Church of the Holy City

Living Authentically
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 12, 2014

Isaiah 28:14-18a John 9:35-41 Psalm 5

The eighth commandment prohibits false witness. In the strictest sense, this means not to falsely accuse someone in a law court or publicly. In a wider sense it prohibits lying and hypocrisy. And in a still wider sense it prohibits deceitful plots or other means of attack from a motive of revenge or enmity or hatred.
But there is an important consideration in this commandment. The lies and deceits that it prohibits must be motivated by an evil intention. In Swedenborg’s words, the lies must be committed, “with an evil end in view” (TCR 321). This leads me to ponder what we call “little white lies.” Usually when we tell white lies, we are doing so with good intentions. That is we can lie about a person’s weight, or their haircut, or their dress, or some other small matter. When we tell lies about such matters, we usually do so in order to spare our acquaintance’s feelings. We do so from a good motive. We do not lie about such things “with an evil end in view.” So it would appear to me that in Swedenborg’s eyes, these are not what the eighth commandment prohibits. Can I go ahead and say that it appears these little lies are OK?
Let us look at the other side of this subject. Let us consider what I would call being “brutal honesty.” For I think we can be honest to a fault. We can speak the truth without regard to someone’s feelings. And the truth can be hurtful when it is spoken with disregard to the way it comes across. I think of a saying by Ghandi. He said, “Whenever one has a truth, it must be given in love or the message and the messenger will be rejected.” What kind of person would respond to a question about a new dress in this way? “
“Do you like my new dress?”
“No. It makes you look fat.”
This kind of response isn’t being truthful. It is being cruel. We can be cruelly honest when we say things like that.
There are numerous opportunities for us to be cruelly honest or to be truthful in a loving way. There are all kinds of degrees of honesty that can be applied to this type of question. A good friend of my family told me once, “You can’t be sort of honest.” But I disagree. There is a vast spectrum between brutal truth and loving criticism. If it is clear that the other person really likes her dress, we can respond to her affections and encourage her. We can say something like, “Yes, it looks fun.” Or we can find something we like about it. “I like the colors, or the pattern.” If we are a trusted and close friend, and our opinion is genuinely sought as an honest appraisal, our response may be different. If we feel that the dress is unflattering and we think that our friend wears it in jeopardy, we may have to be honest. But honest in a caring way. Our truth needs to be given in love. We may say something like, “It wouldn’t have been my choice.” Or perhaps something like, “I don’t think it is flattering.” And hopefully a gentle discussion would open up about it. My intention here is not so much to give advice as it is to show degrees of honesty that diverge from cruel honesty to gentle truth.
We can also be honest in a neutral, critical manner. I have sent out a few articles for publication to numerous journals. The journals respond and say whether they will print the article or not. When they decline the article, they almost always give criticism. They list sources I may want to include in a revision. They talk about strong and weak points in the article. They talk about flaws in my reasoning that would need to be corrected. In short, they usually tell me how to make my article better. In some cases, I have taken two or three rejection letters and added sources and refined my article according to their helpful criticism. The result has been a later publication in another journal.
There is another matter to consider here. The prohibition against false witness raises the issue of authentic living. How authentic a life are we living? Is the person we project to the world the person we truly are? Do we have the strength of conviction to openly let ourselves be seen? Or do we hide our true feelings and ideas behind a false identity? I remember a talk I had with my older brother long ago. I mentioned how I would exaggerate some parts of my character and hide others and outright lie about still others. He said,
“Then people aren’t meeting you. They are meeting someone you are not. You will not be understood, you will not have friends who are your real friends. They will be friends with someone you are not.”
I took this to heart. And I think that I can say I live fairly honestly now. There are some things that I do not let people see until I know them well. I think we do need an external personality that functions like tree bark. The bark on trees protects the tender centre from insects and other harmful natural threats. So our personalities protect us from social harm and from outright crimes. But when we are in safe emotional environments, we can open up and let our more intimate side be seen. In retrospect, I find that as I age, the more personal conviction I have and the less I fear from others. I am living with even more and more openness and integrity as I see that others pose less and less a threat to my convictions and to who I am.
On a spiritual level, bearing false witness means to teach something false when we know that it is false. It means persuading ourselves and others that evil is good when we know differently. Again, the motive matters here. In Swedenborg’s words, we violate the eighth commandment when we “do these things from design and not from ignorance” (TCR 322). This is where our New Testament reading is applicable. In John 9 we read,
If you were blind, you would not have sin; but now you say “We see;” therefore your sin remains (9:41).
The blindness here refers to spiritual ignorance. If we do not know what is true, we are not responsible for thinking and speaking what is false. But if we know the truth, and choose to cover it or outright speak against what we know to be true, then we sin gravely.
This is the reason why the Bible was written in correspondences. All we need for our salvation is in the literal level of the Bible. It is in the very Ten Commandments we are learning about these weeks. It is in the two great commandments Jesus teaches: to love God and to love the neighbor. It is in the stories about Jesus’ life, the moral stories in the historical parts of the Bible, and it is in the prophets and Psalms. But the deeper levels of spiritual truth are clothed in correspondences. This is because if we knew spiritual truth we would be forced and compelled into a choice. Plain truth would force us either to agree with it or to turn our backs on it. If we weren’t ready in our regeneration to receive a truth, we would be compelled to confront it without the proper spiritual preparation. Then truth would be forced upon us. We might rebel against it, we might angrily and grudgingly accept it, or we might reject it. And neither of these options is what God wants. God wants to be received willingly and happily. Truth is to be seen when we are ready to accept it joyfully. It is not to be seen until we are ready for it. So we have the familiar saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” If we reject truth when we see it clearly, it is much worse than if we simply don’t know it. If we are blind, we do not sin. If we see, and then turn our backs on what we see, then it is much worse. So God clothes pure truth in correspondences. This is the meaning of Jesus’ saying in Luke:
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand” (Luke 8:9,10).
These open up and become transparent as we mature spiritually. The divine poetry enlightens our minds and warms our hearts as it leads us gently to God.
So the eighth commandment is for lies that we do purposefully and from a bad intent. It is not white lies we tell from a good heart. It is not falsities we speak from innocence. The eighth commandment prohibits falsities and deceits we tell knowing full well that they are lies and from a hateful and malevolent purpose.
However, the eighth commandment encourages us to live with integrity. It encourages us to live honestly and to have the courage of our convictions. But living with integrity also includes living a loving life. When we have truth to speak, we will speak it lovingly. Our honesty will not be a hurtful honesty. We will live at peace with ourselves, and in harmony with our neighbors. Living honestly will render us trustworthy to others. And an honest life will also make us fitting witnesses to the life and love of Jesus. They will know we are Christians by our life.

PRAYER

Lord, we ask for you to reveal your truth to us day by day. We know that your Word is written in symbols that can be opened to ever deeper levels of meaning–yes, even into the wisdom of angels. As we grow spiritually in our journey, we ask that you guide us into insights and understanding when we approach your word. And as we learn more and more about your kingdom, we ask for the strength and courage to live openly according to our faith. Give us, we pray, the confidence to let our light shine before the world, so we may bear faithful witness to you and your way.

And Lord, we pray for this church, where we come to worship you and to learn the ways of your kingdom. Join with us this morning as we come together in your name. Guide and protect us when we depart into the world, carrying today’s message which you have given to us. And Lord, be with the members of this online ministry as we seek your kingdom together.

And Lord, we pray for peace in this troubled world. May conflict be absorbed in your loving kindness. May warring factions see that they are like in their desires for love and the good things of this world.

And Lord, we pray that you heal those who are suffering with illness. Lord, send your healing love to all who are in need.

Theft and Contentment
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 29, 2013

Genesis 31:17-42 Matthew 6:19-24 Psalm 49

The Bible readings I selected point to natural and spiritual interpretations of the seventh commandment, which is not to steal. Our reading from Genesis, about Jacob and his wives and Laban bring up just about every aspect of theft that needs to be considered. Our readings from Psalm 49 and from Matthew put the whole issue of wealth in perspective.
The most basic level of this commandment is taking what belongs to someone else. Stealing money, or someone else’s possessions is theft in its most basic level and is a crime we all recognize. There are other actions that are theft, too. Employers who do not pay their workers fair wages, workers who do not perform their jobs honestly, merchants who derive profits that are out of proportion to the goods they produce, and unjust ways of obtaining wealth such as fraud–all these things are theft.
In our story from Genesis, just about every form of theft is described. It is a story about Jacob and his father-in-law Laban. Laban cheats Jacob in several ways. First, Laban makes Jacob work for seven years in order to be handed his daughter Rachel as his bride. Laban, however, gives him his other daughter, Leah instead. So Jacob works another seven years and finally receives his beloved Rachel for his wife. Jacob also accuses Laban of changing his wages ten times in the course of his employment. We see that Laban is quite a dishonest empolyer. But Jacob is a bit of a thief, himself. Through a complicated breeding scheme, Jacob sees to it that his own flocks increase while Laban`s flocks remain the same. This is not accident, but is the result of Jacob`s active intervention with the mating of Laban`s flocks. Then we have the example of Rachel actually stealing Laban`s household idols when she flees with Jacob from Laban`s home. There is a lot of conniving going on between Laban, Jacob, and Rachel in this story. A lot of theft going on.
Psalm 49 and Matthew point to a spiritual way of viewing wealth. For the temptation to steal derives from an unhealthy view of wealth that isn’t spiritual. Psalm 49 tells us in stark terms that wealth has no spiritual value. The Psalmist tells us that wealth won’t keep any person from the grave. It says further that wealth can’t pay God a ransom for our souls. He says in clear terms that only, “God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,/for he will receive me.” And Jesus gives us the positive side of this same teaching. Jesus says that we should build up treasures that are lasting. He teaches that there are eternal riches which can’t be stolen and that do not decay with time and age. Jesus says, rather cryptically, that “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). If our hearts are set on heavenly treasures, then we will not crave worldly wealth. And if we do not crave worldly wealth, then we will not be tempted to steal.
When I was growing up, the hippies of my generation, of which I was one, had a different view of wealth. We criticized those who were trying to keep up with the Jones’, as we called it. We distained the quest for money and worldly success. There was a song by Pink Floyd that satirized the quest for wealth. It goes like this:
Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and your O.K.
Money it’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a football team.
There was also a song by Jethro Tull that I liked then and still like now, that points to simple pleasures versus the drive for wealth.
I’m sittin’ in the corner feeling glad
Got no money comin’ in but I can’t be sad
That was the best cup of coffee that I ever had
And I won’t worry about a thing because we’ve got it made
Here on the inside, outside so far away.
But when discussing the issue of wealth, I think that we hippies were a bit idealistic. We didn’t seem to have a responsible view of money. For we do need money to survive in this world. Without a healthy view of money, without earning a livable wage, we will be beholden on the charity of others, and we will be a burden to society. For just as the Psalmist tells us the hard fact that we can’t take money with us to the grave, there is also the hard fact that without money we can’t provide for ourselves. The acquisition of wealth is not a problem nor a sin if the wealth is come by honestly. The only issue is what wealth does to us. I think that Psalm 62:10 puts this whole matter into perspective. Here, we find the well-known phrase, “If riches increase, set not your heart on them.” The Psalmist doesn’t say riches are bad in and of themselves. Rather, the Psalmist says riches are a problem only if we set our hearts on them. And a person who sets their heart on wealth is likely to go to any length to obtain wealth–honest or otherwise.
It seems like our society is diseased with a craving for wealth. I saw this trend really take hold in the ’80′s and it has remained since. I think that the excesses of wealth in the ’80′s may have been a backlash against the anti-money attitudes of the ’60′s and early 70′s. I think of that 80′s movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. Michael Douglas plays a corporate raider whose lust for wealth drives him to insider trading and all manner of ruthless tactics such as destroying companies for the profit it brings him. This movie was made in the 80′s when the lust for wealth was perhaps at its peak in our world.
I think things have toned down a bit since then, but in many ways, the trend started in the 80′s continues. We still have luxury products pasted before our faces in the media. Competition for the title of most popular luxury automobile is the marketing gimmick behind one brand that wants to dethrone Cadillac, BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes.. I think of the astronomical salaries paid to entertainers and sports figures that defy all manner of logic. One television comedian I know of has a collection of 60 Porsches. He rents an airplane hangar to keep them in. I remember one athlete who was interviewed on television. His interviewer asked him if he deserved all that money and if he earned it. The athlete responded that it isn’t a matter of him earning that much money. He said that it is rather “what the market will bear.” What the market will bear–not whether he is worth that much. I guess it’s not my place to judge, but I can’t help feeling that these extreme salaries are a form of theft. And I don’t even want to start on those bank CEO’s who ruined the world economies and still retained obscene salaries and even bonuses.
Long ago, John Calvin made an interesting statement. He said that merchants and manufacturers were not allowed to earn a greater profit than their product is worth. In other words, charging a higher price than the product is worth is a sin. I like this idea in principle. However, Calvin did not tell us how to calculate what an honest profit would be. I think that in some cases, we may have an indication when companies are charging more than a just figure for their products. Drug companies come to mind. There is no justification for the huge disparity between what pharmaceuticals charge in the US compared to what they charge for the same drug in Canada. Our society says that the laws of supply and demand are what dictate price or wages. There is no correlation between price and worth or cost of production. It`s all what the market will bear.
But most of us are in much more modest relations to wealth. We still have a call as Christians. As Christians, we are called to act justly in our employment, and not to defraud our employer of work time for which we are paid. And we are called to be content with the allotment of wealth that we are earning. The real challenge is not to lust after huge wealth, but rather to reign in our desires for material goods. For wealth is always relative. I have heard extremely wealthy individuals say that they always want more. It is this wanting more that is the problem. Unless we master our desires for money and goods, we will never have enough.
In the highest spiritual sense, stealing means taking credit for God`s good deeds. We violate the seventh commandment when we think that the good things we do are from our own power. We thus steal credit from God. When we think we have earned heaven by our good deeds, we are taking personal credit for the power that belongs to God. When we make someone feel good, when we do someone a favor and we feel good from the deed, the temptation is there to get puffed up with pride for the good person we are. I am not saying that we can`t have confidence and self-esteem. But the good we do is God working in us, and to God alone goes the merit, the credit, and the glory. In fact it is harmful to our souls when we think we deserve heaven for our good deeds. Thinking this way will actually deprive us of the heavenly joy that flows into our spirits when we do give God credit for goodness. Even as we strive against evils in our character, and come to actually be better persons–even this is not our doing, but God working salvation in us. When our minds are on God, and when we credit God with all the acts of goodness around and through us, then we feel heaven`s joy in us. Paul said it well,
Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13).
Finally, as Christians we are called to love heavenly goods, not worldly goods. We are taught to seek God`s kingdom first. We are told that true wealth is a full heart–a heart of gratitude, a heart of brotherly love and sisterly love, a heart of love for God. When good deeds are what we truly seek out of life, then our hearts are set on heavenly treasures. These endure for ever. These are what refine human into angels. These are the keys that unlock the mansions of heaven and give us eternal peace of mind and joy of heart.

PRAYER

Lord, we acknowledge that all we have is from you. We acknowledge that all we do is by your power. Help us to remember and give thanks to you for all the good we know, for all the good we do. Lord, sometimes we struggle in this life. Sometimes we wage war against demonic forces that seek to choke out your heavenly influx. But even in these times, we know that it is not we who struggle, but you who struggle in us. May we always be open to your goodness, your peace, and your love.
Lord, many are our wants. But our means are limited. Lord, help us to restrain our desires for excess material goods. Help us to remain content with what we have and with what is within our means. For if we are content with what we have, we have all we need and want.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help nations that are suffering from natural disasters or internal strife.

Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

In Darkness, a Light
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Christmas Eve–2013

Christmas is a time of darkness and of light. Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year. The night is longest around this time and the days are shortest. Perhaps because of this deep darkness, we light lights. We decorate trees with Christmas lights. We light candles. We put Christmas lights around our windows and around our houses. We put lights on our Christmas trees.
We do all this to cheer us during this dark season. But we also do this because of the symbolic meaning of light. For Christ was born into the darkness and Christ is the light of the world.
When we speak of the darkness into which Christ was born, we mean more than just the winter night. As Isaiah 9 says,
The People living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. . .
Isaiah speaks of people living in darkness–darkness so profound that it is called “the land of the shadow of death.” We are taught that the world was in a direful state when Christ was born. Swedenborg states that humanity was at its lowest point. Darkness had become so thick that goodness from heaven was choked off by souls of darkness in the spiritual world. So light needed to be born in this material world.
In Jesus, God was made Human. And light came to a dark world, a dark society. God took on a material body and brought the power, the love, and the heat of infinite goodness into this world. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” writes the Apostle John. I like the way that the King James Version translates this line. It reads, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” For those beings of darkness do not, did not comprehend the light. They do not, did not comprehend truth. They do not, did not comprehend Jesus. The Greek word we are talking about is katalambano. It means both, “to overcome, or overpower,” and also, “to understand.” And the forces of darkness didn’t understand Jesus, and in the end, did not overcome Him. So I translate that phrase, “The darkness didn’t get it.” It didn’t get Jesus physically or mentally.
The forces of darkness didn’t overcome the power of The Light. Though they tried to silence Jesus, even in His death, His message became even more powerful. The light spread through all the Mediterranean first. Then through all the western world.
Consider what a miracle this was, this is. Jesus wrote down nothing. Jesus established no church structure, built no church buildings. All that remained after His death was memories of those who knew Him, and a confused rabble of Jewish peasants. They were left to their own devices when Jesus resurrected.
Yet the light shone from the heavens to announce Jesus’ birth and it shone after His resurrection. When Jesus rose, He now had power to reach the material world from His Divine Humanity through His own material body, now glorified. Swedenborg, citing Isaiah 30:26, states that the sun in the spiritual world shone seven times stronger after the glorification. And this power, this light inspired the Apostles and the entire world from within. This new light overcame the darkness that covered the ancient world.
But the darkness isn’t entirely dissipated in this world. There are inequities of class, gender and race that need the power of Christian love to dissipate. There is disease and famine in much of the world. There are unjust political regimes that need to be toppled. As Christians, we are called to establish social justice in the world. As the Old Testament tells us, and as Jesus demonstrated, the poor and marginalized are not to be forgotten. God hears their voices.
But if the political and social injustices only were in need of the power of Christian love, Jesus would have been just another worldly reformer. But the light of Christianity shines on the souls of people everywhere. It enlightens the mind and inspires the heart of believers everywhere. The voice of that infant born into a dark world calls to each of us to look up, to fix our sights on heaven, and to transform our lives into an image of that Divine Human who walked in the dust of Palestine.
If we set our hearts on that miraculous God-Man to whom the scriptures testify; if we train our feet to walk in the steps of our Savior; if we open our ears to the angelic choirs, we will come to know the Kingdom to which our Lord calls us. We will be friends of the God-Man. We will be residents of the heavenly mansions. And the light will shine in our hearts and minds. And they’ll know we are Christians by our light.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, this Christmas Eve we remember with solemn joy your birth here in this world. The world lay in deep darkness. And to a world consumed with darkness, you brought light. And your light continues to shine into this world, and into our souls. Help us to see your light shining in the world. And give us to see those areas of our lives that you have illuminated so that we may become children of the light. May we seek to embody your light and your warmth that always shines in the heavens and in our souls which live in the spiritual world. We ask your help in bringing that light and warmth into all the activities of our lives. May our lives be a witness to your name. For in this dark, winter’s night we celebrate the light that has come into the world. We call ourselves by the name of that light; we call ourselves Christians.

The Delicate Issue of Adultery
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 22, 2013

Hosea 1:2-2:1 Matthew 5:27-32 Psalm 50

The sixth commandment is the prohibition against adultery. When you are a divinity student or a minister, you end up hearing every religious joke there is. And there is one about adultery. Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and announces, “I have with me the fifteen commandments.” The Israelites respond, “O fifteen is too many! We can’t follow that many commandments. Please go back up the mountain and negotiate a better covenant.” So Moses goes back up the mountain. When he comes back down he says, “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I got it down to ten commandments. The bad news is adultery is still there.”
On one level, the sixth commandment prohibits the commission of adultery. But Jesus makes this commandment more severe and difficult. He says that when anyone looks upon someone else with lustful gaze, that person is committing adultery in their heart. In other words, the prohibition against adultery includes lustful feelings, not only the act of adultery. I spoke with a rabbi about this statement of Jesus and the rabbi thought that it was severe. He said that as a rabbi, he would never say the same to the people in his synagogue. He thought that Jesus was a strict rabbi. In fact even the evangelical Christian Jimmy Carter confessed to violating this commandment as expressed by Jesus. But as Christians, we are bound by Jesus’ teachings, be they difficult or easy. Swedenborg includes in this commandment all lewd or obscene things, thoughts, or speech.
There are some peculiarities about this commandment. First, committing adultery is not against civil law, as is murder or theft. Depending on how one views society, it is indeed questionable if today it is even against moral law. Everywhere we look, sex and sexuality is pasted before our minds and eyes in advertizing, in music videos, in television and movie programming. Recently a female pop singer made waves by dancing suggestively on TV. This is nothing new in popular music. And in stories, love triangles fuel reams of paper that go back all the way to medieval romances. While sex has been used as a marketing device for a long time, recently I have seen ads descend to a dalliance with adultery that alarms me. A car advertisement depicts a young man stealing a kiss from another young man’s date at a dance party. The commercial concludes with the proud young man driving home with a black eye and a big grin on his face. The final image is the girl at the dance party with a longing, listless look on her face. In another commercial, a man drives away in a boat with his friend’s girlfriend. She dumped her boyfriend and took up with his friend because her boyfriend took too long getting his insurance technicalities worked out. These ads are not only using sex to sell, which I am almost numb to. No. These ads are using adulterous stories to sell, which makes me shudder.
Our society has become so distant from what religion teaches about love and its contraries that we have lost language relating to these ideas. We almost never use the words “lust,” or “lascivious,” or “lewd,” or “unchaste.” I think that for some of these words the younger generation may not even know a definition. And yet the whole purport of Swedenborg’s book Marital Love, also called Conjugial Love is to distinguish between lust and love, or between unchaste and chaste expressions of love.
Another peculiarity about the sixth commandment is the way our biology figures in the issue. As Protestants, we do not favor absolute abstinence and a vow of celibacy. So for us, chastity does not mean total abstinence from sex. For Swedenborg, chastity has to do with the total dedication to one single person. And still, the opposite sex is loved and admired, but not desired. In fact, for Swedenborg, when a person is in marital love, love for the opposite sex in general is increased. When a person is in love, all the world is lovelier.
There is a deeper level to the sixth commandment that is apparent from our Hosea reading. The prophet Hosea is told to marry an adulterous wife as a symbol of Israel’s relationship with God. This is one of many places in which Israel’s relationship with God is compared to a marriage. In this case, Israel’s relationship is called adulterous because Israel has turned away from Yahweh to worship the Canaanite gods around them. In this case we see the spiritual meaning of adultery. In the spiritual sense, adultery means turning from the holy things of religion or spirituality. For just as the Israelites turned to other gods, the temptation is there for us to turn away from spirituality. In its highest sense, the sixth commandment means denying the holiness of the Bible. For despite all its difficulties, the Bible is God’s Word and is Holiness Itself.
The Bible is a difficult book to deal with. There are passages in it that do not seem holy; in fact, there are passages in it that seem contrary to what we know of God. I think of those warrior passages and all the killing apparently commanded by God. In fact, the whole idea of the Promised Land is difficult. What God appears to say is that Abraham and his descendants will get a land that others now live in. In other words, the Promised Land is one of conquest.
But there are also beautiful passages in the Bible. God is called compassionate and forgiving and all loving. God is especially concerned with the marginalized in society—widows, orphans, and foreigners. There are good moral laws in the Bible. And there are lessons of wisdom.
If we approach the Bible with an affirmative attitude, we will see the beauties of God and God’s kingdom. But if we are dead-set on denying the divinity of the Bible, we can arm ourselves with all those passages that derive from a first millennium bronze-age warrior world.
People who seek to discredit the Bible seek also to discredit religion in general. This is what adultery means in its spiritual sense. Spiritual adulterers set themselves against religion. They not only deny God, they laugh at the things of religion. They set out to disprove God, they set out to show the irrelevance of religion and spirituality, and they either secretly or openly hate God.
Again, we see the unity of all the commandments when viewed spiritually. We can see how adulterating the things of religion go against the first two commandments. Having no other god before the Lord means that there is a God and that He is real. Putting self as the centre of life, as many atheists do, is putting something before God–a violation of the first commandment. Not taking the Lord’s name in vain means not to deny, laugh at, or discredit the Bible and the things that come from the Bible. Since all true religion comes from the Bible, denying religion and spirituality is also denying the Bible. Since God is the all and everything of the Bible, making light of the Bible is taking God in vain, God’s name and everything God stands for. God as our Father and the church as our mother are to be honored, as we learned in the fourth commandment. And the love that is at the heart of all true religion stands against hatred, which is prohibited by the fifth commandment.
Finally, the sixth commandment comes down to love—to real love. If we love our neighbor, we will not lust after our neighbor’s partner. We want what is good for our neighbor, and what is better than the love our neighbor enjoys from that one certain someone. And loving that one certain someone is what the sixth commandment is all about–a love from and in God Himself.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks for your gift of love. Love fills our hearts with spiritual warmth and joins the human race together as one family. We give you thanks especially for the dear love that finds its rest in marriage. For no sweeter gift do you give humanity than the intense personal love between two people. We ask you to guard our thoughts to keep them free of distractions from unholy desires. May the transient pleasures of sensuality disperse as we grow in confidence and heartfelt friendship with our partners and with the whole human race. In this world, there are many distractions. But we give you thanks because you have overcome the world.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help nations that are suffering from natural disasters or internal strife.

Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

Murder, Peace, and Love
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 15, 2013

Genesis 4:2-10 Matthew 5:21-26 Psalm

The fifth commandment is, “You shall not murder.” The word choice is important here. Often this commandment is translated, “You shall not kill.” But the correct translation of the Hebrew is the word “murder.” Murder is different than killing. There may be times in defence of one’s country or to maintain the balance of power in the world when wars are necessary. In these cases, it would appear that killing may be justified. But murder means, by definition, killing out of hatred, or revenge, or because of a personal vendetta. None of these cases are justified. So the fifth commandment prohibits killing out of anger or hatred. So the mental state of hatred is implied by the very word choice of murder.
I chose a clear case of murder for our Old Testament reading. In our reading from Genesis, Cain is said to be “very angry” with Abel. And it is this anger that prompts Cain to murder his brother.
We are none of us likely to act out angry impulses to the point of murder. But Jesus calls our attention to internal meanings of the commandment not to murder. There are three degrees of murderous feelings that Jesus talks about. The first is being angry with one’s neighbor. The second is insulting one’s neighbor. And the third is calling one’s neighbor a fool.
I think that the kind of anger that flashes up in a moment of hurt or insult is natural. I don’t think Jesus is prohibiting that kind of anger. I think that what Jesus is talking about is dwelling on one’s anger and nurturing it. This is called in other places holding a grudge. I used to hold grudges. On my own time, I would think about a slight I may have received. I would think of all the way the other person was wrong, and list in my head the many ways the other person was out of line and wrong and a jerk. All the while, my heart would be burning with rage against this individual as my mind was filled with an unholy meditation on my neighbor’s wrongs. Occasionally, I would ponder ways to get even with this individual. I would also think of remarks I could have made or ways I could have responded in the moment to get them back. Now that’s a lot of mental energy. A lot of misspent mental energy. It reminds me of a Blake poem called A Poison Tree.

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

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

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

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

This poem speaks of the kind of resentment I have been describing. Wasn’t I building up that poison tree in my own mind and heart? And this poem shows that nurturing resentments against someone actually is a form of murder. And the worst thing about these resentments is what it does to us. We are the ones going around feeling all those unpleasant feelings of anger in our hearts. And all the while, the event is over; the person isn’t even present, and, in fact, is most likely going about their business feeling just fine, not knowing our resentment, not feeling miserable as we are.
Notice, too, how Blake tells us a way to defuse our feelings of resentment. When the poet is angry with his friend, “I told my wrath, my wrath did end.” When we are up front about our feelings with others, we can defuse the issue on the spot. This is the way Jesus suggests.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24).
If a person has something against us, or we against them, we are told to make peace. This, even before we go to God. Jesus tells us that before we bring an offering to the temple, to make peace with our neighbor.
This does not mean unhealthy ways of making ourselves feel better. This does not mean to lash out in anger. Here we encounter Jesus’ second degree of murder. “Whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council.” There are two violations in this kind of retaliation. First, it is a form of revenge to insult someone else. It only escalates the cycle of anger. Second, and more important, insulting someone is a public action. And insulting someone includes damaging their reputation. There are many ways of varying severity to this level of anger. It includes backbiting and talking someone down to others. It includes gossip. It includes getting others fired up against someone. And all this leads to damaging someone’s reputation. For a person’s livelihood often depends on their reputation. These forms of attack—backbiting, gossiping, rallying others against someone—all these forms of anger are murder to the good reputation of someone else. This gets us back to the Blake poem. If we have something against someone, we need to confront them personally and diplomatically and bring our concerns to them face to face. “I was angry with my friend/I told my wrath, my wrath did end.”
But it is hard, sometimes, to face those with whom we have a problem. We don’t like confrontation. But what does that leave us with? Will we stew in anger and build a poison tree? Will we detract them behind their back?
There is another option here that I haven’t mentioned. We can let it go. Depending on the nature of our neighbor’s offence, we may not need to make an issue of it. We can drop the matter altogether in our minds. This is not saying that we need to be a doormat. If an individual is really damaging us, we will need to remain aware of the danger such an individual can be to us. Avoiding them in the future or trying to understand their nature are ways of dealing with the matter. Meanwhile, we don’t need to let the committee start in our heads in which we say, “He did this, and then that, and then still this other . . .”
In Matthew 5 we also have the beautiful saying of Jesus that brings all these considerations home. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” Striving to establish peace is making heaven on earth wherever we are. And as Christians, this is our mission in life. At this time of year, especially, we cultivate ways to establish peace. We remember the birth of Jesus into the world, who is called Prince of Peace.
The ways of peace, of reconciliation, of conflict resolution—these are the ways of God. While the commandment is phrased negatively—“Thou shalt not”—it is saying positively, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” It is godly to live in peace one with another. And it is also much more pleasant to live in peace than it is to live in anger and resentment. So let us do ourselves a favor as we live out God’s commands. Let us be peacemakers and live in love toward our neighbors. Then we are children of God.

PRAYER

Lord, may we walk in peace with our brothers and sisters. We ask that you give us patience and forbearance. For in this world, we do meet with hurtful words and actions. May our response not be one of anger and rage and revenge. May we learn from your example to turn the other cheek. May we follow your example and be the blessed peacemakers who are your children. May we not meditate on our neighbor’s shortcomings but on their good points. May we seek not to remove the speck from our neighbor’s eye, but the beam from our own. Thus may we be truly called by your name, and bring heaven to earth through our hearts and actions.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help nations that are suffering from natural disasters or internal strife.

Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

Degrees of Parenthood
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 8, 2013

Genesis 17:1-8, 15-22 Matthew 10:34-39 Psalm 103

The fourth commandment is, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” On the first level of meaning, this commandment tells us to respect our parents. On the second level of meaning, it tells us to respect the church as our spiritual mother. And on the deepest level it tells us to revere God, who is Father to us all.
And then I have selected a problematic passage from the New Testament that seems to fly in the face of the fourth commandment. Jesus tells us to turn from our parents and our homes,
I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; (Matthew 10:35-37).
I think that if we look at these two passages developmentally, we can find a resolution to them both. Also, when we consider the deeper meanings of the fourth commandment, we will see that they cohere together beautifully.

We are told to honor our parents, for they have given us all we knew as children. They have fed us, clothed us, and taught us to be good citizens. While no human is without weaknesses, our parents have done the best they knew to give us all they could. Our early feelings of love were from our parents. Before we set out to make our way in the world, we had the unconditional love of a home that cared for us as special beings. As the wife in a Robert Frost poem says about home and family, “I should have called it/Something you somehow haven’t to deserve” (The Death of the Hired Man). We don’t have to deserve our parents’ love and support. They give it to us because we are their children. And we never outgrow our status as children in the eyes of our parents. Even adult children are loved as they were when young.
But we do grow up and leave our homes and family. We become our own persons and now we are in a world in which it seems we do have to deserve the love and respect we know. We may see that the world is different from the way we saw things as children. As we become adults, we examine our lives and see if the way we were brought up is the best way to live.
This is where I see the New Testament passage coming into play. We come to see God as our true parent. And we see that God is to be loved above all. This means that we shine a light on our lives from what we know of God’s ways. And we see where amendments need to be made in our lives. This is what loving God above all means. It means that our family life may limit our potential if we don’t grow beyond what we learned as children. There is another poem by Frost that illustrates this idea. The poet meets with his neighbor once a year to build a wall between the two of them. They have a stone wall that separates their properties. Over the course of the year, stones fall out of place and the two meet to put the wall between them back together. But the ironic thing about this wall is that the poet’s property is all orchard, and his neighbor’s is all pine. The wall serves no purpose! There are no cattle or animals that would roam into the others’ property. But the poet’s neighbor has a saying that he inherited from his father, “Good fences make good neighbors.” He holds this saying uncritically. He doesn’t look for why good fences make good neighbors. And, as we have seen, in this case, a wall makes no sense. Holding a stone in each hand, the neighbor seems to Frost, “like an old-stone savage armed.” Since his neighbor lives uncritically, Frost sees him moving
in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Do we have the courage and the insight to go past what we have learned from our home life if we see that there are other ways to live? I think that living critically, and examining our lives are necessary steps in growing up. In my own life, for one reason or another, I was brought up arguing. I could almost always see a contrary way of looking at something and almost instinctively would open up an argument when a subject was brought up–in fact, when any simple assertion or statement was made. There were benefits to this habit. I joined the debate team in high school and lost only one debate the whole semester. And in school, when we needed a topic for a paper, having an argumentative disposition gave me things to write about as I would question readings that had been assigned. But there was also a down side. In certainly inhibited my social life. Many people don’t like to be argued with. Continually debating and contradicting others didn’t endear me to many people. I managed to isolate myself from others. But in a 12-step program, I learned that there were other ways of living. I learned that I didn’t have to debate and argue all the time. I remember one very wise person asking me, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?” And as I relaxed my argumentative nature, I learned to live and let live. Now I am Vice President of a wonderful organization in which 13 different faith traditions all work together to find peace, justice, and education with one another, and to promote such aims in culture. Where would I be if I still tried to impose my beliefs on others and tried to convince them of my way?
Jesus’ sayings are even stronger than the way I have been presenting them so far. He says, “A man’s foes will be those of his own household.” This is saying that our household is even a foe, an enemy. Here we are entering the idea of what Swedenborg calls hereditary evil. Swedenborg claims that we inherit from our parents tendencies to evil. But we need to be clear that these are only tendencies. If we act on these tendencies, then we acquire actual evil. Some of these evils are necessary in our upbringing. Consider self, for instance. It is part of growing up to become our own person and to make decisions about good and bad from our own lights. It is part of growing up to look out for our own interests and to provide for ourselves. Otherwise, we would be a burden on society. So self-interest is a necessary step in human development. But if self-interest grows too large in our characters, to the point where we will run roughshod over others in order to get what we want, then self-interest becomes a problem. In fact it becomes destructive self-love. Then self-interest becomes our foe, our enemy. In this way, healthy traits from our natural upbringing can grow into our foe. Then, we need to become militant against our natural tendencies. Now, we see that we need to set ourselves against ourselves and our upbringing:
I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:35-37)
So we may need to become militant against the familiar ways of acting that we may have grown into. This is one meaning of Jesus’ words, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). We lose our lives for Jesus’ sake when we lose the evils we have acquired and let God and His goodness into our lives.
It is the church as our spiritual mother that provides the nurture and instruction to guide us into God’s kingdom and God’s ways. So as our spiritual mother, we respect our church. Our church has taught us the ways of God, and the church is a loving community that supports us as we walk our own path toward heaven. We see how all the commandments cohere beautifully. We honor the Sabbath when we honor our church. We hold no other gods before the One True God as we look to godliness and fearlessly reform our lives in the light we see from God. This is loving God above our mothers and fathers and honoring His name.
So the first four commandments all have God at their heart. Swedenborg tells us that the first commandments all refer to God and the second group of commandments all have the neighbor at their heart. This talk concludes the commands that center on God. Next week we begin the commandments that relate to our neighbor.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks for all the loving memories we have of our parents and our home life. Our parents have taught us about love and about citizenship in this world. We know, Lord, that the early feelings of love we had in childhood remain with us and are your special dwelling in our hearts. And we give you thanks for our church. As we come of age, our church is as our spiritual mother. Our church nurtures us while we grow spiritually. Our church teaches us about being angels in your world. And Lord, we thank you for your love and nurturing of us. For you are our heavenly Father, and we are all your children. Help us to see one another as brothers and sisters under your protective wing.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help nations that are suffering from natural disasters or internal strife.

Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

Sanctifying a Day
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 1, 2013

Isaiah 56:1-2, 6-8 Mark 2:23-28 Psalm 92

The third commandment is, “Honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is the Sabbath to the Lord your God.” In Hebrew, the word Sabbath means to rest. There is a level of meaning to this commandment that relates to this world, and one that relates to the spiritual world. Without its inner meaning, or spiritual meaning, it would perhaps be hard to see this commandment as holy. I interpret this commandment in two ways, taking into account this world and the next. First, make time for rest. Second, make time for God.
From the worldly point of view, this commandment says that we need to set one day aside for rest from work. And I think that our society really needs to take this commandment seriously. So many in our society work 7 days a week. They don’t even take one day off. The excuse is that they need the extra money just to make ends meet. So the Sabbath is forgotten, buried under the frenetic work schedule of so many today. I don’t think that this is healthy. Surely a person who goes and goes and goes will sooner or later break down and get sick. I think that God has us all in mind when He tells us to set one day apart as a day of rest. After all, Jesus says that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). We need a down day so we can recharge, relax, and find peace in a chaotic world.
Then there are the spiritual needs for the Sabbath. We need a day to spend with family and friends. We lose these spiritual treasures when we don’t take a day of rest—a Sabbath. And we need a day devoted to God, in a society that craves all our attention.
Some people do take one day off and try to cram all their chores into that one day—mowing the lawn or shovelling snow, grocery shopping, housekeeping, laundry, and all the other chores that work keeps a person from. Although on the positive side, many take that one day to sleep in and actually take a modicum of rest they so dearly need. That day of sleeping in and whirlwind catching up usually is on Sunday. Even taking one day off can crowd God out.
I ask, does a person need that much money? I think it’s really a matter of whether that one day of rest is valued. This gets us back to the very first commandment. No other gods before Me. There are so many worldly things that people think that they need that the Sabbath is buried. Do we need that expensive auto? Do we need that big house? Do we need those designer clothes? Do we need sumptuous food? These are the kinds of things that drive us to work and work and work to make ends meet. The question is whether those things matter more than our mental and bodily health. The question is whether they matter more than getting a personal life. For a person whose life is all work can’t really be said to have a life. I think of that sickness called workaholic. A workaholic is sub-consciously pushing away the personal things in life like loving, friends, and relationships. It is a fear-driven life and now we have a term from psychology that labels it as a sickness.
So it is no wonder that church attendance is dwindling. People’s lives are just too busy, among other reasons. The time that used to be reserved for God is eaten up by the demands of the world. For the Sabbath day is not just rest from work. It is a holy day on which a person learns about God and God’s kingdom, and meditates on the eternal things that really matter in life. On the natural level—that is, the level that relates to this natural world—we need a day to rest from work. But on the spiritual level, we need a day off work to meditate on God and to show our love to the neighbor. We need a holy day to fill our hearts with God’s Spirit in order to go back into the world with a spiritual disposition. For that spiritual disposition can easily wear thin and even wear out when our only thought is the demands of worldly life. All these considerations are contained in the first level of meaning for this commandment.
The higher levels of the third commandment are concerned with spiritual labor and spiritual rest. We struggle with spiritual temptations in this life as we regenerate. Our spiritual growth actually happens through struggle as we put off our cravings for selfish satisfactions and open our hearts to share with our neighbor and to do good out of love for God. While we are in this world, we are influenced by the spiritual world. We have those moments when we feel the angels near us with their peace and profound joy. But we also have moments when hell tries to drag us down from our heavenly reveries into fear and concern only for what the world can give us—prestige, wealth, and power. Swedenborg tells us that
The Divine Providence . . . continually leads unto salvation, and this through various states, sometimes glad, sometimes sorrowful, which the man cannot possibly comprehend; but still they are all profitable to his eternal life (AC 8560).
As we walk our spiritual pilgrimage, as we contend against unhealthy drives we are in the six days of spiritual labor. Paul has described this spiritual labor so well in Romans 7:
I do not understand what I do. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. . . . For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil that I do not want to do–this is what I keep on doing (Romans 7:12, 15, 18-19).
But the third commandment is all about the Sabbath and rest. There will be a day of rest, when the conflict we know will come to an end. This state of mind is called being regenerated. Then hell falls away, and angels surround us with their comfort, love, and peace. Now God is in our hearts for good. And we now have peace and rest from conflict and struggle. This state of being regenerated is what the Sabbath stands for.
We find the stages of spiritual growth described in Swedenborg’s commentary on the seven days of creation. There we see that the world was created in six days. God rested on the seventh day and made it holy. The creation story is a metaphor for our spiritual regeneration. We are reformed for the six days of creation. Each day represents a new stage in our progress. On the seventh day, our work of reformation is over and we have the eternal peace that comes with union with God. In this we come to the final level of meaning for the third commandment. The Sabbath in the highest sense is union with God. When our struggle is over, we are united with God forever. The union of God with humans and of humans with God is two ways. God always comes to us. But we vacillate in our relationship with God. As we live we are now closer, now further in our own relationship with God. All relationships are two-way. You can say that God is always loving us. But we need to return that love in order for the bond to be full. When we are of fixed purpose and when God reigns in our hearts and when there is no longer trial and turmoil stirred up from hell, then we are in the Sabbath day.
This is why the Sabbath is holy. It is because ultimately it stands for God and for our union with God. This is the whole goal of salvation–of creation itself, in fact. God created humans so that there would be a heaven from the human race. God wants everyone to be in a love relationship with Himself, which is what heaven is. And when we are all-in, in that love relationship we are at peace—the kind of peace only God and the angels can give us.
This is the whole of religion. And it means more than taking one day off work to go to church. But taking that one day to reflect on God’s grace, and to meditate on our path is a step in the right direction. God has many ways to bring us to Him. And God knows our hearts better than we do ourselves. It may be possible for a person consumed with work to find peace in their day-to-day lives. I just cannot imagine it. But I can say that taking one day and making it holy is a good way to live. It is a commandment. And it coheres beautifully with the first two commandments. No other gods means setting time aside for God. Not taking the Lord’s name in vain means making the Sabbath important in our lives. I think this society needs to take the third commandment seriously, and give ourselves a break.

PRAYER

Lord, our hearts and minds go out to you on this Sabbath day. As you have commanded, we come together to worship you on one sacred day which is devoted to you. We pray that you lift our thoughts to you and fill us with love for you as we love our neighbor. Lord, we work hard in this world. And this world demands much of us. But it is your will that one day be set aside for rest. And one day be set aside for you. Bless our Sabbath, Lord, this day. And we ask that you bless this church, where we all gather to uphold the Sabbath that you have commanded. We thank you for this place of worship, and for this congregation who have all gathered together in your name to uphold your Sabbath day.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help those nations who are enduring hardship.

Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 24, 2013

1 Kings 8:27-30, 41-43 John 17:1-13 Psalm 87

This Sunday we continue to delve deep into the Ten Commandments. Swedenborg tells us that the Ten Commandments are the sum total of all that religion teaches. He writes,
they were in brief summary an aggregate of all things of religion, by which conjunction of God with man and of man with God is given, therefore they were so holy that there is nothing holier (TCR 283).
Swedenborg claims that this is the way the Jews have felt about them, and continue to feel about them. In True Christian Religion, Swedenborg asserts that “In the Israelitish Church the Decalogue was holiness itself” (283). Last Sunday we considered the first commandment, “No other gods before Me.” This Sunday we look at the second commandment, “You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.” As with all the commandments, there are three levels of meaning to this commandment.
The first level of meaning is in the very words themselves, as we find them in the Bible. It tells us not to use the name of God lightly or frivolously. And I think that this commandment is easy to violate. I say further that it is violated all the time.
It doesn’t seem as bad to violate this commandment. It is only words, isn’t it? When you measure using the Lord’s name in vain against other commandments like murder or theft or adultery, it just doesn’t seem as bad.
So we hear all kinds of abuses, almost every day. I don’t even mean that obscenity by which one damns someone or something using God’s name. The name God is used so often that there is even a text-messaging abbreviation that people use, OMG. This expression is used all the time for nothing greater than a form of exclamation. Then in casual conversation when one is trying to emphasize their truthfulness they will swear by God’s name. The name Jesus is also commonly abused. It is used in moments of anger, frustration, and almost any time a person is upset.
But damage is done by casually using God’s name. There is a real power in the name of God. When spoken reverently, God’s name brings God’s presence. Swedenborg writes, “God is in all things of religion; and when He is religiously invoked, He is present through His name and hears” (TCR 297). God’s name and the name Jesus must be reserved for religious purposes. If one keeps God’s name sacred, and uses it only for holy purposes, then God’s presence will accompany His name. We affirm this every time we say the Lord’s prayer. We say, “Hallowed be thy Name.” But when we use God’s name casually, when we are not intending to invoke God, then there is a certain callousness about His Name. It loses its power to bring God’s presence when we use it for all sorts of other purposes that are not holy.
I should say a few words about God’s presence in His Name. Of course God is present with everyone all the time. But it is we who let our consciousness and our heart stray from God’s presence and ways. We can fill our minds and intentions with selfish concerns that cloud over the clear light and heat of God in us. So it takes different kinds of disciplines to bring our consciousness and heart back to God. That is why there are buildings like this one. Here, we can still–even if for only one hour–let go of our worldly needs and cravings and open ourselves up to God’s influx. Of course, it is better if we can always walk with God in our day-to-day living. But that may be asking a lot of us while we are here in this world.
This brings us to a second level of meaning for God’s name. By God’s name we also mean “all that the church teaches from the Word, and by which the Lord is invoked and worshipped” (TCR 298). So as I was suggesting above, this building and the images and furnishings in it, as well as the service that we all go through each Sunday–all these things are meant by God’s name. It also means the ideas and doctrines we have learned. It means the Bible and the teachings and stories in it. These all come from or relate to God. They are the ways we come to God. So they are all included in His name.
The idea that the whole religious complex is included in God’s name can be seen in our reading from 1 Kings. Solomon is praying about the temple that had just been built in Jerusalem. Solomon says of the temple that God’s Name dwells there. Notice the language in this. He is not saying that this temple is named after Yahweh. No. Solomon says that God’s name lives there. What can it mean for a name to live somewhere? Wouldn’t it be that all the name represents and stands for is what is living in the place? Also, wouldn’t it be that the person named would live there? So the temple is a structure in which God’s qualities are invoked and in which God’s presence is sought.
The notion that all the elements of religion are contained in God’s name may be the origin of some of the tendencies of fundamentalism. If the teachings that a person has learned about God are like God’s name, then there is a tendency to hang onto them tenaciously and guard against their violation or contradiction. But how will a person grow in their faith, if one closes one’s mind to any new or challenging ideas? Our faith is perfected by the multitude and inner coherence of all we know about God. As we grow up, it is perfectly natural to let go of religious ideas that no longer fit with life as we experience it. And our experiences and studies of other sources of meaning may add to our picture of God and His Kingdom. So we will want to hold onto truths we have learned, but we will also want to test our beliefs against experience and other systems of truth.
The highest meaning of the second commandment is controversial in Swedenborg. It has the do with God’s Divine Humanity. Swedenborg’s claim is that all who deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ violate the second commandment. I think that this teaching needs to be read in context. When Swedenborg wrote, he was in a Christian society. He was a Christian writing to Christians. And in that society, I think it would be a form of blaspheme for a Christian to think Jesus a mere man, and not a God. There were atheists in that world and even learned Christians who couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea of a Man being Divine. It is much easier for a historian to see Jesus as a remarkable man, than to see Him as God. Even today, this idea causes many to stumble.
We find language of Jesus’ divinity in our reading from John. There, the name of God is used interchangeable with that of Jesus. It is said repeatedly in many ways. Jesus says, “I have manifested your name” (John 17″6). if Jesus manifests the name of God, that means that Jesus manifests all the qualities of God. Jesus claims that God has given Him God’s own Name, “Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me” (17:11-12). It is passages like this that teach Jesus’ divinity and His oneness with God. I think that for Christians, the divinity of Jesus is a central teaching, and very important.
But our world is much different than Swedenborg’s. We live in an intercultural society that includes many different world religions. Furthermore there are many in our society who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. For many of them, some of the old, bad ideas of religion have turned them off to the institution of religion altogether. I don’t think that Swedenborg means to say to believers of other world religions that they must worship Jesus. Nor do I think Swedenborg is saying that spirituality without religion is damnable. A person has so many options to choose from today. One may find the mystical poetry of the Muslim Rumi to be highly satisfying. One may find that the Buddhist world view of self-perfection to be satisfying. Or one may want to invoke one of the semi-divine Buddhist savior bodhisattvas. And by the way, I know of a Buddhist guru who teaches that Jesus was one of these savior bodhisattvas. There are many ways to practice spirituality today. I choose Christianity. I think it to be true. But at the same time, I allow for others to worship in the way that seems best for them.
So let us keep the ways we worship close to our hearts. Let us guard against the easy slips, that violate the second commandment by using God’s name lightly. Let us meditate and worship using God’s name, or Names, reserving the holiest place in our hearts for them.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, you have given us 10 clear rules to follow in order to inherit eternal life. Keep us ever mindful of them as we seek to order our lives according to your 10 commandments. Lord, keep us in your name, for all we know of goodness and truth are in your most holy name. Your name stands for everything that pertains to religion and all of religion is in your holy name. May we treasure your name and keep it close to our hearts. let us not use your name lightly, for when we need you we will call you by your most holy name. We ask you blessing on this church. For it is here that we come to forget the demands of this world and to lift our thoughts upward toward you. May we love this place of worship and may we treasure your holy name. For by both do we come to you and you come to us.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. We ask you to continue to watch over those in the Philippines who have been so devastated by the typhoon. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help the survivors of that terrible catastrophe.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

All the Law and the Prophets
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 17, 2013

Exodus 20:1-21 Luke 10:25-28 Psalm 119

Today I would like to consider the catechism. Formally speaking, a catechism is a compilation of knowledge about spirituality that a person needs to know to be confirmed into a church. In the Catholic Church one needs to attend confirmation class and be taught the catechism in order to be confirmed. The catechism for this is a set of questions that the priest asks and the initiate needs to answer them to be confirmed into the church. Some of our older children’s hymnals had a catechism in them. But Swedenborg himself only identified one set of propositions for the catechism of the New Church. In his book True Christian Religion, Swedenborg identifies the Ten Commandments as the catechism for the New Church. So for this Sunday I will be looking at the Ten Commandments.
Swedenborg tells us that the Ten Commandments are the sum total of all that religion teaches. He writes,
they were in brief summary an aggregate of all things of religion, by which conjunction of God with man and of man with God is given, therefore they were so holy that there is nothing holier (TCR 283).
He divides the Ten Commandments into two tablets–one tablet contains commands that relate to love of God, and the other contains commands that relate to love of the neighbor. We heard in our Luke reading that all the law comes down to love of God and love of the neighbor. Since the Ten Commandments contain a list telling us how to put into practice these two commands, they contain the whole essence of all the law and the prophets. By the law and the prophets are meant the whole Bible. So Swedenborg holds that the Ten Commandments contain all that is of doctrines and life.
Now because love to God and love toward the neighbor are the all of the Word, and the Decalogue in the first tablet contains a summary of all things of love to God, and in the second table all things of love toward the neighbor, it follows that the Decalogue contains all things which are of doctrine and of life (TCR 287).
This is a grand claim. And from a literal reading of the Ten Commandments it may not look like they contain “all things which are of doctrine and life.” But in Swedenborg’s Bible interpretation, there are three levels of meaning. There is the literal level–which is the text taken at face value. But there are also two internal levels of meaning. There is the spiritual level which relates to the church. And there is the celestial level which relates to God. When considered in its fullness–when all three levels are considered–one can see that the Ten Commandments contain all the law and the prophets. This Sunday we will consider the first commandment.
The First commandments is: “You shall have no other gods before me.” On the literal level, this command forbids idolatry. Today, I know of no one who worships a figure carved out of wood or stone, as they did in the time of Moses. But this commandment also forbids the worship of any human as a god. As a child of the Reformation, Swedenborg took issue with the veneration of saints. For him, the saints were humans–albeit very, very good humans–but humans nevertheless. They may be excellent models of life to follow, but to hold that they have some special spiritual power and can intercede for us between God and man would be a violation of the first commandment for Swedenborg. I recently visited a Coptic Orthodox church. There were many icons there and the smell of incense and vivid colors. I don’t think I could be brought to venerate the martyrs and saints as part of my worship, but I did respect their piety and I found their beautiful worship space enticing. Then there are some who value humans in another way. A friend of mine said to me once that everything he needed in life could be found in the works of William Shakespeare. The man Shakespeare became a god for him, and Shakespeare’s work his sacred text. This is a form of idolatry. Finally, anything a person values above God is a form of idolatry. This is a very real issue in our world today. If a person values money and what money can bring above all things, then he is holding money up as a god. This can lead to all kinds of evil. When the unbridled lust for wealth is given free reign, humanity can be trampled over heedlessly. Our media also portray images that they would like us to take for gods. I think of rock stars who have so much promotion, wild videos, and light and stage effects that make them appear greater than human. Then there are all those commercial products who are held up as godlike, like anti-aging lotions, certain colognes who promise a new world order if you use them, and even automobiles who will transform your world if you drive them.
In the internal meanings of this commandment, Swedenborg becomes doctrinal in a way that doesn’t appear in other of his writings. In fact, he seems to change his mind even in his consideration of other commandments. In the spiritual and celestial levels, Swedenborg claims that Jesus alone is to be worshipped as God incarnate. As he puts it, “the Lord our Savior is Jehovah Himself, who is at once Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator” (TCR 294). All who acknowledge and worship any other God than the Lord the Savior Jesus Christ, who is Himself Jehovah God in human form, sin against this commandment” (TCR 295). Swedenborg then goes on to argue against the doctrine of the Trinity.
This narrow view of who God is doesn’t gibe with Swedenborg’s liberal attitude in other places in his writings. In discussing the same commandment, Swedenborg opens up his description of God to a more general characteristic:
Jehovah the Lord is infinite, immeasurable, and eternal; He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End; who was, is, and will be; He is love itself, and wisdom itself, or good itself and truth itself; consequently, life itself; thus the only One, from whom are all things (TCR 295).
Seeing God as “the only One, from whom are all things” is a pretty broad understanding of God. And in fact, when Swedenborg discusses the command to honor one’s father and mother, he applies this command to the whole community of saints spread all over the world. He writes, “In the celestial sense, by father is meant our Lord Jesus Christ; and by mother, the communion of saints, that is, His church, spread all over the world” (TCR 307). I take this to mean that Swedenborg affirms all who worship God according to the teachings of their church. This would include all the world religions. He goes on to speak about God as father in extremely inclusive language.
It is to be kept in mind that there continually proceeds from the Lord a Divine celestial sphere of love toward all who embrace the teachings of His church, and who obey Him as little children in the world obey their father and mother, apply themselves to Him, and wish to be nourished, that is, instructed by Him (TCR 308).
Clearly, Swedenborg isn’t referring here only to Christians in Europe and Christian missionaries in other parts of the world. And we also know that Swedenborg holds up the Africans in particular as being especially favored in heaven. In Heaven and Hell we find, “Among the Gentiles in heaven, the Africans are most beloved, for they receive the goods and truths of heaven more easily than others” (326). The celestial sphere proceeding from the Lord reaches even into nature, where the sun is called father and the earth mother:
This is most universal, and affects not only men, but also birds and animals, even to serpents; nor animate things only, but also inanimate. But that the Lord might operate into these, even as into spiritual things, He created the sun, to be in the natural world as a father, and the earth to be as a mother. For the sun is as a common father, and the earth as a common mother, from whose marriage arises all the germination that adorns the surface of our planet. From the influx of that celestial sphere into the natural world arise the wonderful progression of vegetation, from seed to fruit and to new seed. It is from this also, that many kinds of plants turn as it were their faces to the sun during the day, and turn them away when the sun sets; it is from this also that there are flowers which open at the rising of the sun, and close at his setting; and from this it is that song birds carol sweetly at early dawn, and likewise after they have been fed by their mother earth (TCR 308).
We see here an early articulation of the kind of reverence for mother earth as a holy creation that is popular today. This reverence was illustrated fantastically in the movie Avatar. And it seems to me from these passages, that Swedenborg is affirming God’s outpouring of holiness into the whole world and everyone in it.
What I take from the first commandment is reverence for God as God is seen all over the world. For me, God is indeed the risen and glorified Jesus Christ. But it isn’t Christians alone who “wish to be nourished, that is, instructed by Him” (TCR 308). We have many different religions in the world and many different names for God. But there is still only one God. And whether we find God in a Catholic church, or a United Church, or in a synagogue, or a mosque, we will find the same one God who is Father to us all.
This commandment urges us to hold God sacred and God alone. Though society may offer us seductive alternatives in the form of man-made inventions–including the economic structure of the world economy–we need to remember that a loving God is at the centre of everything. No other gods before the one true God. Not ourselves, not money, not prestige, not power;–no other gods. And for us, this God is all love married to all wisdom.

PRAYER

And Lord, we pray to you as our One True God. Many are the temptations that the world presents to us that would lure us away from you. Wealth and control seek to become gods in our lives, and they threaten our relations with our neighbors. But You are the One true God, and our lives and worship are directed to You alone. You have shown us the way to live in order to become your children. You have given us 10 clear commands to guide us. And you have also shown us two great commands to which we can orient our lives. Lord, You are the One we love, we follow and we worship. Thanks be to You.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. We especially ask you to watch over those in the Philippines who have been so devastated by the typhoon. May aid come to those in need and may all the nations of the world come together in good will to help the survivors of that terrible catastrophe.

And lord, we ask that you watch over those who are struggling and enduring hardship, be it sickness, poverty, or national unrest. Send your peaceful spirit to turmoil. Send the power of your healing love to those who are sick. We know on faith that in every trying situation, good can come. May we find the good in trouble, and healing where there is sickness.

First Be Reconciled
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 10, 2013

Joshua 6:15-21 Matthew 5:21-26 Psalm 37

I recall an incident from when I was living in Florida. I lived in a mobile home in a nice trailer park. A hurricane had come through and blown down my car port, and I was having a hard time finding a construction company that would come out and fix it. I guess it was too small a job for them to be bothered. But that wasn’t all. I had let the grounds around my mobile home become somewhat unkempt. Furthermore, my mobile home needed to be pressure cleaned, and maybe painted. Although it was a trailer park, they had standards. Well finally, the management sent me a letter threatening legal proceedings–including possible eviction–if I didn’t clean up my lot. Eviction was an interesting threat. I owned my mobile home, and eviction meant somehow moving it somewhere else–where else and how, I couldn’t imagine.
My first reaction was to go to some friends of mine to see if the management had a legal right to do what they threatened to do. I had someone look over the terms of my lease. But more importantly, I had a friend who was a lawyer. I had him look over the letter the management had sent me. He told me something I didn’t want to hear. He told me to go in person and talk with the property manager and try to understand what they would settle for or what kind of time table I had. In short, my lawyer friend wanted me to meet face to face and settle things amicably. I asked him if the letter they sent me would hold up in court. My friend came back with his original suggestion that I talk with the management. When I pressed him further, he exclaimed in a loud voice, “Dave, this is counsel!” What he meant by that was that he had just given me real legal advice and I had best take it. He had made a very good living handling personal grievances as a lawyer. I figured I should take his advice and swallow the bitter pill. I had to reconcile myself with my adversary when I wanted to fight.
This is the message we heard from the New Testament. In our reading from Mark, we are told to work things out with our neighbor. Jesus told the Jews of His time not to offer a sacrifice in the temple if our neighbor had something against us. The temple sacrifice wouldn’t mean anything if it came from a heart filled with resentment or anger. Jesus taught further, that one should reconcile with one’s neighbor when one is on the way to the law courts. All these teachings are in a section that begins with a teaching against anger against the neighbor.
This is a teaching of peace. But it is, perhaps, a hard teaching. This teaching means that we are to face the one we have a beef with, or who has a beef against us. It means confrontation. And sometimes confrontation is hard; it is something we would rather avoid.
But those in the legal profession, the police force, and even in government favor this policy. Lawyers will counsel one to settle outside of court, as trials are difficult, costly, and uncertain. When one calls the police to complain about a neighbor, they will ask us to try to work it out between the two parties. Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.
But when there is no other option, then the use courts, police intervention, or armed conflict appear to be necessary. But this is only a last resort. It is only justified when all negotiation and sanctions have failed. Armed conflict is not God’s will. We heard about holy war in today’s reading from Joshua about the fall of Jericho. This is one of the earliest references to “jihad.” The passage in Joshua calls this devoting the city to God. And by devoting the city to God, the meaning is that Israelites kill everything in the city.
They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it–men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys (Joshua 6:21).
But there are some interesting things about this jihad that we need to consider. First of all, we do not find God ordering the Israelites to kill everything in the city. We don’t find this jihad commanded by God. The Bible only says, “They devoted the city to the LORD.” This is consistent with the idea that it was the Israelites themselves who declared jihad on Jericho, not God. This idea finds support from a passage earlier in the Jericho story. Before the battle with Jericho, Joshua meets an angel of God. Joshua tries to see whose side the angel is on, but the angel says he is on no one’s side.
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come” (Joshua 5:13-14).
The angel of God is not on anyone’s side. I take this to mean that God does not will that there be wars. Swedenborg writes,
It is not because of divine providence that wars happen, because wars are inseparable from murder, plunder, violence, cruelty, and other appalling evils that are diametrically opposed to Christian caring (DP 251).
Wars and other forms of violence are not God’s will. But God does allow them to happen. So Swedenborg writes, “Saying that God allows something to happen does not mean that he wants it to happen” (DP 234).
Each one of us is capable of the kind of violence that would lead to war. I say we are capable of it, not that we act or feel like acting on violent impulses. For the process of regeneration can make each of us meek and forgiving. But I find it interesting that Swedenborg describes greater and lesser wars–greater wars are between nations and lesser wars are between individuals.
There are lesser and greater wars, the lesser ones between property owners and their neighbors and the greater ones between the rulers of nations and their neighbors. The only difference between the lesser and the greater ones is that the lesser ones are limited by national laws and the greater ones by international laws. There is also the fact that in both cases the participants want to violate the laws, and that the lesser ones cannot, but the greater ones can, though still not beyond the bonds of possibility (DP 251).
It is a sobering idea to think that our grievances are alike to the grievances that set nation against nation. It is easy to point a finger at Iran or Syria and to exclude ourselves from the same drive to have things our own way. For that is the root of almost every resentment and grievance we could have against our neighbors: they are not doing things the way we want them to do things. We want our will to be law.
It is the desire to bend others to our will that makes our neighbors into our enemies. That desire forms the wall between us and our neighbors. Robert Frost has a poem that talks about walls between people. He talks about a certain day, when he and his neighbor meet for the sole purpose of building a wall between them–or between their properties to be specific. Yet the poet says that “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall/That wants it down.” The poem, from which I here cite a few excerpts, is called The Mending Wall:
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, . . .
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go. . . .
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down. . . .
This is such a case of irony! The two come together only to build a wall between them.
Who are we in this poem and in this discussion? Are we the ones who want the wall between people and nations down? Or are we the ones who allow our baser passions to erect a wall between us and our neighbors? Is our impulse to fight or to reconcile? Are we the blessed peacemakers? It requires humility, courage, and patience to confront an individual we may have something against, or who may have something against us. I like the tradition in Judaism that is observed during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. During that time period, one is to go to anyone whom they may have offended and ask forgiveness. The implication is that the other will forgive, but if not, then the offence falls on the other individual. This, it seems to me, is an excellent exercise in peacemaking.
It seems to me that we have few spiritual options. We don’t want to quietly burn with rage against our neighbor. We don’t want to fight. And we certainly don’t want the court system. Jesus tells us to reconcile with our neighbor before coming to worship at the temple. And he tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

PRAYER

Lord you have blessed the peacemakers, calling them the children of God. We pray this Remembrance Day Sunday for guidance and insight. Give us always to see the way of peace when we find ourselves in conflict. You have commended the way of reconciliation for us, when we find ourselves in conflict with our neighbor. For we acknowledge that there are conflicts in our lives–greater conflicts between nations and lesser conflicts between neighbors. May we urge our nations always to seek the way of resolution and peace, rather than the way of armed conflict. And in our relations with our neighbors, may we seek peace and not retaliation, resentment, or ill will. Yet we know that sometimes the way of peace is not heeded. We know that there are times when our words of peace need support from armed power. This Sunday we honor those who have served in wars and who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. For their efforts were necessary to ensure the peace for the greatest number in the long run. We ask that you comfort their families, friends, and loved ones. We ask for your special care for those returning from wars. Help mend their troubled minds and show them the way back to civil life. May we welcome our service men and women when they return home, after such a great sacrifice for us and our nation. And Lord, we ask for you to watch over our world, and to lead us all into goodness and peace.