What Is Church For?
Rev. Alison
Longstaff, Feb 2nd, 2014
Bath Church
of the New Jerusalem, Maine
Genesis
9:18-29 and Matt. 23: 1-8, 13, 24-26; AC §1062
This sermon was
inspired by my attendance at the “Gathering Leaves” convention in 2010.
In our short
history in North America alone, the Swedenborgians have split into three major
divisions (and several small independent ones as well). We don’t really have the luxury of numbers to
do this, but that hasn’t stopped us.
(And we thought we were new,
and knew how to do church “right.” Not
so much!) It was always disagreements
about doctrine that divided us: about what was and wasn’t Sacred Scripture, about
what was and wasn’t important to emphasize doctrinally, and about who does and
does not have the authority to teach what was and wasn’t good doctrine to
others.
Now, when I was
in seminary we studied (among other things) what the different stages of
Christianity thought about and fought about doctrinally through the years. I
was amazed to discover, even looking past Christianity to include earlier
spiritualities and alternatives to Christianity that people have been fighting
over the very same things when it comes to religion from the beginning of time,
over and over again.
Each new denomination—each
new flavor of whatever spirituality, even
if it likes to think it is truly new and special—is just the same old thing in
new packaging. Some of it is quite
enlightened and some of it, not-so-much.
Most get slowly corrupted over time, even if they started out well. Many limp along, broken but doggedly
persistent. Others renew themselves and start afresh, offering truth and good
in the world once more.
But the big
story is that humans are human first,
and humans do what humans do with
religion time and time again. The
same issues and tensions arise with each new generation, just with different
faces and different outer trappings. Some groups of humans navigate the
tensions gracefully and well, others not so well. Mostly we repeat the same responses and behaviors,
the same decisions and divisions, century after century. It seems that each new generation must make
its own spiritual journey, regardless of any lessons learned by the preceding
generation. I guess that makes sense. Todays’ fifth graders may know how to tie
their shoes, but that doesn’t mean today’s toddlers already know how. They still have to learn what they still have
to learn.
Maybe that is how
the Bible can remain relevant century after century. In its spiritual sense or inner meaning, the
Bible tells the whole of the human story---the whole of the human spiritual journey---from darkness to
enlightenment; from inward looking self-interest to outward looking love and
compassion. The spiritual journey is the
same for all, no matter who we are or in what time period we were born. We all have to make it, and the path never
changes.
And so each new generation,
and each new flavor of “religion” struggles over the same issues, with slight
variations, century after century. And
the Bible prophesies all of this, and describes it all in detail. It foretells precisely the way we will divide
and differentiate within our various religious groups, because God knew we
would do this---because this is what we
do.
Our reading from
Swedenborg today about Shem, Ham, and Japheth is one description of the nature
and quality of the ways we divide ourselves as spiritual beings or “churches.” It is rather comforting. Trust me.
I’ll show you.
But before I do,
let’s remind ourselves of three basic Swedenborgian concepts to help us along
the way:
First, Swedenborg draws our attention to the
fact that “love” is our very life.
Translated, this means that our emotional reality is our primary reality. We cloak our emotional being in
interpretations, meanings, and story, but deep down inside we are all emotion,
no matter how rational we like to think
we are. There is nothing wrong with
this. It is how we are made.
Second, our default emotional reality is
dictated by our “lizard brain.” The
primary job of our lizard brain is to keep us alive---fed, sheltered, and safe
from harm---both physically and psychologically. Swedenborg calls this part of
our nature the “natural” or the “proprium.”
Other philosophies might call this side of our nature the “shadow self,”
“the dark side,” or the “ego”. But know
this: the lizard brain is not bad. We need it.
It serves a necessary and vital purpose.
However, it does become dark when it is left un-managed---when it is
allowed to call the shots---for it will always choose the least enlightened and most self-serving behavior, every time,
without fail. It’s as enlightened as a
lizard.
Third, we are created dual natured: both
natural and spiritual; both physical and metaphysical. That means we have a basic emotional nature
much like our mammalian and reptilian cousins, but we also have a higher nature from God that contains the ability
to feel and express altruism and true selfless love for each other. Balancing the lizard brain is this higher
nature, which Swedenborg calls the “rational faculty” or we might know as the observer-self. This observer-self gives us the ability to step
back and reflect on our thoughts, feelings, and motivations. The observer-self lets us train and manage the
lizard brain. Truly, the wise advice to
“know thyself” is the very smart recommendation to develop and use this
self-reflective ability. Taking time to examine
our feelings and choices creates the space in us to make ever more enlightened
and altruistic choices---choices that include the well-being of all, not just
the self. Some spiritualities call this growing
state of conscious self-management “enlightenment,” or “mindfulness.” Swedenborgians call it “regeneration.”
Bearing in mind
that our default state tends to be emotion-based self-interest; I ask you, “Is
it any wonder that we get anxious and contentious and split when it comes to
matters of religion?” Bearing in mind that to grow spiritually we must
consciously develop our reflective and altruistic capacities, and not everyone
is fully enlightened yet, is it any wonder we struggle to agree on what is
important in church? At any given time
and in any given place, we humans are emotional first, and as a group will display
all different levels of enlightenment and non-enlightenment in our interactions. We are all in different spiritual states,
each one with strengths and weaknesses, and each one struggling to get along
with the others, like siblings in a family.
Concerning the
three sons of Noah, Swedenborg tells us:
The church [of that
time] included people who were internal [“Shem”],
people who were internal but corrupted [Ham”], and people who were external
[“Japheth”]. Internal people are those who make loving-kindness and compassion
the most important objective of religion. Corrupted internal people are those
who make beliefs apart from any loving-kindness the most important objective of
religion. And external people are those who give little thought to spirituality
but who nevertheless perform charitable works and reverently keep up the religious
observances of the church. Members of any church can be sorted into these three
types of people. No others exist who can
be called members of the church. Arcana Coelestia
(aka Heavenly Secrets) 1062
This says to me
that at any given time, we spiritual/natural humans will fall more or less into
these three categories. No matter how
you slice us, humans will do what humans do with religion, and it takes all
kinds and stages of us to make a whole.
Please don’t try
to figure out which of Noah’s sons you are.
We all wander in and out between these groups as we learn and grow
anyway. What is more important is the
vision of where we want to end up
that will keep us moving in a good direction and working together most
successfully.
Non-enlightenment
tends to be fearful, judgmental, self-centered and divisive. Semi-enlightenment loves the ritual and
external trappings of church, likes to do good works, but is not very
self-aware. More advanced enlightenment
sees beyond the external and looks constantly past self-interest toward the spirit
of everything, striving always toward the well-being of the whole. Any group, even when they think they’ve
solved their problems by splitting, will display this whole array of
individuals to one extent or another even still, within their splinter groups. It’s like a hologram. Divide us up, and we just show a smaller
version of the same whole.
How you or I
views what church is and how it should be done will depend entirely on where you
or I are on the spiritual journey. It
will also be affected by what psychic wounds we have sustained, and what
prejudices we have developed. It’s no
wonder we struggle to agree.
So, “What Is
Church For?”
I could have
gone so many different directions with this topic. I could have talked about community-building
and the celebration of life passages. I
could have explored the value of spiritual education. I could have looked at
the question of how to be a healthy, growing church even as the meaning and
relevance of “church” seems increasingly lost in our modern lifestyle. Instead, I’m going to leave you with a story
from the 2010 Gathering Leaves Convention.
That year the convention
was held near Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, which is where the head offices of two
of the three different branches are located. There were many, many
Swedenborgians living near the convention site.
So the final worship ceremony was opened to include any women and men from the surrounding community who
might like to join us. We had a team of
four women leading that worship service, including one woman from a branch that
does not ordain women. She had pursued
and gotten a non-denominational ordination anyway, and had been leading small,
unofficial worship services for local Swedenborgians despite the disapproval of
her denomination. When the father of that
woman entered the worship space and took a seat at the back she confessed to me
with wide eyes, “Now I’m
nervous!” It turns out that he had never
attended any of his daughter’s worship services in all the years she had been
leading them. Not one. Ever.
He was an ordained minister himself, yet had never approved of her fight
for women’s ordination. And his tradition not only forbids women from joining
the ministry; they have been known to treat harshly those who speak up in favor
of it. Simply to enter the room and
remain was a bit of a professional risk on his part. His very presence there
that night was a new and profound statement of acceptance for his daughter.
How many people
even knew this small drama was going on?
I wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t spoken to me. But knowing transformed that moment into a deeply
sacred one for me, without needing any of the other trappings of the worship
service. That one silent act of
reconciliation was invisible to most, yet a significantly valuable outcome of
the Gathering Leaves effort.
And that is why we come together again and
again in as a church community, in my opinion. Despite petty disagreements, personality
quirks, and differences of vision, it is good for our souls. When we remember that it is for
reconciliation, not judgment; for mutual service, not fighting who has the
“rightest” interpretation, we are on the right path. We come to encounter the sacred—the sacred
that is present within love, within forgiveness, within learning and
reconciliation.
For deep down
inside we are all alike. We need each
other. When we remove enough layers of
talking and judging and struggling, at our core we all simply want to belong, to
know we have a purpose, and to know we are loved.
And that is what church is for. Doing church
well leads us to our inner, spiritual home.
A healthy church community provides a place in which we can discover who
we are, who God is, and how to be closer to each other. In that process we encounter what is truly
sacred in life. We are reminded that our
life has meaning and purpose, that we have a valuable contribution to make in
the world, and that we are safe and loved.
We forgive and we are forgiven.
What is more sacred than that?
The church of the Lord is with
everyone in the whole world who lives a good life according to their
principles. All who live a good life, wherever they are, are accepted by the
Lord and come into heaven. This is
because all who live a good life according to their principles in point of fact
interiorly acknowledge the Lord, because such goodness comes from the Lord, and
the Lord is within that goodness. Emanuel
Swedenborg, The New Jerusalem and
its Heavenly Doctrine § 246
What do you think church is for? Amen
The
Readings:
Genesis 9: 18-29
18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark
were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of
Canaan. 19 These three were the
sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
20 And Noah began to be a farmer,
and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the
wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a
garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward
and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned
away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his
younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”
26 And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be
his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.”
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.”
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and
fifty years. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine
hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Matthew 23: 1-8, 13, 24-26
Then Jesus
spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The
scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe
and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on
men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their
phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the
synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men,
‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ 8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher,
the Christ, and you are all brethren.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither
go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Blind guides, who choke on a gnat and yet swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of
extortion and self-indulgence.[f] 26 Blind
Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of
them may be clean also.
The Arcana
Coelestia (aka Heavenly Secrets) §1062
The church [of that time] included people who were internal [“Shem”], people who were internal but corrupted [Ham”], and people who
were external [“Japheth”]. Internal people are those who make loving-kindness
and compassion the most important objective of religion. Corrupted internal
people are those who make beliefs apart from any loving-kindness the most
important objective of religion. And external people are those who give little
thought to spirituality but who nevertheless perform charitable works and
reverently keep up the religious observances of the church. Members of any church
can be sorted into these three types of people. No others exist who can be called members of
the church. Arcana Coelestia (aka
Heavenly Secrets) §1062
Revised from a sermon preached July 18th,
2010; at The Church of the Good
Shepherd, Kitchener, Ontarios
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