Why Are You Here? sermon March 8 2015

 “Why Are You Here?”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, March 8, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem
1 Kings 19:4,9-13; John 1: 35-38; HS 2693

 What brings you to this spot on this day?  Are you here from habit?  Are you here with deep intention?  Did you wander in?  Perhaps you don’t even know why you are here?  Perhaps something just impelled you to come—something you can’t describe?  Maybe you were mildly curious what happens in this church?  Or are you here because of some commitment to yourself and your spiritual development?  There could be as many reasons as there are people in this room.

So let’s start with why I am here.  The most shallow reason is that it is my job to be here. It is part of my contract to lead worship and deliver a Swedenborgian message each Sunday in this building. 

An even deeper truth is that I just love Swedenborgian theology.  I have been steeped in it from the cradle, and it makes my life immensely richer, more comforting, and more blessed.  But perhaps the deepest truth is that I am on a spiritual journey just like everyone else in this room.  And I need spiritual support and spiritual community just like everyone else.  I would be here anyway, even if I wasn't preaching.

I do believe, for what it is worth, that we were each meant to be here today.  To be here.  Today.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Emanuel Swedenborg was a man who was constantly searching for the deepest truth.  He knew that there was something underlying the outside face of the Bible, the same way there is always a lot going on behind and underneath what the world sees of you and me.  There is what we wear and what we say and how we act and what the camera sees; but there is always so much underneath.  So much that can be quite different from what the world sees.  Did you know that Mother Theresa was depressed a great portion of her life? I wouldn't have known that if someone didn't tell me.  There is so much that we don't see.

So much that we don’t see—within the Bible, within each other, within our own selves—at least, not without help.  Swedenborgianism encourages us always to look deeper; to ask ourselves what is going on inside—inside the Bible, and inside you and me—within our thoughts and feelings. 

Whoever first said or wrote “Know thyself” was a Swedenborgian (well, inside, anyway).

Because the truth will make you free. 

So when I ask you, “Why are you here?  I’m meaning it on every level, but especially the deeper ones.  Why you are here? 

In our Hebrew Bible reading, God asks Elijah not once, but twice, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

In the Bible, when God asks a question, it represents an encounter with God. God calls us to observe ourselves in a deeper way—which is often what happens when God draws near.   It represents a moment of self-reflection.  Think of all those times when you were a kid just goofing around, and then some adults drew near, and suddenly you looked at what you were doing a little differently.  You paid attention in a new way.

God’s presence calls us back to ourselves, back to our sense of connection and our sense of meaning and purpose.  God calls us back to our intentions and dreams, back from distractions and digressions, back to our intended path.

Elijah was running for his life when God asked him what he was doing.  Elijah was exhausted and discouraged and felt out of options.  When God asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” the first things out of Elijah’s mouth was discouragement.  Elijah had done everything right, and everything that had been asked of him.  He had worked hard for the Lord, bringing God’s message to the people.  And for his efforts King Ahab and Queen Jezebel have ordered him killed.

Elijah is in a deep spiritual crisis. This crisis calls him back to his center the same way many of our extreme life experiences can call us home to our true center.  Elijah’s crisis invites an intimate encounter with the Divine the same way a profound life crisis can call you and me back to what matters most in life. 

Up to this point, Elijah was on the run.  Just like Elijah, we can spend a lot of our time and energy running from the things we don’t want to face—the things we think will “kill” us—be it doing our taxes, or having that hard conversation with a loved one, or trying to make amends with that person we have harmed, or facing some other personal demon…

But we can only run so far.  Eventually exhaustion will force us to face that thing from which we run.  God—Life itself—continues to call us to emerge from our hiding places the same way the womb contracts to push us out into a bigger reality.  We will repeatedly be called to face those things that are blocking our growth until we are ready to face them. The arc of spiritual growth, the hero’s journey, regeneration—call it what you will—moves inexorably along like the seasons, and like the birth process itself. The call to new spiritual birth comes again and again like the return of spring.  If we refuse one opportunity, there will be another and another until we are ready.

In Elijah’s case, he was running from despair and fear of death.  He had to name these things and face them in order to be ready for God to help him move beyond them.  In the meantime, God provided food, safety, and rest; all the while calling him to wake up—to pay attention.  We, too, must become more self-aware to grow.  We do this through self-observation, self-reflection, and a return to our created purpose.  We can do this through prayer, reading sacred Scripture, or meditation in one of its many forms.  Indeed, we invite spiritual growth by attending a place of worship on Sundays.  Greater self-awareness is not always comfortable, but it is always rewarding.

Especially when fear and despair haunt us, God’s question, “What are you doing here?” invites us to name and face the things from which we run.  Simply naming what we fear gives us power over them, or rather, it invites God’s power over them.  God always has the power to defeat any demon, but we forget that again and again.  We get stuck in the belief that we are all alone in our battle and it is all up to us.  God always knows what troubles us, but waits for us to ask for help, because it helps us to speak, to name, and to ask for help.  It helps us to remember that we deserve help, no matter what we've done.

Elijah believed he was a failure at this point in the story.  However, when Elijah was able to name his despair before God, Elijah brought God back into the equation.  Once God is invited to help, we not only survive the battle, but we will thrive beyond it, no matter how scary things look at the time.

We humans, and North Americans perhaps in particular with our strong valuation of individualism, resist at every turn any realization of how dependent we really are on God and on each other. We love taking pride in our might and power and competence.  We love thinking that we don’t need anyone. It is so much more comfortable not to need help—to be self-reliant! The problem is, this illusion of our own strength and competence stands between us and the truth.  We could neither think, nor breathe, nor move without God’s life and love flowing through us.  Accepting that is one of the first steps toward happiness.  We started out utterly helpless and we will end that way. 

And “being invulnerable” is not why we are here.

We are not here to become powerful or “be safe.”  We are not here to be secure.  We are not here to accrue wealth or to be the best or be the most impenetrable. 

We are here to become as wise and compassionate as we possibly can.  We are here to have joy and to have it more abundantly, which comes, not through greater wealth or greater security, but through greater inner wealth  which is personal wisdom, and greater inner security which comes from compassion, vulnerability, and service.  We are here to learn and grow and help each other.  “Whoever wants to be great among you must be as the servant.” (Mark 10:43)

No matter what your journey has been like up to this point, stop just for a moment.  Breathe in this moment.  Take a look at yourself and ask yourself why you are here.  Ask it on every level.  Feel God standing next to you, and gaze with curiosity and compassion at your life.  What has your dream for your life been up to this point?  Is it worthy?  Will it lead you to genuine happiness, or is it calling you to a false security? 

Whether you feel purposeful or lost, energized or exhausted, or somewhere in the middle, remember that the God of all love and wisdom stands ready to help.  You are here to be birthed into an ever better future.  You can face that thing from which you run, and be transformed by the experience.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Whether you have been coming a long time or are relatively new here today, you are welcome to be here.  Right here. Right now.  Stay here, and get to know yourself better.  Stay here, and get to know God better.  And if you go, go in peace, and with God’s blessing.

Amen.

Originally preached February 3^rd, 2013, Wayfarer’s Chapel, California. Revised almost beyond recognition.

The Readings:

1 Kings 19 4, 9-13  But [Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

John 1:35-39

The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.

They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.

Heavenly Secrets 2693

In the literal sense of the Word the Lord is asking a question, but in the internal sense it means that the Lord already perceives everything we think and feel in infinite detail.  We read in various places in the Word of people being questioned about their state. But they are questioned for the reason that each person believes that they are all alone in their thoughts and feelings. Besides, many are helped by being able to express their feelings, which usually does them good.