Church of the Holy City

Seek the Lord and Live

Seek the Lord and Live
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 14, 2012

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 Mark 10:17-31 Psalm 22

Our readings this morning concern the issue of faith and charity, or good works and belief. This morning’s readings make it very clear that doing good matters for our eternal life. Amos says, “Seek good, and not evil, that you may live” (5:14). And in our reading from Mark, the rich man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus points him to the ten commandments,
You know the commandments: “Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.”
And when the rich man tells Jesus that he has kept the ten commandments since his youth, Jesus looks on him and loves him. This tells us that Jesus loves those who keep the ten commandments. (Of course Jesus loves everyone. But when we keep the commandments we enter into a reciprocal relationship with Jesus and the love He has for us is returned.) And Amos tells us that we will live if we seek good. Doing good matters for our eternal welfare.
Paul agrees with this teaching. He is often contradictory, but there are clear passages where Paul teaches that doing good matters in our eternal life. In Romans 2, Paul says that doing good alone will justify a person whether he is a Jew or a Greek, God will see the good, not the ethnicity of the practitioner,
He will render to every man according to his works; to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality (Romans 2:6-11).
So we have seen that Paul, Jesus, and Amos all teach that doing good matters for our spiritual welfare.
But that is not the whole story. Jesus tells the rich man something astonishing.
You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me (Mark 10: 21).
This saddens the rich man because he had great possessions. I don’t think that the idea here is giving away possessions to the poor. Indeed, Jesus would appear to be contradictory on this if that is the idea. When the sinful woman anoints Jesus with expensive perfume, the apostles are indignant with her. They think she should have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor. It may very well have looked like that was what Jesus would have wanted. But he, in turn, in indignant with the disciples,
Why do you trouble this woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me (Matthew 26:10-11).
So in one instance we have Jesus telling a rich man to sell his possessions and give to the poor and in another instance, we have Jesus telling the disciples that the woman should not sell the perfume and give the money to the poor. This looks like a contradiction. But there is one thing that both stories have in common as a controlling idea. That idea is putting Jesus first. For the rich man, it isn’t giving his riches to the poor that matters, but following Jesus. And the reason why the sinful woman is praised is because she anoints Jesus with the expensive oil, again putting Jesus first. So the main idea in these readings is that Jesus is to assume the first place in our life.
This brings us to the issue of faith. We have already looked at charity. Charity for Swedenborg is doing good in every aspect of our lives–not just those special cases such as giving to the poor, to food banks and soup kitchens, donating to non-profit groups, visiting prisoners and the sick, and other special cases of charity. Charity for Swedenborg is love finding expression in every aspect of our lives. It is hating evil and loving good, as Amos puts it. But charity is not enough. To be whole spiritual persons, we need truth, or faith. In Swedenborg’s symbolic interpretation of the book of Revelation, the church in Pergamos symbolizes “those who place all of the church in good works, and nothing in truths of doctrine” (AR 107). We need truths of doctrine because truth teaches us who we are to believe in, what we are to believe, and it also teaches us about our place in Creation. A solid belief structure gives us a firm footing for our lives. Truth teaches where and how to do good. It also prevents us from straying innocently into harmful situations from misguided affection or ideas of who the neighbor is. Finally, truths teach us about God. Spiritual life is not only doing good, it is also believing in God. Believing in God and doing good both make us whole spiritual beings.
Here, Paul seems to overboard a little in talking about faith. He makes it sound like faith is all we need for salvation–or at least that is how some Protestant churches take Paul,
No human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3:20-22).
This is where Paul’s contradictory teachings are most manifest. Just above we found Paul saying that works matter,
He will render to every man according to his works; to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life . . . There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good.
Now it looks like only faith matters, “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” I think that the solution to this apparent contradiction is to say that we need both, belief in Jesus Christ and good works.
This brings us to the problem of the rich man. I think the problem with the rich man was that he valued his worldly riches more than he did God. Jesus tells him to sell his riches and give to the poor and follow Him in order to lift the rich man above worldly treasures. Typical of so much in Swedenborg, we find that the letter of Scripture is misleading. It is reason and the spiritual sense of Scripture that points us toward sensible spirituality. Swedenborg says, contrary to the a literal reading of Scripture, that rich people can come into heaven as easily as do poor people.
They therefore who take the Word only according to the literal sense, and not according to any spiritual sense, err in many things, especially in regard to the rich and the poor; as that it is as difficult for the rich to enter heaven as for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle . . . . But those who know anything of the spiritual sense of the Word think otherwise; they know that heaven is for all who live the life of faith and love, whether they be rich or poor. . . . it has been given me to know that the rich come as easily into heaven as the poor, and that a person is not excluded from heaven because he lives in abundance, nor is received into heaven because he is in poverty (HH 357).
Swedenborg teaches that we can enjoy the good things of this world, including amassing wealth, provided only that we believe in God and love the neighbor, and do not become lovers of wealth and become selfish,
Since a person can live outwardly as others, can grow rich, keep a plentiful table, dwell in an elegant house, wear fine clothing, according to his condition and function, can enjoy delights and gratifications, and engage in worldly affairs for the sake of offices and business, and for the life both of the mind and body, provided he inwardly acknowledges the Divine and wishes well to the neighbor, it is evident that it is not so difficult as many believe to enter the way of heaven. The only difficulty is to be able to resist the love of self and the world, and to prevent their becoming predominant (HH 359).
I think the problem with the rich man was that his wealth became a ruling love. And if he loved his wealth above all, even keeping the ten commandments was not good enough.
The issue for us is not just wealth. Anything worldly that we put above God and the neighbor becomes a snare to our spiritual development. I think Swedenborg puts is well, “The only difficulty is to be able to resist the love of self and the world, and to prevent their becoming predominant.” We can grow rich, drive a Mercedes, wear designer clothes, seek high professional positions. The only issue is whether we still believe and honor God and we live in harmony with our neighbor. So the Psalms say, “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them” (Psalm 62:10). It is up to each individual to decide how hard this is. Driving a Mercedes may mean setting one’s heart on achieving this status symbol, and craving the wealth and position that will make this possible. Or we may strive to be excellent and be rewarded for it with the wealth and position that makes the Mercedes possible. And so on with other things of this world.
The basic issue is faith and charity, not money. The issue is belief and good works. Believing in God and learning truths about Him and His Kingdom constitute faith. And doing good and hating evil constitute charity. It is both of these virtues that make us whole spiritual beings. Jesus, Amos, Paul, and Swedenborg are all in accord. Doing good and believing truly make us fit for eternal life.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, we humble ask you this morning to raise our minds to you. Lift us up out of the worries of daily life and our concerns for our needs in this world. We wish to follow you, and to put you and your kingdom first in our hearts and minds. We know that we don’t need to withdraw from our life in the world in order to follow you. But we need a constant reminder that we are only pilgrims in this world, and that your kingdom is our final and eternal home. Give us an open mind to learn truths about your kingdom and a willing heart to follow the teachings we learn. Strengthen our faith and inspire our hearts so that we may become whole spiritual beings in this world and in the world to come.