Church of the Holy City

Honor Your Father, Too
By
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 15, 2014

Exodus 3:1-17 John 5:16-27 Psalm 103

Today is Father’s Day. We celebrate the special love of fathers for their children and of children for their fathers. I don’t know. Is it just me, or does it seem that Mother’s Day gets all the press. Does it seem that when we think of families, it is our mothers who we think of as the central player in the life of a family? To be sure, mothers form more physical bonds for their children. They carry them in their wombs, they deliver their babies, and nurse them in infancy. Certainly mothers do play a primary role in the generation of families. But this should not diminish the vital role that fathers play in the life of a healthy family.
Wasn’t it striking in the Psalm we read today that God’s compassion for the human race is compared to a father’s compassion for his children? Normally, when we think of parental love and compassion, our mothers come to mind first. But the love of fathers for their children may well be—dare I say it—just as great as that of mothers for their children. There! I said it.
There are social forces that have minimized the role fathers play in families. In the past, fathers were usually the ones who went away to work, leaving mothers in charge of the upbringing of children. So all that time away from the family worked against the kind of bonding that mothers traditionally had for their children. But this does not mean that fathers didn’t still feel powerful love for their children. This doesn’t mean that fathers weren’t equally concerned for the welfare of their children as were mothers. This doesn’t mean that fathers didn’t worry about their children when they were in trouble and wanted to help their children in all their life’s issues.
Furthermore, society also worked against fatherly bonding for their families in another way. In the past, men were brought up to be very different than women. Men were taught to be strong. Men were taught to hide their feelings. Men weren’t allowed to cry. Men didn’t hug, embrace, and nurture their children as mothers did. So men were not allowed to express their love for their children as openly as mothers were. This was very unfortunate for fathers. Unfortunate and unfair. Fathers weren’t given a chance to show their children just how much they really loved their children.
In my family, my father was the one who maintained order in the family. He was the one saddled with the responsibility of disciplining us. While mother consoled and nurtured, my poor father was the one who spanked or yelled at us when we misbehaved; he was the one who made us do all the family chores; and when he came home from work, tired and stressed out, he read the paper, took a nap, and made us be quiet when his TV program was on. My father was the authoritarian in the family. He was never taught by his family or by society to show his caring, nurturing side. And I don’t think that my family was unusual for the time period in which I grew up. Hearing stories from my friends and cousins, my father was typical. In fact, whenever my mother would tell me how much my father loved me, I couldn’t really understand it. How unfortunate for him.
But fathers do love their children. And it is very important in childhood development for a child to have both mother and father role models. In our present society, however, it seems that more and more families are single-parent households. With divorce rates as high as they are today, and with unplanned pregnancies, and teen-age pregnancies, fewer and fewer fathers are stepping up to the plate and fulfilling their fatherly responsibilities. Single-parent families almost across the board mean single mothers. More and more often, the task of raising children and also working to provide for their families, is falling on single mothers. Men in today’s society need to grow up and be a man and a caring father for their children.
I think that today, men are allowed to show their softer side in families. I see fathers hugging their children. I see fathers telling their children that they love them. I see fathers taking part in the raising of children, staying home at times, and nurturing.
While my father was from the old school, later in my life I still saw that he cared for me and loved me. When I found myself in trouble in my adult life, it was often my father who came to my aid and nurtured me through the hard times.
I think back to when I was a student at this Church’s divinity school. This would be when I was in my late 20′s. There were difficulties then because of political developments in the Church, and my alcoholism was a concern for the Council of Ministers. I had been a student in good standing for five years, but in my final year, the Church got cold feet about me. At a Convention, the entire Council of Ministers met to decide whether they would ordain me. This meeting took two hours, and they made me sit outside the classroom where the Council met. My father sat next to me the whole time. We didn’t say a lot, but it really meant a lot to me to have my father sit by my side during this difficult time, when the course of my professional life was at a crossroads. My mother was concerned, but she went to bed that night. It was my father who sat up and waited with me.
My life then took a turn for a career in the university. Now, I was leaving Boston for a Ph. D. program at the University of Virginia. I had all my stuff packed up, and I was staying at a friend’s house. I was ready to rent a U-Haul and tow my belonging to Virginia, when trouble came again. I was driving a Fiat then. I don’t know what possessed me to buy that Fiat, but I did. And as Fiats are notorious for, my Fiat broke down completely. The timing chain broke and the pistons rammed up and down uncontrolled and completely destroyed the engine. The car was totaled. I needed help again, and who came to help me? My father drove 12 hours from Detroit to Boston, got a trailer hitch installed on his station wagon, helped me load up the U-Haul and drove me down to Virginia and got me settled down there.
Today we celebrate fatherly love. Fathers, this is your day. We give our fathers cards, maybe take him to dinner, let him put his feet up and rest. Today, let’s reflect on the deep, unfailing love that fathers have for their children. Let’s remember things our fathers did that showed their love. Today, I think that men are opening up their feeling side a little more. Today’s fathers hold their children and tell them that they love them. Some fathers even stay at home and take care of their children while their wives work. Let us honor the fathers of the past, and our fathers today, and know, that even if they couldn’t express it, a father’s love for his children is as great as that of their mother. Let’s let them know that we know it and that we love them for all they have done and continue to do for us.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we are all your children, nurtured by the spiritual family we call the church. We thank you this day for the special love of our fathers. Our fathers have provided for us and love us in ways that are not always apparent. Sometimes, society has made it difficult for our fathers to express their love. But we know that they do indeed care for us as much as our mothers do. May we take this day to thank them and to show them that we know. That we know how much they care and how much we love them. Thank you heavenly Father, for the gift of our earthly fathers.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

Life in the Spirit
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 8, 2014

Numbers 11:24-30 Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104

This Sunday is Pentecost. On this Sunday we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. In a way, it can be considered the beginning of Christianity as a church.
I was talking about this church once to a friend of mine. She asked me, “Does it have the Spirit?” I was caught off guard for several reasons. One was, that we don’t usually talk much about the Spirit. My friend was a member of a Pentecostal Church, and those churches do emphasize the Spirit. Their worship services are very emotional and literally, Spirited. Our services, however, are quiet, contemplative, and subdued. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t have the Spirit. It is simply a question of our style.
We talk a good deal about truth. For us, truth and the understanding of truth is one way we talk about the Spirit. John pretty much equates the Holy Spirit with truth. In John 14, we read,
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth . . . you know him, for he dwells within you, and will be with you (14:15-16, 17).
So in this passage from John, the Comforter is called the Spirit of truth. Just a little later in the same passage, the Comforter is called the Holy Spirit.
These things I have spoken to you, while I am with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (John 14:25-26).
So this Comforter, who will be sent, is the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, and it will teach us all things, and call to remembrance all the words Jesus had said. John’s interpretation of the Holy Spirit is truth oriented.
But the way Acts presents the Holy Spirit is different. It is a much more lively portrayal of the Spirit. The Apostles are gathered together in a room. There is a sound like the rush of a mighty wind. Tongues of fire appear above the heads of those gather there. This is a scene of awe and eeriness. But it becomes an impassioned scene of liveliness. Everyone starts speaking in foreign languages. A whole room of preachers all exclaiming in a foreign language. The witnesses gather around and wonder at this, for each one can understand what the Apostles are preaching in their native tongue. The miracle is that those who are preaching are uneducated fishermen all from Galilee, who had never learned foreign languages. But Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, thos from Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphyilia, Egypt and Libya all hear the messages of the Apostles in their native tongue. There are scoffers nearby, who denounce this miracle by saying that the Apostles are drunk. But Peter defends them all by saying that they aren’t drunk because it is only the third hour of the day.
This passage is the primary source for Pentecostal Churches when they claim that speaking in tongues is a sign of the Holy Spirit. But when congregants of these Pentecostal churches speak in tongues, it is not foreign languages they speak in, as did the Apostles. They simply blurt out sounds that mean nothing to anyone.
I see the main image here as one of enthusiasm for Jesus. So I return to the question my friend asked me. Do we have the Spirit? Do we have enthusiasm for Jesus? For of the many Christian churches there are out there, I think that we put Jesus most powerfully in the centre. For us. Jesus is the embodiment of All that God is. I say embodiment because for us, Jesus is God’s body. When Jesus ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God, we understand this to mean that Jesus’ human flesh, now glorified, is the very power that God works through to regenerate us. The Old Testament Yahweh, or Jehovah God as the King James Bible translates Him, God came down to earth, took on human flesh and became Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is God in the flesh, God has a glorified body in the risen Jesus Christ. Talk about truth, this is certainly a truth to get behind and celebrate! We of all churches should have enthusiasm for Jesus.
Often, I think we hide our message under a bushel. We can be shy about our teachings. We can fear what other Christians would say when we make our statement of God’s unity of person. We can quench the Spirit in us that testifies to the reasonableness and intuitive soundness of our beliefs. There is one God and that God is embodied in Jesus Christ. There aren’t three gods. There aren’t a god and a half. There is only one God and that God is embodied in the One Person of Jesus Christ. (Can I get an Amen!)
I’m not suggesting, though, that we push our beliefs on others. That can be an annoying experience when someone comes up to me and preaches their doctrines to me. I have mine; I respect yours; let’s find our way home in our own ways.
But there is another way to let our light shine that isn’t pushing our ideas on others. That is the example we live. When we had the service here after the teen retreat, one teen made a bold and challenging statement. He said that he thought it was hypocrisy when adults tell him, “Do as I say, not as I do.” I think that the way we live is the most clear and powerful statement of what we believe. Swedenborg writes, “All religion is of life; and a religious life is doing good” (Doctrine of Life 1). Being filled with the Spirit is doing good. That is another way to think of the question, “Do we have the Spirit?” Does our life reflect the way of Jesus? Are we living by the Spirit or by the flesh?
Paul gives us a clear list of what it means to live by the Spirit versus living by the flesh. We find this in Galatians 5:19-25.
19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy,[b] drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
We can preach our gospel by the deeds we demonstrate. Jesus is pretty strong about calling on His name but not doing the things He commands. This issue occasions the story about the wise man building his house on the rock.
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built.[c] 49 But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6: 46-49).
Our faith will be ruined if it is not built on the firm foundation of a good life. All those golden teachings of this beautiful church will be swept away over time if they are not grounded in our lives. For it is our lives that anchor our beliefs. It is the natural degree that is called a container, or a vessel that holds the higher degrees in it. Nobody wants someone coming up to them and trying to convert them to their belief system. But someone may come up to us, having observed the way we live, and ask us what we believe. They will see that we are filled with the Spirit.

PRAYER

Lord, on the first Pentecost long ago, you gave your Holy Spirit to the Apostles. That occasion was attended by miracles and signs of wonder. Today, we ask that you send your Holy Spirit to this church and its people. Perhaps in a more quiet way, but just as strong, we ask for your Spirit to fill our hearts. May it enlighten our minds, and fill our hearts with love for you and for one another. May your Spirit inspire us to do all manner of good deed. May your Spirit inspire us to think true and healthy thoughts. And may your Spirit inspire us with useful, positive, and heavenly feelings.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

Coming in the Clouds
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
June 1, 2014

Luke 24:44-53 Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47

This talk is all about the clouds. I’ve had my head in the clouds all week. There are two references to clouds in our readings, one literal and one symbolic. The literal reference is in Acts 1:9. There the ascension of Jesus is described. It says that while the Apostles were looking up, “a cloud took him out of their sight.” This cloud is important, because Acts later says that,
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven (1:11).
I take this to mean that Jesus will come on a cloud–as it was a cloud that took Him up into heaven. This idea of Jesus coming in a cloud is also found in Luke 21:27: “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud.” Then there is the issue of the cloud symbolism. I think that the symbolism of the clouds comes out in our readings for this morning. Clouds symbolize the literal sense of the Bible. That is, the Bible as it is written. But within the literal reading of the Bible is a deeper sense. There is an interior sense to the Bible that goes deeper than the literal words. Jesus coming on a cloud symbolizes the interior sense of the Bible that is contained within the literal sense. Jesus is there at the very heart of the Bible. But when taken literally, there are many problems. One can get the idea that God gets angry at humans, that God takes vengeance, that God orders the genocide of certain tribes–all of which God never does, never can do. So the literal sense of the Bible can’t be taken at face value. There must be truth lying beneath the Bible as it is written. The Bible as written is like a cloud that covers the deeper, inner truth.
Luke’s Gospel is the only one that has the ascension in it. That is, only in Luke’s Gospel do we have the story of Jesus going up into heaven on a cloud. Matthew ends with the comforting words, “And behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Mark ends with the empty tomb and a vision of angels who instruct the women to tell Jesus’ followers to go to Galilee where Jesus will meet them. John ends with the pastoral injunction to Peter to feed Jesus’ sheep. There is a final discussion about Judas, and the suggestion that Jesus’ second coming was going to be soon. Only in Luke is Jesus carried to heaven on a cloud.
But the second coming of Jesus on a cloud is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The second coming of Jesus is said to be in the clouds of heaven. That can be found in Matthew 24:30, and in Luke 21:27. These sections of Matthew and Luke are called mini-Apocalypses, because they are short and they talk about the end of days or the Last Judgement. Jesus coming in the clouds is also in the great Apocalypse of John, which we call the book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation says, “Behold, he is coming in the clouds” (1:7).
Many are expecting a marvellous event in the sky, when Jesus comes again. Jews and Christians alike are awaiting the coming Messiah. The Christian Gospels says that the Messiah will be Jesus, who comes a second time in the clouds. The Jews are still expecting the Messiah, as they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. One clever rabbi who spoke at a class of mine said that the Jesus issue will all be straightened out when the heavenly Messiah comes. Both Christians and Jews are waiting for the coming Messiah. When the Messiah comes, we can ask him, “So, have you been here before?”
But this church sees the coming of the Messiah, or the second coming of Jesus, in a symbolic way. It centers on the image of Jesus in the clouds. This symbolism of Jesus on a cloud means that Jesus is at the heart of the Bible, but covered by the words of the literal text. The words of the literal text are the clouds. These are the words that make God look ungodly–those passages in which God appears angry, vengeful, or genocidal. The truth about God is within, or beneath, these words. The second coming of Jesus is when Jesus is seen through the literal sense, as the inner sense of scripture is revealed. Seeing Jesus by means of the inner sense of scripture is seeing Jesus on the clouds.
Is there any Biblical support for this way of understanding the second coming? I think that there is. Matthew warns us against seeing Jesus with the physical eye. Half in parable and half plainly, Jesus says that we will not see the Christ with our mortal eyes.
If anyone says to you, “Lo, here is the Christ! or “There he is!” do not believe it. For false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. . . . So if they say to you, “Lo, he is in the wilderness,” do not go out; if they say, “Lo, he is in the inner rooms,” do not believe it (Matthew 24:23-26).
Mark says the same thing in chapter 13:21. Luke reinforces the idea that we won’t see the second coming of Jesus with our physical eyes. There we read,
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “lo, here it is!” or “There!” for behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:20-21).
These passages say that we won’t see Jesus with our bodily eyes. However, they do say that Jesus will appear in glory. I think that there is a way to affirm both ideas–that Jesus will not come visibly and also that Jesus will come in glory. The way to hold both passages together is to see them symbolically.
Is there scripture that says we can take the coming of Jesus on a cloud as a symbol? I think that there is. In our reading for this morning we find a most interesting passage. Jesus opens the minds of His Apostles and shows them that the whole Bible is a symbol for His own life.
“These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures . . . (Luke 24:44-45).
Luke wants to emphasize that all the scriptures are symbols of Jesus’ life. A little earlier in the same chapter, Luke says, “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Luke tells us that the first five books of the Bible–the Pentateuch–otherwise known as the Books of Moses, these five books are about Jesus. Luke tells us that also the prophets are about Jesus. And finally, Luke tells us that the Psalms are about Jesus. The only way that these Bible books can be about Jesus is if they are symbols of His life. Otherwise, how can we find that the Exodus from Egypt, the sacrificial rituals in Leviticus, the creation of the universe, and the other events in the Books of Moses be about Jesus? Maybe it’s a little easier to see the prophets talking about Jesus. In Isaiah we have prophesies about the coming Messiah which we read on Christmas. But there are 66 chapters in Isaiah, and I would challenge the best Bible scholar to show me how all the books talk about Jesus. Then there is Amos, which is mostly about justice and civil law, Jeremiah which talks mostly about impending doom from the Babylonians. The Psalms are also challenging. If they are seen as symbols for the inner suffering of Jesus, then we may have something. But are they traditionally viewed that way?
I think that the argument can be made for the Bible being a set of symbols about Jesus’ life. Those symbols are the clouds that cover the truth about Jesus and our own spiritual life. The stories in the Pentateuch, the poetry of the prophets, and the laments and glory in the Psalms are clouds. When we see Jesus in them, then Jesus is coming in the clouds of glory. The glory of Jesus life is everywhere in scripture. His glory flashes like lightning. And when we see Jesus in the love God shows the people of Israel, to take one example, then Jesus shines through the clouds of the literal sense of scripture.
Seeing the Bible as a system of symbols about Jesus makes the whole Bible holy. The New Testament is a living out of the symbols in the Old Testament. There is a connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They both talk about Jesus, His love, and the way to salvation.

PRAYER

Lord, you have given us the Bible so that we may know about you and your kingdom. And yet, the Bible is accommodated to human understanding. The truth about you is found in an interior sense that lies beneath the literal words. We pray that you open our minds to scripture, as you did for your Apostles ages ago. Give us to see you in the symbols of the Old Testament. Give us to understand the parables in the New Testament. We pray that you enlighten our minds that we may see divine truths in the Bible. May we not turn away from you because of the appearances we find in the Bible. Rather, with your illumination, may we see through the appearances and find you in your glory.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Give them support and comfort in these difficult days. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

Love Unrecognized
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 4, 2014

Luke 24:13-35 Psalm 116

In our story from Luke, two disciples of Jesus meet the resurrected Lord on the way to Emmaus. They walk about seven miles talking with Jesus, but do not recognize that it is Him. Only when Jesus breaks bread with the two disciples do they recognize that it is He. Then they reflect on their experience on the road, talking with Jesus. They say, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?” (Luke 24:32). They had an experience of spiritual power, but for some reason, they did not recognize it. Their hearts burned within them, but at the time, they did not notice.
Why did the disciples not notice their burning hearts? Were they overcome with grief over the crucifixion? Were they intent on Jesus’ teaching while He opened the Scriptures to them? What was it that prevented the disciples from being aware of their burning hearts while they talked with Jesus?
Earlier that day, women had been to visit the tomb of Jesus. They saw that the stone had been rolled away. And they had a vision of two angels in dazzling clothes. The angels told the women that Jesus had risen. The women told this to the disciples, among whom were the very same men who talked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The appearance of Jesus to the disciples on the way to Emmaus was the first time Jesus appears to anyone in Luke’s Gospel.
There are some variations in the different Gospels about whom the resurrected Jesus appeared to first. In Mark, we don’t have a record of Jesus appearing to anyone. The oldest and most reliable texts end with the angels appearing to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. In Matthew, Jesus appears to the women as they leave the tomb after the vision of angels. In John, Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene after the vision of angels. As in Luke, Mary Magdalene does not recognize Jesus at first. All four Gospels agree on the angels appearing first and announcing Jesus’ resurrection. The variations are in how Jesus appears to the various followers. So in three of the Gospels, Jesus first appears to women. Only in Luke is Jesus’ first appearance to men.
I have difficulty understanding why Mary Magdalene and the two disciples did not recognize Jesus at first. The two disciples, in fact, walked seven miles with Jesus without recognizing Him. One explanation that comes to mind is the nature of spirituality.
I find that in this world, spirituality comes to us in a quiet voice, while worldly issues and demands are loud and noisy. I think of the appearance of God to the prophet Elijah. While Elijah is on the Mountain of the Lord, there is a strong wind, an earthquake, and fire, but God isn’t in any of these violent phenomena. When God does appear it is as a still, small voice. The passage reads as follows,
And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12).
Elijah finds God in that still, small voice.
The voice of God is a still, small voice amid the noise of this world. And it is the nature of God not to overpower us with His presence. We are left in freedom. This means that God leaves it up to us to seek and find Him. God does not impose upon us. God doesn’t force recognition of His reality on us. God leaves us free to find Him or to deny Him.
So God’s voice is still and small, not overbearing and domineering. That being the case, we can easily become so caught up in the business of this world that God’s still, small voice can be overwhelmed. This can happen in the least affairs of our lives.
How many times are there opportunities for us to do good or show love that go unredeemed? Are we too preoccupied to say a kind word? Are we too busy to notice the opportunities to give of ourselves to others around us? You should see how I treat the other drivers on the road when I am late for an appointment! Do we take time to ask others how things are with them? Or are we too anxious to tell them the things that are going on with us? There is a song that Janiva Magness sings called “Things Left Undone.” In it are the following lyrics that bear on this discussion,
When a stranger come knocking, would you let him in?
Was there food on your table for that down and out friend?
Did you hide the shadows, or did you walk in the sun?
Do you regret the things left undone?
It was Jesus Himself that reminds us that when we do good to the least of His children, we do good to Him.
This goes not only for friends and family, but for everyone we encounter. We have an opportunity to spread love in every aspect of our lives. From the grocery clerk to the MacDonald’s cashier, we can make others around us feel good and glad that we came by.
We have been talking about belief and disbelief over the past few Sundays. Here is a place again where the issue comes up. As God’s voice is still and small, it can be overlooked. Indeed, God’s presence is so subtle that there are those who do not see it.
God’s presence is like this because of the nature of love. God is all love. In fact, God is the source of love. And the nature of love is that it cannot compel another person to return that love. When we are forced to do anything, we resent it. It completely crushes our love and willingness to help out. There is no sweeter feeling than a task done freely of our own will to help out. That is the nature of heavenly use that we hear about in this church. Make it a duty or an obligation and the joy is gone. When we love another person, we want that love to be returned. We cannot force that person to love us back. To do so would destroy the very love that we seek.
That is how God is. God wants His love to be freely returned. To appear in the clouds of glory and with flashes of lightning would destroy a person’s freedom. Then, one would be compelled to believe. And it would be worse for a person who has seen God in the clouds of glory and with flashes of lightning to later deny Him. That would be a deliberate denial of God from someone who has seen God. So to protect our free will, and to save us from cold hearted denial, God is that gentle, still, small voice in our hearts. It is a voice we can turn to, or ignore. It is a voice we can heed, or let the worries of this world overpower.
Let us walk with our eyes open, then. Let us look for opportunities to spread the love that God so plentifully gives us. Let us listen for that still, small voice. And when we hear it, let us joyfully, prayerfully respond.

PRAYER

Lord, this morning, and every day, we ask that you help us to hear your still, small voice amid the noise of this world. For your speech with us is quiet and the affairs of the world can be noisy. You do not overpower us with your love and your presence. You are there when we turn to you. And you are ready to receive our love when we open our hearts to you. But you honor our free will, and do not force your will and your love upon us. It is we who must come to you. So we ask this morning, and every day, to help us to hear your still, small voice in our hearts. And we pray that you turn our hearts to you and away from the distractions of this world.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

And Lord, we pray for peace in this broken world. Be with the people who are suffering in unjust regimes. Heal the nations of their conflicts. Let all peoples see that they are alike in wanting what is good for their country and for themselves. Where there is misunderstanding, grant that there be recognition of our common humanity. Bring your peaceable kingdom here to this broken world.

Those Who Have Not Seen
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 27, 2014

John 20:19-31 Revelation 1:4-8 Psalm 118

In our reading from Revelation, John exhorts us to take to heart the things that are written it that book, because the time is near. John says further that Jesus Christ has made us a kingdom of priests, as was said of the Israelites as far back as the book of Exodus (19:6). And in John’s Gospel we are told that we have true life in the name of Jesus Christ.
The time when we will confront Jesus Christ is always at hand–every moment of our lives. The potential for us to be a kingdom of priests and a holy people is always with us–every moment of our lives. And living in Christ’s name is a reality that we can experience always–in every aspect of our lives.
More is meant by living in the name of Christ than simply calling ourselves Christians. And more is meant than that detestable doctrine that says only those who worship Jesus are saved. I heard of a fundamentalist church who said that Gandhi was in hell, because he didn’t worship Jesus. Yet I think that Gandhi embodied the Christian life more than many of us who call ourselves by Jesus’ name. Living in the name of Jesus Christ means living in the things that He taught. And foremost among those things are love for the whole human race, peacefulness, and humility. These are all virtues that Gandhi demonstrated in his life. And living with these character virtues are what make a person Christian.
Also among the important things that go along with living in the name of Jesus Christ is the belief that He rose from the dead. This is important to believe because the resurrection is what makes Jesus one with God. Jesus Christ was the only human who rose body and soul. Ordinary humans leave behind their physical bodies and only our souls rise into the eternal life. But Jesus had made his body so divine that even His physical body rose into eternity. He proved this to His disciples by eating a fish when they thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:42-43).
This concept was hard for Thomas to accept. In John’s Gospel, he says,
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 (John 20:25).
Jesus appears a week later to Thomas and asks him to put his finger in Jesus’ hands and side. Thomas in humility says, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus says something that is of special relevance to us all. He tells Thomas,
Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (20:29).
That is where we all are. Few of us, perhaps none of us, have actually seen Jesus. And I would venture to say none of us have put our finger into his pierced hands, feet, and side. And yet we believe. We have not seen, and yet we choose to live in the name of Jesus Christ. And I would also venture to say that the more committed we are to life in Jesus’ name, the more we feel connected to Jesus, and the more we feel ourselves filled with Christ’s Holy Spirit.
Swedenborg calls this living in an affirmative principle. He describes two ways to approach spiritual realities. One is the affirmative way, the other the negative way. The affirmative way is to begin our faith journey with a belief in truths because they are in the Bible and because God has taught them. From there we develop more sophisticated belief systems. The negative way is to doubt everything spiritual until it is proven to us by means of reason or by means of scientific evidence. In other words, the negative principle doubts everything spiritual unless it is seen, heard, touched, or otherwise proven first.
There are two principles, therefore; one which leads to all folly and insanity, and another which leads to all intelligence and wisdom. The former principle is to deny all things, or to say in one’s heart that he cannot believe them before he is convinced by things which he can apprehend, or perceive by the senses: this is the principle that leads to all folly and insanity, and it 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 in one’s self that they are true because the Lord has said them: this is the principle that leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and it is to be called the affirmative principle (AC 2568).
For those in the affirmative principle, spiritual truth makes more and more sense as we live a spiritual life. Wherever we look, we find confirmations of what we believed early in our faith journey. Every bit a man of the Enlightenment, though, Swedenborg is all in favor of using science, knowledge, and rationality to support and to confirm spiritual truths.
But those who are in the affirmative, that is, who believe that things are true because the Lord has said so, are continually being confirmed, and their ideas enlightened and strengthened, by what is of reason and outward knowledge and even by what is of sense; for a person has light from no other source than through reason and knowledge . . . (AC 2588).
This has always been the case in the history of Christianity. Great theologians have supported their ideas with philosophy and reasoning. Augustine, for instance, drew on Platonic philosophy. And Thomas Aquinas on Aristotle. And Anselm came up with a proof of God based on pure reasoning and the philosophy of Parmenides. Swedenborg describes this way of seeing things in a beautifully poetic passage. He says that angels in the highest heaven do not see physical things, but when they see objects, the correspondence of what they stand for flows into their minds.
They do not see the objects, but the corresponding divine realities flow directly into their minds and fill them with a blessedness that affects all their sensory functions. As a result, everything they see seems to laugh and play and live (HH 489).
So it is for us, too, when we are in the affirmative principle.
The case is different for those who are in the negative principle. If a person starts out doubting God, or doubting Jesus’ resurrection and won’t believe without proof, the proof they want will never come. They will confirm themselves deeper and deeper in doubt, and rely more and more on scientific facts alone and unenlightened reason. They will always find a way out of spiritual truth no matter how many arguments are given them.
Those who are in a negative state in regard to a thing being true because it is in the Word, say in heart that they will believe when they are persuaded by reason and outward knowledge. But the fact is that they will never believe; and indeed they would not believe if they were to be convinced by their bodily senses, by sight, hearing and touch; for they would always be forming new reasonings against the things, and thus end by altogether extinguishing all faith . . . (AC 2588).
But we need to be clear about one important point. The affirmative principle that we are talking about is not blind faith. This church affirms healthy questioning. we encourage people to question the truths they grew up with and to see whether one’s early doctrines are genuinely true or not. So while affirming early basic truths, we challenge people to test them against sound reason, experience, and Scripture to see if they are, in fact, genuine truths we want to accept and live by.
First the doctrinals of the church are to be learned, and then exploration to be made as to whether they are true; for they are not true because heads of the church have said so and their followers confirm it, inasmuch as thus the doctrines of all churches and religions would have to be called true, merely according to country and birth. . . . From this it is plain that the Word is to be searched and it is to be seen there whether they are true (AC 6047).
This procedure needs to be done with Scripture itself. For there is much in the Bible that is not true from a literal viewpoint. Those passages about God being vengeful and angry, for instance, are not the way God actually is. Reason tells us that, along with the teachings of this church. I, myself, have rejected some of the truths I grew up with in this very Swedenborgian church. And I imagine that some of you who have come here from other faiths have also done some searching into the doctrines you were brought up with. This kind of inquiry is not the negative principle Swedenborg talks about. Rather, it is a good way to discover what is genuinely true and what makes the most sense. For, as Swedenborg says in True Christian Religion, faith is nothing other than truth.
After we have sifted through the doctrines we believed early in life, then we can explore all the sciences and systems of knowing that the world has to offer.
Afterward when he or she is confirmed and thus in an affirmative mind from the Word that they are truths of faith, it is allowable for him or her to confirm them by all the knowedges that he or she possesses, of whatsoever name and nature; for then, because affirmation reigns universally, he or she accepts the knowledges which are in agreement, and rejects those which by reason of the fallacies that they contain are in disagreement. By means of knowledges faith is corroborated. Wherefore it is denied to no one to search the Scriptures from a desire for knowing whether the doctrines of the church in which he or she was born, are true, for otherwise he or she can in no way be enlightened. Neither is it to be denied to him or her afterward to strengthen himself by means of knowledges . . . (AC 6047).
This church is rather unique in its emphasis on reason and questioning. Many other churches preach that church doctrines are to be accepted on faith alone and without question. We, on the other hand, encourage questioning, searching, and testing the truth value of our teachings. When we find truths that make sense to us, we can strengthen them by other doctrines–even from other faith traditions from all over the world. We can strengthen our beliefs by philosophy, by science, and by common sense. This, in fact, makes our own belief system all the more strong, because we have been convinced by our own intellect.
But all of this depends on an affirmative attitude with regard to faith. We need to begin by affirming the basic truths of religion or spirituality. Then we can refine our belief system and search its doctrines for more and less true concepts. Finally, when we have searched our beliefs for genuine truths, then we can strengthen it with other truths and by reasons. Thomas required actual physical confirmation of Christ’s resurrection. We don’t have that possibility. We are those who believe without seeing. Yet for us, to see things any other way just doesn’t make sense. To see things any other way is blindness.

PRAYER

Lord, we think back to your apostles in the early days of your resurrection. They saw you risen in the flesh–and yet out of wonder, bafflement, and joy, they doubted. You told Thomas that he could touch your hands and side and be convinced. And, Lord, here we are 2,000 years later. And we do not see, we cannot touch you, and yet we believe. We pray that you strengthen our belief. We pray that you confirm us in an affirmative perspective toward you. Many are the reasons for us to believe, but there are reasons for disbelief. We pray that you continue to enlighten our minds with affirmations of your reality, your presence, and your power. Though the temptation is there to doubt, we would be believers.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

And Lord, we pray for peace in this broken world. Be with the people who are suffering in unjust regimes. Heal the nations of their conflicts. Let all peoples see that they are alike in wanting what is good for their country and for themselves. Where there is misunderstanding, grant that there be recognition of our common humanity. Bring your peaceable kingdom here to this broken world.

A Garment of Praise
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Easter 2014
April 20, 2014

Isaiah 61:1-3 John 21:1-14 Psalm 136

Jesus was resurrected in the spring. There are several reasons for His resurrection in the spring. First, in spring all of nature is reborn from the death of winter. Second, the Jewish Passover is celebrated at the same time and Passover is a celebration of liberation from slavery. Jesus’ life and resurrection liberates the whole human race from the bondage of sin.
Nature celebrates the resurrection of the Lord with budding blossoms and flowers, and the warming of the weather. All the world rejoices in the resurrection of Jesus. The world comes alive with new life, even as Jesus gives new life to all who come to Him. The world dies in the winter, when all is covered with snow and the temperatures are without warmth. This corresponds to Christ’s death and the time when He is in the tomb. Then, in the spring, nature comes back alive and we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and the new life He brings to all seekers.
Springtime is also the time of the Jewish Passover. Passover is a celebration of the time when God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. This is a historical fact. But deliverance from slavery assumes symbolic meaning when we consider the resurrection. The New Testament records that Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples just before His betrayal. So the crucifixion and resurrection occur at just about the same time as does Passover. Even as the Passover celebrates freedom of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, so Jesus’ resurrection frees us from the bondage of sin and brokenness. Because Jesus overcame the forces of darkness, He can give the whole of humanity life and love from His resurrected Divine Humanity.
This is why I selected the passage from Isaiah for this morning’s Old Testament reading. It was probably written during the Israelites’ release from Babylonian bondage. So it refers to another historical fact of deliverance from bondage. But if this passage may have been written during the release from Babylonian captivity, it is also a metaphor for release from all oppression–including psychological and spiritual oppression. Isaiah’s prophesy is indeed general enough to cover spiritual and psychological distress. He preaches, “Good news to the poor.” God sends him, “To bind up the brokenhearted,” “to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners,” “to comfort all who mourn.” The prophet brings, “The oil of gladness instead of mourning,” “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:1, 2, 3). While these hopeful words can be applied to Israelites being released from the bondage of Babylon, their meaning goes beyond that specific historical event. The prophet will bind up the brokenhearted, comfort those who mourn, preach gladness instead of mourning, and praise to salve despair. These words are for all people, when they turn to God. And Jesus uses this same passage to describe His coming on the earth. In Luke 4, Jesus reads this passage in a synagogue and says that it is fulfilled “Today in your hearing.” Since He had just read the scripture, Jesus was pointing to Himself as the one who would do all those liberating things. So the historical facts of the liberation of the Israelites first from Egypt and second from Babylon become symbols for the liberating power of the risen Jesus Christ.
For we are all in need of liberation from the bondage of sin. We are all in need of a Savior. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” The horrors of human brokenness were apparent in the events of Good Friday. Humanity in a frenzy of mob violence sent an innocent Man to a horrible death. We have to capacity to injure others, to hurt others, or simply to ignore others when we are consumed with selfish desires. When we do anything harmful to others, to the least of God’s children, we are doing it to God. For Jesus is in each one of us, and each human being is a branch on the vine of Jesus’ loving community.
But Jesus is always calling to us, and has the power to bring us all into loving community with Himself. That is the message of Isaiah and of the resurrection. Jesus will heal the brokenhearted, will comfort those who mourn, will fill us with praise instead of despair, and anoint us with the oil of gladness instead of mourning.
I chose the reading from John for a reason. It is one of the more intimate resurrection stories. Jesus provides for the disciples a miraculous catch of fish–so great that they have to tow it back to shore behind their boat. This is an image of the countless good things that God will fill our life with, when we come to Him. This is why the Psalmist says that his cup runneth over. To those who come to Jesus, it will feel like our hearts are overflowing.
And what I like most about this story is what happens when the apostles come ashore. They find a fire of coals burning with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus asks the disciples to bring some of the fish they have caught to cook. Then Jesus says, “Come and have breakfast.” Jesus gives the apostles bread and fish and they eat breakfast together around the fire. This strikes me as an early kind of Holy Communion. It is a holy meal eaten in the very presence of God. As at the last supper, Jesus gives the apostles their food and they all eat together. I can just picture the breakfast. All sitting around a campfire in open nature beside the sea. There is a special mood that comes over me every time I am at a campfire. It is an intimate feeling. We sit together, enjoying each others’ company and watching the crackling fire. Even without the ritual and the church elements of bread and wine, the intimacy of campfires wherever they are makes for a kind of holy communion.
The early Christian churches were just that. Followers of Jesus who would come together to share a common meal together. As they were eating, they would tell stories that they remembered of Jesus’ life and His teachings. These were called “Love Feasts.”
In fact, Jesus gave little instruction as to how He wanted the church to be. Whether it is God’s will that the church grow up into the world institution that it has become is an interesting question. The Protestant Reformers thought that there was too much in the church that was man-made, not ordained by God. They rebelled against the Catholic institutions of their time. But the Protestant Churches have also grown into man-made structures, too. We are a long way from the common love feasts of the early church. We are a long way from merely sitting down to share a meal and stories about Jesus. Maybe we need to go back.
Today we see numbers in present churches dwindling. And yet we see that there are many spiritual people who do not align themselves with a denomination. Religious literacy is dramatically low. And yet culture is so filled with Christian ideals that I think that Jesus’ message survives. I think of a Canadian songwriter who sings about love. Some of the lyrics are, “One thing I know for sure/Loving one another is the only cure” (Lestor Quitzau/Mae Moore). And who can forget the Beatles, “All you need is love.” And Leonard Cohen writes spiritual music that reaches millions and millions of people. One such mega-hit was simply a chant of “Alleluia.” These songs, and songs like them, carry us back to the core message of Jesus Christ. It is the message of love. There are other cultural institutions that are replete with Christian ideals–such as social services, food banks, equal rights movements, universal health care, and so many other cultural expressions of Christian teachings about love and care for the neighbor. These songs and these social institutions carry us back to the experience of Jesus and His ministry on earth. And each time we help someone else–be it as a society or individually–it is as if we are sitting down to enjoy a common meal together with Jesus, with or without the campfire.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you heartfelt thanks. For you came to us when we had strayed far from your precepts. Your came to us when we were in darkness and you brought us light. You came to us and healed us. You were tempted as every human is, and you overcame hell. The forces of darkness thought that they had silenced you in your death. But you rose body and soul and are still present to us in your glorified Divine Humanity. The force of light that comes from you is unstoppable. No evil force can stand before the goodness and love that you are. You have performed the greatest miracle ever when you conquered death, to rise on Easter Day. And your resurrection from the grave is a promise that each one of us will rise, too, and come into your kingdom. To you we give our heartfelt thanks.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

And Lord, we pray for peace in this broken world. Be with the people who are suffering in unjust regimes. Heal the nations of their conflicts. Let all peoples see that they are alike in wanting what is good for their country and for themselves. Where there is misunderstanding, grant that there be recognition of our common humanity. Bring your peaceable kingdom here to this broken world.

We Had Hoped
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Good Friday, 2014

Mark 15:1-41

I would like us to try to imagine what the crucifixion would have been like for the followers of Jesus. This exercise may be very hard for us. We know of the resurrection. And we have 2,000 years of history behind the Christian Church. We are nothing like the ancient followers of Jesus just after the crucifixion.
Just a few days before, Jesus entered Jerusalem as a Divine Man, and received a ruler’s welcome from the people. Now the people had turned against Him. It was a mob in Jerusalem that shouted for Jesus’ death. Mark tells us that, “The chief priests stirred up the crowd” (Mark 15:11). And these were the very people who rejoiced to see Him arrive just a few days earlier. We are told that the priests had stirred up the crowds. So we have the Israelites authorities finally taking tangible action against Jesus, as they had planned all through the Gospels. And even the rulers representing Rome, who tried to be indifferent to the whole matter, even the Roman rulers had pronounced the death sentence upon Jesus. The common people, the rulers of the Israelites, and even the powers of Rome had all turned against Jesus. They thought they had silenced Him for ever. And it certainly looked as if they had.
Let’s try to imagine how this must have looked to Jesus’ followers. All through Jesus’ ministry, Jesus had performed wondrous miracles and showed a miraculous love that the people hadn’t seen anywhere. There were indeed signs that Jesus was walking a thin line with regard to the religious authorities and even with the crowds. People in Jesus’ home town were indignant at His claim to divine authority and tried to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:29). And at least once before His trial, the religious authorities tried to stone Jesus for claiming to be divine (John 8:59). But for the most part, the crowds were amazed, overjoyed, and were heartfelt followers of Him. Jesus’ followers also thought that He would deliver Israel from Roman rule and make Israel into the most powerful nation in the world and a light for all the gentiles. They saw all the miracles He did, and hoped that this indicated that Jesus was that Messiah who would restore Israel.
Now all these hopes were dashed to the ground. The mob that had adored and followed Jesus had turned against Him. His followers were dispersed. The religious authorities had won and apparently overcome this prophet of love and healing. The kingdom of Israel had not been restored. It was all over. An indication as to how much grief the apostles knew is recorded in the Gospel of Luke. Two Apostles express their grief at all that had just recently happened. They say of Jesus,
He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel (Luke 24:19-21).
After all the high hopes that Jesus’ ministry had inspired in the people, all had come to this. Remember, I am talking about the time just after Jesus’ death, and before His resurrection. All the hopes of the apostles were broken. Jesus was dead; the crowd turned against Him; the Pharisees and priests won. It was over.
Perhaps there is another aspect to all this. I think that there was also confusion. It didn’t make sense. How could all the wonders that Jesus had done, how could all His beautiful preaching end up like this? Where was all the power and wonder that Jesus had previously shown? Could it actually be that this was it? Was this all it was going to come to? In addition to grief, I think that confusion was also what the followers were feeling.
Thus far I have been discussing this distress from the point of view of the apostles. But there are some other voices that don’t often get mentioned. There were women who followed Jesus, too. At the crucifixion they are mentioned. Of them, Mark says, “In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs” (Mark 15:41). Two of these women are mentioned by name. There is Mary Magdalene, and Mary who is mother of James the Younger, Joses, and Salome. And we are told that “Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there” (Mark 15:41). Although they do not receive much mention in the Gospels, we see that among Jesus’ followers were many women.
These women cared for Jesus’ needs and no doubt were taught by Jesus along with the men. In Luke we are told that Mary, sister of Martha, sat at Jesus’ feel, listening to what He said (Luke 10:39). These women continued to care for Jesus even in His death. They go to the tomb after the Sabbath is over to anoint Jesus’ body with spices.
Did all these events strike the women in the same way as the men? I ask because of a short line in the birth story of Jesus. After the shepherds tell everyone of the wondrous vision of the choir of angels and the words told them from on high, everyone is amazed. But we are told that Mary, Jesus’ mother, had a different reaction. A contrasting reaction. Luke tells us, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the many women who followed Jesus. We don’t know if their understanding of Jesus’ teachings was different than that of the men. Had they also treasured up all these things and pondered them in their hearts? Had they heard and understood Jesus’ words about His resurrection after His death? We don’t know.
But it was the women who first saw the risen Jesus. It was the women who first saw the stone rolled away. It was the women who first saw the angels who told them Jesus had risen. And this was because they went to care for Jesus body in death, even as they had cared for Him in life.
The women, though, were amazed at these things and ran to tell the others. They were not believed. The apostles were too confused and overcome with grief. We do not always understand the things that happen to us and to others. We, too, can lose hope in the things of religion. And often we can despair as to God’s governance in the world. I believe that in these times, our hopes will find understanding as time passes. The problem the apostles faced was not understanding Jesus’ teachings about His death and resurrection. Their hopes were in a Messiah of their own understanding. Our faith is only and always finite. There are falsities and fallacies in our best understanding of faith. And such a faith must run into contradictions when it is tested by reality. It is my belief, and my faith, that we will come to understand, when things don’t seem right at first. It is my belief and my faith that behind all the hard things we see, there is a loving God. It is my belief and my faith that we will see. For now we see in a mirror darkly. In time we will see face to face. Now we know in part, in time we will understand fully. In the meanwhile, as we go about time and life here in this world, perhaps we can best proceed as did Mary. With what we do know of God and spirituality, perhaps we best proceed by treasuring up all these things and pondering them in our heart.

PRAYER

Lord, we are aware that we can be inconstant in our devotion to you. While we want to turn to you always, we are aware of the presence of sin in our lives. The crowds in ancient Israel both favored you and turned against you. The inconstancy of human hearts led you to a horrible death. Yet despite our capacity to turn away from you, we know that you never turn from us. You forgive, you continue to call to us, and you never cease in your efforts to bring us into holy communion with you. We give you thanks for your unfailing love. We praise you for your constancy in turning yourself to the human race.

Blessed Is He Who Comes
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 13, 2014

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

Our readings this morning are all about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In Zechariah we have a prophesy about the coming Messiah who will ride into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of an ass. And in Matthew we have the fulfillment of this prophesy with Jesus entering Jerusalem on a white colt, the foal of an ass. The majestic entrance into Jerusalem is the climax of the Gospel accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Two considerations make this entry into Jerusalem the high point of the synoptic Gospels. First, Jerusalem was the very centre of Israelite life in the days of Jesus. The temple was there, which made Jerusalem the centre of worship life for Israel. You could think of Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. Only it was also the greatest city in Israel. You could imagine it as a cross between Ottawa and Toronto–combining the authority of the capital with the greatness of the largest city in the country. (In the US we would think of a cross between New York and Washington DC.) With Jesus entering Jerusalem, we have the power of the Messiah entering the very core of Israelite life.
Second, in terms of the storyline of the Gospels, Jerusalem is where Jesus is crucified and resurrected. The final conclusion to Jesus whole life–the crucifixion and resurrection–occurs in Jerusalem.
From the perspective of our spiritual life, Jerusalem represents the place where God dwells in our consciousness and heart. It is the holy place in our souls where God lives. Before we can unpack what it means to our lives to have Jesus enter Jerusalem, we need to talk a little more about the story.
The accounts in the four Gospels differ when they write about Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. And their differences are significant. In Mark, Jesus is a triumphant king and also a divine God-Man. The crowd cuts palm branches and casts them in front of Jesus shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!” (Mark 11:9-10). The crowd sees Jesus as a king who will restore David’s throne, so they say, “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!” The whole act of throwing branches and shouting the words that they do is another reference to kingship. In Psalm 118, which we read this morning, we have the words that the crowd shouts,
Blessed is he who enters in the name of the Lord . . . Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar! (Psalm 118:26, 27).
This Psalm was used to celebrate the king in Israel’s past, when the king would go up to the temple amid rejoicing, music, and the casting of palm branches before him as he climbed the steps up to the temple. By the time of Jesus’ day, the Messiah was a divine being as well as an earthly ruler. So Jesus’ divinity is proclaimed by the crowd, as well. They shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Luke’s account is essentially the same. The crowd shouts the same dual acknowledgement of Jesus as Divine king, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38). In John we have a similar dual acknowledgement of Jesus as God and King, but kingship is emphasized even more strongly,
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel! (John 12:13).
But in Matthew we have a subtle shift in emphasis. Jesus is affirmed as the Son of David, since the Messiah was prophesied to come from David’s lineage. But there is no mention of kingship or of a kingdom. Instead, Jesus’ divine qualities are emphasized. As in the other Gospels, the crowd cheers Jesus as coming in the name of the Lord,
Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! (Matthew 21:9).
Jesus as God on earth is the message in Matthew. So Jesus as the conquering king, which is in the other Gospels, is not in Matthew.
The first thing that Jesus does when He enters Jerusalem is to go to the temple, the very heart of Israelite life. And Jesus passionately purifies the temple, driving out the money-changers and all those who “sold and bought.”
This is a clear image of how Jesus acts as our Savior. Jesus comes into our heart and purifies it. Jesus breaks up the destructive passions that come with life in this world. And Jesus fills us with His own Spirit of love. Then the temple is truly a house of prayer. In Swedenborg’s system of correspondences, the temple symbolizes those who live in the good of love and in faith. So he writes,
Everyone who lives in the good of charity and faith is a church, and is a kingdom of the Lord, and hence is called “a temple,” and also “a house of God” (AC 6637).
Our understanding of Jesus as the Savior is Jesus who purifies us and regenerates us. We are saved when we are purified from evil and sin and our hearts are filled with healthy feelings of love. It is the risen and glorified Jesus who does this work in us. So this church emphasizes the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ. Other Christians emphasize the crucifixion as a sacrifice that takes away our sin. So they emphasize the sin that Christ took upon Himself. The Common Lectionary selected a reading from Isaiah that brings out this doctrine. In Isaiah 53, we find a prophesy of the suffering Christ underwent,
I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I hid not my face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 53:6).
Rather than the crucifixion, it is the story of the resurrection that gives us hope. It is hope in the power of Jesus to come to us, drive out everything unholy from our personality, and give us a new self. Thus and thus only are we truly born again.
This is the meaning of Jesus coming into the holy city Jerusalem. It is a story of Jesus coming into our hearts. This is the meaning of Jesus driving out the money-changers from the temple. It is a story of Jesus purifying our hearts from unhealthy and unholy passions and rendering our consciousness clear with the light of truth.
Certainly, this process is one that has its road of sorrow. The crucifixion is a symbol of all the trials and deep temptations we go through in this purification process. But that is a story for Good Friday.
This Sunday is Palm Sunday. And on Palm Sunday, we consider the prefiguring of Jesus’ resurrection. And we consider the symbolism of God entering our hearts and purifying them from everything unholy. Palm Sunday is a beautiful metaphor of how Jesus comes into the lives of each of us, making us a holy temple of our God.

PRAYER

Lord, on this Palm Sunday we think back to your triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. You were welcomed by cheering multitudes, who were overjoyed at your arrival. Give us to feel likewise. Give us to feel like joy when you come to us. For we, too, would welcome you into our hearts to purify us from all sin and fill us with your holy love. When you came to Jerusalem, you drove out the money changers in the temple. So, we pray for you to drive out of our personalities all unhealthy feeling and passion. We pray that you purify the temple of our hearts with your power and love. And instead of self-seeking, my we be filled with patience, tolerance and mutual love with our fellows.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

Life from Life
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete

Ezekiel 37:1-14 John 11:1-45 Psalm 130

Both of our Bible readings this morning are about life. And in both readings, we see that it is God who gives life. In our reading from Ezekiel, God gives dry bones the gift of life, from the Holy Spirit. And in our reading from John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead into life. The raising of Lazarus from the dead prefigures Jesus’ resurrection, and it also symbolizes our being raised from the dead into heaven. And in both these readings about life from God, Jesus’ own words summarize the issue. Jesus says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
The life we all have is a gift from God. We don’t live by our own power. We live because the Source of all life is continually flowing into us. God is life itself. We are merely vessels that receive life.
Let me delve into science a little bit to illustrate this point. Where does life come from? We know that we humans come from our parents. And we know that our parents come from their parents. We know that some animals come from eggs. And that their parents lay the eggs. We know that plants come from seeds and fruit trees come from fruits. And we know that the seeds come from grown plants as do the fruits–oak trees come from acorns, apple trees come from apples, flowers come from the pollen of mature flowers. In the science of biology, there are few laws, unlike the sciences of physics and chemistry, for instance. But in biology there is one hard and fast rule that has no exceptions:” Only life can create life.” There are no instances of non-life creating life.
So this brings up the old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” We know that our parents gave birth to us, and their parents to them, but try to follow the sequence back to the beginning. Somewhere way back in humanity’s origins, the first parent had to be made. There would be no parent for the first human. Something like the creation of Adam and Eve would have had to happen.
But I do think that evolution happened. Human life can be traced back to hominoid creatures. More complex creatures came from simpler forms. But there are two problems with the theory of evolution. First, there is a problem with the doctrine called “survival of the fittest.” This doctrine teaches that when mutations occur, the mutation that best suits its natural environment will survive and perpetuate itself. So in an environment where there are mostly tree-tops for food, animals will grow longer and longer necks and we will end up with giraffes. But the doctrine of the survival of the fittest works only if the gene for long necks is present in the animal. All the genes have already to be present in order for a change to happen. In other words, survival of the fittest cannot change one species into another. A cat can’t become a dog by survival of the fittest. A monkey can’t become a human by survival of the fittest. So biologists have a big problem. They need to have a way to explain how the different species differentiated–lemurs into proto-humans, into humans. And ultimately, how one celled creatures became a thinking, reasoning human being.
The second problem comes from what I was saying about our parents’ parents. Somewhere along the way, life had to come from non-life. Biologists will talk about the primordial soup. That was the ocean way back in life’s origins. The sea then was rich in carbohydrates from which amino acids are made from which proteins are made. But there is a huge difference between a protein molecule and a self-replicating DNA strand. There is a huge difference between a protein molecule and a living cell. According to the theory of evolution, non-life had to create life. And that violates about the only law that biology has.
When we consider the question of life, we have to turn to religion. Life had to come from life. Life existed before anything else. God existed before there was the Big Bang. And the whole act of creation was spun out by an all-loving God who wants there to be a heaven of humans whom God can love as a parent does his or her family. Swedenborg tells us,
God in creating [the universe] had one end in view, which was an angelic heaven from the human race; and all things of which the earth is composed are means to that end. . . . The Divine Love can intend no other end than the eternal blessedness of people from its own Divine . . . (TCR 13).
And Swedenborg reiterates the same idea later in the same book,
The very end for which the universe was created was no other than that an angelic heaven should be formed from humans, where all who believe in God shall live in eternal blessedness; for Divine love which is in God and essentially is God cannot intend anything else (TCR 773).
We can now consider our creation and our birth. We are born into this natural world as a living being. But our first birth is into an image of the world. In order for us to come into heaven, we need second birth.
Second birth is symbolized in our story from Ezekiel. It begins with dry bones scattered in a valley. This is our state before God begins to recreate us into a spiritually living being. This is also symbolized in the creation story in Genesis. Our state before second birth is compared to void and unformed darkness. This is called our proprium. It is the self that biology creates which is concerned only with self-preservation and the advancement of self.
But God, wanting so much to give us the blessings of eternal joy, moves over the waters and over the dry bones. God joins bone to bone and fixes tendons on the joints and flesh on the tendons. The final act of creation in the Ezekiel story is when God breathes into the person the breath of life. In the ancient world, wind and breath were the same. So when God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, the breath comes from the four winds from the four directions. The four winds come and fill the newly recreated human beings with life.
This living wind reminds me of two things. First it reminds me of the original creation story in Genesis 2. There a human being is formed from the dust of the ground. To give it life, God, “Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Our word “spirit” comes from the Latin word “spiritus” which means breath. The second thing this passage reminds me of is what little I know of Native Spirituality. The four directions are sacred to Natives. I recall a ceremony I attended at city hall that was put on by local Natives. To open the ceremony, a song was sung to the four directions. We all stood up and turned in the direction to which the cantor was singing. The opening ceremony was completed after we had one by one turned to the four directions and we ended facing front again. In Ezekiel, the wind comes from all four directions and fills the dry bones with life.
Being filled with the wind from the sacred four directions, with God’s Holy Spirit, is what gives us eternal life. As we heard in the story of the woman at the well a few Sundays back, “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It is not only Swedenborg’s mysticism that teaches our need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to enter heaven. In the Greek Orthodox tradition and in the tradition of many Pentecostal churches salvation means being filled with the Holy Spirit. Since God is Spirit, and since heaven is where God is, we need to partake of God’s Spirit to be “in God” as we read in John 15. There Jesus says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you” (John 15:4). Later in that passage, Jesus clarifies what it means to remain “in Him,” by saying we are to remain in His love,
Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (John 15:9-11).
With these words, the whole of salvation and blessedness to eternity are contained. When we do Jesus’ commands, we are in His love. And when we are in his love, our joy is complete. The end of creation is complete–a heaven from the human race. Our birth into this world is completed by rebirth into heaven. And our birth and our rebirth are both a miraculous gift from the Source of all life and love. God fills us with the breath of life and eternal life, and we live. And when we live in God, we live in blessedness to eternity.

PRAYER

Lord, we know that you are the source of all life. We know that we do not live by our own power, but by the influx of your life and love into us. We know that your influx of love into our hearts and of wisdom into our minds is what sustains us and renders us angelic. We pray that you help us to rid ourselves of the things that block your influx. Help us to put away worldly cravings and self-serving drives. For these are the things that come between our neighbor and ourselves and between us and you. As we put away the drives of this world, we pray that you fill us with the affections of heaven. As we break up the complexes that serve self and world, fill us with love for our neighbor and for you. And in doing this, give us heavenly life, as you have given us life in this world.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.

Now I See
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 30, 2014

1 Samuel 16:1-13 John 9:1-41 Psalm 23

The metaphor uniting our Old Testament reading and our New Testament reading is the sense of sight, or seeing. In 1 Samuel, we have the contrast between the way humans see and the way God sees. Human sight is represented by Samuel and God’s sight is seen in God telling Samuel who will be the next king of Israel. In 1 Samuel 16:7 we have the line, “The LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Then in John, we have the almost funny story that contrasts sight with blindness. Jesus gives a blind man sight. And the Pharisees go back and forth to the man, to his parents, and back to the man trying to get someone to denounce Jesus. It appears that the man who receives his sight actually gets exasperated with all this. When the Pharisees ask him a second time how he got his sight, he says, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?” (John 9:27) The contrast between blindness and sight illustrates those who could see that Jesus is the Messiah, and those who stubbornly refuse to see it. They are spiritually blind.
God’s words to Samuel speak to us today. “The LORD sees not as man sees; man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” I think that it can be true that we look at the outward appearance when we look at others. We tend to measure others by the success they achieve. And we measure success by having of money, or driving expensive cars, or holding positions of power, or dressing well, or by some standard set by worldly success. Our reaction is often either to admire or to resent these examples of worldly success. And to make matters worse, we can measure our own success by these standards. We can feel inferior if we are not wealthy, or if we have an ordinary job and are not a professional or a CEO. We may feel we have failed if we are an ordinary person with an ordinary income and an ordinary job.
This is the way a human can see. But God sees quite differently. God gives us a wonderful picture of spiritual contentment in the 23rd Psalm. There we read, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” When we measure our success from God’s perspective, we will not want. That means we will be contented with everything we have. We will not feel inferior if we are not rich, and we will not feel superior if we are rich. Psalm 23 goes further than to say we will not want. It goes so far as to say, “My cup overflows.” How many of us can say that we feel our cup overflows? Psalm 23 says, “I shall not want,” in fact, “my cup overflows.” We certainly need a different standard than wealth or power to say that about ourselves.
1 Samuel 16:7 tells us that God looks on the heart. When we look for success, our attention should be within. God’s kingdom is within. We can get a measure of how different and varied the conditions of spiritually healthy people are by looking at those with whom Jesus spent His time. We know that He talked with women and valued their company. We have the story of the woman at the well we heard last Sunday. There is also the story of the sisters Martha and Mary, who ministered to Jesus and who learned wisdom at His feet. Women were not usually seen as capable of receiving spiritual wisdom, yet to Jesus, they were. There is an interesting story in Luke about the kind of person whom Jesus spent time with. Luke recounts a story in which Jesus is dining with a Pharisee. So often in the New Testament we see Jesus at odds with the Pharisees, it is striking to me when we find such a story where Jesus is dining with one. We can’t say that Jesus liked only the poor and outcasts of society. Here, Jesus is dining with a powerful and presumably wealthy Pharisee. And interestingly, while Jesus is dining, a sinful woman anoints Him with perfume and washes His feet with her tears. The Pharisee finds fault with Jesus for allowing a sinful woman to touch Him. Yet Jesus is open to the affection of this sinful woman. He tells the Pharisee that her many sins are forgiven because she loves much. Here, we see that not even outward behaviors matter as much as the state of a person’s heart.
But as we look for spiritual health we need to be careful. Jesus can see into the heart, and is the only One who can see into the heart. Our understanding of spiritual fitness can’t take into account a person’s inner disposition. In fact, in the story I mentioned above, the Pharisee thought that this woman was a sinner because he measured her against his standards of ritual purity. In our story from John, the Pharisees want to denounce Jesus for not following their laws about working on the Sabbath. The Pharisee’s judgement is harsh and shallow, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath” (John 9:16). They said Jesus did not keep the Sabbath because he made clay and healed a man on the Sabbath. Their rules of behavior were so strict that even healing was considered work. And giving a blind man sight, as godly a miracle as that is, was considered work and prohibited on the Sabbath. They thought themselves capable of saying that Jesus was not of God, according to their understanding of holy rules.
We, too, need to be careful in the way we understand our religion. We may be inclined to think that our doctrines make us the true believers. We may be inclined to view others who think differently than we do to be ungodly or sinners. We had a taste of just how destructive that can be a few weeks ago with a difficult visitor we had. But a variety of opinions on doctrinal matters does not mean one is right and the other is wrong, one is saved and the other is damned. Swedenborg tells us that a good life is what matters. He goes on to say that even falsities can accommodate a good and innocent life,
When falsities flow into good, which is the case when a person lives according to them from ignorance in which there is innocence; and when the end is to do what is good; they are regarded by the Lord, and in Heaven, as not being falsities, but as resemblances of truth; and are accepted as truths, according to the quality of the innocence (AC 7887).
I know of people in this church who accept doctrines only if they read them in Swedenborg. But Swedenborg himself, tells us that those who have a connection with God recognize truth wherever they encounter it,
If [a person] goes to the Lord and worships Him alone, he comes into the power of recognizing all truths; therefore every true worshiper of the Lord, as soon as he or she hears any truth of faith with which he or she was not before acquainted, sees, acknowledges, and receives it instantly (TCR354).
We need always keep our eyes and our ears open for truth wherever we may encounter it. Such a disposition may lead us to refine and supplement our childhood faith, and maybe even to abandon some of our childhood notions. I remember growing up in this religion. My whole world was the General Convention, its threat from the General Church, and the whole rest of the world which was the Old Church. How parochial and small a world. In graduate school, I had the privilege of meeting persons of all faiths, of learning about Christian history and the religions of the world, of deepening my knowledge of scripture, and to learn new ways of thinking about new issues of religion that weren’t in Swedenborg. What an eye-opening experience! I have not abandoned my core Swedenborgian faith, but I do live in a much larger world than the one I grew up in.
Finally, our story from John shows us the nature of belief and unbelief. It shows us the nature of seeing and being blind. And it shows us why miracles do not convince unbelievers to believe. This story is a masterpiece of literature. The metaphor of blindness versus sight is used to contrast unbelief with belief. The Pharisees go to great lengths to try to get people to denounce Jesus. They talk to the formerly blind man. He explains that Jesus gave him sight. After the Pharisees denounce Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, the people say, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” (John 9:16). Getting nowhere with the man or with the crowd, the Pharisees go to the man’s parents. The man’s parents only say what they know and basically try to get out of the whole affair,
We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself (9:20-21).
So the Pharisees go back to the man, himself and try to get out of him something they can use to convict Jesus. The man won’t confirm their prejudice against Jesus,
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:24-25).
John tells us that the Pharisees had made up their minds that anyone confessing Jesus to be the Christ would be thrown out of the synagogue (9:22). So here we have a blind man who sees, and the Pharisees who could see all their lives blinded against this miracle. They were so set against the divinity of Jesus that they refused to see this miracle so apparent to everyone in the village.
I find this to be the case today between believers and unbelievers. I see miracles everywhere I look. Unbelievers see nature and random natural selection behind the miracles of nature. And as this story makes clear, even if there were miracles today as there were in Jesus’ time, the miracles wouldn’t convince. There would be some way of explaining away even the most pronounced miracle. The blind man says, “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind” (9:32). Yet the Pharisees couldn’t, wouldn’t see it.
Jesus sums up this story with a somber statement to the Pharisees, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (9:41). It reminds me of the story of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man, who is in hell, cries out to Abraham to send Lazarus from heaven to talk his brothers into repentance. Abraham says that they have Moses and the prophets. The rich man says that if someone from the dead talks to them, they will repent. But Abraham says, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31). That is the nature of spiritual blindness. Though someone is raised from the dead, their blindness would remain. Though a blind man sees, they remain blind. John only adds that each one is responsible for their own faith journey. “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

PRAYER

Lord, you have given us eyes to see the splendor of your kingdom. And yet there are many distractions in this world. We are presented with so many images from the world that we can become blinded to the splendors of your kingdom. We pray that you open our eyes, when we become blind. Give us a vision of your kingdom and heaven’s glory. Let us see with your eyes. Let us view this passing world with eyes on eternity. Then we may come to value the things that truly matter. Then we may see the important things of life. And when our time comes to depart into glory, we will be ready to leave this world behind, filled with heavenly sights and affections.

Lord, we pray for those who are sick. Send your healing love to those ailing, and comfort their family and friends. Lord, we ask for the grace of your healing love for all in need.