Being Loving with Wisdom - sermon Jan 25

This sermon was delivered on the Sunday on which we chose to honor Swedenborg's birthday.  It teaches about a key Swedenborgian concept—the union of Love and Wisdom.  The Holy City being "foursquare" symbolizes that there will be a complete balance of the two energies in all those who reach advanced state of spiritual being.

"Being Loving with Wisdom - Let's do this!"

Rev. Alison Longstaff, Jan 25, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Genesis 1:26-31; Revelation 21:10-17; Divine Love and Wisdom 30 

So God created humans in the Divine’s own image; in the image of the Divine was each one created; male and female God created them. 

One thing about growing up Swedenborgian is this, that one learns to think of everything as created into two essential halves of one, like the right brain and left brain, the right foot and left foot, the male and female, light and heat, the wine and the bread, the creative and the protective, the soft and the firm—it goes on and on.  By now it is so deeply ingrained in how I look at the world, I am repeatedly surprised when I realize not everyone looks at life this way. 

We are taught that these two manifestations of life come from the nature of God, like the light and heat of the sun.  We can intellectually separate them as concepts in our minds and think about them separately: “the light of the sun,” “the heat of the sun.”  But one couldn't actually exist without the other.  They are a package deal.  Each exists because of the other.  They are inseparable.  Light and heat from one sun; left and right in one human; Love and Wisdom in one God.

So in a Swedenborgian elementary school (in which one has regular religion lessons) I learned that the answer to most questions, if it wasn't “the Lord,” was probably “Love and Wisdom” or “good and truth.” It was a kind of joke, the way the answer to most mainstream Christian Sunday School questions might be “Jesus.” When in doubt, answer “Love and Wisdom” or “good and truth,” and odds are that you will get it right. 

The goal of creation was all about the union of two complementary and inseparable “halves": Love AND Wisdom; the “big picture” (Father) AND the “right here and now” (Son); the vertical axis of the cross (Divine) and the horizontal axis (human). That crux or union or intersection is what life is all about.  That coming together of Love and Wisdom within us is the holy grail of our journey on earth—to unite our heads and hearts—to become authentic, compassionate, respectful, and deeply wise. 

Now, I am also a pragmatist, so all this Swedenborgian theory doesn't make much difference to me unless it “has legs”—unless thinking about life as Love and Wisdom has a transformative effect on our lives.  And that is why I like the theory so much.  One cannot pay attention to politics or advertising or rhetoric about success and not hear buzz words like “authentic” or “integrity” or “accountability,” words like “genuine,” “trustworthy,” and “transparent.” 

All of these words point to something for which we all long—that we might find in each other trustworthiness, truthfulness, and fairness—that we could expect from life justice, equality, and a fighting chance.  We want it from others, and we struggle to live it ourselves.

We all long for these things because they are missing in this life.  They are missing because humankind is flawed and scared and unwilling to look at this or take responsibility for it.  We have all been hurt and lied to and betrayed, and it sometimes seems as if liars and cheaters and thieves outnumber by far the trustworthy ones.

Love and wisdom united—the qualities of fairness and accountability and authenticity only show up in people and organizations who have an intentionality about being one in purpose, word, and deed.  Lots of people and organizations like to claim qualities such as fairness and accountability and authenticity, then they try to paste them on the outside of their presence in the world, hoping nobody will see through the façade.  But true integrity can only come for doing the real work and living the real truth. We have all encountered such inauthentic individuals and businesses.

“Corporation” once simply meant “body.” But “corporation” now is also synonymous with a large business with no “soul.”  There are indeed big businesses with lots of soul, but unfortunately the ones doing harm give all the rest of them a bad name. By “no soul” we mean having no genuine sense of connection with or commitment to the public good.  Instead we find only a “heartless” commitment to self-service and constant “growth,” and this is called “good business.”  But if we were looking at a human body, we would call a cluster of cells whose one purpose was self-service and constant expansion regardless of cost, cancer. “Cancerous” corporations show us the ultimate example of “intelligence divorced from goodness.” 

Humans are flawed.  We are born into a world that trains us to hide, pretend, and not feel what we feel.  We can be bombarded with messages that tell us we are not good enough, and that invite us to feel contempt and scorn for those who are different.   But that is not God’s plan nor God’s intention for our lives.  God calls us constantly toward greater integrity.  Our brokenness and blindness and fear and disconnection from each other does not have to triumph.  The path to integrity can feel lonely and be very hard work sometimes, but it is absolutely worth it. 

And that is why Jesus’ story has resonated for so many people through the eons (whether or not you believe in the Divine nature of those texts).  And that is why stories like “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” and even “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” find such long-lasting fan-followings today.  Each story taps our desire to believe in heroes, and calls forth our longing to find trustworthiness, safety, and authenticity in community. 

The best stories have a hero that is flawed—in fact, a hero that is somehow touched by the darkness within his or her own nature.  This inner darkness is the source of the hero’s pain, vulnerability, and conflict … and yet it also holds the key to how the hero subdues and transcends the darkness. 

           

We are all called to this hero’s journey, and yet we don’t necessarily answer that call.  This is because journeying toward that inner union invites an encounter with God, and this can feel as scary as crucifixion.  While the spiritual journey journey is the only way to our “resurrection,” it takes us right by the valley of the shadow of death.  We often need to be quite convinced that doing our spiritual work provides a much better quality of life for us than remaining in our comfort zones will.  We need to realize that remaining spiritually clogged and stuck will result in us continuing to have unenlightened thoughts and desires which end up hurting the ones we love most.  We will be blind to our own failings and will continue to think we are not as much a part of the problem as we truly are so long as we hide from and resist our own spiritual work. 

And so we must all work towards a union of our thinking and feeling sides, and this produces in us that “genuineness” or “authenticity” that is so craved in the world.  This work produces increasing self-awareness and compassion—we realize ever deeper ways we are lying to ourselves and hiding from ourselves, (often due to shame or fear of rejection) and the compassion gives us the strength and determination to change.  This self-awareness—this inner integration can be cultivated through therapy, meditation, and studying books about spiritual growth; we can encourage it by joining support groups, or journaling, or any other of a number of spiritual practices that God has provided for us to become better stewards our personal inner landscapes. 

It begins with intention, continues with prayer and spiritual practice, and God takes care of the rest.  May we each work to become the change we desire to see in the world.  Amen

***

Before the interlude I want to add a few words about Swedenborg.  

Emanuel Swedenborg was born on January 29^th, 1688—long before you and I were born—at a time well before electricity or cars or telephones, before telegraphs or steamships, and when the whaling industry had barely started.  He grew up a Lutheran in Sweden, became a highly educated man and civil servant, and only later in life began the deep study of the Bible that led to his spiritual awakening and theological writing.  His intent was to reform the existing Christian church, never to start a new denomination with his name on it.  He lived his full and remarkable life, and died in 1772, before the colonies declared independence.

Swedenborgians today are few in number and vary widely in how we understand and value Swedenborg’s writings.   We are small because we have been shy, a bit exclusive, and more intellectual than service-oriented.  But I will always be grateful for the way Swedenborgian thought has shaped my thinking and feeling.  I find deep peace in the perspectives; I find hope and comfort in the way he describes God’s plan; and the ideas help me find light in even the darkest times and joy in the bleakest moments.  

I am a Swedenborgian minister because I love this systematic theology so very much.  I hope that the great wisdom and insanely astute insights that this lifelong bachelor penned will bring light to your paths the way it has to mine.  And I love above all the inclusiveness within his theology, which makes room for all of us to walk together in respect and love.

Swedenborg wouldn't want us to make a fuss over his birthday.  His work pointed always to the God of love and wisdom.  I think we do celebrate the way God can fill each of us with love and wisdom, and have them transform our lives by celebrating the way He did this with Swedenborg.  Happy birthday “Manny.”  Thank you for letting your light shine!

Readings:

Genesis 1: 26-31

Then God said, “Let Us make humans in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created humans in the Divine’s own image; in the image of the Divine was each one created; male and female God created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and manage it; have responsibility for the fish of the sea, for the birds of the air, and for every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.  Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Revelation 21:10-17

 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.  It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.  There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west.  And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.  The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.  And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. 

DLW 30

Since the Divine is essentially Love and Wisdom united, we humans have two sides of our beings. The one side shows up as our thinking or our discernment, and the other side shows up as our desire or longing. Wisdom from God flows into our thinking side, while love from God flows into our desire. Even though we often fail to think wisely or to desire the best things for ourselves and humankind, this does not negate the very real inflowing of love and wisdom into our souls from God.  Our lack only illustrates that the channels for them have become blocked or restricted; and as long as they are blocked or restricted, we are not capable of being very loving nor wise.  Nevertheless, this inflowing continues to provide whatever good thinking and enlightened desire that we will allow, for if the flow stopped altogether, we would cease to be human.

See also a creative and playful song explaining this on YouTube: http://youtu.be/WFRRsxtWNUM

“The Intimacy of God's Love” a sermon

“The Intimacy of God's Love”

Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24; True Christianity 498:1

By Rev. Alison Longstaff

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Revised For Feb 16^th 2014, preached March 2^nd 2014

“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.’”

Today’s story is about an “aha!” moment.  But this isn’t your average, run of the mill “aha!” moment. This is the sort of aha! that makes the hairs rise on your arm, and your stomach drop. This sort makes one feel shaken and profoundly humbled.  We have all had such moments.  For some of us they can be as dramatic as this dream of Jacob’s.  For others they may be more subtle.  But they come to each of us.  These are encounters with the Divine.  They are moments in which we walk in a “thin place”—a place in which we can see beyond the veil—and by which we are moved and changed.

Today’s story starts out with movement.

 

“Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.”

 

In Swedenborgian thought, Jacob signifies our attempts to live our beliefs. Jacob isn't just a desire for God (Abraham), nor an active intellectual curiousity about God (Isaac).  He is the fruit of these: the way these two produce changes in our behaviour.  The north/south continuum in the Word is describing our intellectual side, where the east/west continuum is describing our motivational side.  So, since Beersheba is on the southernmost boundary of the Promised Land, it could be said to represent a time in our faith-journey where we have gone as far as we can go using just our intellect. 

Haran, which is the direction in which Jacob decides to head, was the land of Jacob’s family of origin and so represents our spiritual state before we began our journey with God.  Beersheba is in the middle of the desert, but it has a well. Leaving Beersheba means Jacob is heading into the desert first, which represents a wandering in faith.  So Jacob leaving Beersheba to go toward Haran implies that he is entering a time of spiritual regression.  Perhaps the well there ceased to be enough to satisfy his needs, the way using our intellect alone in our faith journey eventually ceases to be enough to satisfy our spirit. 

Swedenborg describes Haran as representing “idolatrous worship” which implies that you and I at this point are beginning to revert to some old survival techniques for comfort.  This could be something as simple as avoiding facing something uncomfortable in our lives, or as serious as a full-out relapse in an addiction.  It is all the not helpful ways we seek to get away from our problems.  These are escape attempts, and not actually solutions.  We have lost our spiritual focus and have begun looking for quick-fixes to our spiritual emptiness.  In any case, in our story, Jacob is on the move. 

“So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set.”

The Hebrew word for “came” here has a definite meaning of arrival.  It has a sense of meeting or encounter.  This cues us to know that Jacob has arrived at a significant place in his journey.  The English translation here says that the sun has set, but the Hebrew word is actually more like “arrived,” or “done its thing.”  So in the story, the sun could be said to have arrived and done its thing.  Since the sun represents the Lord, this could be saying in the spiritual meaning that the Lord has drawn near and this has done what the presence of the Lord does.  It produces a change.  The Lord drawing near tends to do that.  And like most of us, Jacob doesn’t even see that anything is different.  In fact, it seems to him that the sun has “set,” and he is more alone than ever. How wrong he is.

“And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.”

It is so interesting to see how the translators handle some of the unusual Hebrew wordings.  The Hebrew here is more literally translated, “and he took a stone of that place and used it for his head-place and lay down in that place.”  There is a using and re-using of the word for place.  It is the Hebrew word makom, which is no average Hebrew word.  The Hebrews have a way of saying “Let us go to THE Place,” and they are using this word makom.  When they say that, they are meaning, “Let us go up to The Temple.” This “place” isn’t just any old place.  This is an important place, a holy place.  The use and reuse of the word here is telling us that this is a very significant moment in Jacob’s story.

 

“Pillow” here means literally “head-place.”  There are a myriad implications in that meaning alone, but we can simply know that this story is still all about Jacob’s head, not his heart so much.  This is about the intellect-journey so far.  We are reading about a significant moment in each and every person’s faith development.  Jacob’s laying down implies a humbling in his spirit, very likely as a direct result of God’s having drawn near.

“Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

Oh, this is so beautiful.  This is the beginning of an intimate spiritual moment for Jacob.  It is showing him that there is a direct connection from where he is to the very dwelling place of God.  The word for “reach” here in the Hebrew carries the meaning of arrival. The ladder didn’t just reach toward heaven, it arrived.  There was a touch down.  “Houston, we have contact.”  Jacob realizes that God is very near.  Angels are coming and going from his very location on earth to the presence of God.  And there is contact.  Jacob is touched.

The Hebrew word for angel really means “messenger,” or communicator.  Frequently in the Old Testament, angels are God’s voice and face and hands on earth.  When an angel shows up, it is God.  So God is no longer “up there” but right in the presence of the characters in the story.  This communication is way beyond prayer.  This is an encounter.

Now notice something:  The word used for the God at the top of the ladder that Jacob saw is “Elohim” which is an ancient word carrying the reminder that we once worshiped many Gods.  It is implying that, at the beginning of the dream, Jacob hadn't really understood God.  The God that Jacob knows is pretty much still in his head.  His heart has yet to meet God.  So, from Jacob’s point of view, the God at the top of the ladder is still an intellectual concept.  He hasn't actually met God.  This will be a time of significant change for Jacob.

And behold, the Lord (Jehowah) stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God….”  (Jehowah-Elohim)

Jacob sees “Elohim” at the top of the ladder, but it is “Jehowah” who speaks to him. The Hebrew word translated “Lord” here is Yod Heh Vav Heh, the four sacred letters of the name of the Divine which the Hebrews are forbidden even to pronounce.  It is vocalized by non Hebrews as Jehovah, or Yahweh.  These four letters stand for the very Divine, the Source of all, the God of Love. This is the God of our heart and soul, not just our heads.

“I am Elohim-Jehowah.” The Divine identifies Itself as the God of both head and heart, of Love and Wisdom.  Up to this point Jacob knew God only intellectually, but this encounter touches his heart.  He is deeply moved, and he realizes into every cell of his body the overwhelming intimacy of God’s great love for him.  This is about a profound shift in our relationship with God.  An encounter with the immensity of God’s love, tends to have that effect on us. 

Let’s continue. “Jehowah … said….”  The Hebrew word for “said” here holds the meaning of a vow, an absolute promise.  Let’s face it, whenever God says something, it is a guarantee.  There is no pussy-footing around here.  There is no dodging this one or interpreting it differently.  God is indelibly impressing upon Jacob that He/She is Love and Wisdom inseparable.  And God is about to promise a whole lot more.  So it is time to listen up.

I am the Lord God (Elohim-Jehowah) of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Quick translation? The God of every step of our way, from our earliest beginnings and through all our growing, plans to use our new awareness, this realization that the God of Love is the foundation and crown of our spiritual life, to springboard us into our future. We will grow spiritually in every direction now, in kindness and fairness, in great love and great wisdom, until we are blessed beyond measure. This is the promise.

But wait!  There is more. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised for you.

To rephrase this according to the spiritual meaning: “Now you realize that I am with you. I will never leave you.  I treasure you, and will guide and protect your every step.  Even if you wander very far from the path, I will turn you around.  I will bring you back.  I won’t leave you.  There is nothing you can do to turn me away.  I will stick with you until every good thing which I have promised comes to pass.”

Wow.  That is God’s promise.  This is God’s unconditional, unequivocal promise.  What God promises, God will do.  God will bring us home.  God will bless us.  This is profoundly personal.  This is as personal as it gets.  The God of all the universe, the Source of Love and everything Good will never leave us.  No matter how alone you or I may feel, God is always immediately present.

 

“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Jacob awoke.  This is a wake-up moment, a transformative spiritual event. Jacob in the story, and you and I in this stage of the spiritual journey, will never be the same. This is a new spiritual day.

There are so many layers of meaning here.  I am just skimming the surface of all that there is. Up to this point in our spiritual journey, God and faith have mostly been intellectual activities.  But this encounter wakes us up to the reality that God is not just “up there.”  God is right here, right now, in this place, in this moment.  “The Lord is in this place, and I didn't know it.”  This place.  This one.

Here is that Hebrew word makom again. Place.  It is that same word used to refer to the temple.  A sacred place.  Because if God never ever leaves us, every place is a sacred place. 

"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

We are always in God’s presence.  We never leave it.  We mortals decided there was a separation between the religious and everything else, between the sacred and everything else, between what is holy and everything else.  But there really isn't.  God doesn't need that.  It just makes us more comfortable to have those divisions.

And he was full of reverence and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.

How cute is that?  God just finished declaring to Jacob and showing him that God is right with him at every moment and will continue to be with him no matter where he goes, and Jacob decides that that physical place is the house of God.  Awww.  Oh well.  It is what we do.  Of course we do!  We all have a God-hunger in one way or another, and whenever we find something or some activity or some place that evokes that sense of nearness to God— tremendous well-being, peace, joy, reverence, great beauty—we tend to want to nail it down somehow.  That way we can repeat it, you see.  It is as if we can just name it and mark it, then we can access it at will.  This is still under the illusion that it will go away.

…and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.

Bethel means “house of God.”  Jacob names that place House of God, and sets up a monument right there.   What is fun is that there is a play on words in the Hebrew which shows up in the English too.  In English we read that Jacob’s pillow became a pillar.  In Hebrew his mer-ah-ash-aw becomes a mats-tsay-baw.

Pouring oil on the stone is yet another image of love joining with faith, of heart with head.

Jacob’s story, like every story in the Bible, contains a message for you and for me.  Jacob is lost and wandering.  He’s even kind of regressing, spiritually, because face it, we all do from time to time.  He arrives at what he thinks is a pretty empty place, with nothing but a stone for his head.  He has no idea that it is actually the house of God.

This is your story and mine on so many levels.  How much are you aware on a daily basis that God is right with you in every action and every moment?  If you are like me, the answer is: “Not aware much at all!”  In fact, I believe that many of us kind of squirm at the idea of God being right with us in the very flesh of our lives.  God is with us in church, but not in the bathroom! God is with us when we are singing beautiful Bach choruses, but not when we are burping! Right?

Well guess what, God became incarnate for a reason. Our connection with God is absolutely and always rooted in the right here, right now; in our breath; in our heartbeat.  God’s love is always with us and then deepens and becomes grounded when we live that love into action with our voices, hands, and lives.

Never forget it.  No matter where we go, God’s protecting love is right with us.  There is nothing so terrible that we can do, that God cannot forgive and heal.  There is nothing so horrific that we can suffer that God cannot transform into a greater power for love in the world.  We may give up and lose hope, but God never will.  God will turn us back and wake us up to beauty and love again and again and again, until we realize we are whole.  How is that for an aha!?

God’s immense and intimate love is right here, right now. 

Amen

Revised from a sermon called “Surely The Lord Is In This Place” preached July 10^th, 2011

Genesis 28:10-19a
10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" 18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel;
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

TCR 498:1

My paraphrase

True spiritual freedom resides in each person's soul in full perfection. From the soul this freedom flows into both parts of the mind—the will and the understanding—like a fountain of water into a pool. And through these it flows into the body and into the speech and action. There are three levels of life in each person: the level of the soul, the level of the mind, and the level of the physical, sensate body. All the perfection of the higher levels flows down by degrees into the lower levels, affecting them.  Each person enjoys such perfect spiritual freedom, and the Lord’s Presence can be felt by means of, within, and because of this freedom.  The Lord presses to be received without ceasing, but never sets aside or does away with our freedom, (because nothing which a person does without spiritual freedom can last). It could be said that it is this very freedom itself which is the Lord’s dwelling within a person's soul.