THE WOMAN IN THE SUN
A Sermon by the Rev. Grant R. Schnarr
Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars.
We have all beheld that woman, not just in our imaginations, but in our hearts and in our dreams. This woman is a part of us and we her. She is the New Church, a spiritual mother, surrounded in the glory of love, supported in the truths of genuine faith, and crowned with intelligence and wisdom from the Word now understood.
We’ve all cherished this image as we strive to live the best lives we can, and to love the Lord with all our hearts. We know that there is no higher love than devotion to the Lord, as it flows through us, wraps around us, gives us light and warmth. This is being clothed with the sun. It is our most intimate moments with the Lord in love to Him. For instance, when we open our hearts in prayer, in confession of our failings, in our pleas for help, in our quiet moments of gratitude and shared consolation with our God we are surrounded by the light and warmth of the Divine. In our best times we know that the Lord loves us with a love so powerful, vast, and enduring that it is beyond description. And yet He comes to us with the gentleness of a lamb, and as human as a man with arms outstretched, inviting us into His embrace. Our relationship with the Lord is the sunlight in which we are surrounded, clothed in mutual love with our Creator.
Remember the time, if you can, when you discovered the power of the Lord’s Word, how the Heavenly Doctrines lifted you out of confusion and strife, and supported you in a new life, and a new way. Perhaps you found the teachings as if by fate, and you knew instantly you had found your spiritual home. Perhaps as you entered the world as a young adult you found that these teachings you received are such a support as compared to the emptiness and lack of meaning in the world around you. The moon under the woman’s feet signifies the faith of the church, the belief itself in the teachings that bring such support. Think of some of these. How much the doctrine of the afterlife brings comfort in times of bereavement, or the teachings of the gentle stream of providence when things do not apparently go the way we expected? Reflect on the teachings of a loving, Divinely human God who never turns His back on you, and what a foundation that is upon which to build a happy and spiritually optimistic life, and to have this teaching to share with God’s children that they should know of His unceasing love and support. These are only a few matters of faith which bring comfort, hope, and support. And there are so many more: such as the gift of love in marriage, the promise of a meaningful life of use for all, of the deeper richness in the Lord’s Word, or the promise of His new coming, not in fiery cataclysmic end of the world scenarios, but in the still small voice of His Word, and in the revelation of His Divine Human and its manifestation in our lives.
No wonder we feel so gifted, as if given a crown of royalty. Look at this cathedral itself as a testament to that majesty of what the Writings call the crown of all churches, and the Bride of the Lamb descending from Heaven in all her glory! The crown here, adorning the woman’s head signifies intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and from it, wisdom. What is possible today, because of the truths revealed in the Heavenly Doctrines given through Emanuel Swedenborg, is nothing short of the potential of heaven on earth--heaven in our lives, heaven now, heaven here and forever more. "Behold the tabernacle of God is now with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God" (Revelation 21:3).
The woman clothed with the sun is an image of the spiritual New Church both in spiritual world and in the minds and hearts of those on earth. The sun, moon, and stars are the gifts of spirit from Doctrine, which surround the church, give the church her beauty, protect her, support her, and give her the potential for incredible love and all the joy love brings. This is the promise for everyone who endeavors to live by the Lord’s Word now revealed in His Second Advent.
However, there is more to this story, and the prophecy of the New Church. We are told that the woman was with child, and cried out in the pain of childbirth. The Writings say, "She cried out in travail, and was in torment to bring forth," (Apocalypse Revealed 535). We are told, "In the spiritual sense of the Word by ‘being with child,’ ‘being in travail’ and ‘bringing forth’ nothing else is signified than to conceive and bring forth the things that are of spiritual life" and "the difficult reception of that doctrine on account of the resistance by those who are understood by ‘the dragon’" (Apocalypse Revealed 535).
We see from history how difficult it has been for those who hold the Heavenly Doctrines as the coming of the Lord to bring these truths to the world, or even to agree upon an understanding of the Doctrine themselves. There have been heresies, and divisions, and struggle to manifest these new teachings in community and personal life. And reflect on this, if only for a moment, the picture of the pain and anguish depicted in this revelation. Hear the cry of the woman. We don’t often think of this when we think of the church. This picture is as real as the bride descending. Establishing the church is painful, at least in the beginning. Temptation is hard and sometimes messy. Temptation is not depicted here as quiet desperation, but loud and uncontrolled, or rather identical to the cries that come from the depths of a mother’s soul during childbirth. Can we accept that this thing we do called church can sometimes be less than prim, proper, neat and tidy? It’s life at the core, for all of us, laboring to bring forth goodness and truth into our world.
With this in mind, turn to the individual here spoken of as this woman in childbirth. In some ways it is easier to see, for we know our own hearts, and we have felt the anguish in our own souls as we have endeavored to, as the Writings say, bring forth this new faith into life. The ideals presented in the Writings are high. For instance, the truths now revealed about conjugial love and marriage are said to be something so special and heavenly that the concept itself had been lost for centuries, or even denied by people. Knowing what is possible in the way of an ideal, and struggling against what may very well be the most evil and adulterous influences now manifest in the history of our world, it is of little surprise to witness how difficult the process of translating ideals into reality can be. Knowing the true nature of hell makes it easier for us to see it in our own lives, and how opposite it is to heaven. Yet that same knowledge may invite a state of anguish knowing just how far we fall from the path of heaven.
The truth revealed about the New Church depicted in this vision of the woman who labors hard to give birth is a realistic picture of life. This could be considered a depressing fact, but can also be seen in different light which uplifts. If you’ve ever asked yourself, in times of temptation, "Why me?" or "Why now?" or "What did I do to deserve this?", the answer may very well be, "This is less about you than you may think. It is about life, and how life works." We just celebrated Memorial Day last Monday, remembering those who have themselves given their lives to protect us. In one of my favorite war movies, depicting the battle for Guadalcanal, the camera moves with an American soldier who walks a silent battlefield still hot from recent struggle. He looks down onto the half buried face of a dead enemy soldier, and we hear the voice of this dead man’s spirit speak aloud to us, and to all who will hear. The voice asks, "Did you think that you would suffer less because you loved goodness, truth?" The Writings, in fact, tell us it is the love for goodness and truth that puts us into spiritual labor. And this labor is not in vain, but the birthing process itself, of new life. Yes. Life is a struggle. But not without consolation, and not forever. The pains of labor give way to the joy and consolation of birth, to the miracle of life. For with God, we are told, all things are possible, even when the ideals seem so far from our own abilities, and "weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 35).
So the struggle of the woman, whether we like it or not, is the good news. It is a struggle which leads to life. The bad news is that there is a seven-headed dragon looming over the woman ready to devour her child. The dragon symbolizes the ancient enemy of genuine goodness. It is faith separated from charity, as it is manifest in devils in hell, in people on earth, and in our very selves. Historically we look at a world upside down when it comes to spiritual matters. We live in a day when fornication is the norm, adultery is glorified, books, television shows and movies profane the Lord’s Word, with humor, lies, and disdain. People hardly blink an eye. It is not hard to see hatred manifest itself against the two essential doctrines of the News Church, namely that of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one God of heaven and earth, and the command to follow the teachings of His Word. The boy who is to be born and lead all nations to pasture with a rod of iron is the Heavenly Doctrine and the hope for salvation the Heavenly Doctrine offers. The dragon is the influence of hell that would destroy it.
To lead all nations to pasture with a rod of iron means to use truths of the literal sense of the Word combined with the rational things from natural light (Apocalypse Revealed 544). This is the hope, that now all can enter with understanding into the mysteries of faith, that we can believe in the letter of the Word and use our minds to explore the deeper secrets within, and within life itself. It is indeed a religion that makes sense, as we so often say in our explanation to others.
That this child is born and caught up to God and His throne signifies, we are told, the Lord’s protection of this doctrine, guarded by the angels (Apocalypse Revealed 547). There is no natural explanation as to how this protection takes place on our earth, but even the image itself, of a child taken up and away from the dragon, and from the woman, indicates that these truths revealed may seem too high and out of reach to ponder or engage. People in a dragon faith don’t have the patience to explore truth more deeply. The Doctrine is too high and too much work to even attempt to grasp. The child remains safe high above in the throne of heaven. The woman fleeing to the wilderness, and later given wings to escape the dragon signifies once again the divine protection. In this case, even though things may be incredibly desolate on account of the rule of faith separated from life in our western culture, the church will survive in anonymity among a few. It will find protection right under the dragon’s shadow, unseen, in obscurity, protected until time is made for the church to be among many. The fight of Michael and his angels against the dragon signifies the fight of those who are wise in the New Church, the spiritual church which worships the one God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and lives by His commandments, that they will overcome and the dragon will be defeated.
In our personal lives these images hold the promise of that same protection on the most intimate level. The Lord knows that the dangerous dragons in our own lives live in our minds and hearts, and that even in the midst of our own chaotic struggles to free ourselves from its rage, the truths which will serve to lead us to our spiritual pasture are protected within our unconscious until we are ready to accept them into life, and allow their power to unfold before us. These are aptly named remnants or remains in the Heavenly Doctrines. The protection we are offered is that of the Lord’s providential leading as we wander our own wilderness searching for goodness, truth, and a life in these. We are fed and nourished for our own time, times, and half a time, that is, until we are ready to fight the power of hell for ourselves, as Michael and his angels, as the wise and faithful who shun evil and have the courage and fortitude to live the church.
And so the woman clothed with the sun and her story precedes the descending of the Holy City New Jerusalem, the Bride and wife of the Lord, descending on earth in all her majesty. Even as the Lord spoke of His own temptations saying, "Thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise" (Luke 24:46), so the church shall follow in taking up the cross of temptation, willing to lose all life in order to take it up anew. From labor and pain comes birth, the birth of ourselves made new, the birth of a new era for humankind—the Lord now present with all His people.
"Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.... Shake yourself from the dust, arise… Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!" (Isaiah 52: portions). "O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" (Isaiah 40:9). "And the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). Amen.
Lessons: Isaiah 29:17-24, Revelation 12:1-17, Apocalypse Revealed 532
Apocalypse Revealed 532
And a great sin was seen in heaven, signifies revelation from the Lord concerning His New Church in the heavens and on earth, and concerning the difficult reception and resistance to its doctrine. By "a sign from heaven" is here meant a revelation concerning things to come; and by "a great sign seen in heaven" is meant a revelation concerning the New Church, for "the woman clothed with the sun," which is the subject treated of in this chapter, signifies that church. "The male" which she brought forth signifies its doctrine; her being pained to bring forth signifies its difficult reception; "the dragon desiring to devour the male" and afterward "he persecuted the woman," signifies the resistance it meets with. These things are meant by "a great sign was seen in heaven." "A sign" is mentioned in the Word of things to come, and then it is revelation; it is also spoken of truth, and then it is testification; and it is also spoken of the quality of any state or thing, and then it is manifestation. "A sign" is spoken of things to come, and then it is revelation, in the following passages:–"They shall tell you what shall happen, that we may know their end, or make you hear things to come; show signs of the future" (Isaiah xli. 22, 23). "The disciples said unto Jesus, what shall be the sin of Thy coming, and of the consummation of the age?" (Matthew xxiv. 3; Mark xiii. 4; Luke xxi. 7). "There shall be signs from heaven, and signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars" (Luke xxi. 11, 25). "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man" (Matthew xxiv. 30). It was said unto king Hezekiah, This shall be a sign unto thee that Jehovah will do this thing, the shadow on the degrees of Ahaz shall be brought back. Afterwards Hezekiah said, "What is the sin that I shall go up into the house of Jehovah?" (Isa. xxxviii. 7, 8, 22; and in other places). That "a sign" is said of truth, and then it is testification, and also it is said of the quality of any state, and then it is manifestation, is evident from other passages in the Word.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Apocalypse 12
THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN
A sermon by Rev. Michael Gladish
“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.... And she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and His throne.” (Revelation 12:1 and 5)
I confess I don’t often preach on the book of Revelation because the symbolism is so deep and the subject matter so critical of contemporary Christian thinking that it is hard to cover even a short segment responsibly in 15 or 20 minutes. But the visions of that book are important, and they cry out to be understood, and when we do understand them we can see powerful lessons there for our spiritual lives. So today we are going to have a good look at one central vision as described in our lessons from chapter 12, see what it means on at least two different levels, and consider why this is in fact vitally important to us in our spiritual lives today.
To begin, here’s a brief summary of the story: a woman appears in heaven clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and with a crown of 12 stars on her head. She is in pain, about to give birth. Then a great, fiery red dragon also appears, and he has seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail drags a third of the stars from the sky and throws them to the earth. And he stands ready to devour the child as soon as it is born!
But the child is caught up to God and His throne and the woman flees into a wilderness where she is protected and nourished for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days. And then war breaks out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fight against the dragon and cast him out and down to the earth where he is referred to as “the devil.” Being filled with wrath, the dragon now finds and persecutes the woman who is given eagle’s wings to escape, and she flies again into a wilderness where she is further nourished for “a time and times and half a time,” after which she is not mentioned again!
Meanwhile the dragon-at this point called a serpent!-spews a flood of water out of his mouth after the woman in the hope that she will be engulfed or carried away by it. But, we read, the earth helps the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing up the flood. So the dragon, frustrated, goes to make war with the rest of the woman’s offspring, who are described as “those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The end.
It is, in summary, a fantastic story, dreamlike in its quality and obviously symbolic, for what woman could ever be clothed with the sun, and what dragon, no matter how monstrous, could cast a third of the billions of stars in the sky down to a planet that is smaller than any one of them! On the other hand, as bizarre as the story is, much of the symbolism should be familiar to us from other parts of the Word. A woman, for example, very often very obviously represents the church, as for example in Jeremiah where Israel is referred to as a faithless wife, a woman given to harlotry, but to whom the Lord declares HIS faithfulness in any case, as He works to redeem and restore His relationship with her. And if the church is a mother her children are the members of the church, as clearly indicated in the end of our lesson today, where they are described as those who keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Lord said much the same thing when, during his life in the world He was told that his mother and brothers were looking for Him, wanting to see Him, and He replied “Whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).
The sun is a common symbol of the Lord’s love, and the moon, which reflects the sun’s light, is a symbol of our faith in the Lord. Stars also, which can guide us in the night, represent the spiritual insights or perceptions of truth that can guide us through our states of discouragement or doubt.
As for the dragon, he is specifically referred to in the story as “that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world,” and so is identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden who deceived the woman so that she ate of the forbidden fruit. This dragon, or serpent, obviously represents something awful and dangerous in our spiritual lives, but what is that?
In the Garden of Eden it represents the sensual principle, that is, the tendency to see and judge everything according to the appearance to the physical senses. A classic example often given in the doctrines is the appearance that the sun revolves around the earth. Of course it is just the other way around, and we can be seriously misled if we believe the appearance. Another obvious example for us is to believe the appearance in the literal sense of the Word that God is angry or vengeful. Of course God is pure love and wisdom, so there can be no such qualities or traits in Him; but He can appear that way to us if we feel guilty or helpless and are fearful and think of Him that way.
In the same vein it certainly appears that to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be a positive thing: shouldn’t we KNOW what is good and evil, after all? Well yes, of course we should, but the truth is that we cannot know this of or from ourselves; we have to be taught by a higher authority, in fact by God through revelation. So we are instructed by God to eat of the fruit of the tree of LIFE, in other words, to live as we are taught by God, and not think that we can know the truth of or from ourselves. In fact, when we start to think that we can know it all without doing what God teaches or commands, it is a short step to believing that we live or die through knowledge alone, and when that belief grows the serpent becomes a great, fiery red dragon which is identified in the book of Revelation as the insidious doctrine or belief that faith alone saves, apart from the works of the law or any other form of co-operation with God.
According to this doctrine in the traditional Christian world you just believe that Christ died for your sins and that’s it. You’re in. It doesn’t really matter what you do because the essence of salvation is to believe that God-or rather His Son-did it all for you.
But lest we become complacent, or even contemptuous as members of the New Church, consider that one reason our doctrines argue against this concept so adamantly is that of all the churches in history we are probably in the greatest danger from this dragon, simply because we have such a storehouse of information to read and learn. We may not think we’ll actually get to heaven because of our knowledge but it is a dreadful temptation to think we’re wiser and better than others because of it!
And where does this belief come from? Certainly not from Scripture, where the Lord repeatedly teaches that we must do as He commands, nor from the doctrines, which are all about love and charity, but mainly from the basic human wish to avoid taking personal responsibility for anything-possibly along with a selfish arrogance that enjoys telling others what to do or how to think! The dragon is said to be fiery red because red is the color of love, and this particular red suggests the love of self, and pride in one’s own intelligence. The fact that it has seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads represents the total confusion-the Writings say the insanity-of the situation when first principles of the Lord’s authority are denied and instead we go to any lengths, and use any number of different arguments arising out of our own clever reasoning to justify the concept of salvation by faith-or knowledge-alone.
Seven in the Word is a number that signifies holiness and so the seven heads of the dragon and his seven crowns or diadems represent the holy things of the Word, especially the teachings of the literal sense of the Word that are in this case perverted and abused in order to excuse church members from any responsibility for a charitable life. That word, “crown” is interesting because in fact it means a sort of headband with a gemstone that in turn signifies the hard, clear truth of the literal sense of the Word. One way to picture it would be as a turban with the gemstone on the front, almost as Aladdin’s genie might appear in a cartoon. The focus, however, is on the stone, and the point is that those who are dragons, or who have this draconian belief system, are not pagans or atheists or humanists, typically they are Christians who KNOW the literal sense of the Word, more or less, but who use that knowledge to promote and justify the false idea that the way you live in this world has no bearing on your eternal life.
Do you know anybody like this? Have you ever had an argument with someone who claims to be saved solely because he or she accepts the fact that Christ died for our sins? If so you know that they can quote the Scripture; indeed, they can quote it this way and that, up one side and down the other, so that you may feel as though you really are being threatened by a dragon with seven heads darting in and out and all around you.
But remember, this is not just a problem we encounter “out there” among people of other churches or persuasions, it is also a problem we face within ourselves as we tend to rationalize some lazy or inconsiderate behavior by bringing up all sorts of arguments and reasons why we shouldn’t have to be kind or take any serious responsibility. After all, if God can be angry and condemn people, so can we, based on His Word. If God demands a sacrifice in order to appease His sense of justice, so can we, based on His Word.-But deep down, we know this is wrong.
At this point it is important to note that the birth of the man-child in this story is reminiscent of the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6, where we read, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This Child in Revelation also was “to rule all nations with a rod of iron,” which means with the power of truth on the level of the natural mind-logical, rational, reasonable, intellectually compelling truth based on a real understanding of the spiritual sense of the Word. In fact this is the Lord Himself in the doctrine revealed at His second coming through the books we know as Arcana Caelestia, Heaven and Hell, Divine Providence, The Four Doctrines, Apocalypse Revealed, and so on. Note, the Child is not a set of books, it is the Divinely Human Love and Wisdom revealed through the books, and also present in the faith of those who think and live accordingly, whether they know Mr. Swedenborg directly or not.
In any case this is not wisdom that is readily accepted in a “faith alone” culture, or in a cynical, agnostic culture for that matter. And so this little Child, this nascent doctrine, is “caught up to God and His throne,” meaning that it is withdrawn from public scrutiny, protected by the Lord from the attack of those who will despise it, and held interiorly within the hearts and minds of those who can accept it. At the same time the woman, who represents the New Church that will nurture and support this doctrine, flees into a wilderness where she herself is nurtured for 1,260 days. What is this?
Well, a wilderness is a barren place, that is, a state of mind without much goodness or truth. And the 1,260 days work out to roughly 3-_ years, thus a completed period (since “three” signifies what is complete) and the beginning of a new state (represented by the _). The whole idea refers to the fact that there are very few who can receive this new doctrine, and so the church is in a wilderness until the end of the age of faith alone. On a deeper level, too, it may mean that it exists among us and within us as love and wisdom that even we don’t appreciate as much as we should, because we are caught up in the fascination with all that is written and forget to DO the things that are taught!
So we read, there is war in heaven! War in heaven? It seems preposterous, but then again, what is war in a spiritual sense except the conflict of wills or affections and thoughts? The point here is that heaven is made up of those who love and honor what the Lord teaches in His Word (whether they learn about that here or in the here-after), but when the Word is not clearly understood there are differences of opinion about what it means, and these differences can lead to conflict. That conflict is then aggravated by people who know the Scriptures but use them to confirm and insist upon their warped interpretation of them. As you know, it can be hard to resist these arguments, and so, in the story, Michael and his angels come to the rescue!
Michael specifically represents those who do understand the doctrine, especially the doctrine of the Lord as the one God personified in Jesus Christ, and who do have the ability to fight on behalf of the church and to “cast out” the monster of justification by faith alone.
But the war isn’t over yet. The dragon being cast down to the earth represents this doctrine of salvation by faith alone-_or by commitment to mere knowledge-_still being accepted by many in the church, especially those who in simplicity of heart do not realize how hurtful it can be. So there is a continuing persecution of the church that teaches life according to the doctrine-_and a continuing battle within ourselves to resist a merely intellectual faith, by living as we should.
And the dragon spews out a flood of water, which, like the flood that covered the earth in the story of Noah’s ark, or the floods mentioned frequently in the Prophets and Psalms, represents the torrent of falsity-_really, truth falsified-_that pours forth from those who insist upon this totally dysfunctional belief.
But then a great thing happens! The earth helps the woman by swallowing up the flood, rendering it harmless. And here, in this image, we see the great hope of the New Church. For as the Writings point out, it is not the “average member” of the church who believes this doctrine, but the scholars and academics, the vested interests who are in positions of leadership and wish to uphold this view for various personal, philosophical and organizational reasons. The average members of the Christian Church know perfectly well that it is how you live that determines your eternal life, and most of them also think of Jesus Christ as God in human form teaching us, not just laying down His life as a sacrificial atonement for our sins. So for many in the church (New and old) the flood of doctrinal arguments about faith alone is rendered harmless, the dragon is frustrated, and in fact those who actually read and consider the doctrine of the New Church generally find it very acceptable!
So then, in the closing scene of the vision, the dragon goes to make war with other offspring of the woman, namely “those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Who are these people? And what do they represent?
More specifically or accurately, these are said to be “the remnant” of the woman’s “seed,” which is a reference to those remaining within the old (traditional) church who have the truths (seeds) of the Word growing in their lives-_much like those in the parable of the Sower, who received the seed in good ground and bore fruit. Quite simply these are the people in the churches around us who are doing their best to understand the Word and live a good life according to it. They are wonderful people and they deserve our admiration and support, not to mention the fact that we can learn a lot from them! But they do not have an easy time of it, as they are told constantly based on passages from the Scripture and other arguments that they cannot make any judgments about the lives or beliefs of others, that they cannot hold even their own leaders to the standards of the Word, that the Lord loves all who profess a belief in Him, no matter how they live, and so on. They are therefore limited in what they can say and do to make a real difference in the world. Yet they hang on to their beliefs, and they maintain high standards in their own lives.
What can we learn, then, about our own lives from these people? And what can we learn from this conclusion of the vision in this chapter of the book of Revelation?
Here are just a few thoughts: first, that we ought to expect difficulty, and even persecution over the doctrines of the New Church when we try to share them in a world that is so hooked on salvation by mere knowledge or faith. Second, that we should not be deterred by this, as the Lord has foreseen it all, He has provided for the preservation and protection of this new understanding and He will help those who do their best to live according to it. Third, that there are in fact countless people who are ready and eager to receive the truth that the Lord has now revealed, and who will welcome it in their fight against the arrogance and condemnation that is characteristic of faith alone.
Finally, I think, we can learn and understand what a privilege it is to be living in the age of the fulfillment of this whole prophecy of the beginning of a New Christian Church, the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, protected while it is among a few until it grows and the world is ready to receive its love and wisdom. And what a challenge for us, as well, to remain faithful to the task at hand-_not just to learn the things the Lord has now revealed to us, but to make them work in our daily lives, that we may be acceptable as members of this heavenly body seen in John’s vision. Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 12; Revelation 21:1_8; Apocalypse Explained 737 (or 764:2)
Apocalypse Explained 737
It is said in verse 3 that the dragon was seen “in heaven;” and now that war was made with him “in heaven;” and afterwards no place for him and his angels was found “in
heaven;” and yet he is called in verse 9 “that old serpent,” also “the devil” and “Satan;” and some may wonder how the dragon, who is the devil, could be in heaven and could have a place there until he was cast down; and yet there is never any place for the devil in heaven, but in hell. But the matter is thus: “the dragon” does not mean those who have denied God and the Lord, and have rejected the Word, and made no account of the church and its doctrine, for those who are such and who do this are cast into hell immediately after death, and never appear in heaven, much less have any place there. “The dragon and his angels” mean those who acknowledge God and the Lord, and declare the Word to be holy, and also stand for the church and its doctrine, but only with the mouth and not with the heart. They do not do this in heart because they make no account of life, and those who make no account of life are interiorly devils, however much they may exteriorly appear like angels. Thence it can be seen that by the acknowledgment of God and the Lord, and by reading the Word and preaching it, they were exteriorly conjoined with heaven; but because their lives have not been at all in accord with anything of the Lord in the Word, interiorly they were conjoined with hell. Such are called “devil” and “Satan,” because they have defiled the truths of the Word by a life of the love of self and the love of the world, and by evils that have gushed forth from those loves, like bubbling waters from their fountains, and because they have applied the literal sense of the Word to confirm such a life. Such persons, more than all others, are serpents, since they are more noxious than others; for they can draw over to their side the simple good, who are in the lowest heaven, especially by means of such things as they take from the sense of the letter of the Word and pervert. It is said that “they were seen in heaven,” and there “fought with Michael and his angels,” because the Word conjoined them with the heavens; for men are conjoined with the heavens by means of the Word; but when it was ascertained that they were in other than heavenly affections they were cast down out of heaven. Nevertheless, after the Last Judgment was accomplished it was provided and ordained by the Lord that henceforth no others but those who are in spiritual faith should have conjunction with heaven, and spiritual faith is acquired by a life according to the truths of the Word, which life is called charity. This, then, is what is signified by “the dragon with his angels was cast unto the earth,” and “their place was not found any more in heaven.”
A sermon by Rev. Michael Gladish
“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.... And she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and His throne.” (Revelation 12:1 and 5)
I confess I don’t often preach on the book of Revelation because the symbolism is so deep and the subject matter so critical of contemporary Christian thinking that it is hard to cover even a short segment responsibly in 15 or 20 minutes. But the visions of that book are important, and they cry out to be understood, and when we do understand them we can see powerful lessons there for our spiritual lives. So today we are going to have a good look at one central vision as described in our lessons from chapter 12, see what it means on at least two different levels, and consider why this is in fact vitally important to us in our spiritual lives today.
To begin, here’s a brief summary of the story: a woman appears in heaven clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and with a crown of 12 stars on her head. She is in pain, about to give birth. Then a great, fiery red dragon also appears, and he has seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail drags a third of the stars from the sky and throws them to the earth. And he stands ready to devour the child as soon as it is born!
But the child is caught up to God and His throne and the woman flees into a wilderness where she is protected and nourished for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days. And then war breaks out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fight against the dragon and cast him out and down to the earth where he is referred to as “the devil.” Being filled with wrath, the dragon now finds and persecutes the woman who is given eagle’s wings to escape, and she flies again into a wilderness where she is further nourished for “a time and times and half a time,” after which she is not mentioned again!
Meanwhile the dragon-at this point called a serpent!-spews a flood of water out of his mouth after the woman in the hope that she will be engulfed or carried away by it. But, we read, the earth helps the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing up the flood. So the dragon, frustrated, goes to make war with the rest of the woman’s offspring, who are described as “those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The end.
It is, in summary, a fantastic story, dreamlike in its quality and obviously symbolic, for what woman could ever be clothed with the sun, and what dragon, no matter how monstrous, could cast a third of the billions of stars in the sky down to a planet that is smaller than any one of them! On the other hand, as bizarre as the story is, much of the symbolism should be familiar to us from other parts of the Word. A woman, for example, very often very obviously represents the church, as for example in Jeremiah where Israel is referred to as a faithless wife, a woman given to harlotry, but to whom the Lord declares HIS faithfulness in any case, as He works to redeem and restore His relationship with her. And if the church is a mother her children are the members of the church, as clearly indicated in the end of our lesson today, where they are described as those who keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Lord said much the same thing when, during his life in the world He was told that his mother and brothers were looking for Him, wanting to see Him, and He replied “Whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).
The sun is a common symbol of the Lord’s love, and the moon, which reflects the sun’s light, is a symbol of our faith in the Lord. Stars also, which can guide us in the night, represent the spiritual insights or perceptions of truth that can guide us through our states of discouragement or doubt.
As for the dragon, he is specifically referred to in the story as “that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world,” and so is identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden who deceived the woman so that she ate of the forbidden fruit. This dragon, or serpent, obviously represents something awful and dangerous in our spiritual lives, but what is that?
In the Garden of Eden it represents the sensual principle, that is, the tendency to see and judge everything according to the appearance to the physical senses. A classic example often given in the doctrines is the appearance that the sun revolves around the earth. Of course it is just the other way around, and we can be seriously misled if we believe the appearance. Another obvious example for us is to believe the appearance in the literal sense of the Word that God is angry or vengeful. Of course God is pure love and wisdom, so there can be no such qualities or traits in Him; but He can appear that way to us if we feel guilty or helpless and are fearful and think of Him that way.
In the same vein it certainly appears that to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be a positive thing: shouldn’t we KNOW what is good and evil, after all? Well yes, of course we should, but the truth is that we cannot know this of or from ourselves; we have to be taught by a higher authority, in fact by God through revelation. So we are instructed by God to eat of the fruit of the tree of LIFE, in other words, to live as we are taught by God, and not think that we can know the truth of or from ourselves. In fact, when we start to think that we can know it all without doing what God teaches or commands, it is a short step to believing that we live or die through knowledge alone, and when that belief grows the serpent becomes a great, fiery red dragon which is identified in the book of Revelation as the insidious doctrine or belief that faith alone saves, apart from the works of the law or any other form of co-operation with God.
According to this doctrine in the traditional Christian world you just believe that Christ died for your sins and that’s it. You’re in. It doesn’t really matter what you do because the essence of salvation is to believe that God-or rather His Son-did it all for you.
But lest we become complacent, or even contemptuous as members of the New Church, consider that one reason our doctrines argue against this concept so adamantly is that of all the churches in history we are probably in the greatest danger from this dragon, simply because we have such a storehouse of information to read and learn. We may not think we’ll actually get to heaven because of our knowledge but it is a dreadful temptation to think we’re wiser and better than others because of it!
And where does this belief come from? Certainly not from Scripture, where the Lord repeatedly teaches that we must do as He commands, nor from the doctrines, which are all about love and charity, but mainly from the basic human wish to avoid taking personal responsibility for anything-possibly along with a selfish arrogance that enjoys telling others what to do or how to think! The dragon is said to be fiery red because red is the color of love, and this particular red suggests the love of self, and pride in one’s own intelligence. The fact that it has seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads represents the total confusion-the Writings say the insanity-of the situation when first principles of the Lord’s authority are denied and instead we go to any lengths, and use any number of different arguments arising out of our own clever reasoning to justify the concept of salvation by faith-or knowledge-alone.
Seven in the Word is a number that signifies holiness and so the seven heads of the dragon and his seven crowns or diadems represent the holy things of the Word, especially the teachings of the literal sense of the Word that are in this case perverted and abused in order to excuse church members from any responsibility for a charitable life. That word, “crown” is interesting because in fact it means a sort of headband with a gemstone that in turn signifies the hard, clear truth of the literal sense of the Word. One way to picture it would be as a turban with the gemstone on the front, almost as Aladdin’s genie might appear in a cartoon. The focus, however, is on the stone, and the point is that those who are dragons, or who have this draconian belief system, are not pagans or atheists or humanists, typically they are Christians who KNOW the literal sense of the Word, more or less, but who use that knowledge to promote and justify the false idea that the way you live in this world has no bearing on your eternal life.
Do you know anybody like this? Have you ever had an argument with someone who claims to be saved solely because he or she accepts the fact that Christ died for our sins? If so you know that they can quote the Scripture; indeed, they can quote it this way and that, up one side and down the other, so that you may feel as though you really are being threatened by a dragon with seven heads darting in and out and all around you.
But remember, this is not just a problem we encounter “out there” among people of other churches or persuasions, it is also a problem we face within ourselves as we tend to rationalize some lazy or inconsiderate behavior by bringing up all sorts of arguments and reasons why we shouldn’t have to be kind or take any serious responsibility. After all, if God can be angry and condemn people, so can we, based on His Word. If God demands a sacrifice in order to appease His sense of justice, so can we, based on His Word.-But deep down, we know this is wrong.
At this point it is important to note that the birth of the man-child in this story is reminiscent of the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6, where we read, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This Child in Revelation also was “to rule all nations with a rod of iron,” which means with the power of truth on the level of the natural mind-logical, rational, reasonable, intellectually compelling truth based on a real understanding of the spiritual sense of the Word. In fact this is the Lord Himself in the doctrine revealed at His second coming through the books we know as Arcana Caelestia, Heaven and Hell, Divine Providence, The Four Doctrines, Apocalypse Revealed, and so on. Note, the Child is not a set of books, it is the Divinely Human Love and Wisdom revealed through the books, and also present in the faith of those who think and live accordingly, whether they know Mr. Swedenborg directly or not.
In any case this is not wisdom that is readily accepted in a “faith alone” culture, or in a cynical, agnostic culture for that matter. And so this little Child, this nascent doctrine, is “caught up to God and His throne,” meaning that it is withdrawn from public scrutiny, protected by the Lord from the attack of those who will despise it, and held interiorly within the hearts and minds of those who can accept it. At the same time the woman, who represents the New Church that will nurture and support this doctrine, flees into a wilderness where she herself is nurtured for 1,260 days. What is this?
Well, a wilderness is a barren place, that is, a state of mind without much goodness or truth. And the 1,260 days work out to roughly 3-_ years, thus a completed period (since “three” signifies what is complete) and the beginning of a new state (represented by the _). The whole idea refers to the fact that there are very few who can receive this new doctrine, and so the church is in a wilderness until the end of the age of faith alone. On a deeper level, too, it may mean that it exists among us and within us as love and wisdom that even we don’t appreciate as much as we should, because we are caught up in the fascination with all that is written and forget to DO the things that are taught!
So we read, there is war in heaven! War in heaven? It seems preposterous, but then again, what is war in a spiritual sense except the conflict of wills or affections and thoughts? The point here is that heaven is made up of those who love and honor what the Lord teaches in His Word (whether they learn about that here or in the here-after), but when the Word is not clearly understood there are differences of opinion about what it means, and these differences can lead to conflict. That conflict is then aggravated by people who know the Scriptures but use them to confirm and insist upon their warped interpretation of them. As you know, it can be hard to resist these arguments, and so, in the story, Michael and his angels come to the rescue!
Michael specifically represents those who do understand the doctrine, especially the doctrine of the Lord as the one God personified in Jesus Christ, and who do have the ability to fight on behalf of the church and to “cast out” the monster of justification by faith alone.
But the war isn’t over yet. The dragon being cast down to the earth represents this doctrine of salvation by faith alone-_or by commitment to mere knowledge-_still being accepted by many in the church, especially those who in simplicity of heart do not realize how hurtful it can be. So there is a continuing persecution of the church that teaches life according to the doctrine-_and a continuing battle within ourselves to resist a merely intellectual faith, by living as we should.
And the dragon spews out a flood of water, which, like the flood that covered the earth in the story of Noah’s ark, or the floods mentioned frequently in the Prophets and Psalms, represents the torrent of falsity-_really, truth falsified-_that pours forth from those who insist upon this totally dysfunctional belief.
But then a great thing happens! The earth helps the woman by swallowing up the flood, rendering it harmless. And here, in this image, we see the great hope of the New Church. For as the Writings point out, it is not the “average member” of the church who believes this doctrine, but the scholars and academics, the vested interests who are in positions of leadership and wish to uphold this view for various personal, philosophical and organizational reasons. The average members of the Christian Church know perfectly well that it is how you live that determines your eternal life, and most of them also think of Jesus Christ as God in human form teaching us, not just laying down His life as a sacrificial atonement for our sins. So for many in the church (New and old) the flood of doctrinal arguments about faith alone is rendered harmless, the dragon is frustrated, and in fact those who actually read and consider the doctrine of the New Church generally find it very acceptable!
So then, in the closing scene of the vision, the dragon goes to make war with other offspring of the woman, namely “those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Who are these people? And what do they represent?
More specifically or accurately, these are said to be “the remnant” of the woman’s “seed,” which is a reference to those remaining within the old (traditional) church who have the truths (seeds) of the Word growing in their lives-_much like those in the parable of the Sower, who received the seed in good ground and bore fruit. Quite simply these are the people in the churches around us who are doing their best to understand the Word and live a good life according to it. They are wonderful people and they deserve our admiration and support, not to mention the fact that we can learn a lot from them! But they do not have an easy time of it, as they are told constantly based on passages from the Scripture and other arguments that they cannot make any judgments about the lives or beliefs of others, that they cannot hold even their own leaders to the standards of the Word, that the Lord loves all who profess a belief in Him, no matter how they live, and so on. They are therefore limited in what they can say and do to make a real difference in the world. Yet they hang on to their beliefs, and they maintain high standards in their own lives.
What can we learn, then, about our own lives from these people? And what can we learn from this conclusion of the vision in this chapter of the book of Revelation?
Here are just a few thoughts: first, that we ought to expect difficulty, and even persecution over the doctrines of the New Church when we try to share them in a world that is so hooked on salvation by mere knowledge or faith. Second, that we should not be deterred by this, as the Lord has foreseen it all, He has provided for the preservation and protection of this new understanding and He will help those who do their best to live according to it. Third, that there are in fact countless people who are ready and eager to receive the truth that the Lord has now revealed, and who will welcome it in their fight against the arrogance and condemnation that is characteristic of faith alone.
Finally, I think, we can learn and understand what a privilege it is to be living in the age of the fulfillment of this whole prophecy of the beginning of a New Christian Church, the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, protected while it is among a few until it grows and the world is ready to receive its love and wisdom. And what a challenge for us, as well, to remain faithful to the task at hand-_not just to learn the things the Lord has now revealed to us, but to make them work in our daily lives, that we may be acceptable as members of this heavenly body seen in John’s vision. Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 12; Revelation 21:1_8; Apocalypse Explained 737 (or 764:2)
Apocalypse Explained 737
It is said in verse 3 that the dragon was seen “in heaven;” and now that war was made with him “in heaven;” and afterwards no place for him and his angels was found “in
heaven;” and yet he is called in verse 9 “that old serpent,” also “the devil” and “Satan;” and some may wonder how the dragon, who is the devil, could be in heaven and could have a place there until he was cast down; and yet there is never any place for the devil in heaven, but in hell. But the matter is thus: “the dragon” does not mean those who have denied God and the Lord, and have rejected the Word, and made no account of the church and its doctrine, for those who are such and who do this are cast into hell immediately after death, and never appear in heaven, much less have any place there. “The dragon and his angels” mean those who acknowledge God and the Lord, and declare the Word to be holy, and also stand for the church and its doctrine, but only with the mouth and not with the heart. They do not do this in heart because they make no account of life, and those who make no account of life are interiorly devils, however much they may exteriorly appear like angels. Thence it can be seen that by the acknowledgment of God and the Lord, and by reading the Word and preaching it, they were exteriorly conjoined with heaven; but because their lives have not been at all in accord with anything of the Lord in the Word, interiorly they were conjoined with hell. Such are called “devil” and “Satan,” because they have defiled the truths of the Word by a life of the love of self and the love of the world, and by evils that have gushed forth from those loves, like bubbling waters from their fountains, and because they have applied the literal sense of the Word to confirm such a life. Such persons, more than all others, are serpents, since they are more noxious than others; for they can draw over to their side the simple good, who are in the lowest heaven, especially by means of such things as they take from the sense of the letter of the Word and pervert. It is said that “they were seen in heaven,” and there “fought with Michael and his angels,” because the Word conjoined them with the heavens; for men are conjoined with the heavens by means of the Word; but when it was ascertained that they were in other than heavenly affections they were cast down out of heaven. Nevertheless, after the Last Judgment was accomplished it was provided and ordained by the Lord that henceforth no others but those who are in spiritual faith should have conjunction with heaven, and spiritual faith is acquired by a life according to the truths of the Word, which life is called charity. This, then, is what is signified by “the dragon with his angels was cast unto the earth,” and “their place was not found any more in heaven.”
Apocalypse 1:8
What Does The Lord Do For Us?
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!
Revelation 5:12
In chapter five of the book of Revelation, John describes a powerful
scene of rejoicing in heaven. He saw four wondrous beasts, twenty-four
elders, and thousands of thousands of angels giving praise to the Lord.
Their words represent an acknowledgment in heart and life that all
power, all wisdom, and that the tiniest event that happens is overseen
by His Divine Providence. It represents a deep gratitude for what the
Lord has done is and is doing.
How different are the words of Jacob as he left the land of Canaan. He
isn't at all sure the Lord will take care of him. He instead is making a
bargain. He will worship the Lord and give a tenth of his newly gained
wealth if the Lord will take care of him, and bring him back to his home
in peace. Concerning Jacob's vow, the Arcana Caelestia makes the
following observation:
"Making a vow" means wishing the Lord to provide. This is because
present within vows there is a desire and affection that what is wished
for may come about, thus that the Lord may provide it. Within them
something of a bargain is present, and at the same time on the person's
part something of a bounden duty to keep his side of it, should he obtain
his desire. This was the case with Jacob, in that Jehovah was to be his
God, and the stone which he placed as a pillar was to be God's house,
and he would devote a tenth of everything God had given him, if
Jehovah guarded Him on the road, gave him bread to eat and clothing
to wear, and he went back in peace to his father's house. From this it is
evident that the vows made in those times were particular agreements,
involving primarily people's acknowledgment of God as their God if He
provided them what they desired, and involving also their repayment to
Him with some gift if He did provide it. (Arcana Caelestia 3732:1)
Objectively, many people would say that Jacob's life was greatly
blessed. He had a large family. He was tremendously wealthy. His
favorite son provided for him and his family in Egypt during a terrible
famine. But when Pharaoh asked him near the end of his life how old he
was, his answer doesn't seem to indicate a sense of these blessings.
He told Pharaoh:
"The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty
years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they
have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the
days of their pilgrimage." Genesis 47:9
How could it be that all sorts of wonderful things happened to Jacob and
yet he feels like things haven't gone very well? Why do some people
feel grateful to the Lord for all He has done for them, some people grow
increasingly bitter over how their life has turned out, blaming their
problems on God, and many feel neither gratitude or bitterness and
don't particularly think about it. The issue of God's care or lack thereof
doesn't occur to them as being significant.
Given a choice, we would probably all prefer to feel gratitude. All the
angels feel this gratitude. But can very many of us say that we always or
almost always sense a deep gratefulness for the Lord's care of our
lives? It is a state that none of us could have from the beginning of our
adult life. The Lord has promised us that while we may enter adult life
with the factual knowledge of what the Lord has done and is doing for
us, there will be important areas of life in which we will not and indeed
cannot see His care as we begin our adult path to heaven.
Starting from our early childhood, each of us experienced many different
events and learned many different lessons from what happened in our
lives. For some of us, the primary direction of our thoughts led toward
feeling and thinking that if there is a problem, it is up to us to solve it.
For this group the regular pattern of thought is: "If I try harder, I can
make things work out right." For another group of us the primary
direction of our thoughts led toward feeling and thinking that if there is a
problem, the Lord or someone else is at fault. For this group it is easy to
shrug when a problem arises or to get impatient or angry that someone
else hasn't fixed it. Neither of these perspectives leads to the gratitude
expressed by the angels. Both of them, by themselves can lead to
frustration and discouragement because we cannot make life work all by
ourselves, and it will not work if we expect others, including the Lord, to
do it us without significant effort on our part.
If Jacob's words represent a person who will withhold allegiance to the
Lord until He has proved Himself, this proof will never come. The Lord
does not have as His primary concern that the external events of our
natural lives work out the way that we naturally wish they would. If we
are keeping score on this plane of life we may be very discouraged.
People can react remarkably differently to the events of their lives.
Imagine a man who has participated in a church congregation
essentially all of his life, who daily read from the Word, but who faced a
major health problem in his fifties. What if this man's reaction included a
deep bitterness that the Lord had failed him. Contrast this state of mind
with that of a woman in her sixties who had a multitude of health
problems and was in nearly constant dull pain, but who was filled with
joy and gratefulness for the blessings of her life. Why does the first
person react negatively and the second so positively. As the saying
goes, why do some people see the glass half full and some see it half
empty?
For a person to see what the Lord has done and is doing, that person
has to come to care about the things that the Lord cares about. If we
judge the Lord on criteria that He doesn't particularly put much stock in,
it isn't surprising that we will sense that He isn't doing enough or is
being inconsistent in His efforts.
There is a humorous story about our perspective and the Lord's that has
a man asking God, "What is a million of our years like to You." God
replied, "Like a second of your time." The man then said, "And what is a
million of our dollars like to You." God replied, "It is like a penny of your
money." The man asked, "Could You possibly give me one of your
pennies?" And God said, "Sure, in a second."
How do we come to care about the things the Lord cares about? There
is only one way. That is to receive the benefits of spiritual rebirth or
regeneration. Without this fundamental change in the values that we
enter adult life with we will never be able to see the Lord as being
worthy "To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and
honor and glory and blessing!"
If Jacob's vow represent a person's commitment to accept the Lord's
commandments and His call to the life of repentance and charity in the
hope that this acceptance will bring blessings, it will indeed be fulfilled.
The leap of faith that every person has to take is to believe that
following the Lord will bring blessings before the person really knows
what these blessings will be. Each person needs to be willing to do what
is good and think what is right and to shun what is evil and false, even
when part of their mind strongly questions whether this will lead to
happiness and fulfillment. This part of our mind believes in many false
definitions about happiness, responsibility, and what is right and wrong.
This part of our mind arises from our natural heredity to love self and the
world more than the Lord and our neighbor. Until this natural heredity is
conquered, we will never really see the Lord and never appreciate His
work.
The Lord has been very clear about what it takes to conquer our natural
heredity. He assures us that it will take conscious effort and attention. It
will require us to use the truth we initially learn to change fundamental
habits in our thoughts, speech, and action. It will require prayer. It will
require us to acknowledge to ourselves that we absolutely cannot be
happy without the Lord's help. It will require us to acknowledge to
ourselves that unless we consciously make the effort, as though by
ourselves, to flee from evils in the Lord's name, we cannot be happy.
Forming new habits isn't easy. Have you ever tried to show someone a
new way to do a familiar action or process. It can be something as
simple as teaching a young person a better way to make a basketball
shot or trying to convince someone that she should work at learning to
type without looking at her fingers. It can be as complicated as helping
someone recognize that his fundamental pattern of fathering needs to
change. At first the new method will feel uncomfortable, foreign, and
even though it will be fundamentally more effective in the long run, it
may actually be much less effective when a person is first practicing it.
The same can be true for our efforts to shun evils.
The Lord tells us:"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with
him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) Many more times than we can
possibly imagine each day, He knocks at the door of our mind trying to
bring to our attention what we need to change in our lives, what we
could do, what is evil and false, and what is good and true. He has
promised that a part of our mind absolutely will not believe what He has
to say. It will resist any thought of change and argue that change will
cause more trouble than good or just not make any difference.
The Lord absolutely promises heavenly happiness for those who follow
what He teaches. He promises "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be
opened." (Matthew 7:7-8). It has been observed that if it could be
proven that wearing a little blue dot on the back of your hand
guaranteed a happier, healthier, more productive life, we would all be
wearing blue dots on the back of our hand. The Lord promises that if we
are willing to humble ourselves enough to recognize our need for His
help, His wisdom, and if we are willing to do our part to follow Him, we
will experience a profound change in our lives. We will gradually come
to see the world very differently from how we had previously seen it.
What we care about in our own lives and in the lives of those around us
will become significantly different and the peace of mind we experience,
no matter what natural events occur in our lives or those around us, we
will feel grateful for what the Lord has done and is doing for us. This is a
sure promise yet many do not heed it.
We don't have to earn the Lord's care. He constantly works to lead us to
a better life. It is His free gift, a gift from a loving Father. And He knows
that we need to freely receive this gift if we are ever going to experience
true happiness. May each of us have times when we sense in heart and
mind that we are wonderfully well cared for. And when we don't sense
this care, may we work to hold onto the thought that it is occurring and
that our conscious effort to repent and receive the blessings of
regeneration is required before we will see His care for what it truly is.
May we more and more come to the state of mind of those who John
saw praising the Lord. May we come to echo their words in heart, mind,
and life.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!
Revelation 5:12
AMEN.
Lessons: Genesis 28:20-22, Revelation 1:8, 3:20, 5:11-13
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!
Revelation 5:12
In chapter five of the book of Revelation, John describes a powerful
scene of rejoicing in heaven. He saw four wondrous beasts, twenty-four
elders, and thousands of thousands of angels giving praise to the Lord.
Their words represent an acknowledgment in heart and life that all
power, all wisdom, and that the tiniest event that happens is overseen
by His Divine Providence. It represents a deep gratitude for what the
Lord has done is and is doing.
How different are the words of Jacob as he left the land of Canaan. He
isn't at all sure the Lord will take care of him. He instead is making a
bargain. He will worship the Lord and give a tenth of his newly gained
wealth if the Lord will take care of him, and bring him back to his home
in peace. Concerning Jacob's vow, the Arcana Caelestia makes the
following observation:
"Making a vow" means wishing the Lord to provide. This is because
present within vows there is a desire and affection that what is wished
for may come about, thus that the Lord may provide it. Within them
something of a bargain is present, and at the same time on the person's
part something of a bounden duty to keep his side of it, should he obtain
his desire. This was the case with Jacob, in that Jehovah was to be his
God, and the stone which he placed as a pillar was to be God's house,
and he would devote a tenth of everything God had given him, if
Jehovah guarded Him on the road, gave him bread to eat and clothing
to wear, and he went back in peace to his father's house. From this it is
evident that the vows made in those times were particular agreements,
involving primarily people's acknowledgment of God as their God if He
provided them what they desired, and involving also their repayment to
Him with some gift if He did provide it. (Arcana Caelestia 3732:1)
Objectively, many people would say that Jacob's life was greatly
blessed. He had a large family. He was tremendously wealthy. His
favorite son provided for him and his family in Egypt during a terrible
famine. But when Pharaoh asked him near the end of his life how old he
was, his answer doesn't seem to indicate a sense of these blessings.
He told Pharaoh:
"The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty
years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they
have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the
days of their pilgrimage." Genesis 47:9
How could it be that all sorts of wonderful things happened to Jacob and
yet he feels like things haven't gone very well? Why do some people
feel grateful to the Lord for all He has done for them, some people grow
increasingly bitter over how their life has turned out, blaming their
problems on God, and many feel neither gratitude or bitterness and
don't particularly think about it. The issue of God's care or lack thereof
doesn't occur to them as being significant.
Given a choice, we would probably all prefer to feel gratitude. All the
angels feel this gratitude. But can very many of us say that we always or
almost always sense a deep gratefulness for the Lord's care of our
lives? It is a state that none of us could have from the beginning of our
adult life. The Lord has promised us that while we may enter adult life
with the factual knowledge of what the Lord has done and is doing for
us, there will be important areas of life in which we will not and indeed
cannot see His care as we begin our adult path to heaven.
Starting from our early childhood, each of us experienced many different
events and learned many different lessons from what happened in our
lives. For some of us, the primary direction of our thoughts led toward
feeling and thinking that if there is a problem, it is up to us to solve it.
For this group the regular pattern of thought is: "If I try harder, I can
make things work out right." For another group of us the primary
direction of our thoughts led toward feeling and thinking that if there is a
problem, the Lord or someone else is at fault. For this group it is easy to
shrug when a problem arises or to get impatient or angry that someone
else hasn't fixed it. Neither of these perspectives leads to the gratitude
expressed by the angels. Both of them, by themselves can lead to
frustration and discouragement because we cannot make life work all by
ourselves, and it will not work if we expect others, including the Lord, to
do it us without significant effort on our part.
If Jacob's words represent a person who will withhold allegiance to the
Lord until He has proved Himself, this proof will never come. The Lord
does not have as His primary concern that the external events of our
natural lives work out the way that we naturally wish they would. If we
are keeping score on this plane of life we may be very discouraged.
People can react remarkably differently to the events of their lives.
Imagine a man who has participated in a church congregation
essentially all of his life, who daily read from the Word, but who faced a
major health problem in his fifties. What if this man's reaction included a
deep bitterness that the Lord had failed him. Contrast this state of mind
with that of a woman in her sixties who had a multitude of health
problems and was in nearly constant dull pain, but who was filled with
joy and gratefulness for the blessings of her life. Why does the first
person react negatively and the second so positively. As the saying
goes, why do some people see the glass half full and some see it half
empty?
For a person to see what the Lord has done and is doing, that person
has to come to care about the things that the Lord cares about. If we
judge the Lord on criteria that He doesn't particularly put much stock in,
it isn't surprising that we will sense that He isn't doing enough or is
being inconsistent in His efforts.
There is a humorous story about our perspective and the Lord's that has
a man asking God, "What is a million of our years like to You." God
replied, "Like a second of your time." The man then said, "And what is a
million of our dollars like to You." God replied, "It is like a penny of your
money." The man asked, "Could You possibly give me one of your
pennies?" And God said, "Sure, in a second."
How do we come to care about the things the Lord cares about? There
is only one way. That is to receive the benefits of spiritual rebirth or
regeneration. Without this fundamental change in the values that we
enter adult life with we will never be able to see the Lord as being
worthy "To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and
honor and glory and blessing!"
If Jacob's vow represent a person's commitment to accept the Lord's
commandments and His call to the life of repentance and charity in the
hope that this acceptance will bring blessings, it will indeed be fulfilled.
The leap of faith that every person has to take is to believe that
following the Lord will bring blessings before the person really knows
what these blessings will be. Each person needs to be willing to do what
is good and think what is right and to shun what is evil and false, even
when part of their mind strongly questions whether this will lead to
happiness and fulfillment. This part of our mind believes in many false
definitions about happiness, responsibility, and what is right and wrong.
This part of our mind arises from our natural heredity to love self and the
world more than the Lord and our neighbor. Until this natural heredity is
conquered, we will never really see the Lord and never appreciate His
work.
The Lord has been very clear about what it takes to conquer our natural
heredity. He assures us that it will take conscious effort and attention. It
will require us to use the truth we initially learn to change fundamental
habits in our thoughts, speech, and action. It will require prayer. It will
require us to acknowledge to ourselves that we absolutely cannot be
happy without the Lord's help. It will require us to acknowledge to
ourselves that unless we consciously make the effort, as though by
ourselves, to flee from evils in the Lord's name, we cannot be happy.
Forming new habits isn't easy. Have you ever tried to show someone a
new way to do a familiar action or process. It can be something as
simple as teaching a young person a better way to make a basketball
shot or trying to convince someone that she should work at learning to
type without looking at her fingers. It can be as complicated as helping
someone recognize that his fundamental pattern of fathering needs to
change. At first the new method will feel uncomfortable, foreign, and
even though it will be fundamentally more effective in the long run, it
may actually be much less effective when a person is first practicing it.
The same can be true for our efforts to shun evils.
The Lord tells us:"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with
him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) Many more times than we can
possibly imagine each day, He knocks at the door of our mind trying to
bring to our attention what we need to change in our lives, what we
could do, what is evil and false, and what is good and true. He has
promised that a part of our mind absolutely will not believe what He has
to say. It will resist any thought of change and argue that change will
cause more trouble than good or just not make any difference.
The Lord absolutely promises heavenly happiness for those who follow
what He teaches. He promises "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be
opened." (Matthew 7:7-8). It has been observed that if it could be
proven that wearing a little blue dot on the back of your hand
guaranteed a happier, healthier, more productive life, we would all be
wearing blue dots on the back of our hand. The Lord promises that if we
are willing to humble ourselves enough to recognize our need for His
help, His wisdom, and if we are willing to do our part to follow Him, we
will experience a profound change in our lives. We will gradually come
to see the world very differently from how we had previously seen it.
What we care about in our own lives and in the lives of those around us
will become significantly different and the peace of mind we experience,
no matter what natural events occur in our lives or those around us, we
will feel grateful for what the Lord has done and is doing for us. This is a
sure promise yet many do not heed it.
We don't have to earn the Lord's care. He constantly works to lead us to
a better life. It is His free gift, a gift from a loving Father. And He knows
that we need to freely receive this gift if we are ever going to experience
true happiness. May each of us have times when we sense in heart and
mind that we are wonderfully well cared for. And when we don't sense
this care, may we work to hold onto the thought that it is occurring and
that our conscious effort to repent and receive the blessings of
regeneration is required before we will see His care for what it truly is.
May we more and more come to the state of mind of those who John
saw praising the Lord. May we come to echo their words in heart, mind,
and life.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!
Revelation 5:12
AMEN.
Lessons: Genesis 28:20-22, Revelation 1:8, 3:20, 5:11-13
Apocalypse 22:1-7
Guarding Spiritual Freedom
A Sermon by Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
"Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all trees
used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fall. They
will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the
sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine"
(Ezek. 47:12).
The final chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel recount a great vision of a
new city and a new temple in Israel. Our text, taken from this vision,
describes a river of healing waters coming from the sanctuary. Along
the banks, on both sides, grow wonderful trees that bear fruit every
month and whose leaves never wither. "Their fruit will be for food and
their leaves for medicine."
There is an unmistakable similarity here to John's vision of the Holy City
in the final chapter of Revelation. Both tell of a river of life-giving water
flowing from the throne of God; both tell of trees with fruit and leaves,
fruit for food and leaves for medicine, the "healing of the nations." The
visions of the great city and temple with its river and trees of life should
be an inspiration to us all. These are visions of the New Church. Both
picture the vitality and importance of the New Church. Through it there
is to be a healing of all the nations.
When we look at the world in which we live we see a desperate need for
healing. Many evils are plainly evident. False ideas abound. We can
look inward too. There is a world that lives in us as well as a world
around us. We would have to admit that there are evils and falsities in
this personal world of ours. Our responsibility to heal ourselves is
immediate, and our influence in this private world is greater than
elsewhere. Here again the New Church is vital for a healing.
But what is it that the New Church has to offer the world which is so
vitally important? What does the New Church provide for each one of us
that is unique and powerful?
One answer may be found in the symbolic meaning of the text,
especially what is said of the leaves of the trees that they will be for
"medicine." The same is true of the Tree of Life which John described.
Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. What is meant by these
leaves? What do they have to do with the New Church or with us?
These are questions we will answer presently, but first a word about the
Last Judgment, what many people call the Judgment Day, which
preceded the establishment of the New Church.
One of the unique teachings of the New Church in the Christian world is
that the great judgment promised in the Scriptures has already taken
place. It was not the end of the world as some believe. It was a
judgment and a reckoning in the spiritual world. The prophecies of the
overthrow of kingdoms, the darkening of the sun, the falling of the stars
of heaven were fulfilled in the spiritual realm where all people are
together after death. These pictures of the Last Judgment were
symbolic of a reordering of the heavens and the hells by the Lord. The
Last Judgment was an exposing of the real nature of hidden evil loves
and false teachings by which people had been held captive for
centuries. When the Lord revealed these, finally, people could be free
from them.
One way we can imagine the nature of this great change is to think of
the effect of a new discovery or a scientific breakthrough in the scientific
community. Traditional thinking is shaken, overturned, perhaps
completely rejected. Everything has to adjust to the new evidence.
Schools of thought that have held sway become discredited. Beliefs and
practices have to change.
The Last Judgment was this kind of change with regard to religious
truths and deep-rooted religious beliefs. It was not, as most had
assumed, a reordering of the political and ecclesiastical structures of
this world. So we are taught, "the state of the world hereafter will be
altogether similar to what it has been heretofore, for the great change
which has taken place in the spiritual world does not induce any change
in the natural world as to the external form ... " (LJ 73). In other words,
the world will continue after this judgment much as it has before. There
will be divided countries, war and peace, various religious sects
teaching different interpretations of doctrine and practicing distinct rites.
Since this judgment took place in the middle of the 18th century, we
have more than 200 years of history showing that life in the natural
world has continued unchanged.
The great change is an internal one. The Last Judgment has effected a
new state of spiritual freedom. We are told that the people of the church
will be "in a more free state of thinking" on matters of faith and about
spiritual things.
What is the significance of this? This is far-reaching. To have spiritual
freedom is the greatest and most precious of life's treasures. We can
compare it only to having natural freedom a much less important gift.
Yet we prize our natural freedom. We fight for freedom and may be
willing to die for it. The ability to choose what we shall do, where we
shall live, and how we shall live is important to us. How much more
should we prize the inner freedom that allows us to know what is true
and right and to love what is good and useful. It was such a gift that
Solomon, the king, chose when the Lord said: "Ask! What shall I give
you?" And he said, " ... give to Your servant an understanding heart ...
that I may discern between good and evil ... " (I Kings 3:5-9).
Spiritual freedom involves being free from false ideas, seductive
theories and perverted thinking. Spiritual freedom involves the ability to
discern evil affections, destructive loves and selfish motives. To discern
and identify these allows us the freedom to decide whether or not we
will be swept up by them and carried away by them to certain
unhappiness and slavery.
Spiritual freedom was what the Lord meant when He said to those Jews
who believed Him, "If you abide in My word ... you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32). He added: "Whoever
commits sin is a slave of sin" (Ibid. 34).
The Last Judgment has released the world from the grip of false
doctrine; it has given each of us the opportunity to know the truth and to
throw off the bonds of spiritual slavery.
This is where the New Church comes in. After the Last Judgment the
Lord established a New Church in which the spiritual sense of the Word
has been disclosed and interior Divine truths revealed. This church is
pictured as the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven. That city signifies the doctrine of truth, foursquare, solid, and
beautiful. Within its walls, straddling the river of water from God, is the
tree of life, bearing its fruit every month and having luxuriant leaves said
to be "for the healing of the nations." Let us focus on those leaves.
We are told that the leaves of the tree signify "rational truths." In the
Word, a man is often compared to a tree, its fruit meaning his goods of
life, its leaves his rational thoughts. So in the first Psalm the man who
loves the law of the Lord is said to be like a tree by the water which
brings forth fruit and whose leaf does not wither (see AC 885).
The leaves of the trees in our text were said to be for "medicine," as the
leaves of the Tree of life were to be for a healing. "Here [the word] `tree'
denotes the man of the church in whom is the kingdom of the Lord, its
`fruit' the good of love and of charity, its `leaf' the truths there from,
which serve for the instruction of the human race and for their
regeneration, for which reason the leaf is said to be for `medicine.'
Further concerning this, we are taught that the leaves for the healing of
the nations signify "rational truths ... by which they who are in evils and
thence in falsities are led to think soundly and to live becomingly" (AR
932:2).
Here, then, is a vital function of the New Church both for us as
individuals and for the world in which we live. We have a mission to
preserve and extend the state of spiritual freedom which was brought
about through the Last Judgment and assured by the establishment of
the New Church. The doctrine of the church delivers the spiritual
rational truths which can bring about a healing. These truths are the
necessary basis of that healing process. Without them, the hells will
prevail, for we will not even know that we are in spiritual slavery. Listen
to this teaching: "One reason why man does not ... desire to come out of
spiritual servitude into spiritual liberty is that he does not know what
spiritual slavery is and what spiritual freedom is; he does not possess
the truths that teach this; and without truths, spiritual slavery is believed
to be freedom, and spiritual freedom to be slavery" (DP 149).
It is vitally important then that truths should be known and believed; "for
man is enlightened by truths," we are told, "but is made blind by
falsities" (AC 2588:8). "Truths make evils manifest ... but from evil none
can see what is good and true ... " (HH 487).
Every New Church person should follow the example of Solomon and
ask of the Lord a wise and understanding heart. It will be the unique
capacity of those who love and study the Heavenly Doctrine of the New
Church to discern the quality of their states and the quality of the civil,
moral and natural states of the world around them. This is the special
intelligence and the special use of the church. How can spiritual
freedom be preserved and extended without some ability to see through
appearances, to make critical analysis and practical judgment? This is
not from us or according to our degree of knowledge. As Joseph said
when they called him to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, "Do not
interpretations belong to God? It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an
answer of peace" (Gen. 40:8; 41:16). The "truly human mind," we are
told, "acknowledges that God alone thinks from Himself, and that man
thinks from God" (DP 321).
That we should think from God and not from ourselves is the key to
understanding the nature of the truly rational thought that will
characterize the New Church. Only such thought can be a medicine for
the healing of the nations. The doctrine describes true wisdom. "All have
the capacity to understand and to be wise," we are told, "but ... they who
ascribe all to the Lord are wiser than the rest, because all things of truth
and good, which constitute wisdom, flow in from heaven, that is, from
the Lord there ... " (AC 10227).
What makes a person truly rational, truly wise? Again, the doctrine is
clear: while many in the world suppose that a rational person is one who
can reason acutely about many things, and so join reasonings together
that conclusions may appear like truth, "this is found in the very worst of
people," we are told, " ... [people] ... who are able to reason skillfully and
persuade that evils are goods and that falsities are truths, and the
reverse" (AC 6240:2). The Heavenly Doctrine rejects this as the mark of
rational wisdom. They state instead that "the rational consists in
inwardly seeing and perceiving that good is good, and from this that
truth is truth ... " (Ibid.).
Again, we are taught that
"by the capacity to be wise is not meant the capacity to reason about
truths and goods from memory knowledges, nor the capacity to confirm
whatever one pleases, but the capacity to discern what is true and
good, to choose what is suitable, and to apply it to the uses of life. They
who ascribe all things to the Lord do thus discern, choose, and apply ...
" (AC 10227).
The fact that we must ascribe all things to the Lord is shown and
signified in the visions of the New Church we have referred to before.
Both in the prophecy of Ezekiel and in the book of Revelation we read of
the trees being nourished by the river of living water flowing out from
God's sanctuary or throne. It is the man who trusts in the Lord that is
like a tree with roots by the river, whose leaf will be green even in the
heat, whose boughs will bear fruit even in drought (see Jeremiah
17:7,8).
In the world today there is little recognition of the importance of spiritual
truth. Few realize that wisdom in life is from a spiritual origin, not a
natural one. Few realize how vulnerable rational thought about civil,
moral and natural matters is to worldly opinions and emotional impulses.
Reflect on the current issues and controversies that fill the pages of our
papers and news magazines and that find a ready audience on our TV
screens. What kind of reasoning do we find? Are justice and morality
prevalent? And what about our own lives? Where do we turn to find
direction and to make right decisions that affect our marriages, our jobs,
our children?
Someone once said that the Writings of the church do not teach us
about education. We may smile at that. Do they speak of any of our
natural concerns? Do they tell us how to conduct a business? Do they
provide legal guidance? Do they instruct us about mental depression?
Yes, the Writings speak to all of these areas of life though not
necessarily directly. What they provide is a spiritual perspective on
every aspect of natural life. With this perspective the New Church
person is able to reflect on natural life with rational wisdom, to see what
is good and useful, to identify what is false and worthless. Without such
a perspective, a person is awash in a sea of natural emotion and
opinion, adrift from the basic principles that grant true freedom. This is
taught directly in the Heavenly Doctrine. There we are told that "man
would have no freedom of choice in civil, moral, and natural things if he
had none in spiritual things .... From that spiritual freedom man has a
perception of what is good and true, and of what is just and right in civil
matters ... " (TCR 482).
It is said further,
"when light from heaven flows into these things, the man begins to see
them spiritually, and first to discriminate between the useful and the
non-useful. From this he begins to have an insight as to what is true ...
From this then man has perception ... Wherefore the knowledges of
spiritual things must be with man in his natural in order that there may
be spiritual perception; and knowledges of spiritual things must be from
revelation" (AC 9103).
What could be more important to our life in this world than the
knowledge of spiritual principles of faith? These are not simply
theological abstractions. They are the insights that give us true
rationality. We live so much of our life indiscriminately, without reflection
or rational thought. Or else we respond to it with customary reactions
based on previous training or prejudice. In either case, we are not free.
We are either spontaneously moved by a natural affection of
questionable origin or bound by a rigid traditional response. We have
not made a choice, much less a truly rational choice.
The New Church has been established by the Lord that we might be
free! free of the urging of natural affections; free of the false attitudes
and theories that permeate the thinking of this world. What greater use
could we perform in the world and for ourselves than to guard and use
our opportunities for spiritual freedom? This is a clear and urgent need.
It can be fulfilled only by the wisdom that the Lord has given for the New
Church. For He has showed us a
"pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of
God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of
the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, yielding its fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the
nations" (Rev. 22:2).
Amen.
Lessons: Ezekiel 47:1-12; Rev. 22:1-7; AC 10227:2, 3
A Sermon by Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
"Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all trees
used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fall. They
will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the
sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine"
(Ezek. 47:12).
The final chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel recount a great vision of a
new city and a new temple in Israel. Our text, taken from this vision,
describes a river of healing waters coming from the sanctuary. Along
the banks, on both sides, grow wonderful trees that bear fruit every
month and whose leaves never wither. "Their fruit will be for food and
their leaves for medicine."
There is an unmistakable similarity here to John's vision of the Holy City
in the final chapter of Revelation. Both tell of a river of life-giving water
flowing from the throne of God; both tell of trees with fruit and leaves,
fruit for food and leaves for medicine, the "healing of the nations." The
visions of the great city and temple with its river and trees of life should
be an inspiration to us all. These are visions of the New Church. Both
picture the vitality and importance of the New Church. Through it there
is to be a healing of all the nations.
When we look at the world in which we live we see a desperate need for
healing. Many evils are plainly evident. False ideas abound. We can
look inward too. There is a world that lives in us as well as a world
around us. We would have to admit that there are evils and falsities in
this personal world of ours. Our responsibility to heal ourselves is
immediate, and our influence in this private world is greater than
elsewhere. Here again the New Church is vital for a healing.
But what is it that the New Church has to offer the world which is so
vitally important? What does the New Church provide for each one of us
that is unique and powerful?
One answer may be found in the symbolic meaning of the text,
especially what is said of the leaves of the trees that they will be for
"medicine." The same is true of the Tree of Life which John described.
Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. What is meant by these
leaves? What do they have to do with the New Church or with us?
These are questions we will answer presently, but first a word about the
Last Judgment, what many people call the Judgment Day, which
preceded the establishment of the New Church.
One of the unique teachings of the New Church in the Christian world is
that the great judgment promised in the Scriptures has already taken
place. It was not the end of the world as some believe. It was a
judgment and a reckoning in the spiritual world. The prophecies of the
overthrow of kingdoms, the darkening of the sun, the falling of the stars
of heaven were fulfilled in the spiritual realm where all people are
together after death. These pictures of the Last Judgment were
symbolic of a reordering of the heavens and the hells by the Lord. The
Last Judgment was an exposing of the real nature of hidden evil loves
and false teachings by which people had been held captive for
centuries. When the Lord revealed these, finally, people could be free
from them.
One way we can imagine the nature of this great change is to think of
the effect of a new discovery or a scientific breakthrough in the scientific
community. Traditional thinking is shaken, overturned, perhaps
completely rejected. Everything has to adjust to the new evidence.
Schools of thought that have held sway become discredited. Beliefs and
practices have to change.
The Last Judgment was this kind of change with regard to religious
truths and deep-rooted religious beliefs. It was not, as most had
assumed, a reordering of the political and ecclesiastical structures of
this world. So we are taught, "the state of the world hereafter will be
altogether similar to what it has been heretofore, for the great change
which has taken place in the spiritual world does not induce any change
in the natural world as to the external form ... " (LJ 73). In other words,
the world will continue after this judgment much as it has before. There
will be divided countries, war and peace, various religious sects
teaching different interpretations of doctrine and practicing distinct rites.
Since this judgment took place in the middle of the 18th century, we
have more than 200 years of history showing that life in the natural
world has continued unchanged.
The great change is an internal one. The Last Judgment has effected a
new state of spiritual freedom. We are told that the people of the church
will be "in a more free state of thinking" on matters of faith and about
spiritual things.
What is the significance of this? This is far-reaching. To have spiritual
freedom is the greatest and most precious of life's treasures. We can
compare it only to having natural freedom a much less important gift.
Yet we prize our natural freedom. We fight for freedom and may be
willing to die for it. The ability to choose what we shall do, where we
shall live, and how we shall live is important to us. How much more
should we prize the inner freedom that allows us to know what is true
and right and to love what is good and useful. It was such a gift that
Solomon, the king, chose when the Lord said: "Ask! What shall I give
you?" And he said, " ... give to Your servant an understanding heart ...
that I may discern between good and evil ... " (I Kings 3:5-9).
Spiritual freedom involves being free from false ideas, seductive
theories and perverted thinking. Spiritual freedom involves the ability to
discern evil affections, destructive loves and selfish motives. To discern
and identify these allows us the freedom to decide whether or not we
will be swept up by them and carried away by them to certain
unhappiness and slavery.
Spiritual freedom was what the Lord meant when He said to those Jews
who believed Him, "If you abide in My word ... you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32). He added: "Whoever
commits sin is a slave of sin" (Ibid. 34).
The Last Judgment has released the world from the grip of false
doctrine; it has given each of us the opportunity to know the truth and to
throw off the bonds of spiritual slavery.
This is where the New Church comes in. After the Last Judgment the
Lord established a New Church in which the spiritual sense of the Word
has been disclosed and interior Divine truths revealed. This church is
pictured as the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven. That city signifies the doctrine of truth, foursquare, solid, and
beautiful. Within its walls, straddling the river of water from God, is the
tree of life, bearing its fruit every month and having luxuriant leaves said
to be "for the healing of the nations." Let us focus on those leaves.
We are told that the leaves of the tree signify "rational truths." In the
Word, a man is often compared to a tree, its fruit meaning his goods of
life, its leaves his rational thoughts. So in the first Psalm the man who
loves the law of the Lord is said to be like a tree by the water which
brings forth fruit and whose leaf does not wither (see AC 885).
The leaves of the trees in our text were said to be for "medicine," as the
leaves of the Tree of life were to be for a healing. "Here [the word] `tree'
denotes the man of the church in whom is the kingdom of the Lord, its
`fruit' the good of love and of charity, its `leaf' the truths there from,
which serve for the instruction of the human race and for their
regeneration, for which reason the leaf is said to be for `medicine.'
Further concerning this, we are taught that the leaves for the healing of
the nations signify "rational truths ... by which they who are in evils and
thence in falsities are led to think soundly and to live becomingly" (AR
932:2).
Here, then, is a vital function of the New Church both for us as
individuals and for the world in which we live. We have a mission to
preserve and extend the state of spiritual freedom which was brought
about through the Last Judgment and assured by the establishment of
the New Church. The doctrine of the church delivers the spiritual
rational truths which can bring about a healing. These truths are the
necessary basis of that healing process. Without them, the hells will
prevail, for we will not even know that we are in spiritual slavery. Listen
to this teaching: "One reason why man does not ... desire to come out of
spiritual servitude into spiritual liberty is that he does not know what
spiritual slavery is and what spiritual freedom is; he does not possess
the truths that teach this; and without truths, spiritual slavery is believed
to be freedom, and spiritual freedom to be slavery" (DP 149).
It is vitally important then that truths should be known and believed; "for
man is enlightened by truths," we are told, "but is made blind by
falsities" (AC 2588:8). "Truths make evils manifest ... but from evil none
can see what is good and true ... " (HH 487).
Every New Church person should follow the example of Solomon and
ask of the Lord a wise and understanding heart. It will be the unique
capacity of those who love and study the Heavenly Doctrine of the New
Church to discern the quality of their states and the quality of the civil,
moral and natural states of the world around them. This is the special
intelligence and the special use of the church. How can spiritual
freedom be preserved and extended without some ability to see through
appearances, to make critical analysis and practical judgment? This is
not from us or according to our degree of knowledge. As Joseph said
when they called him to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, "Do not
interpretations belong to God? It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an
answer of peace" (Gen. 40:8; 41:16). The "truly human mind," we are
told, "acknowledges that God alone thinks from Himself, and that man
thinks from God" (DP 321).
That we should think from God and not from ourselves is the key to
understanding the nature of the truly rational thought that will
characterize the New Church. Only such thought can be a medicine for
the healing of the nations. The doctrine describes true wisdom. "All have
the capacity to understand and to be wise," we are told, "but ... they who
ascribe all to the Lord are wiser than the rest, because all things of truth
and good, which constitute wisdom, flow in from heaven, that is, from
the Lord there ... " (AC 10227).
What makes a person truly rational, truly wise? Again, the doctrine is
clear: while many in the world suppose that a rational person is one who
can reason acutely about many things, and so join reasonings together
that conclusions may appear like truth, "this is found in the very worst of
people," we are told, " ... [people] ... who are able to reason skillfully and
persuade that evils are goods and that falsities are truths, and the
reverse" (AC 6240:2). The Heavenly Doctrine rejects this as the mark of
rational wisdom. They state instead that "the rational consists in
inwardly seeing and perceiving that good is good, and from this that
truth is truth ... " (Ibid.).
Again, we are taught that
"by the capacity to be wise is not meant the capacity to reason about
truths and goods from memory knowledges, nor the capacity to confirm
whatever one pleases, but the capacity to discern what is true and
good, to choose what is suitable, and to apply it to the uses of life. They
who ascribe all things to the Lord do thus discern, choose, and apply ...
" (AC 10227).
The fact that we must ascribe all things to the Lord is shown and
signified in the visions of the New Church we have referred to before.
Both in the prophecy of Ezekiel and in the book of Revelation we read of
the trees being nourished by the river of living water flowing out from
God's sanctuary or throne. It is the man who trusts in the Lord that is
like a tree with roots by the river, whose leaf will be green even in the
heat, whose boughs will bear fruit even in drought (see Jeremiah
17:7,8).
In the world today there is little recognition of the importance of spiritual
truth. Few realize that wisdom in life is from a spiritual origin, not a
natural one. Few realize how vulnerable rational thought about civil,
moral and natural matters is to worldly opinions and emotional impulses.
Reflect on the current issues and controversies that fill the pages of our
papers and news magazines and that find a ready audience on our TV
screens. What kind of reasoning do we find? Are justice and morality
prevalent? And what about our own lives? Where do we turn to find
direction and to make right decisions that affect our marriages, our jobs,
our children?
Someone once said that the Writings of the church do not teach us
about education. We may smile at that. Do they speak of any of our
natural concerns? Do they tell us how to conduct a business? Do they
provide legal guidance? Do they instruct us about mental depression?
Yes, the Writings speak to all of these areas of life though not
necessarily directly. What they provide is a spiritual perspective on
every aspect of natural life. With this perspective the New Church
person is able to reflect on natural life with rational wisdom, to see what
is good and useful, to identify what is false and worthless. Without such
a perspective, a person is awash in a sea of natural emotion and
opinion, adrift from the basic principles that grant true freedom. This is
taught directly in the Heavenly Doctrine. There we are told that "man
would have no freedom of choice in civil, moral, and natural things if he
had none in spiritual things .... From that spiritual freedom man has a
perception of what is good and true, and of what is just and right in civil
matters ... " (TCR 482).
It is said further,
"when light from heaven flows into these things, the man begins to see
them spiritually, and first to discriminate between the useful and the
non-useful. From this he begins to have an insight as to what is true ...
From this then man has perception ... Wherefore the knowledges of
spiritual things must be with man in his natural in order that there may
be spiritual perception; and knowledges of spiritual things must be from
revelation" (AC 9103).
What could be more important to our life in this world than the
knowledge of spiritual principles of faith? These are not simply
theological abstractions. They are the insights that give us true
rationality. We live so much of our life indiscriminately, without reflection
or rational thought. Or else we respond to it with customary reactions
based on previous training or prejudice. In either case, we are not free.
We are either spontaneously moved by a natural affection of
questionable origin or bound by a rigid traditional response. We have
not made a choice, much less a truly rational choice.
The New Church has been established by the Lord that we might be
free! free of the urging of natural affections; free of the false attitudes
and theories that permeate the thinking of this world. What greater use
could we perform in the world and for ourselves than to guard and use
our opportunities for spiritual freedom? This is a clear and urgent need.
It can be fulfilled only by the wisdom that the Lord has given for the New
Church. For He has showed us a
"pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of
God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of
the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, yielding its fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the
nations" (Rev. 22:2).
Amen.
Lessons: Ezekiel 47:1-12; Rev. 22:1-7; AC 10227:2, 3
Apocalypse 19:1-9
"PRAISE OUR GOD ALL YOU HIS SERVANTS..."
A Sermon by the Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr.
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:6-7).
A celebration of something very good. It may seem strange, but we begin by asking you to consider being in a football stadium right now—or if football isn’t your thing, to think about being at a tennis match—the U. S. Open, center court, or some other sports arena which would draw thousands of people. Your average professional football game draws some 40,000 fans; other sporting events maybe not so many, but still a lot of people. If that’s something you’ve experienced before, do you remember the volume in that context? You walk into the stadium as the crowd gathers, and there’s this growing level of diverse noises produced by the hundreds of conversations going on around you. But then do you notice what happens? The game begins, and in the course of time the home team scores. Does not that enormous, diverse crowd unite with one voice as it were—a mighty cheer of jubilation? Think of the volume. Think of the power.
Now that kind of event might be one of the last places you would choose to put yourself, but I introduce it to give some sense of the picture presented to us in the book of Revelation, of a multitude of angels praising the Lord. John witnessed this event of thousands of voices uniting into one. It was so powerful in fact that all he could compare it to was the "sound of many waters" (a powerful waterfall), or "the sound of mighty thunderings." They were cheering for something far superior than a touchdown—for a major victory the Lord had achieved in His Kingdom. Listen to what they had to say:
"Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God!"
"True and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.…"
"Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!"
"The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:1-7).
The Writings for the New Church identify this as a new era for the Lord’s Kingdom—a new beginning for His Church, where people would once again be able to worship the Lord their God with understanding and love. And from this perspective of acknowledgment they would be able to live a life of service to the Lord—a life of such dedication that it is likened to the close relationship of husband and wife.
As many people have realized, this is part of the extended prophecy recorded in the book of Revelation, of the time of the Lord’s second coming. In the praise of the angels we hear the glorification of the Lord on account of His judgment on the erroneous faith of the former era, followed by "the proclamation of the [His] Coming, and the New Church from Him" (Apocalypse Revealed 803). This in one sense is the core of what the New Church is about, for we believe that we now live in this new era of greater understanding and light—an era which has been and continues to be ushered in by the Lord our God.
But rather than the event itself, today I’d like us to focus on our praise of the Lord. These angels command us, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants, and those who fear Him, both small and great!" (Revelation 19:5). From this picture of angels praising God we get a sense of how we should praise Him. He is our God too. He reigns over us just as He does over heaven. He loves us with the same tenderness as He loves even the best of those angels in that multitude. He set up His church for our benefit, which is the reason those angels were praising Him in the first place.
Characteristics of the praise of angels. First, there is a depth of knowledge about the Lord expressed in their words—a level of acknowledgment which we can imagine comes from years of reflection and learning, years of paying attention to the way things work and drawing conclusions based on all that experience. There is a strength of conviction in their words: "The Lord God Omnipotent reigns"—no question about it. "To Him belong salvation and glory and honor and power." Do we not get the sense that this is not something we could ever convince them was otherwise? Equally important to note is the truth taught in the New Church that these angels, or any angels for that matter, are not some separate race of beings created by the Lord as such. Rather they are people who used to live here in this world, just like we do, who followed the Lord to heaven.
Throughout their lives they strived to serve the Lord, and allowed Him to form them into the kind of people who can live in heaven—the people we call angels. What this means is that we too can come, eventually, to this level of acknowledgment of the Lord.
But a second, equally important facet of the praise of the angels is the energy or feeling which is demonstrated. Think of the jubilation and happiness expressed in this scene. We might ask ourselves if we’ve ever felt that excited about anything, let alone about the Lord. Where does it come from? Let’s consider that as well.
So we have a profound acknowledgment of the Lord, and a heartfelt, spontaneous expression of praise from that acknowledgment. One passage in the Writings of the New Church describes this section of Revelation as the "joy of soul and heart" (Apocalypse Revealed 812). Joy is the overriding characteristic, but it has two qualities—one of the soul or understanding, and the other relating to the heart. In other words there is a mental component and "feeling" component to such praise. Together with the ideas they expressed came feelings of celebration, security, peace, love, comfort, hope for the future, and other like things.
The question before us today is, "How do we capture this feeling?"—this affection for our Lord? How do we come to love and appreciate Him with such joy? How do we receive that sense of security and profound peace that comes along with that confidence that He is in charge of everything in our lives?
Cultivating praise. It starts with that mental component—with acknowledgment in our minds of certain things about the Lord. There is this amazing statement made in the reading we heard earlier in the service.
People cannot help praising and glorifying the Lord, that is giving praise and glory to Him, when they acknowledge in heart that there is nothing good in themselves, and that they can do nothing of themselves, and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things (Apocalypse Explained 1210).
"People cannot help praising and glorifying God.…" This statement challenges us to believe that we too can experience that spontaneous, joyful praise of the Lord as is exhibited by the angels. That feeling of joy will arise within us if we can acknowledge certain things. This is a promise.
And what are those things we need to acknowledge which will bring the fulfillment of this promise? There is nothing good in ourselves, and we can do nothing of ourselves. And on the other hand all good is from the Lord, and He can do all things. Think about those words and let’s consider what they mean.
We are helpless in a way.
Without the Lord and constant reminders about our spiritual duties, we will tend to think about and do some pretty awful things.
We are dependent on the Lord for all that is good in our lives.
The Lord is the cause of anything good in our lives.
Every kind thought and warm feeling is evidence of the Lord at work in our lives.
Anything good which has happened in our lives is a gift from the Lord.
There is nothing the Lord cannot do for us.
These are just a few of the outcomes of this one statement of belief. They call us to consider the reality that we need the Lord in our lives to be able to experience any genuine or lasting happiness. They open the door of our minds to the Lord. In fact that’s what this passage goes on to say: "When people are in this acknowledgment they put aside their own concerns which belong to selfish love, and open all things of their minds, and thus make room for the Divine to flow in with goodness and with power" (Ibid.).
What I see the Lord asking us to do by means of this teaching is to take in these concepts and use them in our lives. Try them out and see if it isn’t true that the a life of service and dedication to the Lord brings true happiness, and that a life apart from the Lord leads to misery and hardship. Of course we will never be able to escape all that is bad about this flawed world of ours, but the truth will be borne out in so many ways. We will notice that our marriages, if that’s something we’re blessed with, are a gift from the Lord, and that it is He who renews our love for the other person. We will come to see that it is the Lord who inspires all the kind gestures or heroic deeds which we value so much in other people. We will give credit to the Lord for the wise things we say which help our children or contribute to the lives of people we love in constructive ways. We will be able to see His providence at work as we look back over the events of our lives and reflect on all the ways He has sustained us and led us.
Let me explore one other outcome in a little more detail. I believe this set of teachings—that there is nothing good in ourselves, and that we can do nothing of ourselves, and on the other hand that all good is from the Lord and that He can co all things—can give us a tremendous sense of peace when we come up against some of the hard events of life. Wouldn’t it help to know, and truly believe that we don’t have to solve all the issues in the lives of the people we love, or that we don’t have to fix all the problems in the Church by ourselves, or that we do not have to ensure, in the sense of taking sole responsibility, that everything in our lives go smoothly? Don’t these ideas call us to consider that we should leave some of that problem-solving to the Lord, or that He is someone we can turn to for answers? Doesn’t it call us to believe that He has a view of it that maybe we don’t, and that He might be doing so much to cause things to work out in the long run that we’re unaware of? If it is someone else we’re concerned about, doesn’t this cause us to reflect that the Lord has the ability to inspire that person to make wise choices by means other than our efforts? Of course one of the ways He might work is by using the care and love that we might express toward that person—in fact it is He who inspires it. But He is in charge of the situation, so that we don’t have to shoulder the responsibility entirely by ourselves. Again, think of the peace which comes from knowing—truly knowing that the Lord is there to help.
Do we not see how pervasive this set of simple ideas is? Do we not see how those angels from our story could come to their level of praise by means of these very same sets of realizations? For them the Lord is everything! And so He can become for us, if we will but consider the truth of these words, and put them to the test in our own lives.
The only thing remaining to mention is the final benefit which comes from such an acknowledgment: it is that spontaneous praise we talked about. As the door of our mind is opened to acknowledge more and more the truth of these statements, the Lord does indeed flow in. He not only brings enlightenment, but that feeling of praise—that wonderful love and appreciation which wells up inside of us. The two qualities—the mental acknowledgment and the feeling of inspiration and love—are inseparable. Again, as we heard, "People cannot help praising and glorifying the Lord when they acknowledge [these things] in heart."
So we return one more time to the picture of angels praising the Lord. We can notice the fullness of acknowledgment, and the intensity of joy they exhibited. This is an expression that we should strive for in our own lives. We too are called to acknowledge the Lord for any good thing we notice. We too are asked to consider that everything good in our lives is from Him—to believe that the Lord caused it to happen, and from that perspective to say a prayer of thanks to Him. The promise is that the more we can make a habit of doing this, the stronger our belief in the Lord will become, and our trust in His providence will be strengthened. We will find ourselves less lost, less often depressed, and more often filled with echoes of that profound excitement and joy exhibited by the angels. We will feel this internal pull to devote ourselves more fully to the Lord. And as we do, our spontaneous response of praise will grow inside us until we too are able to declare with joy: "Salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:1, 6-7). Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 19:1-9; Apocalypse Explained 1210
Apocalypse Explained 1210
...[The words] "Praise our God, all you His servants," mean worship of the Lord by those who are in truths... In many passages in the Word the expression "praise God" means to confess Him with the heart and with the lips, so also to worship. "To praise God" has a similar meaning as "Hallelujah," because "Hallelujah" [literally] means "praise God," and so also means the voice of joy and gladness in confessions of God and in the worship of God.
"To praise God" means confession and worship for the reason that the Lord has no wish to be praised and glorified from any love for Himself, but only from His love for human beings. People cannot help praising and glorifying the Lord, that is, giving praise and glory to Him, when they acknowledge in heart that there is nothing of good in themselves, and that they can do nothing of themselves, and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things. When people are in this acknowledgment they put aside their own concerns, which belongs to selfish love, and open all things of their minds, and thus makes room for the Divine to flow in with goodness and with power.
This is why it is necessary for a person to be in humility before the Lord, and why humility can be from no other source than recognition of our character and acknowledgment of the Lord. Reception [of the Lord] takes place according to this acknowledgment.
A Sermon by the Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr.
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:6-7).
A celebration of something very good. It may seem strange, but we begin by asking you to consider being in a football stadium right now—or if football isn’t your thing, to think about being at a tennis match—the U. S. Open, center court, or some other sports arena which would draw thousands of people. Your average professional football game draws some 40,000 fans; other sporting events maybe not so many, but still a lot of people. If that’s something you’ve experienced before, do you remember the volume in that context? You walk into the stadium as the crowd gathers, and there’s this growing level of diverse noises produced by the hundreds of conversations going on around you. But then do you notice what happens? The game begins, and in the course of time the home team scores. Does not that enormous, diverse crowd unite with one voice as it were—a mighty cheer of jubilation? Think of the volume. Think of the power.
Now that kind of event might be one of the last places you would choose to put yourself, but I introduce it to give some sense of the picture presented to us in the book of Revelation, of a multitude of angels praising the Lord. John witnessed this event of thousands of voices uniting into one. It was so powerful in fact that all he could compare it to was the "sound of many waters" (a powerful waterfall), or "the sound of mighty thunderings." They were cheering for something far superior than a touchdown—for a major victory the Lord had achieved in His Kingdom. Listen to what they had to say:
"Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God!"
"True and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.…"
"Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!"
"The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:1-7).
The Writings for the New Church identify this as a new era for the Lord’s Kingdom—a new beginning for His Church, where people would once again be able to worship the Lord their God with understanding and love. And from this perspective of acknowledgment they would be able to live a life of service to the Lord—a life of such dedication that it is likened to the close relationship of husband and wife.
As many people have realized, this is part of the extended prophecy recorded in the book of Revelation, of the time of the Lord’s second coming. In the praise of the angels we hear the glorification of the Lord on account of His judgment on the erroneous faith of the former era, followed by "the proclamation of the [His] Coming, and the New Church from Him" (Apocalypse Revealed 803). This in one sense is the core of what the New Church is about, for we believe that we now live in this new era of greater understanding and light—an era which has been and continues to be ushered in by the Lord our God.
But rather than the event itself, today I’d like us to focus on our praise of the Lord. These angels command us, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants, and those who fear Him, both small and great!" (Revelation 19:5). From this picture of angels praising God we get a sense of how we should praise Him. He is our God too. He reigns over us just as He does over heaven. He loves us with the same tenderness as He loves even the best of those angels in that multitude. He set up His church for our benefit, which is the reason those angels were praising Him in the first place.
Characteristics of the praise of angels. First, there is a depth of knowledge about the Lord expressed in their words—a level of acknowledgment which we can imagine comes from years of reflection and learning, years of paying attention to the way things work and drawing conclusions based on all that experience. There is a strength of conviction in their words: "The Lord God Omnipotent reigns"—no question about it. "To Him belong salvation and glory and honor and power." Do we not get the sense that this is not something we could ever convince them was otherwise? Equally important to note is the truth taught in the New Church that these angels, or any angels for that matter, are not some separate race of beings created by the Lord as such. Rather they are people who used to live here in this world, just like we do, who followed the Lord to heaven.
Throughout their lives they strived to serve the Lord, and allowed Him to form them into the kind of people who can live in heaven—the people we call angels. What this means is that we too can come, eventually, to this level of acknowledgment of the Lord.
But a second, equally important facet of the praise of the angels is the energy or feeling which is demonstrated. Think of the jubilation and happiness expressed in this scene. We might ask ourselves if we’ve ever felt that excited about anything, let alone about the Lord. Where does it come from? Let’s consider that as well.
So we have a profound acknowledgment of the Lord, and a heartfelt, spontaneous expression of praise from that acknowledgment. One passage in the Writings of the New Church describes this section of Revelation as the "joy of soul and heart" (Apocalypse Revealed 812). Joy is the overriding characteristic, but it has two qualities—one of the soul or understanding, and the other relating to the heart. In other words there is a mental component and "feeling" component to such praise. Together with the ideas they expressed came feelings of celebration, security, peace, love, comfort, hope for the future, and other like things.
The question before us today is, "How do we capture this feeling?"—this affection for our Lord? How do we come to love and appreciate Him with such joy? How do we receive that sense of security and profound peace that comes along with that confidence that He is in charge of everything in our lives?
Cultivating praise. It starts with that mental component—with acknowledgment in our minds of certain things about the Lord. There is this amazing statement made in the reading we heard earlier in the service.
People cannot help praising and glorifying the Lord, that is giving praise and glory to Him, when they acknowledge in heart that there is nothing good in themselves, and that they can do nothing of themselves, and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things (Apocalypse Explained 1210).
"People cannot help praising and glorifying God.…" This statement challenges us to believe that we too can experience that spontaneous, joyful praise of the Lord as is exhibited by the angels. That feeling of joy will arise within us if we can acknowledge certain things. This is a promise.
And what are those things we need to acknowledge which will bring the fulfillment of this promise? There is nothing good in ourselves, and we can do nothing of ourselves. And on the other hand all good is from the Lord, and He can do all things. Think about those words and let’s consider what they mean.
We are helpless in a way.
Without the Lord and constant reminders about our spiritual duties, we will tend to think about and do some pretty awful things.
We are dependent on the Lord for all that is good in our lives.
The Lord is the cause of anything good in our lives.
Every kind thought and warm feeling is evidence of the Lord at work in our lives.
Anything good which has happened in our lives is a gift from the Lord.
There is nothing the Lord cannot do for us.
These are just a few of the outcomes of this one statement of belief. They call us to consider the reality that we need the Lord in our lives to be able to experience any genuine or lasting happiness. They open the door of our minds to the Lord. In fact that’s what this passage goes on to say: "When people are in this acknowledgment they put aside their own concerns which belong to selfish love, and open all things of their minds, and thus make room for the Divine to flow in with goodness and with power" (Ibid.).
What I see the Lord asking us to do by means of this teaching is to take in these concepts and use them in our lives. Try them out and see if it isn’t true that the a life of service and dedication to the Lord brings true happiness, and that a life apart from the Lord leads to misery and hardship. Of course we will never be able to escape all that is bad about this flawed world of ours, but the truth will be borne out in so many ways. We will notice that our marriages, if that’s something we’re blessed with, are a gift from the Lord, and that it is He who renews our love for the other person. We will come to see that it is the Lord who inspires all the kind gestures or heroic deeds which we value so much in other people. We will give credit to the Lord for the wise things we say which help our children or contribute to the lives of people we love in constructive ways. We will be able to see His providence at work as we look back over the events of our lives and reflect on all the ways He has sustained us and led us.
Let me explore one other outcome in a little more detail. I believe this set of teachings—that there is nothing good in ourselves, and that we can do nothing of ourselves, and on the other hand that all good is from the Lord and that He can co all things—can give us a tremendous sense of peace when we come up against some of the hard events of life. Wouldn’t it help to know, and truly believe that we don’t have to solve all the issues in the lives of the people we love, or that we don’t have to fix all the problems in the Church by ourselves, or that we do not have to ensure, in the sense of taking sole responsibility, that everything in our lives go smoothly? Don’t these ideas call us to consider that we should leave some of that problem-solving to the Lord, or that He is someone we can turn to for answers? Doesn’t it call us to believe that He has a view of it that maybe we don’t, and that He might be doing so much to cause things to work out in the long run that we’re unaware of? If it is someone else we’re concerned about, doesn’t this cause us to reflect that the Lord has the ability to inspire that person to make wise choices by means other than our efforts? Of course one of the ways He might work is by using the care and love that we might express toward that person—in fact it is He who inspires it. But He is in charge of the situation, so that we don’t have to shoulder the responsibility entirely by ourselves. Again, think of the peace which comes from knowing—truly knowing that the Lord is there to help.
Do we not see how pervasive this set of simple ideas is? Do we not see how those angels from our story could come to their level of praise by means of these very same sets of realizations? For them the Lord is everything! And so He can become for us, if we will but consider the truth of these words, and put them to the test in our own lives.
The only thing remaining to mention is the final benefit which comes from such an acknowledgment: it is that spontaneous praise we talked about. As the door of our mind is opened to acknowledge more and more the truth of these statements, the Lord does indeed flow in. He not only brings enlightenment, but that feeling of praise—that wonderful love and appreciation which wells up inside of us. The two qualities—the mental acknowledgment and the feeling of inspiration and love—are inseparable. Again, as we heard, "People cannot help praising and glorifying the Lord when they acknowledge [these things] in heart."
So we return one more time to the picture of angels praising the Lord. We can notice the fullness of acknowledgment, and the intensity of joy they exhibited. This is an expression that we should strive for in our own lives. We too are called to acknowledge the Lord for any good thing we notice. We too are asked to consider that everything good in our lives is from Him—to believe that the Lord caused it to happen, and from that perspective to say a prayer of thanks to Him. The promise is that the more we can make a habit of doing this, the stronger our belief in the Lord will become, and our trust in His providence will be strengthened. We will find ourselves less lost, less often depressed, and more often filled with echoes of that profound excitement and joy exhibited by the angels. We will feel this internal pull to devote ourselves more fully to the Lord. And as we do, our spontaneous response of praise will grow inside us until we too are able to declare with joy: "Salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:1, 6-7). Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 19:1-9; Apocalypse Explained 1210
Apocalypse Explained 1210
...[The words] "Praise our God, all you His servants," mean worship of the Lord by those who are in truths... In many passages in the Word the expression "praise God" means to confess Him with the heart and with the lips, so also to worship. "To praise God" has a similar meaning as "Hallelujah," because "Hallelujah" [literally] means "praise God," and so also means the voice of joy and gladness in confessions of God and in the worship of God.
"To praise God" means confession and worship for the reason that the Lord has no wish to be praised and glorified from any love for Himself, but only from His love for human beings. People cannot help praising and glorifying the Lord, that is, giving praise and glory to Him, when they acknowledge in heart that there is nothing of good in themselves, and that they can do nothing of themselves, and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things. When people are in this acknowledgment they put aside their own concerns, which belongs to selfish love, and open all things of their minds, and thus makes room for the Divine to flow in with goodness and with power.
This is why it is necessary for a person to be in humility before the Lord, and why humility can be from no other source than recognition of our character and acknowledgment of the Lord. Reception [of the Lord] takes place according to this acknowledgment.
Apocalypse 22:23
19TH OF JUNE
A Sermon by Rev. Robert S. Jungé
Today we are celebrating the birthday of the New Church. Before the New Church was given, people knew very little about heaven. And so they had forgotten what they needed to do to get there. You know that if you don’t know what a place is like, you don’t know what to take with you. If it is hot and there was a place to swim you would want a swimming suit. If it was very cold, you would want a scarf and coat and other warm clothes. You have to know about a place in order to get ready to go there. And so the Lord teaches the New Church all about heaven in what we call the Writings. These are new and wonderful ideas that cannot be found anywhere else. No other Church teaches these things.
Before the Writings were given, people were forgetting to live good lives, because they did not fully understand what they should do. You know that unless you understand what a teacher wants, you have a hard time doing the right thing. So the Lord gave us the Writings, a way that all of us can understand. The Lord is our Teacher in these new and wonderful teachings. The ord meant that these teachings were new when we read, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Now the Lord prepared a man to write down the Writings in a special way, just the way that He prepared the different prophets to write the rest of the Word. The Lord prepared Emanuel Swedenborg from the time when he was a little child, so that he would be just the right man to write down for the New Church whatever the Lord wanted him to. These books that we call the Writings are the Word, and like the Word are different from any other books in the world. They are the way that the Lord teaches the New Church. The older we grow, the more we can learn from them, because every time we read them we see something new. This is the way with the Word, because the Lord who knows everything speaks to us, through His Word.
Now after many years of preparation, when he was 55 years old, the Lord appeared to Swedenborg. And two years later the Lord appeared again to him. Then the Lord told him to write down all the things that He would show him. He opened Swedenborg’s spiritual eyes and showed him all about heaven or the other world. He told him what happens when people die, what heaven is really like, what real worship is. Swedenborg as it were studied the other world just the way that he studied all about this world in which we live. He walked around, and talked to the angels there. He asked questions and saw many wonderful things.
Now other men today do not see in the spiritual world. They do not see the angels of heaven. It is wrong to even try to see them. The Lord does not appear to men today as He did to Swedenborg. But the Lord prepared Swedenborg very carefully for the special job of writing down everything the Lord told him. The Writings are a new and wonderful part of the Word. Wherever people read them and try to follow what the Lord says in them, there is the New Church.
For many years people knew that the Lord was going to come and establish a New Church. They wrote wonderful prophecies about how the New Church would come. We read one of these this morning, about the woman who was clothed with the sun. This beautiful woman meant the New Church. She shone with light, because she was clothed with the sun. The Writings in the New Church shine with light, because the Lord Himself shines like a sun clothing them. You remember that around the woman’s head were twelve stars in a crown. These shone like the many new and wonderful knowledges that are given to the New Church. The prophecy tells us that the New Church will be in heaven, and also on earth. The lesser light of the moon about her feet is like the lesser vision of truth that we have on earth. For the way that the Lord is seen in heaven is ever so much brighter and clearer than we see Him on earth. The New Church is indeed, beautiful and wonderful, like a lovely bride, for those to see who love the Lord and the truths of the Writings, for those who are called to the marriage of the Lamb.
Every day that vision can become more wonderful. The things of the New Church will shine more beautifully if we really try to do what the Lord teaches. Each day of our lives we can have a new good love, a new and wonderful thought or do a new and delightful deed. All things can be made new in us.
But remember that beautiful woman was going to have a baby boy. But a great red dragon appeared who stood before her to devour her baby as soon as it was born. But the baby was caught up to heaven and the woman was protected too.
There are some who do not understand the New Church and will argue against it. But do you know where the biggest enemy of all is? The biggest enemy that the New Church has? It is inside of each one of us. It is selfishness and self love, that makes us want to take everything for ourselves. It makes us forget what we were taught, forget to share with others, and knocks down our beliefs just the way that wicked dragon drew down a third of the stars out of the heaven with his tail. This dragon in us wants us to forget to do the things we are taught, and to be lazy and not to try to learn. We need to fight that dragon in us as hard as we can, or the Lord can never make all things new in us.
As we celebrate the Church’s birthday, we think particularly of how we can help the Church grow. Our first duty is of course to make sure that we ourselves live by the Lord’s Teachings. There is no more powerful way to spread the truth than the strength of example. Yet we must also let our light shine before men. We cannot hide our light under a bushel, but must set it upon a candlestick, for all to see. It is our duty to labor with all our hearts that that wonderful Holy City can descend from God out of heaven, both in our minds, and until it fills the whole earth.
But there must always be protection for that City, there may be a variety of ways for entrance, twelve gates, but each gate is a single pearl. No one can go in who does not have what a single pearl representsBan acknowledgment of the Lord, built up layer upon layer through life, until it makes a beautiful gate of entrance into the life of the Church. If we as a Church ever fail to recognize the Lord and the power of His Word to guide our lives and form the Church, then we are letting things which defile and make a lie enter that Holy City. But if we remain true to the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming, recognizing that it gets its light from the new inspired words of the Lord, then there will be no need for sun or moon in that City, for the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb will be the light thereof. Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 21:23; True Christian Religion 779
True Christian Religion 779
Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, as shown just above, and nevertheless has foretold that He was to come and establish a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by means of a man, who is able not only to receive these doctrines in his understanding but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself before m, His servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward opened the eyes of my spirit and thus introduced me into the spiritual world and granted me to see the heavens and the hells, and to talk with angels and spirits, and this now continuously for several years, I affirm in truth; as also that from the firs day of that call I have not received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I have read the Word.”
A Sermon by Rev. Robert S. Jungé
Today we are celebrating the birthday of the New Church. Before the New Church was given, people knew very little about heaven. And so they had forgotten what they needed to do to get there. You know that if you don’t know what a place is like, you don’t know what to take with you. If it is hot and there was a place to swim you would want a swimming suit. If it was very cold, you would want a scarf and coat and other warm clothes. You have to know about a place in order to get ready to go there. And so the Lord teaches the New Church all about heaven in what we call the Writings. These are new and wonderful ideas that cannot be found anywhere else. No other Church teaches these things.
Before the Writings were given, people were forgetting to live good lives, because they did not fully understand what they should do. You know that unless you understand what a teacher wants, you have a hard time doing the right thing. So the Lord gave us the Writings, a way that all of us can understand. The Lord is our Teacher in these new and wonderful teachings. The ord meant that these teachings were new when we read, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Now the Lord prepared a man to write down the Writings in a special way, just the way that He prepared the different prophets to write the rest of the Word. The Lord prepared Emanuel Swedenborg from the time when he was a little child, so that he would be just the right man to write down for the New Church whatever the Lord wanted him to. These books that we call the Writings are the Word, and like the Word are different from any other books in the world. They are the way that the Lord teaches the New Church. The older we grow, the more we can learn from them, because every time we read them we see something new. This is the way with the Word, because the Lord who knows everything speaks to us, through His Word.
Now after many years of preparation, when he was 55 years old, the Lord appeared to Swedenborg. And two years later the Lord appeared again to him. Then the Lord told him to write down all the things that He would show him. He opened Swedenborg’s spiritual eyes and showed him all about heaven or the other world. He told him what happens when people die, what heaven is really like, what real worship is. Swedenborg as it were studied the other world just the way that he studied all about this world in which we live. He walked around, and talked to the angels there. He asked questions and saw many wonderful things.
Now other men today do not see in the spiritual world. They do not see the angels of heaven. It is wrong to even try to see them. The Lord does not appear to men today as He did to Swedenborg. But the Lord prepared Swedenborg very carefully for the special job of writing down everything the Lord told him. The Writings are a new and wonderful part of the Word. Wherever people read them and try to follow what the Lord says in them, there is the New Church.
For many years people knew that the Lord was going to come and establish a New Church. They wrote wonderful prophecies about how the New Church would come. We read one of these this morning, about the woman who was clothed with the sun. This beautiful woman meant the New Church. She shone with light, because she was clothed with the sun. The Writings in the New Church shine with light, because the Lord Himself shines like a sun clothing them. You remember that around the woman’s head were twelve stars in a crown. These shone like the many new and wonderful knowledges that are given to the New Church. The prophecy tells us that the New Church will be in heaven, and also on earth. The lesser light of the moon about her feet is like the lesser vision of truth that we have on earth. For the way that the Lord is seen in heaven is ever so much brighter and clearer than we see Him on earth. The New Church is indeed, beautiful and wonderful, like a lovely bride, for those to see who love the Lord and the truths of the Writings, for those who are called to the marriage of the Lamb.
Every day that vision can become more wonderful. The things of the New Church will shine more beautifully if we really try to do what the Lord teaches. Each day of our lives we can have a new good love, a new and wonderful thought or do a new and delightful deed. All things can be made new in us.
But remember that beautiful woman was going to have a baby boy. But a great red dragon appeared who stood before her to devour her baby as soon as it was born. But the baby was caught up to heaven and the woman was protected too.
There are some who do not understand the New Church and will argue against it. But do you know where the biggest enemy of all is? The biggest enemy that the New Church has? It is inside of each one of us. It is selfishness and self love, that makes us want to take everything for ourselves. It makes us forget what we were taught, forget to share with others, and knocks down our beliefs just the way that wicked dragon drew down a third of the stars out of the heaven with his tail. This dragon in us wants us to forget to do the things we are taught, and to be lazy and not to try to learn. We need to fight that dragon in us as hard as we can, or the Lord can never make all things new in us.
As we celebrate the Church’s birthday, we think particularly of how we can help the Church grow. Our first duty is of course to make sure that we ourselves live by the Lord’s Teachings. There is no more powerful way to spread the truth than the strength of example. Yet we must also let our light shine before men. We cannot hide our light under a bushel, but must set it upon a candlestick, for all to see. It is our duty to labor with all our hearts that that wonderful Holy City can descend from God out of heaven, both in our minds, and until it fills the whole earth.
But there must always be protection for that City, there may be a variety of ways for entrance, twelve gates, but each gate is a single pearl. No one can go in who does not have what a single pearl representsBan acknowledgment of the Lord, built up layer upon layer through life, until it makes a beautiful gate of entrance into the life of the Church. If we as a Church ever fail to recognize the Lord and the power of His Word to guide our lives and form the Church, then we are letting things which defile and make a lie enter that Holy City. But if we remain true to the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming, recognizing that it gets its light from the new inspired words of the Lord, then there will be no need for sun or moon in that City, for the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb will be the light thereof. Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 21:23; True Christian Religion 779
True Christian Religion 779
Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, as shown just above, and nevertheless has foretold that He was to come and establish a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by means of a man, who is able not only to receive these doctrines in his understanding but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself before m, His servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward opened the eyes of my spirit and thus introduced me into the spiritual world and granted me to see the heavens and the hells, and to talk with angels and spirits, and this now continuously for several years, I affirm in truth; as also that from the firs day of that call I have not received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I have read the Word.”
Apocalypse 3:7-13
Helping to Spread the Church
A sermon by Rev. Göran Appelgren
“These things says He ... who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.” (Revelation 3:7, 8)
When we reflect on our text, which is describing one of the seven churches, we have to be aware of three aspects of those churches, the background, the future and the present.
The background is the Christian church, both as it was at the time of the Last Judgment some two hundred years ago and as it is today, and they are two different things.
The future is the realization of the true New Church, the Church where “the tree of life is on either side of the river of water of life.” (Revelation 22:1, 2) This is the Church that is in true communication with the New Church in heaven, or in other words with the New Heaven.
And the present ... Yes, what is the present? Where do we stand today between yesterday and tomorrow--between the Last Judgment of the former Church and the true kingdom of God on earth, a Church where the Lord’s living voice is heard and received?
We know the following three things for sure. Firstly that we have organized ourselves in a Church body. Secondly, that this body recognizes the Revelation given in the Lord’s second coming, and this Revelation both talks about the New Church and provides the truths necessary for its foundation. Thirdly, we know that we want to follow the Lord and contribute to the establishment of His New Christian Church on earth as a counterpart and earthly foundation for the New Christian heaven. So, are we therefore the New Church, or is the New Church a broader idea than we might have thought?
For reasons unknown to us we have been led by the Lord to acknowledge His new Revelation. Yet humility is needed to keep us back from any claims; claims of being chosen or better than other people on this earth. Therefore, one virtue that is in place here especially is humility.
One reason for being humble is that knowledge brings responsibility. We are responsible for what we know. This should however not frighten us, for the Lord will certainly give us the strength to take on that responsibility once we are prepared to do so.
Another reason for humility is the teaching that the whole Christian world is invited to the New Church. The seven churches being addressed are in fact a description of “all those in the Christian Church who have religion, and out of whom the New Church, that is the New Jerusalem, can be formed.” (Apocalypse Revealed 69) It is said in the Apocalypse Revealed that the New Church is “formed from those who come to the Only Lord, and at the same time repent of evil works” (Apocalypse Revealed 69), that is from those who acknowledge the Lord’s Divine Human and live according to the Commandments. (Apocalypse Revealed 69, Apocalypse Explained 224) It is even said that those of the seven churches that are called “lifeless” or in “dead worship” also are invited by the Lord to the New Church. (Apocalypse Revealed, Contents, Ch. 3) So, is the New Church much more than we have thought of?
We know that a judgment has taken place on dead doctrines, and living ones have been given. But that was yesterday and not today. People are seeking life, and the answer is living doctrines that make sense, not dead ones that do not lead to the good of life. In the world of spirits the false doctrines lost their power at the Last Judgment, and therefore people on earth are able to respond to the new, living truths. The “today” that we live in is that potential of receiving life-giving truths which were not attainable before the Last Judgment.
At the time of the Last Judgment, the Christian Church consisted for the most part of those who were in works without any truths, and on the other hand those in faith alone without in neither works nor truths. But still even these are invited by the Lord to become of the New Church, provided that they repent and acknowledge His Divinity. (Apocalypse Revealed, Contents, Ch. 3) The invitation means that there now is the spiritual freedom necessary for rejecting the false doctrines that were judged and receiving the new living ones.
When we think of the future, we should not have the idea that the Church is a unified Church organization with identical features throughout the whole world. The truth is that the Church is one but at the same time composed of many diverse expressions of its worship and submission to the Lord. The one Church is like a king’s crown with many different and beautiful jewels in it. (True Christian Religion 763:e) The differences come from a variety in reception of the Lord’s influx of truth. (Apocalypse Revealed 73) That is why “seven” churches are addressed. “Seven” means “all things whatsoever with man that constitute the Church.” (Apocalypse Explained 203) Since all these seven churches are invited, the entire future “New Church with its varieties is described by the seven churches.” (Apocalypse Revealed 73)
When we say that all are invited, it means all who are “able to receive the doctrine of the New Jerusalem and to live in accordance with it.” (Apocalypse Revealed 88) So, what is the role of the organized New Church? Maybe it is to spread the living doctrines, so that people are able to respond to them.
To all of the churches it is said that there is something they have to “overcome.” That means that they have to fight against evils and falsities, for without temptations no faith can be given to anybody. (Apocalypse Explained 256) And for all churches something is promised for those overcoming. In the case of the church in today’s text-- the Philadelphia church--they are promised to become “pillars in the temple of God.” (Apocalypse Revealed 88) The living doctrines create the necessary foundation structure for a living Christianity.
It is those who overcome that will be of the Lord’s New Church. They will “receive goods and truths from the Lord” (Apocalypse Explained 90), that is, the living doctrines in exchange for dead doctrines.
From all this we can imagine that the Lord’s work for His Church is infinitely more complex and wonderful than we can ever think of. We do not know how the entirety of the New Church, the seven churches, will materialize. We know that we are playing a small but hopefully important role in it, and we hope that we are doing it well. All the encouraging words being said to the Philadelphia church we hope are applying to ourselves. And if they are not, we try to see where we can do better to serve the Lord and His true Church on earth.
But let us now see how today’s text can encourage us to continue in our search to express our beliefs and be true followers of the Lord and the pillars of the New Church..
When the Lord speaks to the Philadelphia church, He says that He has the “key of David.” (Revelation 3:7) To have the key means to have the power of opening and shutting both hell and heaven. It therefore involves the Lord’s Omnipotence from which He first opens hell, so that man can be led out of it, and then to open heaven and to introduce man into it. This is the salvation of man, for “to open heaven and to shut hell is to save.” (Apocalypse Explained 205)
This concept overshadows the whole message to the church of Philadelphia. He who follows the Lord is in truths and goods from Him, and through them that person is protected against evil and led into good. Hell is shut and heaven is opened. The Lord has the key, for from Him come all truth and good.
The Lord is said to have the key of David, because by David is meant the Lord as to Divine truth. The power to open and to shut comes from that Divine truth. (Apocalypse Revealed 62,174)
That is also why Peter in the Gospel story was given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (Apocalypse Revealed 798) The name Peter means Rock. The Rock as a foundation for the Church is the Divine truth that has life within it from the Divine Good in the Lord. Such truth is capable of receiving the life from the Lord that creates man’s spirit anew. That truth is the same as Peter’s acknowledgment, when he said to the Lord: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16) That fundamental acknowledgment opens heaven, because on that Rock heaven has its foundation in the minds of men. That Rock is the truth of good coming from the Lord. (Apocalypse Explained 206:3; Cf Apocalypse Revealed 768)
It is this truth of good coming from the Lord that characterizes the Philadelphia church. People in this state have an affection for truth from the Lord. They are open toward heaven and receive the influx therefrom. The only way to be open to heaven is “to think well about the Lord and about the neighbor,” thus to be longing for good. When this happens man will be enlightened, and the truths will have life within.
This idea is enhanced in our text by the image of the door. Doors, doorways and gates are often mentioned in the Word. They have an interesting and encouraging meaning. Doors are important in our lives. We can open them when we want to see others. We can shut them when we want to be on our own. When we go to see others we often have to face a closed door before it is opened to us. This opening that we take for granted carries a deep meaning. If the door was not opened we could not enter in to see our friends. Have you lost a key at some point? Was it unpleasant to have to stay out?
In the letter to the Philadelphia church the Lord says that He “sets an open door” before them. This means that the door to heaven is open and that it will never be shut. How can the Lord make such a promise? The answer lies in the words that precede: “I know your works.” When the works are works of charity from a spiritual principle, then life is in harmony with heaven, and heaven is open to man.
This harmony comes from being in truths of good coming from the Lord (Apocalypse Revealed 172, 176), which means being in a life of charity. (Apocalypse Explained 207) To those the Lord opens heaven, and “no one of such a quality will be refused” to enter. (Apocalypse Explained 208:1)
A door means both introductory truths and therefore subsequently admission into heaven. In the Old Testament Law there is a vivid imagery of truths being introductory to heaven: “These words which I command you ... you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6, 9) Still today many Jews have a little cachet containing quotes from the Old Testament mounted on their doorpost. But in the spiritual sense “house” means the reborn man. And likewise the “gates of the New Jerusalem” represent introductory truths. (Apocalypse Explained 208:8, 13)
What introduces a person to the Church and thence heaven, is truths of good coming from the Lord. It means that the Lord Himself both introduces and admits. This is what is meant in John, where it is said that no one can enter the sheepfold other than through the door. The Lord Himself says, “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7), and also “If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.” (John 10:9)
The same thing is meant by the words, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (3:20) Here it is pointed out that man has to make an effort. Once he has done it, an open door will be set before him that no one is able to shut. The effort is: (1) to approach the Lord, (2) acknowledge Him in His Divine Human, as the Son of God, as Peter did, (3) believe in Him and (4) follow His Commandments. (Apocalypse Explained 208:2, 3, 209:2; Apocalypse Revealed 70,72)
If man is neglecting to lead faith into deeds, he will not be admitted. If the person holds tenets of faith but still holds on to his love for himself and the world, the faith will be only in his memory and not in life. It will therefore after death be dissipated, and he will retain nothing that corresponds to what is heavenly (Apocalypse Explained 204:3), because there has been no communication with heaven during the lifetime. (Arcana Coelestia 8989:8) To open the door is to allow the Lord to see who we truly are and to accept the need for changes in our lives.
The introductory truths which will admit a person into heaven, will during his lifetime mean a communication with heaven. He will gradually be perfected in wisdom and understanding because his love is receiving the good from heaven. “Every one receives truth in proportion as he is in good.” (Arcana Coelestia 6628)
Throughout the letter to the people of the Philadelphia church there are several images of being in truth of good coming from the Lord. Because of this they are said to be loved, or chosen in relation to others who as to doctrine are in untruths.
And again it is said that they will be kept in the hour of temptation. In the Last Judgment, the interior qualities were investigated and these people represented by the Philadelphia Church were found good, and therefore they were saved. (Apocalypse Revealed 186) The same persistence in temptations applies to all who are of this interior quality.
When the Lord says “I am coming quickly,” He refers to the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, because those words are being repeated at the end of the Book of Revelation (22:20) when the New Jerusalem has been seen in spirit by John. Those are going to be of this Church who are in truth of good coming from the Lord. (Apocalypse Revealed 187)
Further on they are warned to “hold fast to that which they have that no one may get the crown.” The crown is a reward for victory over evils, which victory is won by means of truths of faith. (Arcana Coelestia 9930:11) If he ceases to love the truths, the wisdom will perish, and the crown will be taken away. (Apocalypse Revealed 188-9)
And finally of him who “overcomes,” the Lord says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.” Those who are in truth of good coming from the Lord will constitute the foundation for the Lord’s Church in heaven, because they are of His Church on earth. What makes this foundation is nothing else than the Divine truth of the Word, which is the Lord’s Divine Human. (Apocalypse Revealed 190-91)
A person can be raised up to a new life only by means of truth to which later the good is united. Only truth from a Divine source that looks towards a life of use can achieve this. This is how a person is led into the New Church and into the New Heaven.
When we are able to live up to these truths and make them part of our lives, when we accept the call and see the open door and enter it, then we overcome and, then the Lord will write His New name on us. That “New” name means that we acknowledge that the Lord’s Human is Divine, that the Son of God, Jesus Christ is God of heaven and earth. Through this acknowledgment together with leading a good life, by shunning evils as sins against Him, we can be led closer and closer to the Lord, and more and more become true members of the New Church, and then we will rejoice when we see the seven churches appearing all over the world. Amen.
Lessons: John 10:1-11; Revelation 3:7-13; Apocalypse Revealed 69, 73
Apocalypse Revealed 69. THE EXPLANATION. This and the following chapter treat of the seven churches, by which are described all those in the Christian church who have any religion, and out of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed; and this is formed of those who approach the Lord alone, and at the same time perform repentance from evil works. The rest, who do not approach the Lord alone, from the confirmed denial of the Divinity of His human, and who do not perform repentance from evil works, are indeed in the church, but have nothing of the church in them.
Apocalypse Revealed 73. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, signifies, to those and concerning those, who primarily regard the truths of doctrine and not the goods of life. It was shown above ..., that by “the seven churches” are not meant seven churches, but the church in the whole complex, which in itself is one, but various according to reception; and that those varieties may be compared with the various members and organs in a perfect body, which yet make one. They may also be compared with the various diadems in a king’s crown; and hence it is that the whole New Church, with its varieties, is described, in what now follows, by “the seven churches.” That by the church of Ephesus, are meant those in the church who primarily regard the truths of doctrine and not the goods of life, is clear from the things written to that church, when understood in the spiritual sense. It is written to “the angel” of that church, because by an angel is meant an angelic society which corresponds to a church consisting of such, as above....
A sermon by Rev. Göran Appelgren
“These things says He ... who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.” (Revelation 3:7, 8)
When we reflect on our text, which is describing one of the seven churches, we have to be aware of three aspects of those churches, the background, the future and the present.
The background is the Christian church, both as it was at the time of the Last Judgment some two hundred years ago and as it is today, and they are two different things.
The future is the realization of the true New Church, the Church where “the tree of life is on either side of the river of water of life.” (Revelation 22:1, 2) This is the Church that is in true communication with the New Church in heaven, or in other words with the New Heaven.
And the present ... Yes, what is the present? Where do we stand today between yesterday and tomorrow--between the Last Judgment of the former Church and the true kingdom of God on earth, a Church where the Lord’s living voice is heard and received?
We know the following three things for sure. Firstly that we have organized ourselves in a Church body. Secondly, that this body recognizes the Revelation given in the Lord’s second coming, and this Revelation both talks about the New Church and provides the truths necessary for its foundation. Thirdly, we know that we want to follow the Lord and contribute to the establishment of His New Christian Church on earth as a counterpart and earthly foundation for the New Christian heaven. So, are we therefore the New Church, or is the New Church a broader idea than we might have thought?
For reasons unknown to us we have been led by the Lord to acknowledge His new Revelation. Yet humility is needed to keep us back from any claims; claims of being chosen or better than other people on this earth. Therefore, one virtue that is in place here especially is humility.
One reason for being humble is that knowledge brings responsibility. We are responsible for what we know. This should however not frighten us, for the Lord will certainly give us the strength to take on that responsibility once we are prepared to do so.
Another reason for humility is the teaching that the whole Christian world is invited to the New Church. The seven churches being addressed are in fact a description of “all those in the Christian Church who have religion, and out of whom the New Church, that is the New Jerusalem, can be formed.” (Apocalypse Revealed 69) It is said in the Apocalypse Revealed that the New Church is “formed from those who come to the Only Lord, and at the same time repent of evil works” (Apocalypse Revealed 69), that is from those who acknowledge the Lord’s Divine Human and live according to the Commandments. (Apocalypse Revealed 69, Apocalypse Explained 224) It is even said that those of the seven churches that are called “lifeless” or in “dead worship” also are invited by the Lord to the New Church. (Apocalypse Revealed, Contents, Ch. 3) So, is the New Church much more than we have thought of?
We know that a judgment has taken place on dead doctrines, and living ones have been given. But that was yesterday and not today. People are seeking life, and the answer is living doctrines that make sense, not dead ones that do not lead to the good of life. In the world of spirits the false doctrines lost their power at the Last Judgment, and therefore people on earth are able to respond to the new, living truths. The “today” that we live in is that potential of receiving life-giving truths which were not attainable before the Last Judgment.
At the time of the Last Judgment, the Christian Church consisted for the most part of those who were in works without any truths, and on the other hand those in faith alone without in neither works nor truths. But still even these are invited by the Lord to become of the New Church, provided that they repent and acknowledge His Divinity. (Apocalypse Revealed, Contents, Ch. 3) The invitation means that there now is the spiritual freedom necessary for rejecting the false doctrines that were judged and receiving the new living ones.
When we think of the future, we should not have the idea that the Church is a unified Church organization with identical features throughout the whole world. The truth is that the Church is one but at the same time composed of many diverse expressions of its worship and submission to the Lord. The one Church is like a king’s crown with many different and beautiful jewels in it. (True Christian Religion 763:e) The differences come from a variety in reception of the Lord’s influx of truth. (Apocalypse Revealed 73) That is why “seven” churches are addressed. “Seven” means “all things whatsoever with man that constitute the Church.” (Apocalypse Explained 203) Since all these seven churches are invited, the entire future “New Church with its varieties is described by the seven churches.” (Apocalypse Revealed 73)
When we say that all are invited, it means all who are “able to receive the doctrine of the New Jerusalem and to live in accordance with it.” (Apocalypse Revealed 88) So, what is the role of the organized New Church? Maybe it is to spread the living doctrines, so that people are able to respond to them.
To all of the churches it is said that there is something they have to “overcome.” That means that they have to fight against evils and falsities, for without temptations no faith can be given to anybody. (Apocalypse Explained 256) And for all churches something is promised for those overcoming. In the case of the church in today’s text-- the Philadelphia church--they are promised to become “pillars in the temple of God.” (Apocalypse Revealed 88) The living doctrines create the necessary foundation structure for a living Christianity.
It is those who overcome that will be of the Lord’s New Church. They will “receive goods and truths from the Lord” (Apocalypse Explained 90), that is, the living doctrines in exchange for dead doctrines.
From all this we can imagine that the Lord’s work for His Church is infinitely more complex and wonderful than we can ever think of. We do not know how the entirety of the New Church, the seven churches, will materialize. We know that we are playing a small but hopefully important role in it, and we hope that we are doing it well. All the encouraging words being said to the Philadelphia church we hope are applying to ourselves. And if they are not, we try to see where we can do better to serve the Lord and His true Church on earth.
But let us now see how today’s text can encourage us to continue in our search to express our beliefs and be true followers of the Lord and the pillars of the New Church..
When the Lord speaks to the Philadelphia church, He says that He has the “key of David.” (Revelation 3:7) To have the key means to have the power of opening and shutting both hell and heaven. It therefore involves the Lord’s Omnipotence from which He first opens hell, so that man can be led out of it, and then to open heaven and to introduce man into it. This is the salvation of man, for “to open heaven and to shut hell is to save.” (Apocalypse Explained 205)
This concept overshadows the whole message to the church of Philadelphia. He who follows the Lord is in truths and goods from Him, and through them that person is protected against evil and led into good. Hell is shut and heaven is opened. The Lord has the key, for from Him come all truth and good.
The Lord is said to have the key of David, because by David is meant the Lord as to Divine truth. The power to open and to shut comes from that Divine truth. (Apocalypse Revealed 62,174)
That is also why Peter in the Gospel story was given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (Apocalypse Revealed 798) The name Peter means Rock. The Rock as a foundation for the Church is the Divine truth that has life within it from the Divine Good in the Lord. Such truth is capable of receiving the life from the Lord that creates man’s spirit anew. That truth is the same as Peter’s acknowledgment, when he said to the Lord: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16) That fundamental acknowledgment opens heaven, because on that Rock heaven has its foundation in the minds of men. That Rock is the truth of good coming from the Lord. (Apocalypse Explained 206:3; Cf Apocalypse Revealed 768)
It is this truth of good coming from the Lord that characterizes the Philadelphia church. People in this state have an affection for truth from the Lord. They are open toward heaven and receive the influx therefrom. The only way to be open to heaven is “to think well about the Lord and about the neighbor,” thus to be longing for good. When this happens man will be enlightened, and the truths will have life within.
This idea is enhanced in our text by the image of the door. Doors, doorways and gates are often mentioned in the Word. They have an interesting and encouraging meaning. Doors are important in our lives. We can open them when we want to see others. We can shut them when we want to be on our own. When we go to see others we often have to face a closed door before it is opened to us. This opening that we take for granted carries a deep meaning. If the door was not opened we could not enter in to see our friends. Have you lost a key at some point? Was it unpleasant to have to stay out?
In the letter to the Philadelphia church the Lord says that He “sets an open door” before them. This means that the door to heaven is open and that it will never be shut. How can the Lord make such a promise? The answer lies in the words that precede: “I know your works.” When the works are works of charity from a spiritual principle, then life is in harmony with heaven, and heaven is open to man.
This harmony comes from being in truths of good coming from the Lord (Apocalypse Revealed 172, 176), which means being in a life of charity. (Apocalypse Explained 207) To those the Lord opens heaven, and “no one of such a quality will be refused” to enter. (Apocalypse Explained 208:1)
A door means both introductory truths and therefore subsequently admission into heaven. In the Old Testament Law there is a vivid imagery of truths being introductory to heaven: “These words which I command you ... you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6, 9) Still today many Jews have a little cachet containing quotes from the Old Testament mounted on their doorpost. But in the spiritual sense “house” means the reborn man. And likewise the “gates of the New Jerusalem” represent introductory truths. (Apocalypse Explained 208:8, 13)
What introduces a person to the Church and thence heaven, is truths of good coming from the Lord. It means that the Lord Himself both introduces and admits. This is what is meant in John, where it is said that no one can enter the sheepfold other than through the door. The Lord Himself says, “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7), and also “If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.” (John 10:9)
The same thing is meant by the words, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (3:20) Here it is pointed out that man has to make an effort. Once he has done it, an open door will be set before him that no one is able to shut. The effort is: (1) to approach the Lord, (2) acknowledge Him in His Divine Human, as the Son of God, as Peter did, (3) believe in Him and (4) follow His Commandments. (Apocalypse Explained 208:2, 3, 209:2; Apocalypse Revealed 70,72)
If man is neglecting to lead faith into deeds, he will not be admitted. If the person holds tenets of faith but still holds on to his love for himself and the world, the faith will be only in his memory and not in life. It will therefore after death be dissipated, and he will retain nothing that corresponds to what is heavenly (Apocalypse Explained 204:3), because there has been no communication with heaven during the lifetime. (Arcana Coelestia 8989:8) To open the door is to allow the Lord to see who we truly are and to accept the need for changes in our lives.
The introductory truths which will admit a person into heaven, will during his lifetime mean a communication with heaven. He will gradually be perfected in wisdom and understanding because his love is receiving the good from heaven. “Every one receives truth in proportion as he is in good.” (Arcana Coelestia 6628)
Throughout the letter to the people of the Philadelphia church there are several images of being in truth of good coming from the Lord. Because of this they are said to be loved, or chosen in relation to others who as to doctrine are in untruths.
And again it is said that they will be kept in the hour of temptation. In the Last Judgment, the interior qualities were investigated and these people represented by the Philadelphia Church were found good, and therefore they were saved. (Apocalypse Revealed 186) The same persistence in temptations applies to all who are of this interior quality.
When the Lord says “I am coming quickly,” He refers to the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, because those words are being repeated at the end of the Book of Revelation (22:20) when the New Jerusalem has been seen in spirit by John. Those are going to be of this Church who are in truth of good coming from the Lord. (Apocalypse Revealed 187)
Further on they are warned to “hold fast to that which they have that no one may get the crown.” The crown is a reward for victory over evils, which victory is won by means of truths of faith. (Arcana Coelestia 9930:11) If he ceases to love the truths, the wisdom will perish, and the crown will be taken away. (Apocalypse Revealed 188-9)
And finally of him who “overcomes,” the Lord says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.” Those who are in truth of good coming from the Lord will constitute the foundation for the Lord’s Church in heaven, because they are of His Church on earth. What makes this foundation is nothing else than the Divine truth of the Word, which is the Lord’s Divine Human. (Apocalypse Revealed 190-91)
A person can be raised up to a new life only by means of truth to which later the good is united. Only truth from a Divine source that looks towards a life of use can achieve this. This is how a person is led into the New Church and into the New Heaven.
When we are able to live up to these truths and make them part of our lives, when we accept the call and see the open door and enter it, then we overcome and, then the Lord will write His New name on us. That “New” name means that we acknowledge that the Lord’s Human is Divine, that the Son of God, Jesus Christ is God of heaven and earth. Through this acknowledgment together with leading a good life, by shunning evils as sins against Him, we can be led closer and closer to the Lord, and more and more become true members of the New Church, and then we will rejoice when we see the seven churches appearing all over the world. Amen.
Lessons: John 10:1-11; Revelation 3:7-13; Apocalypse Revealed 69, 73
Apocalypse Revealed 69. THE EXPLANATION. This and the following chapter treat of the seven churches, by which are described all those in the Christian church who have any religion, and out of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed; and this is formed of those who approach the Lord alone, and at the same time perform repentance from evil works. The rest, who do not approach the Lord alone, from the confirmed denial of the Divinity of His human, and who do not perform repentance from evil works, are indeed in the church, but have nothing of the church in them.
Apocalypse Revealed 73. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, signifies, to those and concerning those, who primarily regard the truths of doctrine and not the goods of life. It was shown above ..., that by “the seven churches” are not meant seven churches, but the church in the whole complex, which in itself is one, but various according to reception; and that those varieties may be compared with the various members and organs in a perfect body, which yet make one. They may also be compared with the various diadems in a king’s crown; and hence it is that the whole New Church, with its varieties, is described, in what now follows, by “the seven churches.” That by the church of Ephesus, are meant those in the church who primarily regard the truths of doctrine and not the goods of life, is clear from the things written to that church, when understood in the spiritual sense. It is written to “the angel” of that church, because by an angel is meant an angelic society which corresponds to a church consisting of such, as above....
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