All Things New

All Things New - a sermon

August 11, 2013 at 9:38pm

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Rev. Alison Longstaff, Aug 9, 2013

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem, Maine

Scriptures: Luke 15: 1-10, Revelation 21: 1-7, Apocalypse Explained 675:10

These readings can be found at the end of this document, if desired.

Our text for today is, “Behold, I make all things new.” This is not just an observation in the voice of God.  This is a promise.  It is the same promise that gave birth to the resurrection of our Lord---the promise that nothing good ever truly dies.  No aspect of God’s love can ever cease to exist in any way.  It simply can’t.  The Love of God is the only reality and created all things, so every aspect and face of that love continues.  Death itself is an illusion.  Yes, the death of beloved time periods, of beloved relationships and institutions, and most especially of family and friends is a very real and painful part of mortal existence.  But mortal existence is not the end of the story.  It is just the prologue to a much bigger story. 

In the bigger story nothing good ever dies.  Jesus showed us this in the most profound way, and we see the theme recurring in many popular stories today: with Aslan, with Obi-wan Kenobi, with Gandalf, and yes, absolutely with Harry Potter.  The truth of this fact appears again and again: all that is truly wise and loving can never actually be killed, no matter how strong the forces of evil may seem to be.  Love wins, every time, by force of gentleness and persistence.  It can seem to die, and the loss is terrible at the time.  But it always returns transformed and more powerful than ever. All things can be made new. 

In preparing to come for this visit, I was emailing with Rev. George about the way candidating for a congregation feels a bit like dating.  George responded uncertainly, saying that that cast him in the role of the protective parent, with which role he wasn't thrilled.  I kept chewing on that metaphor, and my thoughts turned to, “Actually, George is more like the “ex…” except he is also supporting the congregation in finding the replacement spouse...  And the metaphor just got weirder after that.

I was left wondering if there is any metaphor that serves to describe the dance we are enjoying together this weekend?  This is indeed something like a first date.  A ministerial candidate could perhaps be seen to be something like a prospective adoptive parent?  Or even a step-mom?  But wouldn’t that make me “wicked?”  

No, this friendly looking-one-another-over keeps feeling like a mutual courtship.  It is somehow more than a job interview, due to the intimacy of the prospective relationship.  But it is not as intense and far reaching as a marriage proposal.  The pastor-parish relationship is somehow something unique in the world.  We are indeed here this weekend exploring the possibility of a committed relationship---one in which we all bring our individual strengths to the game and call out the best from each other.  This is not just a job interview.  Pastoring a church is so much more than a job.  It has a peculiar blending of civil and spiritual, of practical and mystical, of human and divine.  It is a sobering undertaking.  It is serious, and real, and weighty. 

As I sat down to reflect on the transition Bath is facing, I was flooded with images from the movie “Truly, Madly, Deeply.”  In it British actress Juliet Stevenson gives us a touching look at a newly widowed young woman trying desperately to reconcile herself to the loss of her husband.   We see intense grief. She has lost a best friend, a companion, half of her piano-cello duet; she has lost her life in so many ways, and the only way forward is through her grief.  It is a poignant, endearing, and tenderly told story of loss and new life, and in no way minimizes the real work involved in releasing the old to make room for the new.

When she gets stuck in the grief, her husband’s ghost, played tenderly by Alan Rickman, moves back into the flat with her.  Her joy and relief is palpable.  They cuddle and laugh and play music together the way they used to.  It seems idyllic at first, except for the awkward fact that he is dead and no one else can see him.  As the story goes on, she must continue to eat and sleep and go to work the way mortals do, while he grows paler and colder and increasingly lonely. He keeps turning up the heat to warm himself. And he invites hoards of ghost-friends over to keep him company while she is at work or when she is trying to sleep.  It becomes noisier and increasingly crowded in her flat.  Then he starts redecorating.  

She is less and less delighted.

Then a dear and very alive gentleman comes into her life.  Finally, she accepts his friendship.  When she heads off on a date with this new gentleman, we see her ghost-husband, surrounded by a host of his spectral buddies watching her go with a wistful grimace of satisfaction, that we realize he has been intentionally making himself a nuisance all along in order help her get over him.  That is how truly, madly, and deeply he loved her.

And this is where the Bath church’s story departs from the movie-plot, for beloved Rev. George is very much alive, and I don’t think he is capable of being a nuisance, even if he tried.  Still, there are several points of resonance.  George loves this church deeply, and wants with his whole heart to see you move forward in good hands.  Also, no matter who steps forward to lead you from this point on, there will be grief for the loss of what

has been.  To lose George as your leader is a loss indeed, and I want to acknowledge that the coming years will include sadness and nostalgia for Rev. George’s leadership-style.  Anyone who follows in his footsteps has the unmistakable disadvantage of not being him, with his gentleness, wise insights, and deep love of the doctrines.  Leave space for this sadness.  Try not to take it out on your new leader, nor on each other.  You are very blessed here, in that I suspect that George will be able to remain around as a mentoring and helping presence without conflict for your new leader, but bear in mind, there will still be pangs of loss.  There will be bumps in the transition.  Go gently with each other. Transformation is the end in sight and the promise, but transition is uncomfortable, and some grumpiness is inevitable.

“Behold, I make all things new,” is God’s promise to lead you into transformation, growth,and new life.  New life always involves a death of the old, but it need not mean irreparable loss nor a rapid change to something unrecognizable.  It need not nor should it leave anyone behind.  Every congregation goes through life cycles, and the Bath Church of the New Jerusalem is at a key point in its journey---you are primed to burst into new growth. 

The Lord can make this tiny congregation new.  God’s promise includes “everything,” as we read in today’s reading from Apocalypse Explained.  But one must sweep the house to find what is needed.  Our story from Luke does not say that the woman hesitated to sweep, or feared what she would find if she swept.  She didn't question whether she was worthy to be the mistress of all she would find or if she knew enough truth first.  She simply lit a candle, which means she brought her best love to light the way, and she swept house diligently.  She cleaned spiritual house, because that is the only way to find what was lost.  Apocalypse Explained says that “sweeping the house means to review everything inside one’s being, where the truth lies hidden.”  The truth lies hidden within one’s being, not outside of it.  This is speaking about the manna or goodness that God has tucked away inside each of us and inside this congregation.  It is saying that this congregation already has all it needs inside its gifts and strengths, to become what God intends. You already are and have all that you need, should you choose the path to growth.

“Behold, I make all things new,” says our Lord.  Now it is your time to grow!  Bring your best love, and get sweeping.  You will find you already have what it takes within you.  Congratulations on your courage to make this transition, and blessings as you go forward.  Thank you for the privilege of meeting you,and please know that no matter whom you choose as your new leader, I am sure good things lie ahead.  Fear not.

Amen.

The Readings:

Using the Inclusive Bible by Priests for Equality:

Luke 15: 1-10 Meanwhile the tax collectors and the “sinners” were all gathering around Jesus to listen to His teaching, ² at which the Pharisees and the religious scholars murmured, “This person welcomes sinners and eats with them.”³ Then Jesus addressed this parable to them:  ⁴ “Who among you, having a hundred sheep, and losing one of them, doesn’t leave the ninety-nine in open pasture, and search for the lost one until it’s found? ⁵ And finding it, you put the sheep on your shoulders in jubilation. ⁶ Once home, you invite friends and neighbors in and say to them, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep!’ ⁷ I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.  ⁸ “What householder, who has ten silver pieces and loses one, doesn’t light a lamp and sweep the house in a diligent until she finds what she has lost? ⁹ And when it is found, the householder calls in her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me!  I have found the silver piece I lost!’ ¹⁰ I tell you, there will be the same kind of joy before the angels of God over one repentant sinner.”

Rev 21: 1-7 Then I saw new heavens and a new earth, for the former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer. ² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, as beautiful as a bride prepared for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne, “Look, the tabernacle of God is among humankind,and God will abide with them, and they shall be God’s people. God will be fully present among them. ⁴ The Most High will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” ⁵ Then the One who sat on the throne said, “See, I make all things new;” and added, “Write; for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ And that One continued, “It is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To those who thirst I will give drink freely of the spring of the water of life. ⁷ This is the rightful inheritance of those who overcome. I will be their God and they shall be My daughters and sons.

From The Apocalypse Explained by Emanuel Swedenborg, paragraph # 675:10 

Ten signifies “a whole lot” and “everything.” Because of this, the number ten appears in passages where “a whole lot”and “everything” is to be understood, such as the story of the woman having ten pieces of silver. If she lost one piece, would she not light a candle and sweep the house, and seek carefully till she found it? (Luke xv. 8). Ten here signifies “everything.” There is spiritual meaning in every detail of the Word.In the spiritual meaning, “woman” signifies “the church” regarding its love for truth. A “piece of silver” stands for truth, and losing the piece of silver is about losing one’s understanding of the truth. Lighting a candle corresponds to self-examination from affection; sweeping the house means to review everything inside one’s being, where the truth lies hidden. This is the spiritual meaning of these words. A hundred, like ten, also signifies everything; therefore a similar parable speaks of a hundred sheep, and if one were lost (Matt. xviii 12, 13; Luke xv. 3-7).  

Magic and Miracles - Reflections on the Hero's Journey

This is from a sermon I preached in 2008... yet it is strangely relevant today

“Magic and Miracles”

Exodus 17: 1-7; Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16; Matthew 21:23-32

                                                          

Raise your hand if the Bible seems like it is about a bunch of people who died a long time ago, whose lives and culture were so different from ours, that we really can't relate.  

Okay.  

Hands down. 

Now raise your hand if you believe that the Bible was written for all people of all time. 

Hands down.  

Thank you.  

Me too.  

You see, both are true for me, depending on the day.  

But one thing I do know is that people are people, no matter what era or culture we live in. And there is a universality about our human condition---a common ground when it comes to our fears, struggles, and longings---that transcends all our cultural and generational differences.  We really aren’t that different from each other, deep down inside.  

Because of that, the stories in the Bible truly can resonate for us today, no matter how different the time and culture may seem to be.

So, in today’s Psalm we heard about “dark sayings of old,” passed down from our ancestors.  In our story from Exodus we see an old man with a staff magically bring water gushing out of a dead, dry rock.  Staffs and magic.  It all sounds like something out of Harry Potter. 

Who knew that Dumbledore was in the Bible?  Or Gandalf, or Merlin?  But think of Moses, with his flowing white beard and great staff of power, struggling to lead a rag-tag group of wanderers on a long and desperate journey.  It’s starting to sound rather similar.

Well, as this is a Swedenborgian church, let’s see what Swedenborg has to say about it all.  .... I looked, but I couldn't find a single remark about Harry Potter in any of Swedenborg’s books.  

But Swedenborg does talk about magic wands.

 

Actually, Swedenborg talks about “correspondences,” which is ancient, ancient wisdom.  The earliest peoples saw the interconnectedness of all things and lived in a constant state of deep spiritual awareness.  This kind of wisdom has been lost for centuries.  We see only traces of it in ancient cultures, like the way the Celts believed that trees had spirits, and the first nation peoples used totem animals to represent different strengths in their tribes, and the way the aboriginals of many lands seem to intuitively know which plants are good for healing.

Moses used a staff (or big magic wand) because of what a staff corresponds to---a staff represents wisdom and power.  Kings held scepters for the same symbolic reason.  Merlin and Gandalf were given staffs because that same ancient knowing is carved so deeply into our imaginations.

A hand, or “right hand” symbolizes a person’s power, and a staff was an extension of that hand. That is why Moses was told to stretch out his staff in order to effect a miracle, like when he parted the Red Sea or brought water from the rock. The wands that we find in the hands of Harry Potter and his friends are the modern day symbolic descendants of the staffs of power. 

A staff also corresponds to wisdom.  That is another reason we see them in the hands of magicians and wise men in fiction.  A staff represents the great knowledge that the wise men had at their disposal.  In the days before widespread education, their unique learning definitely elevated them above the common people, bringing them respect, power, and status.

But there was a difference between Moses and the wise men of Pharaoh.  The difference lies in the way they used their power and knowledge.  Pharaoh’s wise men had access to a lot of ancient knowledge, but they used it to control others.  They knew how to use it to manipulate reality, and in the beginning could copy some of the wonders and signs that Moses did.  They represent the parts of us and times in us when we are not acting from sincere and good motives.  We can fake an awful lot of goodness.  We can make ourselves look kind and loving when inside we are still pretty unkind and selfish.  This lets us practice being good, and learn about the difference between the real and the fake goodness, but it is not meant to be somewhere we stay.  By the time Moses was battling with Pharaoh’s wise men, their fakery represents a way of living that really needs to be left behind.  Moses represents the call to a real integrity--- to living in such a way that our outsides begin to match our insides.  When we are beginning to live from a truly loving place, from the Lord, our “power,” our quality of life, has a sincerity to it that leaves Pharaoh’s faker magicians dumbstruck and helpless.

Moses’ battle with Pharaoh’s wise men is just the beginning of a long journey.  Just like Frodo's journey in The Lord of the Rings and Harry’s journey in the Harry Potter novels, there are a lot of scary things still ahead.  Our heroes simply won’t make it through without the help of wise friends and supernatural forces.  It was the same for the Children of Israel. 

Psychologists who study such archetypal mythologies say that we love such stories precisely because they resonate so strongly with our human experience.  We are all on a quest to become better than we are.  We are all driven to rid ourselves of whatever dark forces haunt us; we are all compelled from the cradle to find our true other, our true love---and to live with a sense of purpose and peaceful belonging.  These longings lie at the core of each one of us with very little variation from person to person.   Deep inside we are not so different from one another.

So you and I are born into our own hero’s journey, and you and I, even now, are on a quest. 

It is the quest for integrity, belonging, and meaning.  It is the quest to our truest self and true home.  

None of us will make it either, without the help of wise friends and supernatural powers.  But with them, we will all make it, no matter how scary and hopeless it sometimes looks.

Now, it may seem as though I’m playing fast and loose with the Bible story here, but bear with me.

If God loves every single one of us with absolute devotion, tenderness and compassion; if God wants us to become more and more content, fulfilled, and blessed for the rest of our lives, then it stands to reason that He will use every resource at hand to give us meaning, inspiration, and courage---yes, even the Harry Potter series.

You are a rare person indeed if you can read the Moses story and find it as magical, fun, and totally cool as some of today’s modern fiction.  But that's okay.  The Bible is a highly sophisticated style of spiritual writing with a whole lot going on, and isn't meant to be modern fiction.  It wasn't designed that way.  It has got too much else it needs to do given its limited context and simple language.  It speaks to a  deeper part of our psyches, if we are to believe Swedenborg, creating lines of communication between us and heaven---between us and God.  It isn't so much meant to entertain us, as to feed us on a deep spiritual level.  It is like a densely nutritional spiritual drink (that sometimes tastes like lawn clippings) where Harry Potter is more like frozen yogurt.  It is okay to prefer modern fiction.  Just try not to dismiss the Bible altogether.  It's cooler than you think.

Now, running with this hero's journey metaphor, if we are indeed on our own quest, then we, too, have devoted and loyal friends; we, too have weak companions who will help us sometimes and betray us other times.  We, too have powerful allies, and a magical, powerful mentor who has this annoying habit of disappearing just when we need him most, but who shows up just in the nick of time to bail us out of scrapes.

Does this resonate with your life?  Think about it awhile.  

Now, for me, I have several pretty cool earthly mentors, but my Gandalf figure is more like my relationship with God.  Sometimes it really feels like God is present, and I feel safe and hopeful and positive, and strangely magical things seem to sweep away the road blocks and monsters in my life.  But other times, God seems completely out of earshot.  Gone.  Unreachable.  Maybe even dead.  And life is pretty hard to get through during those times.

I'm guessing a lot of people feel this way.  At times like this, we have no choice but to go on, though the whole project can seems pretty hopeless.  We tend to think we've done something wrong to make God go away, but that isn't necessarily true.  Sometimes, it is a necessary phase of the journey.  We don’t often realize it, but we tend to grow much stronger during those times.  We develop and hone our God-given strengths, and really learn to cherish our travelling companions as well.  It isn't fun, it definitely isn't comfortable, but we can learn some important personal lessons when we are feeling alone.

The children of Israel whined a lot when things got rough.  They certainly felt like God had abandoned them several times on their journey.  Things got so bad, they were threatening to kill Moses.  They were going to stone him with stones.  Instead, God brought their salvation just in the nick of time, using a stone.  The thing that could have killed Moses became the source of their salvation.  Water from a rock.  Life out of death.  There is layer upon layer of meaning in this simple story.

In our lives, big and small miracles are happening around us all the time, though we often don’t remember to look for them.  And I don’t just mean the miracle of a baby’s birth or a grandchild’s first word.  I don’t even mean the miracle of a completed sermon by Sunday morning.  I mean the sort of strange miracle which we call coincidence, or serendipity---the sort which tends to make us want to sing the theme music from the Twilight Zone.

You know what I’m talking about. 

 

Five years ago, smack in the middle of the absolute worst years of my life, I had pretty much lost my faith in God.  Rotten stuff just kept happening, month after month.  I was really not on speaking terms with whoever was in charge of the universe, if anyone was.  I was too blasted angry.

The thing is, strange things kept happening during those years.  Really strange things that I can only say felt like encouraging nudges from some supernatural presence---I don’t know how else to describe them.  Call them synchronicity.  Call them hocus-pocus, or chalk them up to my wild imagination, but there were enough of them to make me sit back and take notice. 

Sometimes, they were down right silly.  And often, they made me laugh.

Does God communicate with us in such indirect ways?   I don’t know.  But during those hellishly difficult years, coincidence after magical coincidence kept happening.  Nothing that forced me to believe in God, nothing that forced me to let go of the disillusionment---just gentle, often humorous oddities that defied explanation.    Amidst all the chaos and pain, some Divine Being was playing a kazoo, trying to get me to smile.  I felt seen, supported, and almost elbowed in the ribs by some benevolent source.  It was crazy.  I think this was my “manna,” small and sweet, during my wilderness, giving me just enough encouragement to get through another day.

The saying that God never gives us more than we can handle is simply not true.  God frequently lets us go through more than we can handle; it is just never more than God can handle.  And it is never without a purpose for good for everyone involved in the long run. Period.  Never.  I learned a bunch of things during those terrible years---things I don’t think I could have learned any other way.  One thing I needed to realize was that it wasn't God’s job to spare me from pain and suffering.  God’s job is to help you and me grow into the best, most wise and loving people we can be, as far as we will allow it.  Sometimes that involves some pretty uncomfortable experiences, but the pain is never for nothing.  God always hides miracles and gifts amid the rocks along the way. 

So when you go from this place today, I hope you go away encouraged.  God is always working miracles in your life, even though you can’t see his magic wand.  God’s compassion shows up in all sorts of surprising ways if we just remember to look for it.  Call these things coincidence.  Call them serendipity.   Call them what you like, but I call them miracles.  I think they are little post-it notes from God reminding us that we are not alone.  Just wave back, and say “thanks.”

Amen.