Church of the Holy City

The Voice of God

The Voice of God
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 15, 2011

Genesis 1:1-5 Mark 1:4-13 Psalm 29

There is a wonderful coherence in the two Bible passages we heard this morning. The controlling metaphor is the voice of God. In the beginning of the creation story, light is created when God speaks the words, “Let there be light.” In our New Testament story, when Jesus is baptized the heaven are torn open and God’s voice speaks, saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Both of these passages treat the new creation of a person, or, in other words, a person’s regeneration.
The whole creation story in Genesis is about the stages a person goes through as he or she is formed into an angel. For us, the creation story is not about how the physical world came into being. It is now scientific fact that the world is billions of years old, and could not have been created in seven days. In our understanding of the Bible, this is not a problem. We do not think of the creation story as a history of how the world came into being. We understand the creation story symbolically. The imagery in the seven days of creation represent aspects of a person’s regeneration. And in our reading this morning, we heard about the first light that God created. This light, in general, is the very beginning of a person’s regeneration. It is when a person realizes that there is more to life than what the world can offer us. The first light is when it dawns on a person that there are higher things to strive for than what the world has to offer. It is when a person takes seriously spiritual realities. It is when we begin to think about being loving, rather than acquiring wealth, status, and power. So Swedenborg writes, “The first step is when a person begins to know that good and truth are something higher” (AC 20). So the first day of creation is when a person begins his or her spiritual journey. The light of the first day is when we realize that there is a God and that God is the source of every good thing.
Baptism also symbolizes regeneration. And this morning we heard about the baptism of Jesus. The water of baptism symbolized the spiritual cleansing that regeneration is. Regeneration is a process whereby what is spiritually impure is cleansed from our souls and we are filled with the pure love and wisdom that comes from God. So regeneration is indeed a spiritual washing. Seen from the perspective of regeneration, our Bible readings both point to the process of spiritual rebirth.
In both readings, we are dealing with a process. When the first words of God are spoken, “Let there be light,” what follows is the whole process of regeneration. So when the light dawns, it is a beginning of the work of spiritual regeneration. So, too, when Jesus is baptised, the heavens open and God speaks of His love for Jesus. This is a moment of connection between Jesus and His higher Self who is called the Father. But as with the creation story, Jesus’ baptism is not the end of His spiritual journey to save us. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism he goes into the wilderness and is tempted by the devil.
So these readings point to processes. Even though the first day of creation is the beginning of regeneration, it is also a beginning that happens again and again over a person’s life and into eternity. When Swedenborg talks about regeneration in his interpretation of Genesis 1, he talks about two processes. First, the light of the first day is the beginning of regeneration. It is when a person realizes that there is more to life than the goods of this world. But then, Swedenborg says some intriguing things. He indicates that the first day is a continuing process. The first day is not just a hoop we jump through on our way to the 7th day. It is with us all our lives. We are continually evolving in our spiritual development. And so we are continually coming into brighter and brighter light. This means that we are always moving from relative shade into relative brightness. We are always living through God’s words, “Let there be light,” because God is continually enlightening us. So throughout our lives, there is evening and there is morning, a new day. Swedenborg describes this process,
Evening is every preceding state, because it is a state of shade, or of falsity and no faith. Morning is every succeeding state, because it is a state of light, or of truth, and of knowledges of faith (AC 22).
It is he voice of God that moves us into greater light. The voice of God means the truths that shine light on our path. Some of these truths we acquire externally. That is, by reading, by conversation, by the arts and literature, or by experience. But we also discover truths internally. We can perceive within our minds and hearts what is good for us. This is the voice of God speaking to us through the heavens. It is also God coming to us through His Divine Human. Swedenborg writes,
they who are in good and thence in truth, and especially they who are in the good of love to the Lord, have revelation from perception; . . . Angels, especially the celestial, have revelation from perception, as also had the people of the Most Ancient Church, . . . For genuine perception comes through heaven from the Lord, and affects the intellect spiritually, and leads it perceptibly to think as the thing really is, with an internal assent, the source of which it is ignorant of. It supposes that it is in itself, and that it flows from the connection of things; whereas it is a dictate through heaven from the Lord, flowing into the interiors of the thought, concerning such things as are above the natural and sensual, that is, concerning such things as are of the spiritual world or of heaven (AC 5121).
Now this is a difficult and clumsily written passage. But what I take from it is that they who are in good discover truths intuitively. We think about things as they really are and when we are on the right track, there is an inner feeling that a thing is so. This inner voice may be a truth that we heard a long time ago, but had no meaning for us at the time. But when the time is right in our spiritual journey, this truth suddenly becomes filled with meaning and power and comes alive. We say, “So that’s what that statement means!” I think that this is one of the things meant by the inner perception of truth.
Another way to consider this is that we will feel that a certain aspect of our lives is a failing or wrong, or maladaptive. We realize that coping skills we have been living with are no longer useful in our lives. They are getting in the way of healthier ways of living. Of more loving ways of living. This is when temptations come in. When we feel that something we had previously enjoyed is a debased pleasure, our inner voice tells us that we need to destroy our inclination to indulge in it. Removing debased pleasures is a long and tumultuous process. It involves struggle; it involves effort; and can cause despair. In this process, Swedenborg talks about a condition called “vastation.” I’m not aware of any other theologians who use the term vastation and we need to talk about it briefly. In fact, it is such a strange word, that my computer tells me that it is a misspelling! Vastation is also part of the first day of creation. It is a time when our former pleasures no longer please us. Or we feel the old pleasures we are trying to move past with pain and regret. We want to move beyond them, but we still cling to them as part of our life. When we are brought to a condition when the old pleasures no longer rule in our emotional life, and they are dead, then we are then vastated; our old feeling are laid waste. Vastations make me think about something my grandmother told me once. She said, “When you get older you find out you can’t have things your way so you give up trying.” I take this to mean that after banging your head against the way the world works for so long, you give in and cooperate with things more. This strikes me as a king of vastation. Your self-will is broken and you become more compliant. In my AA program they call this accepting life on life’s terms. Giving up a life based on self will to one that accommodates others is a form of vastation. This is what is meant in the creation story by the darkness that precedes light in the first day.
The same words involve, in general, the vastation of a person which precedes regeneration–of which many things are said in the prophets; for before a person can know what is true and be affected by good, the things must be removed which hinder and oppose. Thus the old man must die before the new can be conceived (AC 18).
I don’t think that this is a once-for-all process. I don’t think that we are vastated for everything all at once. I think that this process happens to us as one by one the various falsities and evils in us are separated from us and truths and good flow in in their place. Swedenborg suggest this in AC 1917,
In temptations there are vastations and desolations, and there are states of despair, and thence grief and indignation, besides other painful emotions; and this with variety and alternation, according to the states of evil and falsity which are excited by evil genii and spirits, and against which there is combat (AC 1917).
Here, Swedenborg uses the term vastation in the plural–vastations–as if there are many vastations we go through. He also says that there is variety in these processes, and that there is alternation of our states.
Through all this turmoil, God gives us hope. We know that God has all power. And our inner voice tells us that God is leading us toward the truth and into good. We have been called into spiritual combat by God’s mighty voice. This is the voice we heard about in Psalm 29 this morning.
The God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
The mighty power of God’s voice calls us into spiritual battle, gives us hope for victory, and shakes up our complacent world. This spiritual battle is what the Poet William Blake sings about in his poem Jerusalem. Blake was one of those great literati who were influenced by Swedenborg. It is clear to me that Blake means the combat of temptations and vastations when he writes the following,
Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green & pleasant Land.
I don’t think that Blake is talking only about social reform in England. He talks about arrows of desire and mental fight. The Jerusalem he means is the heavenly city brought into his own life. When we hear God’s thunderous voice, it may be a call to mental fight. But along with the struggle and turmoil that can occur in our spiritual life, there is that hope that Jerusalem will be built ultimately in the pleasant land of our soul.