Divine or Human? - Communion sermon Sept 20, 2015

“Divine or Human?”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, Sept 20, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Psalm 8; Matthew 16:13-17; Doctrine of the Lord 29 

 I am going to say a big word.  Brace yourself.

“Christology.”

 

We learned lots of big words in seminary.  Christology was one of them. All of those big words annoyed me at first, because I felt left behind whenever someone used one.  If didn’t know the meaning, I felt stupid.  I didn’t want to have to ask, and honestly, in that first year there were so many new words, I got tired of asking what they all meant again and again and again.

Hold on. Here it comes again: “Christology.”

 

Big words are invented for a reason.  They don’t exist just to make some people appear super educated in relation to everybody else, though sometimes it may seem that way.  Big words sum up a complex concept under one name. 

For example, instead of saying, “That flower that represents love and has thorns and sometimes has a long stem,” when we want to talk about one of those things, we just say, “Rose.”

 

So “Christology” is a fancy word that just means “how we understand who Jesus Christ was.”  Was Jesus more Divine or more human?  Was Jesus more Human or more Divine?  This debate has existed since the very beginning of Christianity—yes, all the way back to the disciples.  This debate is summed up under the word “Christology” and the two apparently opposing perspectives are called, “High Christology” and “Low Christology.”  Both perspectives have good aspects and not-so-good aspects.  Listen up.

High Christology likes Jesus to be as Divine as possible.  It puts distance between Jesus and the human condition.  Baby Jesus smiles with eternal wisdom from the manger.  Teenager and adult Jesus moves serenely and calmly through his already-wise life.  High Christology art has Jesus looking mildly uncomfortable in Gethsemane and a bit unhappy on the cross.  In movies, Jesus is played with almost no emotional expression. In one movie, his hair didn’t even move when the wind blew. 

High Christology shows up in the Vertical beam of the cross. The Vertical beam represents the Divine in relationship with humankind.  God is “up there” and we are “down here.” High Christology architecture has lofty pulpits from which the preacher looks down upon the people.  The churches tend to be linear in architecture with straight-backed pews and straight lines.  The buildings are straight and narrow.  There is often high ritual, with incense and statuary, pomp and circumstance—illustrating the exalted status of God as our Divine ruler.  After all, how else does one venerate the King of heaven?  How does one approach the royal court?  What does one wear?  How does one behave?  Disapproving stares teach children and fellow church worshipers to keep themselves in order, because “heaven forbid” one should be poorly dressed or wiggle or cough when the Great King passes by.

 

While the reformation pared down the fancy dress, pageantry, and gilded accessories of High Christology worship in favor of simplicity, nevertheless it still kept God on high and humanity down low. “Worm” theology appears during this time period.  Rather than emphasizing the Glory of God, worm theology focuses on the sinfulness of humans. We are “worms,” therefore sinners, filth, excrement, and nothing but evil in relationship with God.  A lot of shame and guilt and “fear of the fires of hell” enter the discourse at this point.  Corrective doctrine, extreme reverence, and purity of life become the path to salvation.  Striving for perfection in the face of our human depravity become the stark black and white focus of this perspective.  It is so important to be in right relationship with God that service to the neighbor becomes almost irrelevant. It is in there somewhere, but it is not a big focus.

Very few churches are this extreme.  Most have a blend of High and Low Christology.  Do you have any sense of where you would be most comfortable?

The things that I treasure about High Christology is the respect and reverence for all things Holy.  I love the vaulted ceilings and soaring stained glass windows of the ancient cathedrals.  I love how the very movements of the bodies in the high ritual communicate respect and reverence for the Creator.  I love listening to Gregorian chant in a dim and cavernous cathedral. I love the way a great organ work vibrates right through my body as though the earth itself was moved to praise God.

 

High Christology produced some of humankind’s most remarkable buildings. That grandeur—that imposition of the sacred on our senses was born from a focus on the Divinity of God.  Where would we be without our great cathedrals, or even the sacred peacefulness evoked by this graceful and airy space?

A down-side to high Christology is that Jesus can be kept so Divine that his temptations become an intellectual exercise.  Feelings are too human for this most perfect man.  He was born from the Divine, walked around already Divine and went back to the Divine.  This sets up Jesus’s human experience as something other than what we experience, which misses the most fundamental significance of his incarnation. If we push Jesus too high up, there really is no “God with Us.” We must watch out for this pushing away of God. When we hold God far away, religion stays as an intellectual exercise—rather like doing jigsaw puzzles—satisfying in some way, but having little effect on how we live.

Low Christology sees Jesus as right down at our level. With low Christology Jesus is someone just like us, who laughed and cried, was confused sometimes, sweated, bled, and even needed the latrine. In low Christology paintings, Jesus looks like he is suffering.  In the movies he has human feelings and does human things.  He smiles, dances, laughs, and plays with the children. His hair moves in the wind.  And during the whippings and torture and crucifixion, he bleeds and he cries out in pain. Mel Gibson’s “The Messiah” is so very low in its Christology the viewer is wading in the blood and gore. The Divine purpose was so far removed from the story that the resurrection was the merest whiff of an afterthought—it is barely acknowledged.

  

Low Christology is shown by the horizontal beam of the cross.  That beam symbolizes the human plane and human interconnection—“we are all in this together.”  Where the vertical beam represents our relationship with the Divine, the horizontal beam is our call to live in good relationship with each other.  That beam represents Creation, in all its messiness and imperfection and beauty. Low Christology architecture tends to be circular and communal.  If there is a pulpit at all, it is lower or right down at ground level with the people. The circular arrangement of the pews allows worshipers to see each other’s faces as they worship together. 

In Low Christology Jesus is seen as our friend.  He is right down here in the muck with us, and completely understands what we go through in this life.  Low Christology Christianity doesn’t care so much what someone wears to church.  It tends to emphasize social justice and service to our fellow human beings.  There is a strong sense of connection to Jesus as he walked among us—with an emphasis to do as he did and live as he lived.  There is no need to hold God at arm’s length or to feel unworthy or to worry about our sinfulness.  That is not where the energy and attention go.  It goes toward service to the neighbor and toward connection and community as the Body of Christ.  It is not about whether people feel “worthy or unworthy” in relationship to God.  Helping each other is the purpose.

I treasure the warmth and, well, the humanity of low Christology.  I almost never see disapproving stares.  Having spent so much of my life in a very high Christology, the relaxed and kindly lack of perfectionism has been a refreshing and healing corrective for an overly worried and “uptight” spirit.  I love the focus on service and the easing up on the constant self-flagellation and soul-bleaching efforts that was part and parcel (for me!) of feeling forever not good enough, as a result of the long-term effects of my high Christology childhood.

A down-side to low Christology is that Jesus can become so human that we lose any sense of his power to make a difference in our lives (save).  He is so “down here with us” that He is in the same sinking boat with us, unable to calm the wind and waves.  We can make Jesus “just another human,” which loses the most fundamental aspect of this ancient story.  If there was no miraculous birth nor resurrection, he was just a really good guy, but no more special than any other great prophet.  We can become so comfortable with Jesus, that he ceases to be able to perform miracles in our lives, because we have no sense of his Divinity.

The main reason to learn about Christology is that how we understand God affects how God can come into our lives.  Any recovering addict can tell you the powerful effect of asking God into one’s life. No matter what name or face you give that Higher Power, that Love awaits your simple invitation.  God will sweep you off your feet, or move you gently along a quiet river of transformation, according to your need, but you must ask.  God will wait forever for you to ask. A simple, “Yes please,” will invite that extraordinary power down into your ordinary life.

The two beams of the Cross: the vertical beam—Divine, and the horizontal beam—Human.  Only where these two meet do we have that potent point of intersection—when the Divine breaks into our human experience.  That powerful moment, that “Big Bang,” is where it all happens.  It happens every single time we invite God into our imperfect lives.  But if Jesus is too Divine, we won’t let Him near.  If Jesus is too mortal, we don’t believe he has the power to save.

The Divine/Human tension shows up even in the two creation stories.  In Genesis 1, God thinks, things happen, and God is pleased.  It is a sort of remote-control creation—very tidy. Male and females are created in one “poof”.  God thinks, and we are, and it is very good. 

In the second creation story, found in Genesis 2, God is down in the muck, shaping things with the Divine hands.  (Notice, the Divine has hands.) God tries things out, tips his head, and then makes improvements.  It is a process, and it evolves. Humans are shaped from the dust (and perhaps some Divine spittle) and called “AdAM” (dust) because he was made from the “AdaMAH” (dust of the earth).  But the Man is “lonely.” (Did the Divine make a mistake?) So God throws together a solution on the spot.  God creates a woman from a spare piece of the man and fixes things.

Which of these stories would you say aligns with high Christology and which with low Christology?  It is a pretty big difference, and most people are not even aware that there are two creation stories.  And yet the tension between the different ways we understand God is right there, at the beginning of the Bible—one might say, “From our very creation.”

These two general perspectives, these two ways of seeing the Divine, are not meant to oppose each other.  Like the left and right sides of the body, we need both all the time and we function best when they are balanced and working as one.  Like maleness and femaleness, High and Low Christology can often seem to be completely different animals, and it is only from the point of their union that the Divine can burst on the scene with transformation and new life.

The Divine IS Human.  The Human IS Divine.  When we invite God into our run-of-the-mill lives day after day after day, our very ordinary lives increasingly sing of something Divine.  When we allow God’s transformative love to crack us open, we become increasingly ready to say, “Yes please!” again and again to the Divine, drawing closer with each encounter.

As we celebrate the Holy Supper following the sermon, I encourage you to invite the Divine into your life, however you might understand that.  Each one of us that comes to this table understands the symbolism differently.  Whether you believe the elements are truly the body and blood of Christ, purely symbolic, or some version of a blend of those, you are welcome at the table.  You are not just welcome, God waits, God asks, God desires to come into your life through the bread and the wine.  However you understand it, the Holy Communion is an enactment of the Divine entering into its beloved Creation. It enacts the Infinite touching the finite, with all the impossibility of that.  As you feel the bread and wine change your body, know that God desires to change your life for the miraculous, that you might be blessed.

Welcome to Christology.

The Readings

Psalm 8

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place, what is humankind that you are mindful of them, or human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Matthew 16:13-17

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has revealed it.”  

The Doctrine of the Lord #29

a.       The Lord from before time, sometimes called Jehovah, took on a human body to reconnect with the human race and turn us back to goodness. 

b.      The Lord turned that human body into something Divine because He was Divine.

c.       The Divine became human by taking on human mortal temptations through that body.

d.      He then completed the uniting of the Divine with that Human by the last and fiercest temptation which was the passion of the cross. 

e.       Step by step, through his life on earth Jesus transcended the merely physical/animal aspect of human nature, and this way united his human body with the Divine within Him. This is the Divine Human, and this is what we call the Son of God. 

f.       This is how God became fully Human, from the most initial elements, all the way down to this very flesh and blood existence.

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.

"Theodicy" (Theo-what?) - Sunday's discussion

"Theodicy"  (Theo-what?)

Church was cancelled AGAIN.

The ice made the roads too treacherous for our guest speaker, Rev Dr Reuben Bell, to make it up to us to preach.  So church was cancelled, and I was prepared to sit alone in the church with candles and Gregorian chant playing on the stereo, and praying.

Well it turns out that since worship had been cancelled the two previous Sundays, the longing for spiritual community won the day for several locals plus two not-so-locals!  As we had such a small community and no organist, I opted for a gentle discussion group with the seven of us.

I opened the Word, led us in prayer, read a little Scripture, and then after a few other discussion points, opened up the topic, "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?"

In case anyone cares, that HUGE spiritual question is called the question of "Theodicy," which is the attempt to understand how God can be good and yet there is so much evil in the world.



So we reviewed some of the ways people answer this question. (Note:  This is the way PEOPLE answer this question.  These are not necessarily "right" answers.)  Each one of us must answer this for ourselves and we often travel around between these or combine two or three as we struggle to make sense of this question.

1. God sends bad things as a punishment for sin. 
2. God sends bad things to test our character, or to show us what we are capable of
3. God allows bad things to happen because we need to learn something.
4. Bad stuff just happens and God isn't all that involved down at our level.
5. There is no God.
6. God doesn't cause evil nor prevent evil, but is right there with us walking through the suffering.  God's job is not to protect us from bad things happening to us but to be with us even in the heart of them.

We looked at each "solution" and reflected on the different ideological landing places.  I talked about some of the psychological underpinnings of these various solutions,  with each one making sense when we understand the sort of thinking or perspective that drives it.  

1. For example, deciding that God is punishing us for our sin comes from the sort of reasoning that causes a child to think they caused their parents' divorce.  It is connected to a feeling of dependency and powerlessness. We feel powerless in the face of the tragedy and want some sense of control.  We decide either God is Bad or we are, and the idea that God is evil is just too terrifying, because then we would be utterly helpless in a hostile universe.  In this case it is more comforting to think that we are to blame.  Because if we are to blame, we can maybe do something to make things better.  We still have agency---we still can have a way to put things right.  

2.  "God sends bad things to test us or show us what we are capable of."  We leaned more towards the "help us see what we can do" idea than the "God is testing us" idea.  (Besides, an omniscient God wouldn't need to test us.  And God is not passive aggressive, and does not need to grade us nor to create martyrs.)

3.  "God allows bad things to teach us something."  At least one member liked this one.  I certainly have heard such sentiments as, "I wish I would learn what I need to learn from this so it would pass."   Notice that the idea of "needing to learn something" gives us a feeling of some control in a tough situation.  In that case, if we just "learn" whatever it is we need to learn, the bad situation would go away, right?  I knew someone with a chronic illness who said fairly often, "I guess I haven't learned what I need to learn yet." Certainly all sorts of good learning and good secondary experiences (human compassion, human cooperation) can happen around and in the wake of tragedy.  But I am not sure that our learning is ever the primary reason God would allow our suffering.  

4.  "Bad stuff just happens."  God neither causes it nor prevents it.  This answer lets God at least be neutral, if a bit detached from human affairs.  This God has left us on our own, or has different priorities than we do. (Some could argue that this is a typical Swedenborgian conclusion, if we read only the passages that say that God doesn't pay attention to any temporal affairs unless they have a direct impact on our eternal well-being.  It does not take into account the numbers that say that God is aware and present in even the least moment of our lives, guiding and guarding while leaving us in spiritual freedom. Putting these teachings together implies that our perspective on tragedy and suffering and what is allowable is different than that of God's; meanwhile God cares deeply and is intimately present with us in our suffering.  This leads to 6.) 

5.  There is no God.  This is a common and understandable landing place for many of us in the face of deep suffering.  Please don't judge such a person. (To blame someone for losing their faith as a result of terrible loss and pain is just adding insult to injury.)  When one must choose between an incomprehensible, uncaring God or no God at all, many choose "no God."  Until one can see another option, "God cares and helps but doesn't always stop tragedy," the "no God" option makes perfect sense. 

6.  God is present with us in the suffering and carries us through.  God's job is not to protect us from earthly hardships, but to walk with us through them.  There are reasons this conclusion satisfies many theologians and pastors, though it can be small comfort to the one in the depth of suffering. We can remember that Jesus did not protect himself from horrible suffering, but walked all the way through it, even to the point of feeling abandoned by God and a slow agonizing death.  He braved the whole experience without sparing himself one bit, as a way to show he is willing to come with us into the very worst of human suffering, and as a way of saying there is something more beyond.

However, when someone you love is suffering, the best thing you can do is be with them, and ask them what they need.  If chaplaincy training taught me anything at all (and I still often need reminders of this, because the urge to offer comforting words can be so strong) it is the value of the ministry of presence.  What most folks need in the heart of a crisis is company more than quotes, a steady presence, rather than platitudes.  Just be there. Just stand by them. Words are not as necessary as you might think.

Well, this summary of our discussion has turned into a mini sermon.  I have shared some extra things here and skipped some others.  I hope we all came away with new tools and ideas to support us in living into this profound question.

We wrapped up our discussion and shared an amazing tea hour (no coffee).  And we sent each other off with love and wishes for safe travels.

And I will leave it on that sentiment.  Life can be slippery and uncertain sometimes.  May we all go carefully.  And when the worst happens to one of us, may we all take extra good care of each other, and the bruised one most of all.

Blessings,
Pastor Alison

What Is the Bible For? a sermon

What is the Bible For?

Rev. Alison Longstaff

Revised for Jan 26, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Psalm 30; John 1: 1-5; True Christianity 235 

I’m guessing that not a few of us have wished in exasperation that the Bible wasn't quite so odd and archaic.  It can be very hard to explain to the unchurched what (if any) value it has, let alone what value there might be in spending precious time reading it.  Especially in this scientific day and age, when the mystical side of life is routinely dismissed and devalued, it can be hard to explain what value lies in the Bible at all. 

What is the Bible for?  We can say it is God’s Word.  We can say it is God’s travel guide for this paradoxical life, but do we really know how and in what way the Bible serves its purpose, more than providing a basis for weekly morality lessons?   In Swedenborgian circles, we believe it has an internal meaning, but does that really change how much time the average person spends reading it?  What, exactly, is the Bible for?

The Bible, the Word of God, the Sacred Scriptures---these are some of the names for this ancient collection of stories which have been cobbled together and edited and re-edited over the centuries.  Even Christians can’t agree what books really belong in the Bible nor into what order they should be sorted.  All Christians will agree that this thing that we call the Bible is sacred.  However, how we hold it as sacred is another problem altogether.  Increasingly, Christians today seem to be going one of two ways with this holy collection of books---either we view the written words as entirely infallibly literally true, or we supposedly “pick and choose”: ignoring the boring, distasteful, and puzzling parts while digging deep into the rich old stories and parables. 

Since this congregation and denomination do not fall into the literalist camp, we tend

toward the second option.
Truth be told, I believe we have found a third way, but more on that another day.  Regardless, whole chunks of the Bible are almost never read by anyone anymore, except by the most devout readers or advanced Biblical scholars.  Many churches follow a lectionary, thinking that through it, they cover the whole Bible over a span of three years.  They do not.  Whole sections are never read, and therefore, never heard.

Looking at some of these ignored sections, it is small wonder! 

Genesis 5: 18-24 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

  

Cue the crickets.

But the thing is, this is great stuff!  How do I know?  Well ... experience. 

Okay.  Think of someone you know and love well, someone whose outward appearance isn’t up to Hollywood’s standards, but whose inner character delights you.  Let’s call this person “Chris” since that could be male or female. When you speak of Chris, you might say, “Oh, he’s awesome!” or “I love her.  She’s so great!”  Because of this, a friend meeting Chris for the first time might expect to meet someone with greatness tattooed on his or her forehead.  Instead they might be surprised to find Chris ordinary or even eccentric in appearance and then wonder what you were so excited about.

Or perhaps you yourself, after hearing glowing reports about some great person (we’ll call this person “Pat”) upon meeting might feel mystified by Pat’s unremarkable or even odd outward appearance.  “This is Pat?” you might say inside yourself.  “THE “Pat?” Really?”

The truth is that all of us, until we know the insides of a person, tend to judge by the outsides.  First impressions are rarely the same as last impressions.  But once we do know a person’s insides, we tend to forget the outsides, instead seeing their whole selves through the eyes of love.

So believe me, the same way that we can learn to love a human friend who comes in unusual physical packaging, we can learn to love the Word.  The Sacred Scripture, much of it written over 2000 years ago, does indeed come in strange packaging.  But to love it, we must get past appearances.  We must get to know the magical, life-giving soul within its unusual packaging.  How do we do this?  The same way we do with any new friend. We spend time with it and we learn about it.  So, meet the Bible:

Leviticus 14:34-40  When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;  And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:”  Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean : and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house: And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look : and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house; Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city:

Yup. Laws about leprosy in a house. Try preaching a sermon on that!  (Actually, Swedenborgians have all sorts of resources that allow us to preach a fascinating sermon on that.  Hint: it is about healthy and unhealthy structural elements in a person’s belief system, and about how to determine if the crumbling and weakening is evidence of surface problems that can be renovated, or a sign that the whole house---attitude, outlook, interpretation---is unstable and unfit and needs to come down.  Cool, eh?)  

But back to my point, it takes practice and education to learn to see through the strangeness in the Bible.  But I promise you, it is well worth the time it may take!

         

So. Tell the truth. How many of you have a habit of reading the Bible (almost) every day?

How many have ever read the entire thing, cover to cover?

If you are doing or have done either of these, pat yourself on the back.  You have done a good thing, according to Swedenborg.  If you haven’t, don’t worry yourself, you are in good company.  We all have many things we are dealing with, and most of us have not realised just how much good is done for our souls when we spend time with these texts, either through listening to or reading them ourselves.  And not just for our own souls, you see, when anyone reads the Sacred Scriptures, whether they know the internal sense or not, they contribute to the well-being of all of heaven.  I repeat, when anyone reads any part of the Sacred Scriptures, whether they know the internal meaning or not, they contribute to the well-being of all of heaven.

So says Swedenborg, anyway:

I have been allowed to perceive that when I read the Word in its earthly meaning, communication is established with the heavens, at one time with one community, at another time with another. The words which I understand in their earthly meaning are understood by the spiritual angels in their spiritual meaning and by the celestial (highest) angels in their celestial meaning, and this immediately. I have observed and felt this communication thousands of times.  These direct experiences have shown me that the Word in its earthly meaning provides a marvelous way of being closer to the Lord and connected with the angels in heaven. True Christianity §235

It’s as simple as that.  Simply reading the Word connects our spirits with heaven and invites the Lord to come closer.  Memorizing parts or verses can actually give us spiritual touchstones or amulets of comfort which we can pull out of our memories and recite to ourselves in the midst of hard times.  And if we are so lucky as to have time to really learn some of the correspondences in the Word in detail, we can begin to unearth revelations upon revelations of meaning.  It’s really cool!  Light shines even onto the dark and mystical stories

of the Apocalypse, transforming those threatening tales into a love story of tremendous beauty.  Yes, even in the Book of Revelation. For behind those dire prophecies we find the story of the Lord as the Lover and Bridegroom, and each one of us as the beloved or bride.  God woos us, and we respond.  God, like a prince or knight in an ancient fairy tale comes to rescue us, from monsters, beasts, and seven-headed dragons.  The Book of Revelation is the way it is because the process of getting to our happy ending---which is heaven, which is a state of true happiness based on true personal integrity and loving-kindness---can feel pretty dire and hopeless sometimes.  This is shown in the book of Revelation by all the frightening drama and prophecies of doom.  But it is the story of how human life already tends to go, not how it will go at some time in the future.  We are already living through these dramatic events in our personal lives.  This is God’s word of comfort saying, “I see that it will sometimes feel like the sky is falling, but you will be okay.  I know that it will sometimes look like your every hope for the future is going to be devoured by dark circumstances beyond your control, but fear not!  There is no reality or power outside of my love; and all of the drama will be transformed into peace, welcome, safety, and home.  Just hang in there.  Trust

me.”

There is so much more to say!  I am on page five so I need to wrap this up.  So I will close today’s message by saying again: whether we understand correspondences or not, simply reading the Sacred Scriptures for ourselves or listening to someone else read them feeds our souls. It provides a connection with God, and nourishes the angels in heaven.  Even if we are reading a long list of who begat who, or a list of building materials in cubits, or what to do with a stray ox on the Sabbath, every word---every verb, every noun---contains deep spiritual gems that nourish the angels and connect us all with God.  We don’t have to know what vitamins and minerals are in each bite of food for it to be able to nourish our bodies, and Swedenborg is telling us that we don’t have to understand the spiritual sense of the Word for it to be feeding our spirits.

If you aren’t in the habit, consider starting a small practice of tossing a crumb or two to the angels each day.  Each verse is associated with a different society in heaven, so even if you spend time with only one verse, the connection is happening and joy is being communicated. 

In some magical way, the Bible is the very presence of God with us.  It is a lifeline of communication with all the spirits of heaven.  Yet it is cloaked in a mystical, magical packaging of ancient stories, so humble and plain as to appear to the uneducated eye as uninteresting as a common stable.  The stories can be appealing, like the sweet smell of hay, as warm as the collective heat of stable animals, or as off-putting and distasteful as the by-products of those animals.  All the while it is the Word of God and God with us.  How paradoxical.

Come, spend more time in that stable, it is where God is born in you.

I promise you, if you take the time to really get to know this remarkable book, you will find your life transforming and healing in subtle, remarkable ways.

So, what is the Bible for?  Why don’t you tell me in a few months?  I’d like to hear how it goes.

Amen.

Originally preached July 4^th, 2010 at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Kitchener, Ontario

Adapted from a paper for Inese Radzins, STHS-3780.SP09, TCR. Written May 21, 2009

The Readings

Psalm 30

1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 3 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. 4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. 6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved." 7 By your favor, O Lord, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed. 8 To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication: 9 "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? 10 Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!" 11 You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

John 1:1-5 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

True Christianity §235

I have been allowed to perceive that when I read the Word in its earthly meaning, communication with the heavens is established, at one time with one community there, at another time with another. The words which I understand in their earthly sense are understood by the spiritual angels in their spiritual sense, and by the celestial angels in their celestial sense, and this too upon the instant. Since I have perceived this communication some thousands of times, I have no doubt left concerning it. These direct experiences have enabled me to know that the Word in its earthly meaning provides a Divine means of being connected with the Lord and associated with the angels in heaven.