Church of the Holy City

Doubt and Consolation

Doubt and Consolation
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 28, 2010

Genesis 15:1-20 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27

Both of this morning’s Bible passages deal with doubt. Abram had no heir and was sad that his property would revert to his servant from Damascus. He also doubted that he would take possession of the Holy Land as God had promised. In the New testament, it is not exactly doubt that we confront. But we do see a similar sorrow. Jesus is sad that the inhabitants of Jerusalem seemed to spurn the love God held out for them. This is one of those few passages where we are given a window into Jesus’ own state of mind. We see His great love for the Israelites, and his sorrow at their rejection of God. He says, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34).
In the internal sense, these two Bible passages are remarkably close. In the Abram story, Swedenborg interprets this as Jesus’ doubt about the future of the church and the human race, while He was on earth. Throughout His life, Jesus was tempted and filled with doubt and even despair. These temptations happened as the human body He took on at birth was brought closer and closer to its divine origins. All through His life, God and man were being united in one body. But this means that Jesus sometimes was in his humanity and in some distance from God, who was deep in His soul. Sometimes the way was dim for Jesus. Sometimes, He was disconnected from His divine origin. And when He was in that condition, He was tempted by all the hells. In the story of Abram, Swedenborg teaches that Jesus had doubt about the spiritual state of the human race. Swedenborg writes,
Here in the internal sense are continued the things concerning the Lord after He endured in boyhood the most severe temptations, which were against the love which he cherished toward the whole human race, and in particular toward the church; and, therefore, being anxious concerning their future state (AC 1778).
When a person is tempted, the loves that they know are twisted by the hells so that one feels doubt and despair about those things that they love. This is because the hells are continually trying to destroy humans, from a love of killing. The Lord’s love was infinite and devoted to the salvation of the whole human race, so His combats with the hells were the most profound that can be imagined. Yet we need to keep in mind that it was Jesus’ desire for the salvation for the whole human race that caused the doubt and despair He experienced. Swedenborg writes, “He was fighting for the salvation of the whole human race from pure love,” and we are told that, “He could not but conquer” (AC 1812).
According to Swedenborg, at the time of Christ, the church was in a state of external ritual, and not the heavenly love that truly makes a church alive. This caused the Lord grief, as He wills for everyone to be with Him in the highest heaven.
There are in the Lord’s kingdom those who are external, those who are interior, and those who are internal. Good spirits, who are in the first heaven, are external; angelic spirits, who are in the second heaven, are interior, and angelic spirits, who are in the third, are internal. They who are external are not so closely related or so near the Lord, as they who are interior; nor are these so closely related or so near as those who are internal. The Lord, from the Divine love or mercy, wishes to have all near to Himself; so that they would not stand at the doors, that is, in the first heaven; but He wishes them to be in the third; and, if it were possible, not only with Himself, but in Himself (AC 1799).
We see this desire to unite Himself with the whole human race in this morning’s New Testament Passage, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
But the story does not remain in despair and doubt. God promises Abram children as numerous as the stars and that he will find peace in his final days. And Abram believes this promise. And we are told that this symbolizes consolation Jesus felt that a new church would be raised up and heaven would be filled with an immensity of souls who love God and their neighbour. This is the way it is with all things in the world. There is a springtime, or a beginning, a summer, or active life, an autumn, or time of dimming life, and winter, which symbolizes the end of a day, a season, or a year. So it is with the church, or with those who love God and the neighbour. There are the early days of a church, when love is mutual and all see one another as brothers and sisters. Then people fall away from this early love. In the history of Christianity we can see this as the church became a world power and actually warred with princes and kings. We see this even more graphically in the atrocities of the Inquisition. For Swedenborg, the church was at its final stage, or winter, during his lifetime. But even as the early Christians were a ray of light and love in a troubled world, the book of Revelation, and Swedenborg’s interpretation of it promises a new church, or a new beginning for Christianity.
Will we be children like Abram, and trust in God’s promise? Or will we live in doubt and despair. There are certainly enough signs that Christianity is in a decline today. I attended a meeting of the National Council of Churches, and across denominational lines, churches are showing a weaker presence in society. Some churches are closing their doors. The only churches that are showing signs of strength are fundamentalist churches. I see all these facts as signs of a church in decline. But I have a strong belief that the new church promised in the book of Revelation will follow the decline of the old Christian Church. I had my doubts about the future of the church before I researched for this sermon. But what I came away with is the kind of consolation that Jesus received. That is, I came away with a consolation that a new church is being raised up as the old church is declining. I can even look at the present state of the church with hope. Maybe we are in a winter of the old, while a springtime of the new is emerging.
Where are we in this process? Are we the children of the spring, bringing heaven to earth? Or are we children of the winter? I remember asking one of our ministers what evidence she saw of the new church? She said, “It is all what is in the hearts of the people. It is in a person’s relationship with God.” She put the issue right on my own faith and life. The new church is right here in this building if it is in our hearts. The new church is everywhere in the world where people find a heartfelt connection with God. We can’t see any of this from the outside. We can’t look around us and see who has the Christ light in their hearts and who doesn’t.
It may look to us as if the church is losing its influence in society, as the church looked to Jesus while He was on the earth. But I take heart in the fact that infinite love wants me to be one with Him for eternity. He wants to be one with everyone. That is a power that can hardly fail, if we but do our part and turn toward God. This is a God who would gather us all under His wings as a hen does her chicks, if we are but willing. All we can do is to respond to God. Bringing the human race to Himself is God’s work. We can be a witness to God’s love in the life we lead. And to that extent we can aid God in His mission to gather the human race under His wings. But ultimately it is God who is drawing the human race to Himself. It is His concern, and, if you will, it is His worry—not ours.
This church and Christianity in general are in God’s caring hands. They are in the hands that want to bring everyone up into the highest heaven, and into intimate relationship with Himself. Are we children of doubt, or of the promise? Are we like Abram? Will we look up at the stars and believe?