Church of the Holy City

An Everlasting Covenant

An Everlasting Covenant
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 17, 2013

Genesis 9:8-17 Mark 1:9-15 Psalm 25

We have talked about repentance and the process of regeneration over the past few weeks. This morning’s Bible readings are about the fruits of repentance, which is conjunction with the Lord. Conjunction with the Lord is what regeneration is all about, and it is also called the Heavenly Marriage. This is symbolized by the covenant God makes with Noah.
That this symbolizes the presence of the Lord in charity, may be evident from the significance of a covenant, as shown above, where it was shown that a covenant signifies regeneration, and indeed the conjunction of the Lord with the regenerate person by love; and that the heavenly marriage is that covenant itself, and this the heavenly marriage with every regenerate person (AC 1023).
There is a process Swedenborg describes that leads to this final stage. Although we speak about a final stage, we do not mean that there is no further development. As God is infinite, and we are finite, there will never be an endpoint where we have reached complete union with God. We will approach God near and nearer, we will grow wiser and wiser, we will grow deeper and deeper in love for God and the neighbor, but there will never be an end to our spiritual progress.
But there is a final point we can come to in the process of repentance and rebirth. When we talk of repentance, we are at the threshold of spiritual progress. We are beginning to see evil in ourselves and we are beginning to long for a better, healthier life. Then comes the formation of conscience. We are not born with any innate knowledge as babies. Everything has to be learned. This includes spiritual truths. We form a conscience through learning truth in church, in readings, through conversations, through intuition, through experience, through trial and error, and through a host of other means. So the early stages of our spiritual development is the formation of conscience–a learning of right and wrong.
Since this all happens in our mind, we say that this stage of our reformation happens in the understanding. This understanding is above our natural, behaviors that we were born into. it is a higher mind. It leads us from the world into heaven.
The second stage is when our emotions become aligned with our conscience. This stage begins when we want to live according to the way we have learned. It is entirely possible for us to know what is right and still live contrary to it. But as we progress spiritually, we want to live according to the right and good way we have learned. This desire to live according to conscience is a new will–it is a new emotional complex. It is a heavenly love for with is right and good.
This is when conflict arises between the way we have been living and the way we now know to be spiritually beneficial. Paul describes this conflict beautifully,
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 I do not want to do–this is what I keep on doing (Romans 7:12, 15, 18-19).
This struggle can be dire. These can be a desperate times. Our evils, or unhealthy ways of living, can so cloud over our spirituality that we can even doubt God’s power or even God’s very existence,
So long as temptation continues, a person supposes the Lord to be absent . . . and to such a degree as sometimes to be reduced to such despair that one can scarce believe there is any God. Yet the Lord is then more intimately present than one can ever believe. When, however, temptation ceases, then one receives consolation, and then first believes the Lord to be present (AC 840).
What is happening in these times is a separation of our outer person from our inner person. When we are immersed in our evils, we see them and struggle against them. It is our inner person, it is our conscience, that sees the nature of our evils. Having seen them, and having resisted them, they are separated from us and cast to the outside of our consciousness. Our inner person more and more rules in our consciousness. And our behavior, or our external person, follows the right way of living that our conscience has learned.
When humanity’s will became wholly corrupt the Lord separated the proprium of his understanding from the corrupt proprium of his will, and in the proprium of his understanding formed a new will, which is conscience, and implanted charity in the conscience, and innocence in the charity, and thus conjoined Himself with humanity, or, what is the same, made a covenant with him. So far as the proprium of the will of a person can be separated from this proprium of the understanding, the Lord can be present with him, or conjoin Himself, or enter into a covenant with him. Temptations and such like means of regeneration cause the proprium of the will of a person to be quiescent, to become as nothing, and as it were to die (AC 1023).
When we delight in acting as we have learned from conscience, we are said to be reborn. This is the heavenly marriage that I began this talk with. Before this state of mind, we acted from the understanding. We acted from truth and from spiritual knowledge. We used self-discipline to render ourselves compliant with what we know to be right and good.
Now a great change takes place in our condition. Now we act according to what we love. Now we act no longer from truth–we act from desire. Our desires have been rendered compliant with teachings about righteousness. We no longer need to be prompted by our understanding. We now love what is good and we act from that love. Our emotions are now heavenly in nature; we are filled with God’s love, and we can act freely according to what we want to do. This is because all we want to do is heavenly.
This is called a final stage because we stay in this condition. We learn and grow, but we do so from our loves. When we hear a truth, we test it by what we love. And since we are in heavenly loves and affections, our emotions tell us if what we hear is true or not.
This is where Ralph Waldo Emerson took exception to Swedenborg. Emerson, a philosopher, didn’t understand Swedenborg’s own attack on intellect. Emerson held up Swedenborg as the Representative Man of mysticism, but still criticized his subordination of intellect to emotion. Emerson called it, “the profanation of thinking to what is good” (p. 16). Emerson’s criticism is strong. He says that Swedenborg, “falls into jealousy of his intellect . . . makes war on his mind, takes the part of conscience against it, and on all occasions, traduces and blasphemes it” (p. 16).
And yet Jesus reminds us that it is from the mouths of babes and sucklings that true praise comes–not from philosophers. And, further, it is not the intelligent but the pure in heart that will see God. We can all look forward to that day when our heart will lead our footsteps. We can look forward to the day when inner conflict will cease. We can look forward to the day when the rainbow is the symbol and sign that the spiritual marriage of God with us is a living reality.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks this morning. For although we may stray from your ways, you never cease to call us back; your mercy is eternal, and you never cease to lead us back toward you and your kingdom. You have established your covenant with the human race, and our relationship is as a marriage. You are our head and husband and all of humanity is bound to you in love as a bride. We look forward to the day when we will follow our hearts freely and act spontaneously in all good and loving ways. We look forward to the day when struggle will cease, and our affections will be firmly fixed in the ways of heaven. We look forward to the day when we will dwell in your kingdom forever.