Church of the Holy City

Grace and Human Effort

Grace and Human Effort
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 24, 2013

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Mark 9:2-9 Psalm 22

In our Bible readings we have examples of God appearing to humanity. In our Genesis reading, El Shaddai appears before Abram. And in our New Testament reading, Jesus manifests His divine origins. His clothes become dazzling white, and Elijah and Moses appear and talk with Jesus. These two Old Testament characters represent the law and the prophets–Elijah as one of the greatest prophets and Moses as the giver of the law. As if this weren’t enough, a cloud envelops them and a voice thunders from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Whatever doubts Peter and James may have had about Jesus’ divinity, after this, I imagine that they were convinced that He is God incarnate.
If we take the Old Testament story literally, we come away with some worldly ideas about God’s relationship with humanity. One thing that we might take from this passage, is that God chose the children of Israel to be some special race. This would mean that modern day Jews are somehow special to God, more special than other races on the earth. And you will find that some evangelistic churches, who take the Bible literally, pay attention to the state of Israel. They do indeed think that what happens to the Jews is a measure of how close the end times are. If this be the case, it is hard to see any relevance to our own spiritual lives in the story of Abraham.
However, if we see the Bible as holy and as a story of God’s relationship to all of humanity, we would look at the story of Abraham differently. We would see it as a symbol of God’s relationship with all of humanity. We would see the dynamics of God and Abraham as dynamics that apply to all of us. We would see the relationship of God and Abraham as archetypical of humanity’s relationship with God. This is how I will be approaching the story this morning.
In this morning’s story, God appears to Abraham out of nowhere. All we are told is that, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him.” God then tells Abram that his descendants will be numerous and great; indeed that kings will come from his lineage. All this is unmerited. That is, Abram has done nothing to deserve all this. It is simply God’s will to bestow on Abram all these benefits. And to have children and descendants after one was the greatest benefit that could be bestowed on a person in Old testament society.
To be given great progeny is symbolic of the way God gives spiritual life to humanity. God takes us where we are, removes our evil tendencies and replaces them with loving and good enjoyments and delights. And God does this regardless of how bad off we may think we are, or how bad off we actually are. This is a story of God’s great mercy for all of humanity. This story symbolizes how God comes to everyone and gives all of humanity the gift of spiritual life. For God’s mercy is infinite. And God’s love is infinite.
Jehovah, or the Lord’s internal, was the very Celestial of Love, that is, Love itself, to which no other attributes are fitting than those of pure Love, thus of pure Mercy toward the whole human race; which is such that it wishes to save all and make them happy for ever, and to bestow on them all that it has; thus out of pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow, to heaven, that is, to itself, by the strong force of love (AC 1735).
This is a lovely description of God’s nature. It talks about God’s great mercy for the whole of humanity.
Do we need God’s gift of spiritual life? When we look at ourselves, what do we see? Some people are hard on themselves and see themselves as all selfishness and ego. I have a friend who thinks that we need to be honest about who we are and be aware of our fallen nature. He cited that Psalm, “I am a worm and not a man,” to capture just how far from Godliness we are and how much we need God’s mercy and redemption. He used the Swedenborgian term proprium to say that he was utterly consumed with selfhood and in desperate need for God’s salvation. Then, on the opposite side of the issue, are those who are self-satisfied and completely comfortable in who they are. They do not need God, do not need spirituality, and are just fine, thank you. One of my professors in divinity school told us that a minister’s job is, “To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”
The truth is, we all do need God. We don’t need God because we are too weak. We don’t need God because we are unable to face hard facts of existence and need a crutch. We need God because God is the source of all spiritual life. Without God we are just animals. But with God, we are living beings whose soul and mind is in heaven–whether in this world or in our final home in the next. We need God in order to be filled with the heavenly loves and good enjoyments and delights that God alone can give us. The heavenly joys that Abraham’s children and descendents signify.
God is heaven–heaven is God. To the extent that God is in us, we can say that heaven is in us. This is where Swedenborg’s unique teaching about heaven comes in. Swedenborg claims that heaven is not a place. It is not a realm that has a wall around it. It is not a place one enters through a gate where Peter stands guard. For Swedenborg, heaven is a state of mind and heart. Heaven is a disposition. Heaven is a condition of psyche in which a person feels love and thinks truly.
One can only feel spiritual love and think spiritual truth from God. These divine qualities are offered to everyone. And whoever accepts these qualities, is in heaven. So Swedenborg writes,
it is the Divine proceeding from the Lord, which flows in with angels and is received by them, that makes heaven in general and in particular. The Divine proceeding from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith. In the degree, therefore, in which they receive good and truth from the Lord, they are angels and are in heaven (HH 7).
This passage makes clear how much we need God. We need God’s love in us and we need God’s truth in us for us to be “in” heaven. We need God in us in order for our spiritual descendents to multiply.
Now we confront a paradox in Swedenborg. We need God’s love and wisdom in us to be whole spiritual beings. We have seen above that God wants to give everybody all that God has, and God wants to make everybody as happy as we can be. Then comes the tricky line. It is from the passage I quoted a little bit back. We saw that “out of pure mercy” God wishes “to draw all who are willing to follow, to heaven, that is, to itself.” God draws everybody to Himself, regardless of where the individual is or thinks that he or she is. But we have to be willing to follow.
In the Abraham story, God tells Abraham all the things that He is going to do for Abraham. Abraham gets all these things as a free gift. Passages like this make some churches think that humans can play no part in our own salvation. They are suspicious of all human effort in our own salvation. They support this belief with Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” And also by quotes from Paul, such as Ephesians 2:8-9,
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God–not by works , so that no one can boast.
This teaching is a cornerstone of many Protestant churches.
But with Swedenborg, as in so many other issues, it’s not a matter of either-or. It is so often a matter of both-and. So it is with the issue of salvation. Indeed it is all God’s work. But consider that one line, “all who are willing to follow.” God draws everyone to Himself and into joy, love, and peace. But we have to do the things we need to do to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. We have to ask God into our lives. And we have to remove the obstacles to God’s inflowing Spirit. The way it is put in Revelation is that God knocks at the door; we have to open the door. Then God will come in and eat supper with us.
Gregory of Nyssa, the great Catholic Father, compared this to climbing Mount Sinai. At the top is the glory of the Lord. We see this, and we know where to head. But we are doing the climbing. Perhaps this story is too works oriented. Perhaps this story looks like we are doing too much work to get to God. Maybe we should use an image from a trip Carol and I took to Jasper. There are mountains in Jasper, too. We went up to the top of one. But we didn’t climb. We entered a cable car and were lifted up to the mountain top effortlessly. But we did have to enter the cable car!

PRAYER

Lord, you call to us every moment of every day. You call us home to you and to your kingdom. You lift us upward into heaven’s joys and delights sometimes without our even knowing it. Help us to hear your voice calling. Help us to listen for your voice. Help us to follow in the way you wish for us to walk. We pray for the power to turn toward you and away from selfish gain and dominance. Grant us the willingness to do your will, and not the will of our own ego-driven tendencies. Lead us, Lord, in the paths of righteousness. And bring us home finally to live with you for eternity.