Church of the Holy City

Purifying the Temple
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 8, 2015

Exodus 20:1-17 John 2:13-22 Psalm 19

In our reading from John, Jesus makes a connection between His body and the temple in Jerusalem. In a scene filled with dramatic action, Jesus drives out the money changers and the men selling animals for sacrifice. The Jews question Jesus, asking Him by what authority He does these things. Jesus’ answer is cryptic. He says, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” By this, Jesus is referring to the temple of His body. It is a prediction of the resurrection. After Jesus’ death on the cross, He is raised from the dead after three days.
It can be said that this one story sums up Jesus’ entire mission on earth. Cleansing the temple and raising His body from the dead are what Jesus came to earth to do. Cleansing the temple is a metaphor for reforming the church. And raising His body from the dead is a way of saying that Jesus cleansed His mortal part to such a degree that there was nothing left but the Divine Human. This Divine Human was a total and complete union of God and Man in the body of Jesus Christ. Cleansing the temple is also a metaphor for Jesus cleansing His humanity and making it divine. For the temple symbolizes Jesus’ body.
Driving out the money changers and those selling sacrificial animals would have been seen as a huge disruption in the status quo. For many Jews–and particularly for the leaders of Jewish culture–the temple was the very focal point for Jewish worship. Performing the right sacrifice for the right reason was at the heart of worship in those days. By driving out the salesmen and money changers, Jesus was challenging the way Jews worshipped. He was saying that they had it all wrong.
Who would be prepared to hear that about their worship? Who would be able to see why Jesus was doing what He did? Who would accept the fact that the way things had been done for thousands of years was wrong? So it is not surprising that the Jews would ask Jesus, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” In other words, they are asking Jesus who He was to disrupt things so dramatically. For here was a peasant from the backwoods of Galilee coming into the ancient heart of Judea, the most cosmopolitan city in Judea, the capital, if you will, and dramatically vandalizing the temple. I’m not so sure His answer would have been satisfactory. In fact, it may have been inflammatory.
He says that He was able to raise the temple in three days were it torn down. What could this possibly mean? Could it mean that Jesus was Lord of the temple itself? Does it mean that Jesus could tear down and build up? John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus meant that His body would be raised up in three days after His death on the cross. But what does this have to do with the temple? Somehow, Jesus is making a connection between Himself and the temple.
The connection between Jesus’ body and the temple can be seen in what Jesus did for the church and how He did it. Cleansing the temple can be seen as a metaphor for what Jesus did for the church. Jesus cleansed the church. He reminded Jews of the teachings that are at the heart of their laws. Jesus reminded them that love for God and love for the neighbor are at the heart of all the law and the prophets.
Jesus taught further that religion is an inward matter. He taught that it is not an outward matter of performing the right sacrifice for the right reason. I think that John is setting up the reader for this teaching. In all the other Gospels, Jesus’ dramatic cleansing of the temple happens late in His ministry. It immediately follows Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem which we celebrate on Palm Sunday. But In John’s Gospel, the cleansing of the temple happens very early in Jesus’ ministry. It comes right after Jesus’ first miracle, when He turns water into wine at the wedding feast. By cleansing the temple this early, John is already pointing his readers away from external practices. John is telling us that temple sacrifice isn’t what religion is all about.
The idea that religion is something internal then comes in the very next chapter of John. In Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus teaches that we must be born again of water and the Spirit. Then John actually negates temple sacrifice in the next chapter, with the story of the woman at the well. The woman asks Jesus about temple sacrifice. She says, “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship” (John 4:20). Jesus’ reply teaches the world that temple sacrifice is not what religion is about,
The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father . . . But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:21, 23-24).
With these words, Jesus points away from temple sacrifice and toward our internal spirit. He tells us that our spirits need to seek God, not our body with correct rituals.
So by pointing toward our spirits, and pointing away from the temple, Jesus is reforming Jewish worship. He is implanting a new form of religion in the world. In this sense, cleansing the temple is a metaphor for purifying the way religion had been practiced. He is cleansing the world and opening the windows of heaven to flow into each human with new life from God.
And this opening of heaven was done through Jesus’ Divine Humanity. John’s Gospel contains those beautiful words, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory” (John 1:14). This Word that became flesh was God, is God. God became flesh. Can you imagine the power of God in a Human form, walking right next to you? You would certainly be able to feel it. The two disciples who walked next to Jesus on the road to Emmaus certainly felt it. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
This church teaches that before Jesus’ incarnation, God flowed into humans through the heavens. The church also teaches that the spiritual world had become so filled with evil spirits who choked off heaven’s influx. Heaven’s influx was blocked. But when God became a material being, God could flow into His own Humanity, and bring the power of God’s Love to earth through Himself. Jesus was now the conduit from God to humanity. This divine connection from on high to here below broke up the grip hell had in the spiritual world and opened heaven’s light again. Now heaven could flow into us and God could come directly to us through the resurrected Divine Humanity of Jesus. So in our statement of faith we say, “He defeated the demonic power, destroying its hold on the world, releasing us from bondage.”
So on the earthly plane, Jesus reformed religion by teaching that temple sacrifice was not the way to worship. He taught that our inward state was where to find true religion. And Jesus reformed and reordered the spiritual world to allow this to happen in our souls. Jesus’ incarnation opened up a way for God to come to us here on the material world. And as He brought God to humanity in His own Divine Human form, God also opened up the windows of heaven so that heavenly light could shine through to us here on earth.
By driving out the money changers and the salesmen from the temple, Jesus taught us a new way to worship. He cleansed religion as He cleansed the temple. And by raising up His divine Human form, by His own power, God and Human became one. God can now come to us immediately through the risen and glorified Jesus Christ. And God can come to us through the opened windows of the heavens.

PRAYER

Lord, when you were on earth you cleansed the temple of impure practices. You also made your humanity divine, by purging the merely mortal humanity. So this morning we pray that you cleanse the temple of our bodies. We ask you to give us the strength to cooperate with you in the good work of purifying our souls. Give us the power to drive out every evil and limiting passion and thought. May we be filled with your Holy Spirit. And may we be open to your inflowing love. May the windows of heaven be opened to us and may heavenly light shine upon us and fill us with the desire to good at every opportunity we have.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

All Can Be Regenerated
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 1, 2015

Isaiah 6:1-8 Luke 5:1-11 Psalm 138

In our second week of Lent, I selected Bible passages that treat to purification from sin. I find the Bible readings for this morning both interesting and comforting. They both concern a meeting between man and God. In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah sees God above the awe-inspiring cherubim. And in the New Testament reading, Simon Peter, James, and John meet Jesus while they are fishing. In both passages, God comes to the people—they don’t seek Him out. And God comes to the people where they are in life. He doesn’t appear in a period of prayer, or meditation—He comes right in the middle of their lives. The first response of the people to whom God comes is the same. They both feel conscious of their own unworthiness. Isaiah says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts (6:5). Likewise, Simon Peter bows down at Jesus’ knees and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). The striking thing about these responses is that they come from the people themselves, not God. It is Isaiah and Peter who see themselves as sinful, not God. And God stays right there with them; He does not depart. He cleanses Isaiah with a coal taken from the temple and despite his fear, Peter follows Jesus straightaway.
I take two basic ideas from these readings. One is how God sees us. And the other is God’s response of cleansing when we are brought into His presence.
I was comforted by the way God acts when He appears to Isaiah and Peter. Both men feel their own unworthiness, in fact, their sinfulness. Yet God sees no offence. God comes to us regardless of our own spiritual state. We don’t have to be perfect for God to come to us. We need not be saints to encounter God. In so many passages in the Old Testament, we hear of God being angry, or punishing, or even vengeful. But Swedenborg teaches that these are all appearances. They are ideas about God that were given to a primitive, warrior people, who themselves thought that way. So they saw God that way. But Swedenborg sees God very differently. He makes a beautiful statement about how God views the human race. He says that God does not see our evils. And furthermore none of those dreadful images of God represent who God actually is.
The Lord imputes good to every person, but hell imputes evil to every person. That the Lord imputes to man good and not evil, while the devil (meaning hell), imputes evil is a new thing in the church; and it is new for the reason that in the Word it is frequently said that God is angry, takes vengeance, hates, damns, punishes, casts into hell, and tempts, all of which pertain to evil, and therefore are evils. But . . . the sense of the letter of the Word is composed of such things as are called appearances and correspondences . . . when such things are read these very appearances of truth, while they are passing from a person to heaven, are changed into genuine truths, which are, that the Lord is never angry, never takes vengeance, never hates, damns, punishes, casts into hell, or tempts, consequently does evil to a person (TCR 650).
In another place, Swedenborg tells us that God cannot even look at us sternly,
as He wills only what is good he can do nothing but what is good. . . . From these few statements it can be seen how deluded those are who think, and still more those who believe, and still more those who teach, that God can damn any one, curse any one, send any one to hell, predestine any soul to eternal death, avenge wrongs, be angry, or punish. He cannot even turn Himself away from humanity, nor look upon anyone with a stern countenance (TCR 56).
God doesn’t even judge us, let alone damn anyone to hell.
That the Lord imputes good to every person and evil to none, hence that He does not judge any one to hell, but so far as a person follows raises all to heaven is evident from His words: Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all persons unto Myself” (John 12:32); “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17); Jesus said, “I judge no man” (John 8:15) (TCR 652).
And God’s love extends to the whole human race—good and bad. “The love of God goes and extends itself, not only to good persons and things, but also to evil persons and things” (TCR 43).
What would it feel like to see God face to face? Perhaps like the Bible passages we heard this morning, meeting God face to face might make us feel our own unworthiness. In the presence of infinite goodness and infinite love, we would probably see how far from infinite goodness we are. This brings to mind the second aspect of these Bible readings. In Isaiah, God purifies the prophet with a coal taken from the altar. And in the New Testament, despite his own feeling of sin, Peter drops his nets and immediately follows Jesus. When God comes to us, He brings us purification.
What purification means is seen differently in different churches. Some Christians say that Jesus bore our sins, and our sins are atoned for if we believe. Swedenborg sees the matter differently. For Swedenborg, our sins have become a part of our personality. They are in our emotions, our thoughts, and our behaviours. They are part of who we are. In order to be purified, we need to examine ourselves and see each self-limiting thought and response for what it is. We need to weed the garden of our personality and root out those aspects that would choke off the fruit of the Spirit.
Sins are removed so far as a person is reborn, because rebirth is restraining the flesh that it may not rule, and subjugating the old man . . . . Who that yet has sound understanding, cannot conclude that such things cannot be done in a moment, but successively, as a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated . . . . For the things of the flesh or the old man are inherent in him from birth . . . as an infant grows, reaches childhood, then youth, and then begins to think from his own understanding, and to act from his own will. Who does not see that such a house which has been thus far built in the mind, . . . cannot be destroyed in a moment, and a new house built in place of it? Must not the lusts . . . be themselves first removed, and new desires which are of good and truth be introduced in the place of the lusts of evil and falsity? That these things cannot be done in a moment every wise person sees from this alone, that every evil is composed of innumerable lusts; . . . therefore unless one evil is brought out after another, and this until their connection is broken up, a person cannot be made new (TCR 611).
Even though this is a lifelong process—indeed a process that continues to eternity in the next life—the good news is that everyone can be reborn if they are but open to God’s influence. Swedenborg states this in no uncertain terms, “Since all men have been redeemed, all may be regenerated each according to his state” (TCR 579). This idea of rebirth is inclusive, rather than exclusive. It means that everyone has their own path to take in the process of spiritual rebirth. One person’s path may be very different from another’s. Our path may be very different from someone else’s. The variety of ways in which people are reborn are as infinite as there are faces in the human race.
All may be regenerated, each according to his state; for the simple and the learned are regenerated differently; as are those engaged in different pursuits, and those who fill different offices . . . those who are principled in natural good from their parents, and those who are in evil; those who from their infancy have entered into the vanities of the world, and those who sooner or later have withdrawn from them . . . and this variety, like that of people’s features and dispositions, is infinite; and yet everyone, according to his state may be regenerated and saved (TCR 580).
There is a powerful force emanating from God that draws everyone in the whole human race upward to heaven.
There is actually a sphere elevating all to heaven, that proceeds continually from the Lord and fills the whole natural world and the whole spiritual world; it is like a strong current in the ocean, which draws the ship in a hidden way. All those who believe in the Lord and live according to His precepts, enter that sphere or current and are lifted (TCR 652).
I find these passages remarkably refreshing. It isn’t only people who have been brought up good who are regenerated, but even those who Swedenborg says “are in evil.” When I read this, I think about those unfortunate young people who are brought up in neighbourhoods where gangs dominate the culture. Or others who have had difficult upbringings. All these can be reformed and regenerated—each according to his or her upbringing and state of mind.
I think the main point in all this is to be open to God when He comes. In Revelation, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Let us all listen for that knock. And let us all, regardless of what state we are in, open the door and eat the holy supper with our Lord.

PRAYER

Lord, you have come to earth to save humanity. And we are taught that every person can be saved who turns to you. None of us are righteous by our own efforts. This morning we pray that you touch our hearts with your divine goodness and bring us close to you. We would be close to you all the time–in our work lives, in our rest, and in our play. We know that it is your will to have everyone near to you. Lift us, we pray, into your kingdom, that we may find joy in you to eternity.
And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

Comin’ for to Carry Me Home
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 15, 2015

2 Kings 12:1-12 Mark 9:2-9 Psalm 50

Today’s Bible readings suggest dying and the afterlife to me. In our Old Testament reading, the prophet Elijah was taken up into heaven by a fiery chariot. And in our New Testament reading, Jesus is on a high mountain and there His true identity as God in the flesh is revealed. His clothes become dazzling white, and a voice comes from a bright cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Moses and Elijah appear and they talk with Jesus.
There are a few issues in these stories that I would like to reflect on. First, I would like to contrast the stories of Elijah and Jesus. The stories make clear that Elijah is a mortal, while Jesus is divine. When Elijah is taken to heaven, he is conveyed there by a chariot. Elijah doesn’t go to heaven by his own power. Rather, he is lifted up and taken to heaven by God’s power. But Jesus isn’t taken anywhere by another power. His face shines like the sun (Matthew 17) and His own clothes shine with dazzling brilliance. Mark tells us that Jesus was transfigured. The word “transfigure” means, “To transform the figure or appearance; to alter radically; to exalt, glorify.” These connotations all apply to Jesus. His appearance is altered radically, and He is most certainly exalted and glorified. The transfiguration shows that Jesus Himself is God. His glorious appearance is His divinity shining forth from His own person.
Then there is the issue of Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah signify the law and the prophets. Moses symbolizes the law and Elijah symbolizes the prophets. The law and the prophets is a way that Jews refer to the Bible. The whole Bible is called the law and the prophets. By Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus, we have a symbolic representation of Jesus as the Word made flesh. Or Jesus as the Bible in the flesh.
But there is another way to consider the appearance of Moses and Elijah. They appear with Jesus in their spiritual form. Both Moses and Elijah have died, and yet they are here talking with Jesus. This passage can be taken to demonstrate that there is life after death. The souls of Moses and Elijah are alive in death. They are talking with Jesus from the spiritual world.
And what is remarkable is that Peter, James, and John all see the spirits of Moses and Elijah. I think that what is happening here is that their spiritual eyes are opened. For with their spiritual eyes opened, they see Jesus as He is in the spiritual world–dazzling bright. And with their spiritual eyes opened, the Apostles are able to see Moses and Elijah in their spiritual bodies.
So the Apostles are seeing into the spiritual world. The spiritual world is where we all will end up. I think about the old, African-American song, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” This song refers to the chariot that took Elijah up into heaven. The songwriter sees a similar chariot coming to take him or her up into heaven. What strikes me about that song are the words, “Comin’ for to Carry Me Home.” The chariot that takes the singer into heaven, is taking him or her home. This song teaches us that the spiritual world is our true home. And the chariot that swings low to pick us up is comin’ for to carry us home.
Our true home is the spiritual world. We are put on earth for a short time. Our journey on earth is like our journey in our mother’s womb. We are in our mothers’ womb in order to grow into a human being biologically. And we are here on earth as if we are in a womb. We are here on earth to grow into a spiritual being in our second birth. If all proceeds according to divine design, we open our higher minds and allow God’s love and wisdom into our hearts and minds. As we allow God into our lives, our souls are formed according to the heavenly design. Then, when our bodies are of no more use to us, we shed them. And our souls, having been prepared in the form of heaven, now becomes conscious of that realm. We “awake” into heaven, our true and final home. Blake explains our purpose here on earth beautifully in a poem called THE LITTLE BLACK BOY:
Look on the rising sun: there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away. . . .

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
We are here to learn to bear the light and heat, or the wisdom and love of heaven.
Not everyone has such a positive view of the afterlife. Shakespeare’s Hamlet fears death because he doesn’t know what lies in that “undiscovered Country.” Although life is hard and weary for Hamlet–so much so that he contemplates suicide–Hamlet holds back since he doesn’t know what lies in store for him in the next life:
To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life: . . .
Who would these Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
There is a more positive view of heaven in the song, “I’ll Fly Away.” Like Hamlet, the songwriter finds life difficult, and looks forward to the next with glee. So the song goes,
Just a few more weary days and then,
I’ll fly away
To a land where joys will never end
I’ll fly away
I think that we are most likely somewhere between the poles I have been discussing. Somewhere between Hamlet’s fear and the happy expectation of “I’ll Fly Away.” Robert Frost captures this ambivalence quite well in a poem entitled, MISGIVING:
All crying, ‘We will go with you, O Wind!’
The foliage follow him, leaf and stem;
But a sleep oppresses them as they go,
And they end by bidding him stay with them.

Since ever they flung abroad in spring
The leaves had promised themselves this flight,
Who now would fain seek sheltering wall,
Or thicket, or hollow place for the night.

And now they answer his summoning blast
With an ever vaguer and vaguer stir,
Or at utmost a little reluctant whirl
That drops them no further than where they were.

I only hope that when I am free
As they are free to go in quest
Of the knowledge beyond the bounds of life
It may not seem better to me to rest.

The poem is set in the autumn, a time near the end of the season’s cycle. Winter’s death is approaching, and the poem suggests that time in human life when we can begin to see the end. At this time in our lives, the doctrines by which we lived are put to the test. All our lives we have heard about life after death and heaven, now it is becoming a reality. So the poem begins with youthful anticipation of the afterlife, “Since ever they flung abroad in spring/The leaves had promised themselves this flight.” The leaves lose conviction, and instead of following the wind who will blow them on their spiritual journey, they ask the wind to stay here with them, “But a sleep oppresses them as they go,/And they end by bidding him stay with them.” Then comes the speaker’s voice. He wants to believe that when it is his turn to go, he will welcome the journey into that undiscovered Country,
I only hope that when I am free
As they are free to go in quest
Of the knowledge beyond the bounds of life
It may not seem better to me to rest.
Our readings teach us that Jesus is king in heaven, and that there Moses and Elijah live out their lives eternally. So, too, will we live for eternity in the spiritual world. As time progresses, and our friends and loved ones begin to depart for the next world, and as our time approaches, our faith is tested. I hope that as our time approaches, it may not seem better to us to rest. For heaven is our true home.

PRAYER

Lord, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and you are an everlasting God. You have told us that you go to prepare a place for us with you. But we have a role to play in coming into your kingdom. We are here on this earth to learn to accept your love and wisdom. Your kingdom is made all from your goodness and truth. And without your goodness and truth in our souls, we will not feel comfortable with you. Give us, we pray, to learn from you. Give us, we pray to receive from you. And Give us, we pray, to come and live in your kingdom for ever, with you.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

Who Is Jesus?
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
February 1, 2015

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 John 1:19-34 Psalm 111

In our reading from Deuteronomy, we heard a prophesy about a prophet who is to be raised up. This prophet was to be like Moses–the greatest prophet. The prophesy about the prophet became attached to the idea of the end times. There were other prophets who predicted a great and terrible Day of Yahweh. This Day of Yahweh was a time when God Himself would come down to earth and set things straight. The sun would be darkened; the moon turned to blood; there would be fire and earthquakes. With all these terrible events taking places, there is no wonder that it was called a great and terrible day. And “the prophet” was to come before this terrible Day of Yahweh.
At the time of Jesus, everyone was getting ready for this to happen. The people in Israel thought it could come any day. This may explain why John the Baptist had such a huge following. Mark tells us that, “There went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem.” John taught repentance for forgiveness of sins before baptism. And it seems that the people of Judea were deeply concerned about this. In Matthew’s gospel, John gives the people of Judea a reason to be baptized. He preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And in Luke, we have an even more graphic preaching from John, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So in Luke, John says that right now, unworthy trees are being cut down and thrown into the fire. This is some kind of metaphor, but the people of Judea must have sensed that it had something to do with the coming Day of Yahweh, and the refining fire of God.
So with all this fear and excitement in the air, it is no wonder that the temple priests and the tribe who served in the temple called Levites, it is no wonder that they came running up to John to ask him who he was. In rapid succession, they fire questions at John the Baptist: “Who are you?”–”I am not the Christ.” “Are you Elijah?”–”No.” “Are you the prophet?”–”No.” Then you can feel a sense of frustration because the next question comes, “Who are you?” All the fear and anticipation about the Day of Yahweh is behind these frantic questions.
So John says that he is not the prophet. Who was the prophet? Did the prophet come? Was Jesus the prophet?
Let’s look at just a little of the background behind the prophet. The prophet was a kind of intermediary between God and the people of Israel. When God appeared to the Israelites, it was a dazzling light-show, noisy, magnificent, and scary. There was lightning, thunder, earthquakes, a loud trumpet-blast, and fire on the mountain top where God appeared. This frightened the Israelites so much that they asked not to see God again. They said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19). God consents to their request and gives them prophets. In the case of our story, we are talking about that one special prophet who will be raised up after Moses. God will put His own words into the mouth of the prophet. In Deuteronomy 18:18 God says, “I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”
Is this a description of what Jesus did? Jesus says in John 15:15, “All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” So this passage, and many others like it, say that Jesus is speaking the words of His Father. God is speaking through Jesus. In this sense, Jesus is a prophet, perhaps the prophet.
But there is a great difference between Jesus and prophets–even the greatest prophet, Moses. Jesus claims that God is in Him.
“He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:9-10).
Jesus claims that God is His Father. This meant that Jesus was equal to God. This so outraged the Jews that they sought to kill Jesus on the spot. Jesus said,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
The Jews took up stones again to stone him. . . . The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blaspheme; because you, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:27-30, 31, 33).
Now no ordinary prophet would claim that God is his father. And certainly, no prophet would say that God and he were one. They may say that they have some special access to God’s Word. But they would never say that they were equal to God in any way.
There is another way in which Jesus is like the prophet. As we saw, the Israelites were afraid to speak to God Himself. The prophet was supposed to speak to God for the people and bring God’s Word to the people.
In a very real sense, Jesus brought God’s Word to us. In a very real way, Jesus brought God to us. And He brought God to us in a way that didn’t frighten us. He brought God to us in a way that a prophet might: in a human voice.
But once again, Jesus did these things in a way no ordinary prophet could. John’s Gospel says that God’s Word existed in the beginning and was God. Then John makes the staggering claim that God’s Word became flesh. John tells us that all things were made by God’s Word and that the Word that made all things was coming into the world. Jesus Christ was that Word of God. Jesus Christ was the Word that made all things, now walking on the earth. So Jesus did not receive some words from God to tell people. Jesus was God’s Word in the flesh. So Jesus did bring God’s Word to us. But not as a prophet would, who hears a message from God and tells it to the people. But rather, Jesus was God’s Word Itself, walking on the earth.
So Jesus brings God’s Word to us. And Jesus brings God to us. John says that Jesus “has made him known.” And with Jesus there is no lightning, no thunder, no earthquake, no volcanic fire. Only a peaceful, gentle, human being. That is how God is manifested in Jesus.
So Jesus fills many of the roles of a prophet–but not really. Jesus tells us what He hears from the Father, as a prophet would. But with Jesus, the Father is His father. As a prophet, Jesus brings God to humanity in a non-threatening manner. But unlike any prophet, Jesus is equal to God (John 10:33). Jesus is one with the Father; the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. And finally, as a prophet, Jesus brings God’s Word to humanity. But unlike any ordinary prophet, Jesus is God’s Word in the flesh. Jesus doesn’t just bring words from God to humanity. Jesus is The Word in human form. Jesus was like a prophet, but wasn’t a mere prophet. Jesus was and is Emmanuel–God with us.

PRAYER

Lord, we thank you for your prophets, who have taught us your Word. When we wander from your precepts, your prophets have shown us the way back to you. And, Lord, we especially thank you for your dearest gift to us–your presence on earth. You came to us as the Word made flesh. You are the incarnate Word of God. You are the greatest Prophet in that you are God’s Word Itself. You have shown us God’s ways for all time. You not only taught. You demonstrated God’s ways. We learn from your teachings, and we learn from your life. You healed; you taught; and you gave of yourself. So may we heal, teach, and give to those around us–an image of yourself, the Word made flesh.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

So that We Perish Not
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 25, 2015

Jonah 3:1-10 Mark 1:14-28 Psalm 62

We are taught to repent in the Bible readings for this morning. In Jonah, the whole city of Nineveh repents after hearing Jonah’s preaching. And God does not destroy the city because God sees that they repented of their evils. This message of repentance for forgiveness of sins is in the New Testament, too. Some Christians think that Jesus undid all the Old Testament, so that the Old Testament teachings are no longer valid. But in this pairing of readings, we see the same teaching in the Old Testament that we do in the New Testament. In Jonah, God does not destroy Nineveh because the people repent. And very early in Mark, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” So as for the residents of Nineveh, Jesus’ message for us is to repent and believe.
In case we don’t know what repentance is, Jonah makes it clear. The prophet says that God saw that the people of Nineveh, “Turned from their evil way.” That’s it! To repent is to turn from evil ways. That is half of the message of Jesus. The other half is to believe. Believe in God. So the message is clear, “Turn from evil and believe in God.”
The message is clear, but is it easy? We need to know what evil is, and we need to know what to believe in. These two questions point to our need for spiritual education. After Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John he immediately goes into a synagogue and teaches. The people in the synagogue are astonished at Jesus’ wisdom. There is much to learn about in spiritual life, and we need to learn what is right for us to learn. Each one has a different path to walk, so we have truths that are unique to us to learn.
There are certain basic truths for everyone in this church. Some of these truths are that there is a God, that we need to learn what is good, that we need to learn what is bad, and that we need God’s help in doing all this. Those are the basics for this church. Other Christian Churches have different core teachings. And other non-Christian Churches have still different core teachings.
While these teachings are basic for everyone, how to apply them is unique to everyone’s journey. Everyone’s relationship with God is personal. Everyone perceives God in a way that fits their own life’s experiences. Therefore everyone’s journey is different. Swedenborg writes,
All may be regenerated, each according to his state; for the simple and the learned are regenerated differently; as are those engaged in different pursuits, and those who fill different offices . . . those who are principled in natural good from their parents, and those who are in evil; those who from their infancy have entered into the vanities of the world, and those who sooner or later have withdrawn from them . . . and this variety, like that of people’s features and dispositions, is infinite; and yet everyone, according to his state may be regenerated and saved (TCR 580).
For me, God is Jesus as I find Him in the New Testament. But the New testament is so rich a body of literature that the Jesus I find there may be different than the Jesus you find there.
In addition to learning about God, our spiritual development depends on learning what is the good life. And, again, I find that in both the New Testament and the Old Testament are teachings for the good life. In the Old Testament are teachings that are just as real and valid for us as are teachings in the New Testament. In no way has Jesus undone the teachings in the Old Testament. At least not all of them. Where would we be without the Ten Commandments? There are commandments that teach us what to do–such as honoring the Sabbath and honoring our parents. And there are commandments that teach us what not to do. These are things we are to repent of. There is the teaching that we shall put nothing before God, we shall not commit adultery, we shall not steal or pronounce false testimony, and not desire what belongs to our neighbor. And in the book of laws called Leviticus, we find the teaching that many attribute to Jesus. In Leviticus we find the teaching to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is Leviticus 19:18. Again, many of the teachings in the Old Testament are upheld in the New Testament. It is part of our spiritual life to find teachings for how to live spiritually and then to put these teachings into action.
What I have been talking about is the process Swedenborg calls repentance and reformation. Repentance is seeing some evil in us that we need to get rid of. Reformation is the process of changing who we are. From an image of the world we change into an image and likeness of our Creator.
Swedenborg says that we are born into an image of the world. He uses metaphor to describe this. He says that our natural mind is a spiral that turns downward. Our spiritual mind is a spiral that turns upward. I have heard bits and pieces about the formation of the mind from birth. I have heard that synapses are formed from birth. These are neuron pathways that become hardwired into our brains. These nerve pathways are formed from birth up to adulthood. Are these nerve pathways the natural mind that turns downward toward the world? Some brain experts say that our brains are hardwired to make us behave in certain ways. This is particularly evident in addictions. But Swedenborg gives us hope that if our brains are hardwired to turn in certain ways, that there is a process that can untwist the nerve pathways. We can reform ourselves. If we are hardwired to behave in certain ways, we are not condemned to continue this pattern of life. We can change, we can overcome addictions and cravings for worldly things, and become new people. In rather mysterious language, Swedenborg describes this process,
For the natural mind is by birth in opposition to the things belonging to the spiritual mind; an opposition derived, as is well known, from parents by heredity. Such is the change of state which is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself downward: but after reformation it may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself upwards . . . (DLW 263).
This language is fairly mysterious. I’m not sure just what this spiralling of the mind is all about. But it is an example of how our minds change when we repent and reform our lives. Swedenborg says that our minds change their state. The mind actually changes. I think we can say that the brain changes. I think we can say that the nerve pathways change. Old pathways are changed into more effective, new pathways. Our brains are changed; our minds are changed; our loves and thoughts are changed.
It is the same with the natural and with the spiritual mind. When the natural mind acts from the enjoyments of its love and the pleasures of its thought, which are in themselves evils and falsities, the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which are of the spiritual mind and blocks the doors lest they enter, and it makes action to come from such things as agree with its reaction. The result is an action and reaction of the natural mind opposite to the action and reaction of the spiritual mind, whereby there is a closing of the spiritual mind like the twisting back of a spiral. But when the spiritual mind is opened, the action and reaction of the natural mind are inverted; for the spiritual mind acts from above or within, and at the same time it acts from below and without, through those things in the natural mind which are arranged in compliance with it; and it twists back the spiral in which the action and reaction of the natural mind lie (DLW 263).
This is what repentance is. It is relearning how to live. It is letting the good things we learn in religion modify our behavior when it needs to be modified. It means twisting back the spiral of worldly cravings and spiraling upward in heavenly loves. Our higher mind than can act in harmony with our lower mind. For our lower mind now loves good things and does not shut out the influx from God and from the heavens.
This all happens by re-education. Re-education comes from religious teachings, and it comes from experiences that jar us out of worldly complacency. We see that our life needs amendment and we act upon it. That is what the people of Nineveh did. That is what Jesus means when He says, “Repent and believe.”

PRAYER

Lord, we thank you for your gospel message of hope. You teach us that if we turn and follow you that we will be saved. You give us the good news of the coming of your kingdom and the promise of new life through repentance. You teach us that we are not fated to follow always the ways that have been thrust upon us in this world of competition and strife. You have shown us the ways of compassion, forgiveness, and rebirth. You teach us that there is promise of new life in you.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

Here I Am, Lord
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 18, 2015

1 Samuel 3:1-10 John 1:43-51 Psalm 139:1-12

I see two topics in today’s readings. One is hearing God and the other is following God. We need to hear God first, before we can know how to follow God. The process is cyclical. When we follow God, we will hear God more and more and finally we will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on God.
Our reading from 1 Samuel concerns the prophet Samuel. Samuel is just a boy and he is serving God under the direction of the aged prophet Eli. In the culture of ancient Israel then, the office of prophet was a family institution. The role of prophet was passed down from father to sons and kept within one family. But the case of Eli was different. Eli’s sons were not following God. In fact, Eli’s sons were committing blaspheme. They were stealing food that the Israelites were bringing for sacrifice to God. This was not mere greed. This was interfering with holy offerings meant for God. In doing this they were showing contempt for God.
After showing the blaspheme of Eli’s sons, the story shifts to Samuel. There are strong foreshadowings of Jesus’ birth in the birth of Samuel. His mother, Hannah is without child and has lost favor with her husband. When her husband, Elkanah, went to the mountain of Shiloh to offer his annual sacrifice, Hannah went with him and prayed for a son. Eli tells her that God will give her a son. So there is an element of miracle in the birth of Samuel. Samuel’s birth is the result of divine intervention. As Samuel was the firstborn, Hannah gives him to God as a servant at the shrine on Shiloh. So we have a miraculous birth and a holy child in Samuel. And when Mary sings a song of praise to God for her Son Jesus, her song, the Magnificat, is modelled after the song of Hannah over the birth of Samuel. Next to Moses, Samuel was the most prominent prophet in the Bible. There are two books in the Bible named after him. This holy man Samuel would take over the position of prophet after Eli. Samuel would anoint King Saul and King David. In fact, all the history of King Saul and almost all of King David are not in the book of Kings, but in the book of Samuel.
Samuel, like Moses, was called by God to his position of prophet. In the night, God calls to Samuel, “Samuel, Samuel.” The Bible tells us that Samuel did not know God and neither had God’s Word been revealed to him. In fact, we are told that God’s word and prophetic visions were rare in those days, “The word of the LORD was rare in those days; there were no frequent visions” (1 Samuel 3:1). When Samuel hears God calling, he thinks that it is Eli calling him. Eli tells Samuel that it is God. When God calls again, Samuel says, “Speak, for thy servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:10).
Samuel is called to be a prophet. Prophets were those special people who understood God’s laws and interpreted them for the people. So the first thing that prophets did was to hear and learn God’s laws. The second thing was to interpret God’s laws in the light of the times and circumstances in which the Israelites were living.
We are all called by God. Are we called to be prophets? Moses, the greatest prophet of all, said, “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29). In the sense that we have a religious responsibility to learn God’s laws, I think we are all prophets. Like Samuel, we have a role to listen for God’s voice.
There are two ways for us to listen for God’s voice. One way is simply by being who we are. The other way is to seek out God’s voice, God’s ways, to learn them and to follow them.
We are all unique individuals. We are all different. There are no two humans who are alike. We are unique because each one of us has a special understanding of truth that is hers or his alone. God is infinite, so no one finite person can completely understand God. In fact, no one person can come close. So there are billions and billions of people created who are different from one another. And each human has one special aspect of God to bring to the collective wisdom of the human race. By listen to the various voices of humanity, we have a better and better idea of who and what God is.
This is like Swedenborg’s doctrine of use. Each one of us has a certain way of living that is unique to us. We have gifts that no other person has. We have good works to do that only we can do. These works are our calling. God calls us to these works by making us who we are. Some of us find our calling in the work we do to make money. There is a doctrine that John Calvin writes about called the doctrine of vocation. The vocation we enter is just as holy a calling as any other vocation–be it priest, monk, preacher, or deacon. A snow plow is as much a calling by God as is a missionary. The vocation that we practice is a way of serving humanity; it is a way of loving our neighbor. Some of us are lucky enough to find a job in this world that fits with their vocational calling by God. For instance, Carol’s work with special needs individuals is a job she is wonderfully suited to. She is excellent at it and she loves it. I am not suited for that kind of work. As you know, I am here as a minister. That is work I am suited for and I love it. This is what Swedenborg’s doctrine of use is about.
And our use does not have to be a vocation. I think that the way we affect other people, as our own unique individuals, is also our use. All the people I know affect me differently. They all show affection differently. They all challenge me differently. They all speak to different aspects of my personality. The whole world is like that. We affect others in ways that are unique to us. So use is really us simply being who we are.
Our other Bible reading this morning was from John. It is about the calling of Philip and Nathanael. Jesus asks them to follow Him. Following Jesus is a kind of quest. We need to learn who Jesus is. We need to learn that path that Jesus walks. We need to listen for God’s voice. This is the role religion plays in leading us to Jesus.
I gave a talk at a university a while back. I asked the students and teachers if there was a need for spirituality in the world and in the lives of individuals. Almost the universal response is that a person knows intuitively right from wrong, good from evil. Some of them pointed to children. They asserted that children have an innate sense of right and wrong. There may be something to this. Children seem to have an innate sense of what is fair. How often do we hear children complain, “That’s not fair!”
But I have two things to say about that. One is that very young children do not seem to have that sense of fairness, or a sense of right from wrong. What does a young child do when he or she sees a toy that they want and another child is playing with it? Won’t that child take it from the other one? Is that fair? So I don’t think I can agree that the sense of right and wrong is inborn in children. Second, is fairness the same thing as good and evil? I think that one of the things that makes for maturity is the ability to live with things that are not fair. Isn’t it true that there are many things in life that are not fair? And isn’t it equally true that living with unfairness and trying still to do what is good is a mark of maturity, indeed of spirituality?
So we do not have an innate sense of right and wrong, of good and evil. These things we need to learn. And to learn these things we need to read spiritual literature, we need to seek out spiritual teachers, we need to reflect on our experiences in life. And, I suggest, we need to listen to our inner voice, called conscience.
Conscience is not innate. It grows and grows more clear the more we walk in the ways of God. Our conscience grows the more we learn about God’s ways. And the more pure in heart we become, the more clearly we hear God calling to us.
And Jesus’ prophesy is true for us, too. The closer and closer we come to God, the more we are able to see heaven open and have visions of angels ascending and descending from God. Some people are actual visionaries who can see spiritual realities. I cannot. But I do have an inner sense of angelic presences in my heart and in my best thinking. These presences descend from God into my heart and ascend back up to God in good feelings and thoughts in my heart and mind.
The more I listen for God’s voice, and the more I prepare myself to hear it through spiritual discipline, the more clearly and accurately I hear God calling to me. And like the prophet Samuel, when I hear God calling to me, my response is, “Here I am!”

PRAYER

Lord, we know that your still, small voice calls to us. You call to us and ask us to follow you. You speak to us in our conscience and guide us. You come to us in the Bible and in other teachings. Help us to hear your still, small voice calling to us amid the noise of this world. This material world, with its material demands, can threaten to drown out you voice. But your voice teaches us the things that last beyond this material world. Your voice leads us into heavenly delights. Give us to hear more and more clearly your voice, and bring us into eternal life.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

The Mystery of Jesus’ Baptism
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 11, 2015

Genesis 1:1-5 Mark 1:4-11 Psalm 29

We read about the baptism of Jesus, and we know the story about how the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the heavens opened and God proclaimed Jesus His Son. We know this story so well that a great question may elude us. As I pondered this reading, it struck me: “Why did Jesus need to get baptized?” Jesus was God on earth, would God need to be baptized?
The answer to this question gets at the heart of Swedenborg’s theology. We believe that Jesus had a fully human nature, and that He had to grow up and develop the same way that humans do. He was born a baby, He grew and formed His mind by learning, and He even needed to be reborn, as we do. Swedenborg says,
. . . that the Lord might make the human Divine, by the ordinary way, He came into the world; that is, it was His will to be born as a man, and to be instructed as a man, and to be re-born as a man; . . . the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord (AC 3138).
We all know that Jesus was fully God and fully man. The ancient Creed of Athanasius states this:
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; . . . Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood. Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood by God. One altogether; not by confusion of Essence; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ.
I think what never occurred to me was just how human Jesus really was. And Jesus being baptized is an example of how human Jesus was.
Jesus’ baptism was the start of His ministry. And we know little of Him before that. But we do know that Jesus didn’t spring fully grown into the world. Luke tells us that he developed as we develop. “And the child grew and became strong . . .” (Luke 2:40). Luke tells us further that Jesus learned the Bible as we learn the Bible. When Jesus’ parents lose Him on a trip home from Jerusalem, they find Him in the temple learning from the teachers,
they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46-47).
I find it striking in this Luke passage that Jesus is listening to the teachers. We are so accustomed to Jesus teaching others during His ministry, it is striking that Jesus Himself had to learn the Bible. So, here, we find Him listening to the teachers and asking them questions.
This far, I think Jesus’ development makes sense. But the baptism issue raises Jesus’ development to a higher level. Swedenborg makes the striking statement that Jesus needed to be reborn as a man. The humanity of Jesus wasn’t perfectly divine during Jesus’ life. Like us, Jesus needed to be reborn.
For us, baptism is symbolic. Baptism symbolizes regeneration, or spiritual rebirth. But the baptism itself does not wash away our sins. We are not reborn immediately upon being baptized. Rather, spiritual rebirth takes place as we look at ourselves and make changes. We put off old ways of behaving, feeling, and thinking, and put on new ways. We put off our worldly self and put on a heavenly self. Jesus did something similar to this. He put off the humanity He received from Mary, and put on the Divine Humanity from His divine origins.
This is one of the hardest aspects of Swedenborg’s theology for me to understand. What was this human from Mary that Jesus “put off,” and what was this divine human that Jesus “put on?” I don’t understand the transition from the Mary humanity to the Divine Humanity. This idea is all through Swedenborg’s theology. One clear statement about it is in AC 2159,
The Human with Him was from the mother, and thus infirm, having with it from the mother a hereditary nature, which He overcame through combats of temptations and utterly expelled, till it had nothing left of the infirm and hereditary nature from the mother–indeed, at last not anything whatever from the mother (AC 2159).
In this passage from Swedenborg, we see the idea of hereditary evil. We are all born with tendencies to evils of different kinds. These are only tendencies, though. We don’t have to act on them and make them part of our personality. Jesus also had tendencies to evil from his mother, Mary, as every human does. For us, hell acts upon these tendencies, trying to make us fall into them. For Jesus, all the hells descended upon Him, with all the sin of the whole human race, which Jesus resisted all His life. The Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted,
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts (Mark12-13).
Jesus’ temptations are recorded in greater depth in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. In Luke the temptations end with an intriguing line, “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). Luke suggests that the temptations after the baptism weren’t all of them. The devil would return at an opportune time.
But this doctrine of Jesus’ two natures answers a difficult question for Christians. I often hear people ask, “Who did Jesus pray to if He is God?” This is a difficult question. We know that there is only one God. And as Christians we know that Jesus is God. Yet we see Jesus praying to God. We believe that when Jesus prayed to God as an activity He did so when He was in the humanity from Mary. We can call this the human humanity. This humanity was like our humanity. It was susceptible to temptation. It had all the feelings and parts of the mind that we have. When Jesus was in the humanity he received from Mary, He prayed to God as if to someone else. So Swedenborg explains, “when as yet He had the infirm Human with Himself, He adored Jehovah as another than Himself” (AC 2159).
So Jesus did need to be baptised. Jesus did need to be reborn. Jesus did need to put off the humanity he received from Mary and put on the Divine Humanity from His Divine origins. This process is called glorification. We follow a similar path. Our path is called regeneration. We put off our natural humanity and put on a humanity from God. Jesus put on the Divine Humanity from His own soul, which is Jehovah God. We put on a spiritual humanity from God as a kind of grafting, or implanting. Jesus put on His Divine Humanity, not by a grafting, but by filling His human form with His Divine Essence.
When Jesus had put off everything from Mary, He was fully united with Jehovah God. At that time, as the Athanasian Creed says,
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man . . . Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. . . . For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ.
This is the Divine Human Jesus Christ that we worship. With every mortal thing expelled from His person, Jesus is now risen and one with His Divine origins. Now God and Man is one Christ.

PRAYER

Lord, we are amazed at the miracle of your incarnation. You took on a human form, and lived a human life, as we live a human life. You grew up from a baby to adulthood. You learned the Bible, as we learn the Bible. You were baptized as we are baptized. You were reborn, as we are reborn. You have showed us the way to live to come to you in eternity. Give us insight into our lives so that we can see your path in our hearts. Give us, we pray, the strength to live as we see your pathway illumined in our hearts. May we grow into deeper and deeper love for you, and live a more holy life by your grace.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

The Name of Our Savior
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 4, 2015

Jeremiah 31:7-14 John 1:1-18 (Luke 2:21-24) Psalm 147

Our Bible readings this morning concern the name of God. In our reading from Jeremiah, it says that the LORD has saved his people. In Jeremiah, LORD is in all capital letters. This means that God’s name is written in the text. That name is Yahweh. This name for God was given to Moses at the burning bush and it is under the name of Yahweh that the whole Israelite culture was organized. The name Yahweh, however, was considered too holy to speak. So in place of Yahweh, Jews then and Jews today, say Adonai, which means “Lord.” Jeremiah tells us in no uncertain terms that Yahweh has saved his people. This teaching reinforces the teaching found in many places in Isaiah that Yahweh is the Savior. One such example is Isaiah 43:11: “I, I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no savior.” For traditional Christians, this presents a problem. Christians assert that Jesus is the Savior. This church, teaches that both are true. Yahweh and Jesus both are our Savior. This is because we hold the unique doctrine that Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh.
In our New testament passage, we heard about the circumcision of Jesus. Then he is formally given the name Jesus. When we hear the name Jesus Christ, we can easily think of common names that have a first and last name such as John Smith. In that way of thinking, Jesus is the first name and Christ would be the last name. But there is a deep meaning behind the names when we say, “Jesus Christ.” In fact, there are levels of meaning for the names Jesus Christ. Those names are not just a first and last name.
On the natural level, Jesus is the Greek name for the Hebrew Joshua. Recall that it was Joshua who led the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan. Joshua brought the Israelites into the Promised Land. The meaning of the Hebrew name Joshua is “Savior.” So we can say that as its Greek equivalent, the name Jesus means Savior. And it is Jesus who leads us into the Promised Land of heaven.
The name Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Messiah.” Messiah means “anointed,” and it refers to the anointing of kings. The Messiah was eagerly looked forward to by the Jews as the divine king who would drive out the Romans, rule on the throne in Jerusalem, and usher in a period of peace throughout the whole world. Jesus claimed to be the Messiah in His trial, but all through His ministry He tried to redefine what the Messiah meant. The kingdom and the peace that the Messiah would bring is all within us.
So the two names Jesus Christ mean Savior and King. Jesus is our savior and he rules in our hearts. But on the spiritual level, the two names mean more. They encompass all we need for salvation. For Swedenborg, Jesus refers to the Lord’s Divine Love, or Divine Good. Christ refers to The Lord’s Divine Wisdom, or Divine Truth. The Lord is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom itself and so the two names Jesus Christ refer to all that God is.
Jesus Christ means salvation for us because when we embody love and wisdom, we have God inside us. All of heaven is made up of God’s divine love and wisdom. The heat there is God’s divine love and the light there is God’s divine wisdom. These two qualities proceed from God as the sun in the spiritual world. God as He is in Himself is infinite and He cannot be in any created thing because we are all finite. This means, essentially, that God is too big to be in us as He is in Himself. But he shines out from His own life into heaven, and from heaven into our souls as the heat and light of the spiritual world. And the sun of the spiritual world shines forth from the Lord Jesus Christ.
as He cannot be received by any one as He is in Himself, He appears as He is in Himself as the sun above the angelic heavens, the proceeding from which in the form of light is Himself as to wisdom, and in the form of heat is Himself as to love. The sun is not Himself; but the Divine love and Divine wisdom going forth from Himself proximately, round about Himself, appear before angels as the sun. He Himself in the sun is a Human, He is our Lord Jesus Christ both as the Divine from which are all things, and as to the Divine Human (AR 961).
All of heaven is made up of this divine love and divine wisdom from God. So we can live in heaven to the extent that we have God’s love and wisdom in our hearts. If we do not have divine love and wisdom in us, we cannot endure the heavenly atmosphere. This is why our religion is called mystical. Mysticism means an actual conjunction with God. Mysticism of this sort can be found in the Eastern Orthodox religion, too. In that faith, they call it divinization. We need to be conjoined with God in order to live in heaven–that is, we need to have God’s love and wisdom in our hearts in order to live in heaven. So conjunction with God is salvation. On one occasion, Swedenborg heard angels talking about this, and they were talking about, “the one God, of conjunction with Him, and of salvation thence” (AR 961). Conjunction with the one God is salvation.
The person Jesus Christ has caused much confusion and controversy in Christianity. While Christians know that there is only one God, they also try to reconcile the oneness of God with the words of Scripture that seem to suggest a three persons. This issue is called the Trinity. And the classical formulation of the trinity says that there are three persons with one essence. This cannot be understood. Swedenborg himself began his life with that idea. He had to give up the ideas about the trinity that he grew up with as a Lutheran. Swedenborg’s theology is so consistent throughout that we don’t realize that he had to learn these heavenly truths and actually change the way he had been thinking before his enlightenment. The angels who were talking about God that Swedenborg heard told him that his thinking did not agree with the idea of God in heaven.
The angels perceived in my thought the common ideas of the Christian Church concerning a trinity of Persons in unity and their unity in trinity . . . and they then said, “What are you thinking of? Are you not thinking those things from natural light with which our spiritual light does not agree? Therefore unless you remove the ideas of that thought, we close heaven to you, and go away” (AR 961).
He responds to the angels that his ideas about the trinity were about God’s attributes:
But then I said to them, “Enter, I pray, more deeply into my thought and perhaps you will see agreement.” And they did so, and saw that by three persons I understood three proceeding Divine attributes, which are creation, salvation, and reformation; and that these attributes are of the one God . . . (AR 961).
The angels accept this idea of the trinity, and then they separate off the old ideas of the trinity that Swedenborg grew up with as they enlighten his mind.
After this the heavenly light before seen above the aperture returned, and gradually descended, and filled the interiors of my mind, and enlightened the natural ideas of the unity and trinity of God; and then the ideas received about them in the beginning, which were merely natural, I saw separated, as chaff is separated from the wheat by winnowing, and carried away as by a wind into the north of heaven and dispersed (AR 961).
This must have occurred early in Swedenborg’s enlightenment because from the first pages of the Arcana Coelestia through his last book True Christian Religion, Swedenborg is consistent that there is only one person in the Godhead. His doctrine of God brings together the Old Testament reading this morning and the New testament reading. Jeremiah teaches that Yahweh is the Savior, and John says that God became flesh. So our teaching is that Yahweh God of the Old Testament came down to earth in the body of Jesus that He took from Mary. So the Creator God who always was and from whom all things are, came into the material world and took on a material body. The Old Testament Yahweh is Jesus’ soul, and Jesus is the body of the Old Testament Creator God, Yahweh. God’s soul acts through His body, Jesus Christ, and acts to give us all life and salvation. With Yahweh as the soul, through His body Jesus Christ, God acts to bring joy and salvation to the human race. The activity of God through his body Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit. So Swedenborg says of Jesus Christ:
The Lord Jesus Christ: in Him is the Divine being itself from which all things are, to which the soul of a person corresponds, the Divine Human, to which the body in a person corresponds, and the proceeding Divine, to which activity in a person corresponds (AR 961).
This perfect conjunction of God the Father and Jesus Christ as the soul is in the body is spoken of in the Bible. John’s Gospel tells us, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26). Only in a perfect union of Father and Son can life in itself be one. There cannot be more than one life in itself. Two or more itself’s cannot exist logically. Jesus is Life Itself because of His complete union with Life Itself who created all things. Swedenborg argues this point philosophically. It may be difficult to understand, but it does make sense and shows how Swedenborg’s whole life made him fit to explain the teachings of the New Church. For Swedenborg,
the Divine being, which is also the Divine manifestation, because it is one, the same, the itself, and hence indivisible, cannot be given in more than one; and that if it were said to be given, manifest contradictions would follow (AR 961).
So let’s forget about all the manifest contradictions that would follow from several beings who are being itself. Let’s instead turn to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whom we can readily picture and understand. Let us turn to Jesus Christ for our salvation. And let us act to incorporate the divine love and wisdom of God through Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives. Then we will be united with God and find joy and peace in heaven where love and wisdom are heat and light itself.

PRAYER

Lord, we give you thanks this morning. We thank you for giving us your laws, so that we may understand the ways of your kingdom. You have not given us laws that are too hard for us. And, Lord, we thank you for coming to us to show us your ways. You came to us in a human form. You came to us in a form we can understand and love. For who can understand you in your infinity? Who can measure the ocean with our mortal eyes, and fathom its depths? But when you became a tiny baby and grew up as a human grows up, you gave us a way to understand God that is in our power and within our mortal minds. Thanks be to you.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

The Coming New Year
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 28, 2014

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Luke 2:22-40 Psalm 148

The calendar says that a new year is coming in a few days. The dates on the calendar are fixed. They have no relation to human experiences. The question, therefore, is this: “Does it feel to you like a new year?”
Our spiritual condition has its own time. We have spiritual markers sometimes that mark time for us spiritually. Maybe something like the birth of a child so transforms us that time is never the same since that date. Maybe a special vacation leaves a state of blessedness on our souls and we feel that blessing when we look at a souvenir or a photo album. Maybe times of sorrow or catastrophe leave a scar in us that marks a certain spiritual condition in us. So our souls have time of their own that is independent of the calendar.
There is a benefit to the time marked by the calendar. The fixed dates of the calendar give us a way of measuring our spiritual condition. We can measure how far we are from some of those spiritual markers. We can look at the calendar and say, “That was a long time ago.” We can look at the calendar and say, “Has it been that long?” We can measure our life against the fixed dates of the calendar.
For example, it meant a lot to me when I was admitted to Harvard University back in 1983. But now, in 2014, I can hardly remember that feeling of exhilaration when I was admitted. I can hardly remember attending Harvard. When people occasionally ask me, “What was that like?” I can only reply, “A lot has happened since then—that was a long time ago.” In fact, I think that if I still marked my life by that event in 1983, I would be a fairly stagnant person. That is, if nothing eventful happened to me since then, I think my life would be rather impoverished.
The calendar gives us a time to reflect on those markers in our lives. It gives us an opportunity to think back over the years and to measure who we are against who we were. It gives us a time to add up the significant events in our lives, and to reflect on what they meant at the time, and what they mean now.
While being a student at Harvard may have meant something at the time, it has since faded. What it did to me remains. I acquired certain research and writing skills that remain with me in all the work I do now. And all the experiences that have happened to me in my life all conspire to make me who I am today. All the pleasant times, all the shocks, all the misery, and all the joy carved their marks on my soul and have made me into the person I am now. There is a wonderful characterization of the kinds of experiences that make up a soul in a poem by Wallace Stevens. In a poem called SUNDAY MORNING, Stevens writes of,
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measures destined for her soul.
I read this as a poetic sum of the kinds of things we go through that make us who we are.
The stoic philosophers say that life is impress and reaction. Events impress our souls like a stamp that leaves its ink pattern on a piece of paper. We react to that stamp of experience and between the experience and our reaction to it our character is formed. We have little choice over the events that happen to us, but how we react is something we have much power over. We can fret and despair over unfortunate experiences, or we can use them as teachers. Or we can simply experience and notice.
When we are young, things all seem so crucial. Now in my mature age, things seem to affect me less and less. I have a friend who told me that he no longer has problems, only situations. Difficult things are matters requiring attention to address—the emotional shock has gone out of them. I somewhat agree with this philosophy. I feel as if now I negotiate life, rather than life negotiating me through shocks. Things just don’t affect me so much, unless I want them to. For instance, the Detroit Lions are playing football in about two hours for the division championship and I am choosing to let that affect me greatly. But that is my choice.
Sometimes things trigger a reflection on the spiritual markers we have. There are two songs that were on the radio during a very depressing time in my life. Whenever I hear them I can tend to wallow in the misery of that time in my life. I wonder how I ever made it through that time, and I marvel at how well I feel now compared to then.
There are things that made us proud and happy, too. My degrees give me a feeling of accomplishment. Perhaps the way some people feel about their children and families. I don’t have the feeling that I need to prove myself to new professional acquaintances because my degrees do that for me. This gives me a feeling of relaxed competence I might not feel if I didn’t have tangible evidence of my capabilities.
I think that the calendar measurements lead us to one of life’s most challenging questions. That question is the measure of our self-worth. “What have you done for yourself?” Is a pointed way of putting it. Are we worth the years that we have lived? John Lennon wrote a Christmas song that contains this challenge, I think,
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

The question of self-worth is one we all struggle with. Do we need to prove that we are worth something? Some people struggle to achieve and achieve and to possess and possess to prove that they are worth something. Some people measure their self-worth by the material possessions they have accumulated. Some measure their success by the wealth they have gained. Some measure their self-worth by their children’s success. Some people measure their success by their status, their degrees and publications. But I think all these means will never answer that question of self-worth.
The fact is, we are all of infinite worth simply because we are children of God. We are created beings of inestimable meaning. We are made by an infinitely good Creator. And that Creator makes only good creations. Genesis says that when God created humans God looked at God’s creation and it was very good.
Maybe we need credentials to present ourselves for various positions in this world. But we don’t need credentials to prove that we are worthy of love and of life. We are all loveable. And we are all just where we need to be. We are all just who we need to be. We don’t need to prove ourselves worthy. As creatures created by God, we are all worth the life we have been given.
Let us remember that. And let us remember that everyone else is as loveable as we are. We are all created beings, created by God, in God’s image and likeness. That is what we are intrinsically.
But we are also creatures in process. We are continually being created by experience and our reaction to experience. So while we are intrinsically God’s creations, we are also growing and being created into a better and better likeness of our Creator. In this continual creation, time is on our side. The longer we grow and mature, the more we are shaped into God’s image the way a potter shapes clay. Let us, then befriend time, befriend the years, befriend our age. It is just where we are supposed to be.

PRAYER

Lord, a new year is approaching. In this world, time is measured by clocks, the sun and stars, and set down in calendars. But we know that in the spiritual world, there is no time, there are only states of mind and soul. We pray this morning for a prosperous new year. And for our souls, to be enlightened and pacified of all troubles. May we not look upon the passing of years with sadness. Rather may we befriend the years, and grow more and more into an image and likeness of you. As time passes, so we grow more perfect in heavenly loves. As time passes, our sorrows become more distant and more tempered with heavenly joy. Be with us in the coming new year, Lord. For with you all things are possible and all good things come to pass.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.

The Christmas Spirit
December 24, 2014
Christmas Eve
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete

I’ve been thinking about the Christmas Spirit over the past couple weeks. Mostly because I haven’t felt it. This disturbed me. I felt like Charley Brown in the Christmas special they play around this time of year on TV. The whole show is about Charley Brown and how he seems always to feel depressed around Christmas. I wouldn’t say I feel depressed, but rather sad. And this is kind of funny—I feel mildly sad because I don’t feel happier!
So all this made me think about the Christmas spirit. I see two kinds of Christmas spirit. And these two ways of seeing Christmas are like what Swedenborg calls the external and the internal of worship. The external of Christmas is the excited anticipation of presents, the Christmas tree, the lights on the houses, family getting together, Christmas carols and songs, shopping, and exhaustion. The internal of Christmas is the actual reason why we celebrate Christmas—the story of Jesus’ birth and the Old Testament prophesies. While I haven’t felt that excited anticipation of external Christmas, I can say that I am deeply steeped in the internal Christmas.
When I was young, the excitement of Christmas was almost magical. We would get a real tree and set it up in our family room. We had a tree stand with screws you would screw into the base of the tree to keep it upright. You would fill the stand with water to keep the tree alive until Christmas. We would take a night and decorate the tree as a family. We would unwrap the ornaments one by one, delighting in old favorites that had hung on the tree year after year from long ago. Then gifts would appear under the tree. We had stockings that we hung above a real fire place. Christmas Eve we would go to an evening Christmas service at church, then it was off to our grandparents’. All our aunts and uncles and cousins would gather at Grandma and Grandpa’s. The whole house would smell of the special Christmas sausage we would make from scratch every year the week before Christmas. There were presents from our grandparents, from Uncle Fran, and we exchanged names so that we had one other gift from whoever drew our name. Then came Christmas day itself and we opened our gifts from Santa, mom and dad, and our brothers and sisters. This was the excitement of external Christmas that came only once a year.
You may have noticed in this story that evening church was part of the Christmas celebration. You may also have noticed that Christmas Eve at church was pretty much eclipsed by all the other aspects of Christmas celebration. But as the years passed, the church aspect of Christmas became more and more important to me. It first dawned on me by a show we watched on TV. That show was the Charley Brown Christmas show I mentioned earlier. In that show there is one scene that struck me when I was younger. Linus explains to Charley Brown what the meaning of Christmas is. He recites the section of Luke 2 that we heard this evening. I remember how deeply that scene in the Christmas show struck me. I said to myself, “They’re reciting the Bible on TV! This is a network program on prime time and they’re reciting the Bible!” I didn’t know you could read the Bible on TV. But Charles Schultz, the cartoonist who gave us Charley Brown also had the courage to air his religious beliefs in the Christmas show he created.
This year I have been ruminating about the internal Christmas. I have been thinking about the Israelites and their history. It is a history that gave us the prophesies about the coming Messiah that we read in preparation for Christmas. Then I think about the birth of Christianity and how those prophesies were reinterpreted by Christians and applied to Jesus.
I think about that special Christmas morning when Jesus was born in the darkest time of the year. He was born in the darkest time in human history, when the world had forgotten about the real meaning of God and love. It was a barbaric time when religion was ritual, animal sacrifices, and detailed laws. It had been forgotten that God is Love, that loving is godly.
There is a kind of external to these ideas that have been running through my head. A few weeks ago I went to hear a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Edmonton Symphony and the Richard Eaton Singers. The words to Handel’s Messiah are all Bible quotations. They are the prophesies in Isaiah, passages from the Gospels, and from Paul. I downloaded a recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis. I played that recording in my car as I drove around town doing my Christmas errands. This glorious music lifted me into a high region of my mind and heart and all the traffic frustrations dissipated under Handel’s spell and the power of the Bible’s words.
I think that the highlight of Christmas for me, now, is this very Christmas Eve service. Sharing the Christmas texts in the Bible with you, participating in the sacrament of Holy Communion, and the candle-light singing of Silent Night brings home to me just how special this season is. There is the darkness, the light, the lights. These rituals call to mind that ancient night. When in a world of darkness, the Light of the World was born.

PRAYER

Lord, this is the happiest time of the year. There are many distractions and delights during the Christmas season. There are frantic crowds to fight, there are traffic snarls, there are parties and festivities. In all this, help us to remember why we are celebrating. Let us remember that your love for the whole human race is what this season is all about. It was your great love for humanity that caused you to come to earth as a human baby. You lived among us; your feet walked the dust of Palestine. Help us to embody the love you showed us, and continue to show us. Help this Christmas season to be about love–love for you and love for our fellows.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.