Heaven Come Near - a sermon

“The Kingdom of Heaven Has Come Near”

Rev Alison Longstaff, October 19, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Isaiah 9: 1-4; Matthew 4: 12-17; HS 3195 [2]

  

This sermon is in anticipation of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, both of which are drawing near.   In this sermon I play around with the gender of God.  Use the gender you prefer in your own mind.  Here we go:

“The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” 

These were the final words of our Gospel reading today: “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”  

What feelings does that phrase evoke in you?   

“The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”

When I truly sit still with this statement, it evokes a sort of trembling awe.  It is as if my spirit becomes quite still, and my eyes and ears open wide.  There is a kind of inner excitement and anticipation.

But that reaction isn't true every time I see this sentence from scripture.  Sometimes it brings up quite another response.  After all, the full phrase is: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” And on days when I feel like a failure, and when I doubt my worth and lovability, my response might rather be to pull the blankets up over my head and whimper, “Kingdom of Heaven, please go away.” I feel too overwhelmed by my own flaws, and tend think that the “Kingdom of Heaven” drawing near would just make me feel extra unworthy in contrast.

But I’m talking to Swedenborgians, and Swedenborgians in particular are very good at remembering that God is a God of Love and Mercy, not judgment.  Right?  Right? 

          

Well, whatever we feel, I bet we could all agree that God probably doesn't want us cringing and cowering away from His outreaching love.  S/he does NOT want us, when we think of the Divine, to expect a beating.  After all, what loving parent would ever want their child to respond to their approach by cringing away in fear?  When God draws near, God always lifts us up in love.  It is we who judge so harshly, and then we project it onto God.             

So, having said this, why would God say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near”? It sounds rather shaming.

I do know that when God draws very near to us, we can get a sense of the overwhelming Divine Love for us all.  And anyone who has felt this great love—this transformative, redemptive, passionate delight in us—cannot help but be changed.  Experience just one close encounter with the Divine Love, and one changes, which is another way of saying one “repents.”  Being changed by God’s love is just as genuine a repentance as any shame-filled, hand-wringing litany of all the ways we've messed up. In fact, self-shaming without any redeeming compassion or sense of God’s love and forgiveness is an incomplete repentance. 

After all, “repent” means “re-think” or even “re-frame.” Repentance means seeing things in a whole new way.  Repentance doesn't have to involve feeling bad or beating ourselves up at all.

 

Yes. Repentance means seeing things in a whole new way.  Why else would Scripture say, “The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light?”  We see things in a whole new light when God’s great Love enters our life.  That is the effect of God drawing near: new love; new sight.

Who are the people that walk in darkness?  All of us. All of us. You and me and Joe the mechanic down the road....  In fact, most of us most of the time “walk in darkness.”  But eventually there are times in each of our lives, each differently, when the kingdom of heaven draws near, and we feel touched, we feel changed, and things look suddenly much different. Upon each of us, the light does shine. God is near each of us, all the time, and sometimes we can feel this.

Let's each take some time to reflect on if and when such encounters with the divine might have happened in our lives.  Sometimes these experiences are quite profound and sometimes so very gentle that they might be described as a whisper into our consciousness, or a “still, small voice.”  What, if anything, has happened to you in your lifetime, that you felt, or maybe thought you sensed something quite extraordinary and sacred move just beyond the veil of the ordinary?

Just sit with that a moment.

I had such an experience in my hospital training when I witnessed a “Code Blue”.  I stood with the other chaplain just outside a gentleman’s room while the emergency team worked urgently to keep this man’s spirit in his body.  Instead of fear or sadness, I was filled with a sense of overwhelming beauty.  The absolute focus and silent respect of the medical team and the prolonged endurance of their fight to bring this gentleman’s spirit back affected me deeply.  It was rather like an honour guard standing in respect at the passing of a great leader. 

And all the while I had an indescribable sense that the man was somewhere up above, watching the whole show, not the least bit upset, hand in hand with his partner who had been waiting for him.  Call me fanciful.  I don’t know what is true about any of what I sensed that day.  But as I passed through that experience, I got goose bumps. Something, that I choose to call “heaven,” was near. 

It turned out that the gentleman did indeed pass on. The medical team called the time of death. Then it was time for the pastoral team to move in to support of the grieving family.  It was terribly sad, and yet the witness of their grief and the team’s expertise and compassion was terribly ... beautiful.

Celtic spirituality uses the term, “thin places” to describe physical locations where they believe that the veil between the spiritual realm and the physical world are particularly thin.  Pilgrims seek these places out in Scotland, Ireland, and England in search of a spiritual encounter, a new direction, or a new sense of self or mission.  Sedona in Arizona is also considered such a place. 

But I don’t know if we need to go anywhere to seek out the thinning veil, though there is nothing wrong with doing so.  In my experience, it finds us.  Did I sense a thinning of the veil when that man passed through?  I don’t know. I think so. I do believe the thinning veil happens all the time, though we generally don’t have ears to hear or eyes to see it.  Maybe there are places on the earth where it is easier to sense things on the other side. But most people I know have had some experience where they sensed a divine presence, or felt there was something deeper and sacred overlaying a quite ordinary experience, regardless of where they were on the planet.  And I believe this sort of experience is heaven drawing near, no less and no more.  I also believe that God guides even whether we are open or not open to such encounters, so we are not doing something wrong if we don’t have such experiences often.  I don’t think we need to stress about any of it, but just simply to sit in stillness and awe if it happens to us.

In our culture, we tend to dismiss such happenings.  We tend to doubt our own inner experiences, even the most profound.  Why is that?  Well, one reason might be that such spiritual events, such divine encounters leave no evidence, they leave nothing scientifically measurable as proof of their passing.  They leave only a mark on our hearts—not on our physical heart muscle—but on our spiritual heart, on our love. We can’t measure such experiences or record them or photograph them or get a certificate of authenticity for them. Anyone not open to the mystical tends to ignore such things.

Also, when God draws that close, and touches our hearts, it can be so intimate, that we may not want to share it.  We may scarcely dare to acknowledge it to ourselves, let alone anyone else.  We know just how ready the world is to mock stories of such experiences, and scourge them and crucify them. So it is understandable that we tend to keep such experiences quietly to ourselves.

With that said, let me reassure you that nobody needs to raise their hands—just answer quietly inside yourself—in what ways have you ever sensed the kingdom of heaven drawing near?  Perhaps you think you never have, and maybe that is true.  If it is, that is nothing to stress about either. We are all made differently, and God designed each one of us, perfectly formed for the task S/He has in mind for us.  Some of us are particularly sensitive that way, some less so.

I consider myself rather dense to spiritual reality.  Of the few experiences I have had, all but one could be written off as a fanciful imagination.  God protects even my freedom to believe in them or not.  But I do know, that whatever these experiences are—that so many of us have and are afraid even to admit to ourselves—they leave us changed.  We’re never quite the same afterwards.  We may have felt goose bumps, or a racing heart, or felt slightly shaky during the encounter. We may have seen things or heard things a little out of the ordinary.  If it is positive, it is heaven drawing near.

Think about it: if God loves us so much that He was willing to die for us; if God says She is always knocking and all we have to do is open our hearts; then maybe, just maybe, the kingdom of heaven is nearer than we ever imagined, and maybe that little thrill you felt as you watched the candles being lit, or that new baby sleep, or the way the light fell across the fields when you drove in here, wasn't just a nice feeling, but God’s hand, brushing the hair out of your eyes.  Maybe, just maybe, God is very close indeed, just waiting for the day we open your eyes and look Him or Her full in the face and smile.

The kingdom of heaven is drawing nearer all the time and we do not need to be afraid of it.  All we need to do is allow it to be so, and trust that God has our future for good in mind.  Repent?  Of course we repent!  If you are like me, I’m always thinking and rethinking whether I’m good enough or doing the right thing.  I can’t help it.  God might just wish I worried less about whether I’m good enough, not more.  But in any case, I do know our spiritual well-being is always in God’s sight, and we can see it in our glimpses of the light of God’s love for us, and the warm feelings that stir whenever heaven draws near.  And heaven is always nearer than you might think.

And so, as we leave this place of worship today and head out into our lives, let’s see if we can be a little more attentive to the whispers of God’s presence in our lives.  Let’s see if we can notice the brush of His robes, the whir of angels wings, and the warmth of Her steadying hand in our lives over the coming weeks, and be comforted, for the kingdom of heaven is indeed drawing near. Amen.

The Readings

Isaiah 9: 1-4

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.  For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Matthew 4: 12-17

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.  Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Heavenly Secrets 3195 [2] 

In the Word frequent mention is made of “light.”  The inner meaning of “light” is right-thinking from a good heart. On the deepest level of the Word “light” means the Lord Himself, because S/He is goodness itself and truth itself.  There actually is light in heaven, yet it is infinitely brighter than the light on earth.  Spirits and angels see one another and all the beauty of heaven by this heavenly light. The light of heaven seems to be just like the light on earth; but it is not like it, for it is spiritual in nature.  It is made out of wisdom; so that it is actually wisdom which illuminates the eyes of the angels.  The wiser the angels are, the brighter is the light in which they are.  This light shines within the understanding of mortals, especially within the minds of mortals who are actively pursuing a heavenly life. 

“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.