Church of the Holy City

Your Sin Is Forgiven

Your Sin Is Forgiven
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
May 26, 2013

Isaiah 6:1-8 John 3:1-17 Psalm 29

The forgiveness of sins is a major topic in religion. Your could say that it is a central topic in religion. It is synonymous with salvation. And aren’t we greatly concerned with salvation.
For this church, salvation is all about character formation and reformation. It is about change. It is about the process by which we become heavenly beings, from a beginning as earthly beings. Swedenborg calls this process regeneration. And as I was suggesting just above, regeneration assumes a central place in our worship life.
all things of worship relate to purification from evils and falsities, to the implanting of truth and good, and to their conjunction, thus to regeneration (AC 10042).
We have two images of regeneration from our Bible readings this morning. First, from Isaiah we have the prophet encountering God in God’s glory. Isaiah sees God sitting on a throne, and we are told that this throne is “High and lifted up.” God’s train fills the whole temple. God is surrounded by Seraphim. This image of God is a royal image, and it shows God in glory and awe.
Isaiah’s response is one of fear and contrition. In this awesome appearance of God, the prophet becomes conscious of his sins. He cries,
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
This consciousness of sin is followed by a purification ritual. A Seraphim takes a burning coal from the temple altar and touches it to Isaiah’s mouth. Isaiah is purified from his sins, and the Seraphim tells him, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
This ritual is a symbol of the process by which we all have our sins forgiven. It begins with a consciousness of some sin in us. Then we approach the Lord and confess them to God. This is symbolized by the altar from which the burning coal is taken. For the altar symbolizes God. In Swedenborg’s system of correspondences, “The altar was the principal representative of the Lord” (AC 10042). The burning coal symbolizes God’s fiery Divine Love. And as we are touched by Divine Love, we are purified from our evils.
The Isaiah story can be a little misleading. It can give one the impression that forgiveness of sins can happen in an instant. But we need to remember that this story is symbolic. The coal that touches Isaiah’s mouth symbolizes a whole process. The process is one of character reformation over a whole lifetime.
Jesus talks about this process symbolically in our reading from John. First let us consider how God appears in this story. For Jesus is God in the flesh. In Jesus, God walked upon the earth. What a different image we have of God in the Gospels! People of all walks of life can come to Jesus. Jesus touches people; Jesus heals people; and Jesus talks with people. In our story, Jesus enters into a rabbinic dialogue with Nicodemus about being reborn. Their dialogue is a kind of stylized ritual of question and answer. Nicodemus appears simple the questions he asks Jesus. For instance, he asks Jesus how a person can re-enter his mother’s womb. Of course that is impossible, and on the surface Nicodemus would look like a simpleton to ask this question. But Biblical scholars tell us that this is typical rabbinic dialogue. The way this goes, is that a person prompts the teacher to reveal his wisdom by asking a series of questions, even simple questions like the ones Nicodemus asked. And in the process of his questions, Jesus tells us a powerful truth. He says that, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John3:5).
Being reborn of water and the Spirit has been interpreted in many different ways. Some say that baptism is what is meant by being reborn. Others say that confessing that Jesus is God and that He died for our sins is what being born of water and the Spirit means. This church teaches that being reborn of water and the Spirit means actually letting God’s Spirit into us. And as God’s Spirit enters us, we are purified from our sins.
Forgiveness of sins is removal of sins only. A sin that we endorse with our hearts and minds cannot be forgiven. How can we expect forgiveness of something we don’t think is wrong–something we keep doing? We are forgiven to the extent that we desist from evil thoughts and deeds. Forgiveness of sins is nothing other than resisting them. Forgiveness of sins is allowing God’s love into our hearts and God’s wisdom into our minds. Swedenborg calls this the implanting of good and truth in us.
The forgiveness of sins, expiation, propitiation, and redemption, are also nothing else than purification from evils and falsities, implanting of good and truth and their conjunction (AC 10042).
Purification fro evil and falsity cannot happen overnight or in an instant. It is a lifelong process. Swedenborg compares it to our conception and formation in our mother’s womb.
Sins are removed so far as a person is reborn, because rebirth is restraining the flesh that it may not rule, and subjugating the old man . . . . Who that yet has sound understanding, cannot conclude that such things cannot be done in a moment, but successively, as a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated . . . . For the things of the flesh or the old man are inherent in him from birth . . . as an infant grows, reaches childhood, then youth, and then begins to think from his own understanding, and to act from his own will. Who does not see that such a house which has been thus far built in the mind, . . . cannot be destroyed in a moment, and a new house built in place of it? Must not the lusts . . . be themselves first removed, and new desires which are of good and truth be introduced in the place of the lusts of evil and falsity? That these things cannot be done in a moment every wise person sees from this alone, that every evil is composed of innumerable lusts; . . . therefore unless one evil is brought out after another, and this until their connection is broken up, a person cannot be made new (TCR 611).
One by one, we become aware of evil we committed unintentionally–or by design. As we become aware that some of our behaviors are evil, we begin the struggle to desist from thinking and doing them. Since we are talking about really changing who we are, we must conclude that this takes a while.
If we are but striving to be good, we are on the heaven-bound path. I think that people of this church can be hard on ourselves. We become aware of some sin in us, and we can think that we are beyond hope–at least some of us some of the time. There are places in Swedenborg where he describes this state of mind. Indeed, he does say that we can despair of our own salvation at times.
But I have found some reassuring passages in Swedenborg that suggest that we may not be as bad off as we can think ourselves. He says that people who are essentially good have their slips and evils forgiven. We can be forgiven if we are not deliberately and intentionally doing evil. We are forgiven if our end, or purpose isn’t to be evil.
As to good spirits, if perchance they speak or do evil, they are not punished, but are forgiven, and also excused; for it is not their end to speak or do evil, and they know that such things are excited in them from hell, so that they do not come forth from guilt of theirs. This is also perceived from their struggling against such things, and afterward from their grief (AC 6559).
In this passage we see that we are forgiven if we do not do evils from a set purpose. We also see in it that good spirits, or people, struggle against such sins. We see further that good spirits or people feel grief when we act contrary to our conscience. There is an even more reassuring passage in Heaven and Hell. In this passage, Swedenborg states that hereditary evils do not even return in the next life, because it was not our intent to commit evil.
But good spirits are never punished, though they had done evils in the world, for their evils do not return; and I have learned that their evils were of another kind or nature than those of evil spirits, not being done purposely contrary to the truth, and not from any other evil heart than what they received hereditarily from their parents, into which they were carried from a blind enjoyment when they were in externals separate from internals (HH 509).
If we are of such a disposition, we can give ourselves a little break if we slip up. Although Jesus says, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” He would also know that this injunction is impossible for any mortal (Matthew 5:48). We need to admit with humility that we are earthy, broken creatures in need of God. In the course of my work, I have been around some people who are having a hard time with life. People who are broken and in fact, desperate. Yet in the presence of these downcast individuals I found a profound sense of love and openness. Sometimes we need to be broken in order to be open to God. Swedenborg says that people who are elated in heart have a hard time opening their souls to God’s love. He speaks of the
humbleness which is essential in all worship, and by means of which good can flow in from the Lord; for an elated heart does not receive at all, but a humble heart” (AC 2715).
Recognizing sin is one way we become humble. I do not mean chastising ourselves for our terrible disposition. I mean only acknowledging that we need God to elevate ourselves out of our native tendencies toward evil. Being conscious of sin reminds us that we are not the greatest individuals on the planet–nor the worst. We are simply a human with failings we are overcoming with God’s help. Knowing our finite capacity for good is honest. It is true. Another word for this is being teachable. No athlete can succeed who isn’t teachable. Nor can we Christian athlete find salvation unless we are teachable. And admitting who we are; admitting we need help; and asking God for help means we are teachable. Then we can receive the enlightenment and the love we need to be truly born of water and the Spirit.

PRAYER

Lord, we thank you for the gift of your living water which you offer to all who ask. This morning we ask that you send us your Holy Spirit, and baptise us with water and the Spirit according to your word in the Gospels. We ask that you fill us with all goodness which cleanses our heart. And we ask also that you illuminate our minds with all truth, in order to show us how to walk in your ways. Lord we know and admit that we fall short of your holy commands. And we also know that as often as we fall away, you, in turn, bring us back into the fold by the strong power of your mercy. Thanks be to you.

And Lord, we pray that you bring peace to this troubled world. May those who harbor ill will for their neighbors learn to understand and see the fellow humanity that they share. May those who strive against each other see that they are like in their wishes and in what they want for their land and nation. And may warring factions find their way to peace.

Lord, we ask for you to heal those who are sick. As you worked miracles of healing when you were on earth, how much more can you work healing miracles now that you have risen and have all authority in heaven and on earth. Grant all who are in need your healing love and power.