“Don't Believe; Be LOVE”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, April 27, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Psalm 16; John 20:19-31; Heavenly Secrets 1799:4

Today we heard the story of Thomas—of the famous “doubting Thomas” who needed to see and feel and touch the risen Lord, in order to believe in His resurrection. Doubting Thomas, the one who needed proof, the one who prompted God to say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Believe. Belief. What is belief? In our culture, we have come to define belief as “confidence in something’s accuracy.” It is a purely mental exercise which involves approval of something as true. “Belief” in Christian circles has taken on such an identification with the rightness of ideas that it has become pretty well divorced from our heart reality and how we live. Indeed, we Christians seem to be reduced quite easily to squabbles over minute differences in our theologies when we could be working in harmony to live and love better, to reduce the suffering on our planet. We seem to prefer to spend our time getting huffy and drawing up battle lines over our different theological interpretations. We kick the beggars into the ditch in order to make more room for us to fight. What ever happened to us beating our swords into plowshares?

Belief. The original meaning of “belief” was not so much about ideas or statements of truth as it was about love. The origins of the word “belief” can be traced back to Proto-Germanic, and it was based on a root word for love. The German word “liebe,” which means “love” comes from the same source. Indeed, “believe” could be translated into “be-love” which is much closer to what it really meant. It was about living what we loved. It was about committing to a way of life. The original Christians “believers” committed themselves to a life of love and service to their neighbours, not to a framework of theological theories.

They committed to caring for the widows, the orphans, and the homeless because they loved the vision of a world transformed by such a life. They saw themselves in the homeless and widows, and they treated them as they would want to be treated. The way they lived was a commitment to the Golden Rule in every corner of their lives. How the meaning of the word “belief” has changed through the ages!

There is an old story from first century Palestine of a mischievous man who asked Rabbi Hillel, a famous rabbi of that time, to teach him Judaism while standing on one foot. So, while standing on one foot, Rabbi Hillel responded: "Don't do to others what you wouldn't have them do to you. That is all the Torah (God’s Word); all the rest is commentary.”

What a great story. I believe it speaks to all faiths of all time. Christianity can be simplified to the same basic tenet. It is about treating others as we would like to be treated.

What we are talking about is compassion. Compassion, which could be another translation for the “good will to all people” that is prophesied by the host of angels to the shepherds. Wouldn’t this indeed bring peace on earth, “good will to all people”? 

The Dalai Lama has stated: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” More than one scholar has observed that the fundamental uniting element of all the major world religions is the Golden Rule–to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. How would the world be different if only we all lived according to it!

Our rules and creeds and theological theories tend to divide us. Our hearts and love and human compassion tend to unite us. It is this realization that brings a whole new meaning to the Lord’s words to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” It speaks to our tendency to be exclusive in our Christianity. It could be read as, “Blessed are those who have not met and come to love Jesus Christ as their Saviour and still have come to live a life of goodness and compassion.” Indeed, wouldn’t such people, be they Buddhist or Jewish or agnostic, by virtue of living the golden rule, find their lives and relationships transformed in blessed ways regardless of what religious organisation has their signature of membership? I would imagine their lives are certainly more peaceful than that of any Christian “believers” who are busy squabbling and fighting over points of dogma. Who would you say is more blessed?

And so it is with you and I, be we Swedenborgian or Seventh Day Adventist, Unitarian or UCC, Catholic or Christian Reformed; we will find we are blessed by living the Golden Rule, regardless of our denominational affiliation. People of faith the world over do not necessarily believe every word of their traditional creeds, but they belong because they long for a blessed life. They long for belonging, and for their lives to have meaning and purpose. We belong, because we need community and we long for meaning. Don’t we all, especially when we are feeling that our own efforts are getting us nowhere, long to believe that there is some transformative power for good in the universe that can set things right, because our efforts repeatedly fall short?

Author and speaker Karen Armstrong has found that when we commit to a spiritual way of living, we are transformed by that commitment and by the living of it. It is in the practice of living a way of love that brings transformation, that lets us glimpse God. It is through ministry to others that we can feel the sense of what is sacred. Just as we experience in the Holy Communion, a very mundane act can become transcendent, and we can feel God’s presence.

So, to believe is to be love.  “Believing” is not when I say with my lips how I understand God, but when I show with my hands and my feet how I understand God’s love in the world.  When we commit to living the Golden Rule, the process of doing so brings God’s grace into our lives.  Though our culture says “belief” means “trust in certain ideas,” we have seen that believing is not and cannot be separated from how we live and how we love.  When we commit to living a compassionate or “Golden Rule” way of life, it changes us.  

Now, back to doubting Thomas. Doubting Thomas needed to see and feel God’s wounds in order to believe. I have tended to judge him for that. When I have heard this passage, I have liked to think I would be one of the blessed who believes without seeing, not the obnoxious one who needs proof. But the thing is, lately I realize how much I do identify with Thomas. Sometimes I want physical proof that my God has not died and is still with me. I would guess, whether we like to admit it or not, that we all go through this at some time or other in our lives. But perhaps this is why Thomas is part of the story. Perhaps he is exactly part of the story to reassure us and remind us that we are still lovable despite our doubts, because we all tend to have times of terrible doubt. Maybe it is okay to need a little personal attention from our God to get us through. Jesus doesn’t begrudge us anything if it will bring us closer to Him. He comes right to us where we are to show us his hands and feet and side if that is what we need. I have needed to learn not to judge myself for struggling to believe. 

Belief is such a struggle sometimes exactly because it is an action of the heart, not just the head. It is related to the word dis-couragement, which comes from the French word “coeur” for heart. When we are dis-heartened, God comes and en-courages us.  He fills our hearts up again. Whatever it takes.  So, if you find yourself struggling with doubt, don’t judge yourself.  Know that you are loved every step of the way.  Doubt is part of the story too.  In fact, doubt often serves to deepen our faith and compassion, which is exactly what we are on earth to do.   We are here to Be Love.  That is the way to be blessed and be a blessing.

“believe”. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/believe (accessed: March 26, 2008).

Originally preached March 30, 2008, St James Lutheran, New Dundee, Ontario

Readings:

Psalm 16 Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.  I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."  As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.  The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.  LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.  I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.  I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.  You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

John 20:19-31  On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.  Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Now Thomas (called “the twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."  A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."  Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"  Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Heavenly Secrets 1799:4

In the Christian world it is our doctrines that cause our churches to be distinct and separate, and because of these we call ourselves “Roman Catholics”, “Lutherans”, “Calvinists” or “Reformed”, “Evangelical”, as well as many other names.  It is only because of our doctrines that we are called by these names.

This situation would never exist if we made love for the Lord and charity towards the neighbor the most important part of faith.  If that were so, our doctrinal differences would be no more than shades of opinion over the many arcana of faith, which truly Christian people would leave to individual conscience.

In our hearts we would then say that a person is truly a Christian if he or she lives as a Christian, that is, as Christ teaches.  If this were so, all the different churches would become one, and all the disagreements, which stem only from doctrine, would disappear.  Indeed, the hatred that one person holds against another would be dispelled in an instant, and the Lord’s kingdom on earth would come.

What Is Church For? - a sermon

What Is Church For?

Rev. Alison Longstaff, Feb 2^nd, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem, Maine

Genesis 9:18-29 and Matt. 23: 1-8, 13, 24-26; AC §1062

This sermon was inspired by my attendance at the “Gathering Leaves” convention in 2010.

“Gathering Leaves” is an effort on the part of Swedenborgian women to build bridges and heal old wounds between our various branches.  There have been five of these gatherings since 2004, the most recent held right here in Maine this past September.

In our short history in North America alone, the Swedenborgians have split into three major divisions (and several small independent ones as well).  We don’t really have the luxury of numbers to do this, but that hasn’t stopped us.  (And we thought we were new, and knew how to do church “right.”  Not so much!)  It was always disagreements about doctrine that divided us: about what was and wasn’t Sacred Scripture, about what was and wasn’t important to emphasize doctrinally, and about who does and does not have the authority to teach what was and wasn’t good doctrine to others.

Now, when I was in seminary we studied (among other things) what the different stages of Christianity thought about and fought about doctrinally through the years. I was amazed to discover, even looking past Christianity to include earlier spiritualities and alternatives to Christianity that people have been fighting over the very same things when it comes to religion from the beginning of time, over and over again.

Each new denomination—each new flavor of whatever spirituality, even if it likes to think it is truly new and special—is just the same old thing in new packaging.  Some of it is quite enlightened and some of it, not-so-much.  Most get slowly corrupted over time, even if they started out well.  Many limp along, broken but doggedly persistent. Others renew themselves and start afresh, offering truth and good in the world once more.

 

But the big story is that humans are human first, and humans do what humans do with religion time and time again.  The same issues and tensions arise with each new generation, just with different faces and different outer trappings. Some groups of humans navigate the tensions gracefully and well, others not so well.  Mostly we repeat the same responses and behaviors, the same decisions and divisions, century after century.  It seems that each new generation must make its own spiritual journey, regardless of any lessons learned by the preceding generation.  I guess that makes sense.  Todays’ fifth graders may know how to tie their shoes, but that doesn’t mean today’s toddlers already know how.  They still have to learn what they still have to learn.

Maybe that is how the Bible can remain relevant century after century.  In its spiritual sense or inner meaning, the Bible tells the whole of the human story---the whole of the human spiritual journey---from darkness to enlightenment; from inward looking self-interest to outward looking love and compassion.  The spiritual journey is the same for all, no matter who we are or in what time period we were born.  We all have to make it, and the path never changes.

And so each new generation, and each new flavor of “religion” struggles over the same issues, with slight variations, century after century.  And the Bible prophesies all of this, and describes it all in detail.  It foretells precisely the way we will divide and differentiate within our various religious groups, because God knew we would do this---because this is what we do. 

Our reading from Swedenborg today about Shem, Ham, and Japheth is one description of the nature and quality of the ways we divide ourselves as spiritual beings or “churches.”  It is rather comforting.  Trust me.  I’ll show you.

But before I do, let’s remind ourselves of three basic Swedenborgian concepts to help us along the way:

First, Swedenborg draws our attention to the fact that “love” is our very life.  Translated, this means that our emotional reality is our primary reality.  We cloak our emotional being in interpretations, meanings, and story, but deep down inside we are all emotion, no matter how rational we like to think we are.  There is nothing wrong with this.  It is how we are made.

Second, our default emotional reality is dictated by our “lizard brain.”  The primary job of our lizard brain is to keep us alive---fed, sheltered, and safe from harm---both physically and psychologically. Swedenborg calls this part of our nature the “natural” or the “proprium.”  Other philosophies might call this side of our nature the “shadow self,” “the dark side,” or the “ego”.  But know this: the lizard brain is not bad.  We need it.  It serves a necessary and vital purpose.  However, it does become dark when it is left un-managed---when it is allowed to call the shots---for it will always choose the least enlightened and most self-serving behavior, every time, without fail.  It’s as enlightened as a lizard.

Third, we are created dual natured: both natural and spiritual; both physical and metaphysical.  That means we have a basic emotional nature much like our mammalian and reptilian cousins, but we also have a higher nature from God that contains the ability to feel and express altruism and true selfless love for each other.  Balancing the lizard brain is this higher nature, which Swedenborg calls the “rational faculty” or we might know as the observer-self.  This observer-self gives us the ability to step back and reflect on our thoughts, feelings, and motivations.  The observer-self lets us train and manage the lizard brain.  Truly, the wise advice to “know thyself” is the very smart recommendation to develop and use this self-reflective ability.  Taking time to examine our feelings and choices creates the space in us to make ever more enlightened and altruistic choices---choices that include the well-being of all, not just the self.  Some spiritualities call this growing state of conscious self-management “enlightenment,” or “mindfulness.”  Swedenborgians call it “regeneration.” 

Bearing in mind that our default state tends to be emotion-based self-interest; I ask you, “Is it any wonder that we get anxious and contentious and split when it comes to matters of religion?” Bearing in mind that to grow spiritually we must consciously develop our reflective and altruistic capacities, and not everyone is fully enlightened yet, is it any wonder we struggle to agree on what is important in church?  At any given time and in any given place, we humans are emotional first, and as a group will display all different levels of enlightenment and non-enlightenment in our interactions.  We are all in different spiritual states, each one with strengths and weaknesses, and each one struggling to get along with the others, like siblings in a family.

Concerning the three sons of Noah, Swedenborg tells us:

The church [of that time] included people who were internal [“Shem”], people who were internal but corrupted [Ham”], and people who were external [“Japheth”]. Internal people are those who make loving-kindness and compassion the most important objective of religion. Corrupted internal people are those who make beliefs apart from any loving-kindness the most important objective of religion. And external people are those who give little thought to spirituality but who nevertheless perform charitable works and reverently keep up the religious observances of the church. Members of any church can be sorted into these three types of people.  No others exist who can be called members of the church. Arcana Coelestia (aka Heavenly Secrets) 1062

This says to me that at any given time, we spiritual/natural humans will fall more or less into these three categories.  No matter how you slice us, humans will do what humans do with religion, and it takes all kinds and stages of us to make a whole.

Please don’t try to figure out which of Noah’s sons you are.  We all wander in and out between these groups as we learn and grow anyway.  What is more important is the vision of where we want to end up that will keep us moving in a good direction and working together most successfully. 

Non-enlightenment tends to be fearful, judgmental, self-centered and divisive.  Semi-enlightenment loves the ritual and external trappings of church, likes to do good works, but is not very self-aware.  More advanced enlightenment sees beyond the external and looks constantly past self-interest toward the spirit of everything, striving always toward the well-being of the whole.  Any group, even when they think they’ve solved their problems by splitting, will display this whole array of individuals to one extent or another even still, within their splinter groups.  It’s like a hologram.  Divide us up, and we just show a smaller version of the same whole.

 

How you or I views what church is and how it should be done will depend entirely on where you or I are on the spiritual journey.  It will also be affected by what psychic wounds we have sustained, and what prejudices we have developed.  It’s no wonder we struggle to agree.

So, “What Is Church For?”

I could have gone so many different directions with this topic.  I could have talked about community-building and the celebration of life passages.  I could have explored the value of spiritual education. I could have looked at the question of how to be a healthy, growing church even as the meaning and relevance of “church” seems increasingly lost in our modern lifestyle.  Instead, I’m going to leave you with a story from the 2010 Gathering Leaves Convention.

That year the convention was held near Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, which is where the head offices of two of the three different branches are located. There were many, many Swedenborgians living near the convention site.  So the final worship ceremony was opened to include any women and men from the surrounding community who might like to join us.  We had a team of four women leading that worship service, including one woman from a branch that does not ordain women.  She had pursued and gotten a non-denominational ordination anyway, and had been leading small, unofficial worship services for local Swedenborgians despite the disapproval of her denomination.  When the father of that woman entered the worship space and took a seat at the back she confessed to me with wide eyes, “Now I’m nervous!”  It turns out that he had never attended any of his daughter’s worship services in all the years she had been leading them.  Not one.  Ever.  He was an ordained minister himself, yet had never approved of her fight for women’s ordination. And his tradition not only forbids women from joining the ministry; they have been known to treat harshly those who speak up in favor of it.  Simply to enter the room and remain was a bit of a professional risk on his part. His very presence there that night was a new and profound statement of acceptance for his daughter.

How many people even knew this small drama was going on?  I wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t spoken to me.  But knowing transformed that moment into a deeply sacred one for me, without needing any of the other trappings of the worship service.  That one silent act of reconciliation was invisible to most, yet a significantly valuable outcome of the Gathering Leaves effort.

And that is why we come together again and again in as a church community, in my opinion.  Despite petty disagreements, personality quirks, and differences of vision, it is good for our souls.  When we remember that it is for reconciliation, not judgment; for mutual service, not fighting who has the “rightest” interpretation, we are on the right path.  We come to encounter the sacred—the sacred that is present within love, within forgiveness, within learning and reconciliation.

For deep down inside we are all alike.  We need each other.  When we remove enough layers of talking and judging and struggling, at our core we all simply want to belong, to know we have a purpose, and to know we are loved.

 

And that is what church is for. Doing church well leads us to our inner, spiritual home.  A healthy church community provides a place in which we can discover who we are, who God is, and how to be closer to each other.  In that process we encounter what is truly sacred in life.  We are reminded that our life has meaning and purpose, that we have a valuable contribution to make in the world, and that we are safe and loved.  We forgive and we are forgiven.  What is more sacred than that?

 

The church of the Lord is with everyone in the whole world who lives a good life according to their principles. All who live a good life, wherever they are, are accepted by the Lord and come into heaven.  This is because all who live a good life according to their principles in point of fact interiorly acknowledge the Lord, because such goodness comes from the Lord, and the Lord is within that goodness. Emanuel Swedenborg, The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine § 246

What do you think church is for?  Amen 

The Readings:

Genesis 9: 18-29

¹⁸ Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.

²⁰ And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴ So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. ²⁵ Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”

²⁶ And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
²⁷ May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.”

²⁸ And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. ²⁹ So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

Matthew 23: 1-8, 13, 24-26

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, ² saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. ⁴ For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. ⁵ But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. ⁶ They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷ greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ ⁸ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.

¹³ “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Blind guides, who choke on a gnat and yet swallow a camel! 

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.^[f] 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

The Arcana Coelestia (aka Heavenly Secrets) §1062

The church [of that time] included people who were internal [“Shem”], people who were internal but corrupted [Ham”], and people who were external [“Japheth”]. Internal people are those who make loving-kindness and compassion the most important objective of religion. Corrupted internal people are those who make beliefs apart from any loving-kindness the most important objective of religion. And external people are those who give little thought to spirituality but who nevertheless perform charitable works and reverently keep up the religious observances of the church. Members of any church can be sorted into these three types of people.  No others exist who can be called members of the church. Arcana Coelestia (aka Heavenly Secrets) §1062

Revised from a sermon preached July 18^th, 2010; at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Kitchener, Ontarios