them in a better direction. As Tolle points out, we are all connected. Tolle wouldn’t like Swedenborg’s language of good and evil, but he would like the notion that we remain in relation with others. It’s easier to avoid conflict, and turn our back on them and ignore them. But this is not what Christ calls us to do. It is not what Christ Himself did. The point here, is that we are called to care about everyone. And we are called to be open to friendly relations with all who are seeking good according to their own lights and to labor to help those who are in need of ammendment.
Jesus also calls us to account for our own feelings about others. The spiritually advanced person wishes well for everyone. But it is easy for us to carry grudges and resentments for certain people in the private spaces of our own mind. These resentments can be poison to our spiritual welfare. In AA we call that “giving people free rent in our head”. Whether we know it or not, filling our minds with poisonous resentments for others actually puts us in relationship with them on the spiritual plane. I found a most interesting passage in Swedenborg when I was researching this talk. He writes,
In the other life . . . when anyone is there thought of intently, he becomes present; hence it is that in the other life friends meet together, and also enemies, and from the latter they suffer severely (AC 6893).
We put ourselves into spiritual relationship when we dwell intently on our enemies. I have been told that if I’m carrying a resentment against someone to walk up and shake their hand as soon as I see them. I’ve also been told to picture them in light and to pray for their well being. What we need to do, in whatever way works best for you, is to let go of grudges that fill our mind with resentment. What we need to do is to find a way to feel good about the people we encounter.
Our relationships are the measure of our spirituality. We are called to love everyone. We are called to wish well to everyone. Though we will form friendships and intimate relations according to the good qualities we share with others. As Jesus says in John, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” When we are truly Jesus’ friend, we will make friends according to how we understand what good is. We will befriend the good we see in others according to the good we have incorporated into our own lives. But these friendships will always be limited according to the good we ourselves have embodied and according to the good qualities we see in others. So we need to be very careful about the judgments we use with other people. Certainly, how we show love, and whom we bond with in friendships depends on our judgments of good. But we need always remember that our judgments of good are finite and limited by our own level of spiritual advancement. We can only say of another person, “I see you this way, but I may not see the whole picture.” We need remain humble in our judgments, and leave the final judgment to God alone, as to another’s spiritual condition. Relations with others are a touch-stone for our own spiritual development. Relations with others are a measure of our capacity to love, our embodiment of good, and our commitment to the teachings of Jesus. While God loves everyone, we are only His friends if.

His Love Endures Forever
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 22, 2009

Deuteronomy 7:1-15 Luke 7:1-15

We have looked at truth as pointing the way to good; we have looked at good as being truth expressed from the heart; our subject today is love. Love is the object of religion. Teaching the ways of love is what all Christianity is about. God is love itself. And religion is about a person’s relationship with God. When we let God into our hearts, we are letting love into our hearts. We only love truly when God is in us.
But the word love has a wide range of meanings in our society. But I think all these meanings can be captured in the way Swedenborg talks about love. In Divine Love and Wisdom, Swedenborg writes,
Love is a person’s very life; not only the general life of his whole body, and the general life of all his thoughts, but also the life of all their particulars. This a person of discernment can perceive when it is said: If you remove the affection which is from love, can you think anything, or do anything? Do not thought, speech, and action, grow cold in the measure in which the affection which is from love grows cold? And do they not grow warm in the measure in which this affection grows warm? (DLW 1)
So it is love that motivates us to do anything. And when we are involved with what we love, we are in delight, enjoyment, and blessedness. So when we speak of love, we are also speaking of what gives us our delights and enjoyments. Take away our delights, and we will not want to do anything. In fact, one of the sad facts about the illness called depression is what psychologists call “avolition.” Avolition means a lack of will. In depression, a person loses feelings of pleasure, and consequently, in depression a person can’t get up the motivation to do anything. When we are healthy, however, and when we are happy and in a condition of delight, we are in a state of love. Imagine our delight, enjoyment, and blessedness when we are involved with the infinite Source of all love.
Since love is what gives us our sense of delight, everything we enjoy is a reflection of love. So loving is doing and it is also giving and receiving love in an interpersonal way. So we are not abusing the word when we say that we love working on cars, or playing the piano, or preparing balance sheets for businesses. And we all recognize that when we are showing care and compassion for others in an interpersonal way we are also loving.
But when love is defined as that which gives us enjoyment, we can speak of different kinds of love. There is love for our occupations, there is love for our significant other, there is love for children, there is love for our country. There is also healthy and unhealthy loves. In religious language, there is good and there is evil love. Humans are capable of finding delight in both good and evil loves.
Make no mistake, however, there is only one Source for love. There is only one power. Only one reality. And that Source, that power, that reality is good. That Source is God. God is love itself; and God is goodness itself. And God’s love is infinite. We are created out of finite substances—both spiritual and material—proceeding out of God. As such, we only receive love from the Source. We do not love from ourselves. We are not the source of love. God’s infinite, good love flows into us and we receive it according to our nature. If we are consumed with self and ego, we turn God’s love into selfishness and other vices and depravities. If we are spiritually advanced, we receive God’s love in a more direct way and our expressions of love are healthy and good. There is no anti-God that is an opposite source of evil loves. There is only God’s love that is twisted into depraved forms by the nature of the human that receives it. It is true that there are hellish beings who inspire our souls with evil loves, but these beings are still recipients of God’s good love. They have chosen to twist love into self-interest and mean-spirited expressions.
Our loves change over time, if we are advancing spiritually. We can see this by paying attention to the things that we enjoy. Over the past few Sundays we have looked at the progression of spiritual development. We saw that we begin by learning truth for its own sake. We then apply truth to our lives. And finally we are doing good from a love of good. All these stages in life are motivated by love. We learn truth because we enjoy it. We love learning and then learning is the way love is expressed. Then when we start to apply truth to our lives, a love of doing good motivates us. Actually, at this stage in our development, we are doing truth. Then when we feel delight in goodness, we are loving goodness itself.
Corresponding to these stages of love are also changes in our primary motivating love. Swedenborg calls this our ruling love. In his system, there is a dominant, all inclusive love that motivates our life. All the other things we love are like streams flowing out of this primary river. These ruling loves come down ultimately to two heavenly loves and two hellish loves. The ruling loves of hell are a love of the world, or love of wealth, and a love of self, or love to control others. The two heavenly loves are love to God and love to the neighbor. All these loves are part of our growth toward heaven. In the natural progression of life we begin with a healthy love of self and the world. These loves are a necessary stage in human development as they fit us to meet the needs of life—home, food, clothing, and money. But in the natural course of life, we grow out of these loves and become aware of our neighbor and from self we turn to God. From a dominant attitude of, “What’s in it for me?” we grow into an attitude of, “What can I do for you?” In this sense, evil is really a matter of arrested development. An individual becomes evil when that person fails to advance in love to the higher levels and remains ruled by a love of wealth and control. Then, a person is stuck with an attitude of, “What’s in it for me?”
All good and evil, all sin and salvation have relation to what we love. Salvation and good are in a person to the extent that God’s love flows through one into his or her life. In this sense, evil is simply that which blocks God’s love from shining through us. Spiritual growth is a matter of getting rid of the blocks. Being reborn is a process of letting God into our lives ever more fully—even to our very actions in this material world.
This brings us, finally to our New Testament story. This story teaches us about the dangers of being judgmental, and it points the way to a deeper understanding of saving faith. These themes are all brought up in a story about an act of love. At the very beginning of the story Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee. I find it striking that Jesus goes to the Pharisee’s house. He didn’t discriminate against anyone—even the Pharisees who so often are the subject of Jesus’ denunciations. I take it that Jesus saw that he could reach out even to the Pharisee, and bring his teachings to him, too—which is exactly what happens in the story. The teaching happens around a so-called sinful woman. She shows her love for Jesus by washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with perfume. This event is striking in and of itself. Here we find Jesus on the receiving end of love. So often we think of Jesus as the healer, the comforter, the miracle-worker—the one who is always giving to humanity. But here Jesus also receives love. It reminds us that our relationship with God is a mutual relationship. Like every loving relationship, God loves us and desires our love in return. The Pharisee in this story is concerned with ritual purity, and would have refused the woman’s expressions of love. He thinks to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39). But what kind of woman is she? She is a woman brimming over with love. And it is this love that makes her other failings of no account. Recall that sin is only that which blocks God’s love. Whatever her other deeds, this woman was so filled with love that it possessed her totally. Therefore Jesus can say, “her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much” (7:47). And later Jesus reaffirms this teaching when he blesses the woman, “Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you, go in peace’” (7:50).
I would ask you to take this story to heart. It seems to me to capture the nature of religious life. We have two people involved in a loving relationship. We have the woman showing love and we have Jesus accepting love. So we are called to give love and to become vulnerable enough to receive love from others. Honoring love when it is shown us can be more difficult for us than expressing love. The power dynamic becomes reversed when we are on the receiving side of love. When we are the giver we can see ourselves above others. But when we are the object of love from others, we can become uncomfortable. We may wish to downplay it, say, “Oh, it is nothing,” or remain unmoved. But this story shows us how important it is for us and for others to open up, become vulnerable, and accept love. So in this Gospel story we have love in both its dynamics—giving and receiving. And we are taught to both give and receive. So may it be said of us, as Jesus says to the woman, “her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much.”

The Good of Life
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 15, 2009

Genesis 41:17-40 Mark 4:1-20

Last Sunday I talked about the way truth points to good. Our topic today is taking the truth a person has learned, applying it to life, and finally doing the good one has learned. This process contains all the stages of spiritual rebirth, which, for Swedenborg, takes place gradually over a whole lifetime.
Both our Bible readings today talk about this process. The Old Testament reading talks about fat cattle and plentiful grain. In the literal story, this is about a famine that was going to take place in Egypt. But these images can take on symbolic meaning. And in Swedenborg’s Bible interpretation, there is a deeper layer of meaning inside the symbols of the Bible story. The multiplication of grain and cattle are the acquisition of truths and the emotions of love that accompany them. Grain being truths that a person learns and cattle being spiritual affections for goodness and The process symbolized by storing food for the famine is how truth is planted in good affections and how these good affections become actualized in a person’s actions. The same meaning is found in Jesus’ parable of the sower. Swedenborg explains this parable as we all would probably understand it:
That the seed here is the Word of the Lord, thus truth, which is said to be of faith, and that the good ground is good which is of charity, is plain, for it is the good in a person that receives the Word; the wayside is falsity; a stony place is truth that has no root in good; thorns are evils (AC 3310).
There are a few terms Swedenborg uses when he describes this process that require brief explanation. Swedenborg uses terms from traditional Christianity, but their meanings are so different in his theology that he could have used different terms altogether. So the possibility is there for a person to hear Swedenborg’s terms and to think about how they are used in traditional Christianity. Lest this happen, I will take a few minutes to define the terms he uses.
The first, and most important term is “rebirth”. Almost every Christian sect talks about the need to be born again. This is Biblical, when Jesus says that we need to be reborn to enter the kingdom of God. For many Christians, this all happens in an instant when one accepts Christ as one’s personal savior. But for Swedenborg, actual personality change takes place. One’s ideas grow, and one’s actual emotions change, as do a person’s motivations and intentions. This cannot take place in an instant—that is if the change and growth is real. The process of rebirth begins in infancy and continues even to the very last days of life here, and even continually ever after in the next life.
He also uses the terms “faith” and “charity.” Faith isn’t just belief that Jesus saves. For Swedenborg, faith is the whole complex of truth that we hold in our consciousness. It is knowledges of all sorts; it is doctrines we learn from religious education; and it is truth we acquire from any source. Actually, faith is nothing else except truth. Charity isn’t just donating food to food banks or donating money to build hospitals. Charity is every feeling of love for God and for the neighbor. It is our emotional complex in its totality. And this comes down to good for Swedenborg. So faith is truth and charity if good. Faith is also wisdom and charity is also love in every and all meanings those words have.
Spiritual rebirth, then, is a lifelong process. It starts by our learning truth and doctrine from church, personal study, and experience. This stage in spiritual growth is especially evident in youth and early adulthood. Then, a person is delighted as he or she learns knowledge. Knowledge as an end in itself is the primary goal in this period of life. Later in life, one wants to learn about life and how to live better. Then knowledge is acquired with the goal of amending life. Then the truth one learned in early life is put into practice, and more truth is acquired with living well as a motivation. Throughout these stages in life, truth takes the leading role. Truth tells us how to act and we are essentially doing truth, when we do good from what we know.
But there finally comes a time when we are doing good from a love for good. At this point, truth takes a secondary role. When we are so completely accustomed to doing good from practice and habit that it is second nature to us, we then act from our heart, not our head. We feel what it is to be good, and we do good because our heart tells us what it is to do good. This is a very advanced stage in spiritual growth. It comes late in life. Confucius describes this process almost identically with the way Swedenborg describes it. In The Analects of Confucius, we find,
The Master said, At fifteen I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground. At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven. At sixty, I heard them with docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right (Confucius, Analects, Book II, no. 4).
Notice how cognitive Confucius’ system is. He sets his heart on learning in his teens. At forty his confusion is cleared up—but he is still involved with truth in a cognitive way. At fifty, he knows the will of heaven. Sixty years is very interesting. He says that at sixty he hears the biddings of heaven with a docile ear. That is, his life and his mind accepted the truths of heaven. This implies that before sixty he may have rebelled against what he knew, or struggled to align his life with the biddings of heaven. His emotions and his desires may have not always been in accord with what he knew. Then at the ripe old age of seventy, he could follow his heart. He had worked to so align his emotions, desires, and intentions with what he knew to be the biddings of heaven, that now his will was the same as the will of heaven. He no longer needed to think about what to do. He no longer needed to meditate on what the right thing was. He could follow his heart because he had trained it to follow heaven’s biddings. Swedenborg describes this state of attainment similarly to Confucius:
faith, when the spiritual man has been reborn, becomes charity; for he then acts from charity . . . and then he cares nothing for the things of faith or truth, for he lives from the good of faith, and no longer from its truth; for truth has so conjoined itself to good that it no longer appears, except only as the form of good; that is, faith appears no otherwise than as the form of charity (AC 3122).
Recall that for Swedenborg, faith means truth, and charity means good or love. When a person is reborn, then love or good is what drives a person. Issues or doctrine or faith no longer perplex him or her. The person is no longer driven by the promptings of truth. As Swedenborg puts it, “he then acts from charity . . . and then cares nothing for the things of faith or truth.”
The way a person gets there is about the same for Swedenborg as it is for Confucius. Swedenborg writes,
. . . they who are reborn, first do good from doctrines, for of themselves they do not know good, but learn it from the doctrines of love and charity; from these they know who the Lord is, who is the neighbor; what love is, and what charity, thus what good is. . . . afterward when they are reborn, they do not do good from doctrines, but from love and charity, for then they are in the good itself which they have learned from doctrines . . . . (AC 3310).
I think that it is remarkable that a man from the Age of Enlightenment would so subordinate truth. Swedenborg’s Age valued reason above all things. Yet for Swedenborg, reason is simply a tool that gets a person into good, or a tool that tells a person how to love. But another way to view Swedenborg is as a man in between the Enlightenment and the Romantic Periods. Just after Swedenborg’s life, and perhaps in large part because of his influence, the Romantic Period burst into Europe’s consciousness. And in the Romantic Age, the primacy of feelings and passion becomes the driving force in the arts and literature.
For us, I don’t think that this process of turning cognitive motives into affective motives is a cut-and-dried process. I think that we are continually doing this one truth at a time. For instance, I no longer need to fight against my craving for alcohol. I’ve done the leg work, and I could say that I am now in the good of sobriety. I stay away from alcohol because I love the feeling of sobriety. I am now acting from love in that area of my life. I think the process is similar for all the many issues that a person deals with in life. Each issue one overcomes or masters becomes a sort of platform on which he or she stands to move ever upward and ever inward. What I am saying is that moving from truth to good is a continual process. It may well be that a time will come when we are so filled with God’s love that truth does then become entirely subordinate. But for most of us, that very high level of attainment is probably a long way off. Still, we can look toward the day when love moves us to do good, no longer truth. This is what spiritual rebirth finally comes down to in Swedenborg.