Church of the Holy City

Love Makes a Person and a Church

Love Makes a Person and a Church
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 29, 2011

Mark 10:35-45 Acts 2:41-47 Psalm 66

Last Sunday I talked about the Divine Human of the Lord, and how we are made in God’s image. I said that we are human because God is human first. Today I would like to explore what exactly it means to be human.
We can think of being human by virtue of our body. That is, we have a head, arms and legs, and a torso, and that is our human form. But in fact, our body is simply a vessel that responds to our soul. Our body is made of material elements, but our soul is made of spiritual elements. And it is actually our soul that makes us human.
Simply put, our soul is what we love. We are human because we can love. In fact, we are human because of our loves. It is love that makes us human. Love is who we really are. What we love is our very life. Take away love, and we wouldn’t want to do anything. But love always strives to come into action. We want to enjoy what we love, and we want to do the things we love. So love needs some way to come into being. It needs some power to act. This is what truth is. We can think of truth as the know-how to get done what we love. Truth tells us how to bring into action what we love. Say we love someone who is short of money. When we love them, we want to help. So we ask ourselves, “How can I help them?” Truth tells us how to help them. Truth may tell us to take them shopping for food. Or it may tell us to fill up their gas tank. Or it may tell us to take them to the employment office to help them find work. This is what the early Christians did, as we heard in today’s reading from Acts. There we read, “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need” (2:45). Truth is the way love takes form. It tells us how to love. So who we are is our loves, but our loves need truth to take action. So the human form is both love and truth. So Swedenborg writes,
The human form is nothing else than the form of all the affections of love; beauty is its intelligence, which it procures for itself through truths received either by sight or by hearing, external or internal. These are what love disposes into the form of its affections; and these forms exist in great variety; but they all derive a likeness from their general form, which is the human form (DLW 411).
We can think about love a little further. There are loves in the plural–that is many things we love. And there is love in the singular–one overarching thing that we love above all. The one, overarching thing that we love above all else is called our ruling love. I may love skiing, or music, or eating. But none of these things can be considered the ruling love. These are affections that flow forth from the ruling love. They are like small streams that flow forth from one great river.
A person’s very life is his love; and such as the love is, such is the life, yes, such is the whole person. But it is the dominant or reigning love which makes the person. This love has many other loves subordinate to it, which are derivations. . . . The dominant love is as their king and head; it directs them; and through them . . . it looks to and intends its own end, which is the primary and ultimate of all (TCR 399).
We can get an idea of what we love by looking at the things that we enjoy. We enjoy doing what we love. And we don’t enjoy doing what we don’t love. So what we enjoy is a signal of what we love.
All that gives enjoyment, satisfaction, and happiness to any one, comes to him from and according to his ruling love. For a person calls that which he loves enjoyment, because he feels it (TCR 399).
So we have many different kinds of things that we love–as I mentioned in my own case, skiing, music, eating, etc. But all these enjoyments flow forth from the one reigning dominant love.
Swedenborg seems to think that there are only four basic dominant loves: Love to God and the neighbor, and love of self and the world.
There are two loves from which, as from their very fountains, all goods and truths arise; and there are two loves from which all evils and falsities arise. The two loves from which all goods and truths are, are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor; but the two loves from which are all evils and falsities, are the love of self and the love of the world (TCR 399).
These four loves are what make a person. And they are also what make the church with a person. According to Swedenborg, it is love itself that makes the church in an individual person and in church communities, and in the whole church on earth. He describes the church as internal and external. The internal of the church is like its soul; and the external of the church is like its body. The internal of the church is love to God and the neighbor and the external of the church are the rituals like the Holy Supper, Bible readings, and preachings.
Those who place divine worship in frequenting places of worship, hearing preachings, going to the Holy Supper, and he who does these things with devotion . . . are of the external church. But they who at the same time believe that such things are to be done, but still the essential of worship is the life of faith, that is, love towards the neighbor and love toward the Lord; these are of the internal church. . . . Still, with everyone who is of the church there must be both, namely, an external and an internal. If there are not both there is no spiritual life in him; for the internal is as the soul, and the external is as the body of the soul. . . . But they who are in externals and not at the same time in internals are not of the church (AC 8762).
Clearly, it is the internal that truly makes a church. In the passage we just heard, Swedenborg says, “the essential of worship is the life of faith, that is, love toward the neighbor and love toward the Lord.” He repeats this point over and over again.
The internal of the church consists in willing good from the heart, and in being affected by good . . . But the external of the church is to perform rituals in a holy manner . . . (AC 6587).
Again, “Love and the derivative faith is the internal of the church. There is no other faith meant which is the internal of the church than that which is of love or charity” (AC 1798).
These considerations bring us back to our earlier reflections on what it means to be human. Our humanity is what we love. We now see that the state of the church is also according to what a person loves. The internal of the church is the same as what makes for a heavenly person. The internal of the church is to will good from the heart and to be affected by good. And just as it is with an individual, there are the same four loves that make or destroy the church: love of the lord and the neighbor, and love of self and the world.
The two loves from which are all goods and truths, which as was said, are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, make heaven with a person, they also make the church with him. The two loves from which are all evils and falsities, which, as was said, are love of self and love of the world, make hell with a person; for they reign in hell; consequently also they destroy the church with him (TCR 399).
Swedenborg also gives illustrations of what the four loves look like. The hellish love of self looks only to what benefits one’s self:
Love of self is to wish well to one’s self only, and not to others except for the sake of self; not even to the church, one’s country, human society, or a fellow citizen; it is also to do good to them only for the sake of one’s reputation, honor, and glory . . . (TCR 400).
We saw a suggestion of self love in our Bible reading from Mark. In it, James and John, puffed up with selfish pride, ask to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus. They say, “Let us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory” (Mark 10:37). The other disciples become indignant, and Jesus mildly reprimands them,
Those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant . . . For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:42, 43, 44, 45).
By contrast, the heavenly love of God and the neighbor looks to do good to everyone–individually, and collectively in the church and in society:
Heavenly love is to love uses for the sake of uses, of good deeds for the sake of good deeds, which a person performs for the church, his country, human society, and the fellow citizen (TCR 400).
In our Bible readings, this love is illustrated by the early Christian church. Acts 2:44-47 describes the shared love of the early Christian church.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor or all the people.
This is a beautiful picture of all that the Christian church stands for. You can see the mutual love that reigned among these early Christians as they broke bread together and shared their possessions.
Just as the soul needs a body, so our loves need to fill our whole person. Our love of God and the neighbor want to come forth in good and loving deeds to the church and the world around us. When we have love of God as our reigning love, then all the lower loves–love of the world and love of self are filled with heavenly love and life. With God at the head we can love the world and ourselves in a godly manner.
If the love of heaven is inwardly in love of the world, and by this in love of self, the person does uses in each from the God of heaven. In their operation, these three loves are like will, understanding, and action. The will flows into the understanding, and there provides itself with means to produce action (TCR 394).
When we are in this condition, our heads can well be in the clouds, and our feet will still be standing on the earth. We will be a heaven individually, and a church individually.