“Never Alone”
Rev.
Alison Longstaff, Sept 13, 2015
Bath
Church of the New Jerusalem
2 Kings 6:9-18; Luke
3: 23-38; Heavenly Secrets 2556
“You
are not alone in the universe, for you are surrounded by love.”
One
of the folks who supports my health is a registered medical doctor who has
switched his entire practice over to craniosacral therapy. Craniosacral treatments, for those who don’t
know, work at the energetic level of the body.
The healer’s hands touch your head or your feet or your back and any
movement is gentle and subtle. If you
are the sort of person who believes in the profound interconnectedness of the
spirit and body, then you would be comfortable with this sort of practitioner. My
right brain is fine with “energy healers.” My left brain waits in the car.
My
left brain is the grounded, evidence-based, scientist part of my
personality. My right brain is the flake,
um, I mean, “intuitive artistic genius.”
My scientific side feels intense discomfort whenever I spend money on
things like “energy healers.” So I give it a valium lollipop, wrap it in a
blanket, and tell it that it will all be over shortly. My inner flake artist gets to have her
batteries recharged in a way that works for
her, and my inner scientist keeps his mouth shut.
That
mini sermon on the two halves of my human nature was all brought to you as a
lead-up to my main point.
“You
are not alone in the universe, for you are surrounded by love.”
When
things in my personal life were heading abruptly downhill, last autumn, I found
myself on this gifted osteopath’s table.
He often works in silence. On
this occasion he said out of the blue, “You know, you have a huge network of
support.” He said it quietly and matter-of-factly. I immediately felt and “saw” rank upon rank of
loving spirits spreading out around me on all sides. These energies were all rooting for me. They
were all standing by, ready to help. I
did a lot of crying on that table—crying that needed to happen, crying that was
part of the healing.
He
was of course meaning that I had a huge network of spiritual support.
As
I was feeling particularly alone at that time, this was a tremendously helpful
and healing thing for him to say. How
did he know to say that at that time?
He just knew. He just did. That is how intuitive healing works. It drives some scientists nuts, but it illustrates the truth that there
is another level beyond this physical plane that is a key part of our reality. The
quantum physicists are only just discovering how this other whole dimension of
communication and connection might work.
How
is it that we just know things
sometimes? Is it perhaps because we are
not alone in the universe, and we are surrounded by love?
Being
creatures of the body, with our senses tuned into this physical reality, we
forget most of the time that there is any other reality but this one. Our lives actually teem with evidence that our
reality extends far beyond what we can see and hear—our experiences crackle
with clues that patterns and rhythms and gut feelings are telling us stuff all
the time that we have forgotten how to read or hear or understand. Much more
wisdom is available to us than we can imagine, and every once in a while we get
a glimpse of its magnitude. But because the
idea that immense wisdom and capability is just a thought or wish or spiritual
practice away—because that idea scares the
living daylights out of us, we get selective amnesia. We simply refuse to
see, or we explain away the “unexplainable” things we experience. Elisha and his servant were protected because
the earthly army surrounding them stopped being able to see. The army was “struck” with their own blindness,
and this prevented them doing harm.
We
mortals on our journey toward a more spiritual life do this all the time. We do
not see things we are not ready to see. It is so much a part of our coping that
we “forget” even that we do this.
I
have never seen any spirits. I have
never heard things that aren’t physically present. But I have many friends who see spirits so often that it is just a matter of
course for them. They have learned to
incorporate these experiences into their lives and make sense of them. They have also learned not to mention them to
too many people, because so many in our culture are not comfortable even thinking
about such things let alone hearing about them.
In
Gaelic culture this ability to see into the other realm is called the "second
sight." Someone with this ability might
be called “fey” or a “seer”—literally a “see-er,” or “one who sees.” Clairvoyant means “to see clearly.” By now I
have had so many people tell me spontaneously about their experiences seeing
spirits that I have gotten used to it. Maybe it is because I am a cradle
Swedenborgian. Maybe they can sense that
I am open to the possibility of these experiences being true despite what science might
say. One friend has to wave away all the
spirits who bombard her when she enters a hospital because they want her to
pass on messages to their loved ones.
She tells them sternly that she is there for personal reasons and is not
a messenger. She has had to draw
boundaries with them for her own survival.
This somehow makes sense to me.
Not all spirits are evolved and angelic and non-anxious. Not all spirits will have healthy boundaries.
The barrier that blinds and deafens us to that side of life protects all of us too.
Regardless
of how crazy it might sound, Swedenborg teaches us that we live in two
realities at once, and that some of us do experience the spiritual reality as
an overlay on this physical one from time to time. Swedenborg had this
experience frequently. This is either a
joy or an embarrassment to his readers depending on whether we are more open or
more closed to the idea of an intimate connection with the spiritual world. We all have a need for things to make sense,
and if getting our energy healed, or seeing spirits, or believing in acupuncture
or Feng Shui doesn’t fit into our idea of how reality operates, we will find a
way to disappear these things from our sight and attention. We will discount
them and explain them away. We become
blind to things we are not willing to see.
I don’t think that we need to worry about that. I think it is part of how we cope with our
incomprehensible experiences. We are
designed to filter out a huge part of our sensory data so that we can focus and
act here and now, so that we can feel free and autonomous, and so that we are
not freaked out by a reality we are not ready to handle or process.
Meanwhile,
as we stumble along with our filters and ear-plugs and sunglasses, we are not
alone in the universe, and we are surrounded by love.
Swedenborg refers to something he calls “the science of correspondences.” Correspondences are the ways physical reality
reflects or manifests spiritual realities.
When it comes to the Bible, “correspondences” are all the ways the words
and phrases embody, represent, and bring to mind spiritual dynamics. Swedenborg says that even if we don’t understand
or “see” these spiritual meanings as we read the Bible, the spiritual message
is still being communicated and stored up in our spirits. There is an actual energetic spiritual connection
with the words and phrases, and all the spirits connected to us are hearing spiritual
truths while we are reading the concrete stories. Imagine reading a children’s book with a
child. While the child is understanding the
story at a child’s level, we might be seeing all sorts of adult meanings or
more sophisticated concepts being communicated in the simple storyline. The child gets what the child gets, and we
get what we get because we are present with the child and have the ears to hear
something bigger.This time last week I was in meetings at the Center for Swedenborgian Studies in Berkeley, California. The meetings were delightful and stimulating, and I am so glad I went, despite the exhausting traveling that was required, and my ridiculous ability to get into absurd situations.
I
had been asked to give the closing devotion, and as usual, I had not prepared
anything because there had not been time.
A certain phrase from Swedenborg had been pressing forward in my mind during
the meetings: “Nothing unconnected ever occurs.” Because that phrase had been knocking on my
brain for a few days, I was looking it up on my iPad during the last session working
with the phrasing to turn it into a meditative prayer. It was during that reworking that I saw the “why”
behind the profound declaration that “nothing unconnected ever occurs.”
"Most of humanity has been completely unaware that every single aspect of human feeling, perception, and thought is simply the outward expressions of the Divine energetic force flowing into humankind. Because of this, every single aspect of human feeling, perception, and thought is actually interconnected with everything else that exists—but nobody knows this. In fact, each person is so energetically connected with those who are in their immediate spiritual community, that they would fall down lifeless if this connection were severed. Also because of this inflowing of all life from the Divine Source, it is impossible for anything to exist that is not connected to everything else." (Heavenly Secrets 2556 a portion)
I
don’t think we are meant to be thinking about these things all the time. I expect we function best when believe our
furniture is solid and the earth isn’t spinning and this reality right here is
the most important. Because that is the
truth for us right now. We feel independent and alone because it is best for
us.
“I
am with you always.” Always. Not, when we are good. Not when we have prayed the right way. Not,
“because you have signed up with the right church, or attended enough worship
services, or believe the right things.”
Always. What part of “always”
means not always?
The
life in each cell in each part of your body is God’s life. The life in each part of your consciousness
is sourced from God. That is how God is
with you and I even in the darkest moments.
That
made sense to me too.
“You
are not alone in the universe, for you are surrounded by love.”
2 Kings 6:9-18
And
Elisha sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you do not pass this certain
place, for the Arameans are coming down there.” Then the king of Israel
sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him and
confirmed it. Thus Elijah warned the king of Israel again and again about the
Arameans’ movements, and the king was protected.
Therefore
the heart of the king of Aram was greatly troubled by this thing; and he called
his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me which of us is for
the king of Israel?”
And
one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet
who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak
in your bedroom.”
So
he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may capture him.”
And
it was told him, saying, “Surely he is in Dothan.”
Therefore
he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and
surrounded the city. And when the servant of Elisha arose early and went
out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his
servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
So he
answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more
than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said,
“Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened
the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
As the
Aramean army advanced toward him, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please make them
blind.” So the Lord struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked.
Luke 3:23-38
Now Jesus
himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.
He was the
son, so it was thought, of Joseph,
the son of
Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melki,
the son of
Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of
Nahum,
who was the son of Esli, the son of
Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the
son of Josek, the son of Joda, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of
Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
who was the son of Neri, who was the
son of Melki, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of
Er, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat,
the son of Levi,
who was the son of Simeon, the son of
Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of
Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse,
who was the son of Obed, the son of Boaz,
the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of
Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac,
who was the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the
son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son
of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem,
who was the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of
Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son
of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Heavenly Secrets 2556 a portion
Most of humanity has been completely unaware that every single aspect of human feeling, perception, and thought is simply the outward expressions of the Divine energetic force flowing into humankind. Because of this, every single aspect of human feeling, perception, and thought is actually interconnected with everything else that exists---but nobody knows this. In fact, each person is so energetically connected with those who are in their immediate spiritual community, that they would fall down lifeless if this connection were severed. Also because of this inflowing of all life from the Divine Source, it is impossible for anything to exist that is not connected to everything else.
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