Church of the Holy City

What Is Essential in Worship

What Is Essential in Worship
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 9, 2014

Isaiah 58:1-9 Matthew 5:13-20 Psalm 112

Our readings from Isaiah and from Matthew this morning teach what is essential in worship. They both point to the simple truth that doing good is what God asks of us. For doing good to the neighbor out of love for the neighbor is what the heart and soul of worship is. Swedenborg makes a simple statement about this, a statement that should be obvious,
All religion is of life, and a religious life is doing good. Every person with any religion knows and acknowledges that one who lives a good life is saved . . .” (Doctrine of Life 1).
Yet, at the same time, when we do good, we cannot take credit for it. For when a person does good spiritually, it is actually God doing the good in the person. So Jesus says that our good works will point to God, not to our self, “Let your light shine before men, that they will see your good works and give glory to your Father” (Matthew 5:16). Here, even as Jesus urges us to do good works, He also says that glory goes to the Father. Paul says something similar in Philippians. He tells us that it is God who works in us to do good acts,
Therefore, my dear friends, . . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13).
This is why Swedenborg’s theology is considered mystical. The mystical aspect to Swedenborg’s theology is that he talks about merging our souls with God. The wisdom in our minds is God’s Divine Wisdom in us. And the love in our hearts is God’s Divine Love in us. So we are finite vessels that hold our individual expressions of the infinite God. Swedenborg is not alone in this mystical view of our relationship to God. The Eastern Orthodox Church, for instance, talks about a process called “theosis.” Like Swedenborg, theosis means that we merge with God and God animates our actions, filling our hearts with God’s love and enlightening our minds with God’s light. And notably in Hinduism, throughout the Upanishads, ways to merge with the ultimate Brahman is taught. In fact the root of the word, “yoga” means “to yoke” or to join–with God.
God’s love and wisdom in us flow forth into good deeds and love for our neighbors. This is what true worship is. true worship is loving and caring for our neighbors. So Swedenborg teaches that, “internal worship, which is of love and caring, is real worship” (AC 1175). This is what the prophet Isaiah was getting at in the reading we heard this morning. He criticizes the Israelites for doing only rituals while forgetting the essence of living worship. Isaiah criticizes them for fasting, for wearing sack cloth and ashes, for saying prayers, all the while ignoring their brothers and sisters who are in need. In fact, they are not only ignoring their brothers and sisters, they are actually breaking out into evils of all kinds: quarrelling, fighting, and oppressing their workers. Yet they continue to fast, wear sackcloth and ashes, and pray. What they are doing is ritual only, or what Swedenborg would call “external worship.” So Isaiah says,
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, your fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with wicked fist. . . .
Is such the fast that I chose,
a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a rush,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord? (Isaiah 58:3-5)
The Israelites that Isaiah is declaiming are fasting while they quarrel, fight, and oppress their workers. Their worship is external, with no soul to it.
Isaiah then tells the Israelites the kind of fast that God wishes. The true fast is the way a person treats his or her neighbor. Religious ritual has meaning only when it comes from a loving heart. Isaiah spells this out clearly:
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
your righteousness shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard (Isaiah 58:6-8).
When we care for our neighbors, then the worship rituals we do have a soul. But if we do rituals without caring for our neighbors, then our worship is external and dead. The essential thing about worship is love for God and the neighbor. When we have these in our hearts, then when we go through worship rituals, God is in our hearts and in everything we do. Swedenborg explains this quite clearly,
Let it be supposed, for example, that people place the very essential of worship in frequenting churches, going to the sacraments, hearing sermons, praying, observing feasts, and many other things which are external and ceremonial, and persuade themselves that these, with talking about faith, are sufficient–all which are formal things of worship. They indeed who make worship from love and caring essential, do these things likewise, that is, they frequent churches, go to the sacraments, hear sermons, pray, observe feasts, and the like, and this very earnestly and diligently; but they do not place the essential of worship in these things. In the external worship of such people there is something holy and living, because there is internal worship in it; but in the external worship of the former there is nothing holy and nothing living (AC 1175).
So the symbols of worship have power to bring God’s presence only when the heart of the worshipper has love in it. The Israelites Isaiah criticizes are like those who think that the essential of worship is the rituals and not the heart of the worshipper. Isaiah tells them, and us, too, that what matters is how we treat those around us.
Notice, too, that for Swedenborg it isn’t a matter of internal versus external. It is both-and. He states that even for those who have love in their hearts, the external things of worship are important. He says, “They indeed who make worship from love and caring essential, do these things likewise . . . and this very earnestly and diligently.” Thus we need church, the community, the support, and the symbols that awaken in us a feeling of holiness and of God’s presence. This, even though we meet God everywhere.
The symbols and rituals of religion are meaningful for a person who is united inwardly with God. For such a person, church does bring God’s presence. This is what Isaiah means when he says, “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;/you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.

PRAYER

Lord, we call upon your name Sunday by Sunday when we come here to worship you. And, Lord, we call upon your name when we leave this building. For each time we do a good turn to our neighbors we are calling upon your name. We pray that you fill our souls with your Divine Love and Wisdom. We pray that your holy presence drive away dark clouds of evil and selfishness. For when you are in our hearts, we know and feel what is good and loving. May we come to know heavenly joys as we grow nearer and nearer to you day by day.

Lord, we thank you for this church, where we come to worship and share Christian love together. We ask for you to watch over this congregation.

Lord, we pray for peace in this troubled world. Where there is hatred and discord, we pray for love and harmony. We pray for those nations torn by civil unrest. May they find your peace and love. May warring factions see that they are like in their wishes for love and for the good things of this world.

And Lord, we pray that you heal those who are suffering with illness. Lord, send your healing love to all who are in need.