By Rev. Grant R. Schnarr

Our idea of God is the most important concept we can have. Our spiritual lives are based on this concept. Our spiritual destiny, including our homes in the other world, are formed by our view of God. Every aspect of our eternal life revolves around our understanding and our relationship with our Maker.

Developing a true and working concept of God, though, can be a challenge. We bring our own conceptions and misconceptions to this image. Historically humans have perverted or destroyed the picture of God over and over again, and used a twisted understanding of God and His will to do many twisted things. The Spanish Inquisition, Hitler, and others claimed to worship the Lord, and performed hurtful deeds in the name of the Lord. People can make up their own God to suit their own bias rather than worship the true God.

Culture and times can be biased against a true picture of God. For instance, God the judge might be popular at times, the punisher, the warrior, or a remote and uncaring Ruler. Or the opposite kind of God can be held up as an ideal: the ineffective, permissive, enabling, anything goes God, weak and unable to lead or effect change in the world. The discussion of gender in relation to God is a good example of the struggle between cultural bias on every side of the issue and a struggle to understand Revelation.

In the past history of the Christian church truth has certainly taken precedence over good. The Writings tell us that a faith alone world developed, where good did not count for much, if anything. A natural outcome was that the world became perceived as a male’s world, and even as good was suppressed and put down as nothing, so were women treated the same. In a faith alone culture, male attributes have been held up as an ideal, and it can be argued that even much of the feminist movement in the western world in the past quarter century has made the mistake of joining that illusion rather than dispersing it. This has caused deep wounds in many, not to be taken lightly or overlooked as an oddity. When love, perception, gentleness, nurturing are looked upon as second rate feelings, many of them to be shunned, those who excel in these areas receive the constant message that they are not good enough, that they do not count. From a truth dominated culture a false concept of God is created, a static God firmly entrenched in a groundwork of rules seemingly unconnected to life. God becomes a judge whose favor limits the variety of the human race to those few who hold the correct set of ideas, and punishes those who do not. God can seem to become a distant Father who is never home, or who arrives home on Sundays to lecture and scold, only to disappear again Monday morning.

What would it be like to have nothing at all in common with this God and be told that this is the true God and you must worship Him? Cultural bias not only affects our view of God, but our lives, and the wounds caused by false doctrines presenting false gods are real.

And so it is that the Heavenly Doctrines come into the world to bring back the balance between truth and good, to honor both sexes in their own right, and to offer everyone with an open mind a visible image of God in a Divinely Human form for what actually is the first time in religious history. (Read TCR #787 and following.)

The Writings call upon society to rethink the entire picture of religion, the entire concept of God. They present a radically different concept where love and wisdom both reign in the Divine and in life. The Writings say no to a truth alone world and firmly present the marriage of truth and good in use as the essence of perfection (DLW 28-33).

However, while acknowledging the wounds created by false doctrines of the past, how do we form a true picture of the Lord, which reflects all of humanity, without bias from past or present culture? How do we begin to heal the wounds that many have felt by cultural misconceptions of God, and at the same time not create more wounds by creating more misconceptions? We want to see God through our own eyes, but how do we do this without creating God with our own hands, in our own image?

Wounds heal over time, and there is no quick solution, but there are answers to all of life’s questions that can help heal. The Writings are called the leaves of the Tree of Life, for the healing of the nations. Revelation from God is the source of healing, if one can approach it and accept it. Revelation was given to guide us to an ever growing understanding of the Lord. Revelation presents a picture of the Lord, a living picture, and through this Window into eternity we can behold the face of our Creator, and see our own face reflected therein.

What does Revelation teach us? More than we can learn in a lifetime. Truth from the Word is infinite, but we can take a few principles and apply them to this issue, to begin to build a healthy and genuine concept of God. First, the Heavenly Doctrines teach us to look to our Maker from essence to person, and not from person to essence. This is an important teaching to help us approach our Maker.

“Everyone who thinks of God from person only,” the Writings say, “and not essence is thinking materially. For instance, a person who thinks of the neighbor from the form only and not the quality is thinking materially … Think of God from essence, and from that of His person, and do not think of His person and from that of His essence.

For to think of His essence from person is to think materially of the essence also; but to think of His person from essence is to think spiritually of His person” (AR 611:7).

Thinking of God from person to essence is not helpful to us. Looking at the Lord’s material body from a corporeal point of view, and translating that into the essence of God, is not helpful. In modern terms, getting hung up on the physical form of the Lord while He was on earth, and allowing the physical form of the Lord dictate how we think of the essence is not helpful. An example of this would be statements that say the essence of God is male or female. That is thinking of God from person to essence. God is the I AM, while the origin of gender, God in essence is above gender. To attribute qualities of creation to the Uncreated is like calling the Potter clay.

But that does not mean that all attributes of what we call humanity are not from the Divine. Of course they are, and that is why every human being, whether white, yellow, black, male, female, disadvantaged, disabled or healthy and whole can approach and be conjoined with the Lord.

But this is accomplished by approaching the Lord from essence to person. Through a recognition of the all encompassing God, the all loving, all wise, ever creating, ever nurturing Force, from whom all people and things come, we look to the Divine Human. We see these infinite and Divine qualities in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we do this, we allow the invisible to be visible, as the Writings say, in the air or on the sea with His arms opened inviting you into His embrace (TCR 787). This is how conjunction with God takes place, through the visible, tangible, lovable, approachable Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed in His Word.

But we are to worship Him as the Lord as Jesus Christ and no other. To worship Divine attributes by any other name is to make God invisible. The Writings tell us, “In respect of His Divine Human the Lord is the Mediator, and no one can come to the Divine Being itself within the Lord, called the Father, except though the Son, that is, the Divine Human … Thus the Lord as to His Divine Human is the actual joining together. And if people cannot do this in thought how can they be joined to the Divine itself in love.” (AC 6804:4)

The Writings go on to say, “He was pleased to take upon Himself human form, and this to allow people to approach Him … It is this Human which is called the Son of God, and this it is which mediates … This is why the Son of God, meaning the Human of God … is called the Savior, and on earth Jesus, which means salvation. (TCR 135:4)

And so the Lord said, “I am the way the truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known the Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” (Jn. 14:6-7)

The invisible soul of God is at once revealed and made manifest in His own Humanity, now revealed in His Word, and proclaimed to us in the Heavenly Doctrines as the Lord God Jesus Christ.

Can we see the essence of God within His person? Can we allow God to be both Divine and Human? The image of the Divine Human is a blessing to those who long to understand and be conjoined with the Lord. A newcomer of the church once said, “When I was young I heard about God, the great and powerful Almighty. He clapped His hands, the thunders roared. He batted His eyes, the lightening flashed. Boom! God? God scared me. But when I read in the Writings that this gentle shepherd named Jesus, who Himself called a lamb, who held the children, healed the sick, and taught so many loving things, that this man was God, well, that did for me.” The question might be asked, “What does it do for you?”

The image of the Lord Jesus Christ as it appears in the Gospels and as it is explained in the Heavenly Doctrines, is given to the human race to bring conjunction with the Divine, the true Divine, and with that – healing. Although it is no doubt difficult for some, because of real abuse of false doctrines in the past, to approach this image as presented in the Word will bring healing. This image when viewed from essence to person can be infilled with a variety of descriptions from the Word, which represent every aspect of humanity. Jesus does bless the children, heal the sick, feed thousands of hungry mouths, cries for His people, and calls each of us to arms of love and compassion. He says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). He cries out to a church who has gone astray in faith alone, He says, and listen to His words, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Matt. 23:37-39 ).

Can we say these words? Can we see our Lord and Savior as all encompassing, containing the source of all that is human and Divine? And can we worship Him as He has revealed Himself in His own Word? Then we will truly be able to see Him, and say with full hearts, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

What is the essential message of the New Church? Is the message of the New Church that God is inaccessible to some people, for no fault of their own? Is the message that if you have a hard time picturing God that you should give up and go somewhere else? The answer is NO! Is the message of the New Church that anything goes? You can make up your own God here, in any fashion you choose? The answer is NO!

The message of the New Church is clear in the Writings, preached by the lips of the apostles themselves, and held as a hope for all people everywhere, from whatever background or origin, so that they may be conjoined with their Creator. This message is for everyone, to be infilled by every individual in a way that she or he must, in order to see and feel what it means to them. The message is that the Lord God Jesus Christ Reigns, and His Kingdom shall be forever and ever. Blessed are they who come to the marriage supper of the Lamb (TCR 791). The Lord promises us, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to their work” (Rev. 22:12). May our response be with open hearts and minds, and with joyful lips, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

Amen.

By Rev. Donald L. Rose

“He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street” (Matt. 12:19, Isaiah 42:2).

These words are from the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. They are quoting the prophecy of Isaiah and showing that it is about the Lord’s ministry. The prophetic sayings in Isaiah give us images of the Lord’s life in the world. For example, what do you picture when you hear this from Isaiah? “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

For every reader of the Word this presents one image, one facet of the Lord’s ministry. Our focus today is on Isaiah 42 as it is quoted in Matthew 12. This pictures the Lord as quiet and restrained, one who does not cry out loudly, does not break even a bruised reed or quench a smoking flax. The chapter has the Lord saying, “I have held my peace a long time; I have been still and restrained Myself” (verse 14).

The Lord had the power to do many things that He did not do. He was quiet at times when we would expect Him to speak loudly. When He was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane He could have resisted and He did not. When His disciples resisted He said, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53)

When, in the trials which followed, men accused Him with obvious lies, He did not even reply. They marveled that He was silent. “Do you answer nothing?” (Matt. 26:62) When they put Him on the cross, instead of resisting He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And while He was on the cross, people called out to Him, “Come down from the cross.” What He had the power to do, He did not do. They said to Him, “You say You can destroy the temple and build it in three days … Save yourself … He cannot save Himself. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe” (Matt 27:40-43).

There is a saying in the Spiritual Diary that when the Lord came into the world He “was able to compel men to receive His words and Himself but [yet] compelled no one” (SD 4422).

In Isaiah 53 it is said, “As a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (v. 7). In Isaiah 42 it is said that He is as one deaf and blind! (v. 19)

The prediction that the Lord would be as one blind and deaf implies that sometimes it would seem that He did not notice things (although we know that He did notice them). Note what the Writings say on this: “He is called `blind’ and `deaf’ because the Lord is as if He did not see and perceive the sins of men, for He leads men gently, bending and not breaking, thus leading away from evils and leading to good; therefore He does not chastise and punish like one who sees and perceives” (AE 409:2).

“As if He did not see.” Remember when people were ready to stone a woman. They urged Him to say something, “But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear” (John 8:6). It is said they continued to ask Him and He simply said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first,” and then He stooped down and wrote on the ground. There followed a long silence. The Lord did not speak or take action, but during that silence what happened? One by one people who were convicted by their own consciences walked away. He wasn’t confronting them. He wasn’t even looking at them. But what occurred for each individual was significant. They were not compelled.

When a woman washed his feet with her tears, a Pharisee said within Himself, “This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39). It seems that He did not know, that He did not notice. But the truth was that He knew all about both the woman and the Pharisee. He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven … Go in peace.”

In the Lord’s ministry sometimes it seemed that He withdrew to deserted places and did not want to be known. Indeed in Matthew 12, the focus of this sermon, it is said, “But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there,” and He warned people “not to make Him known that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet.” The Writings say that the Lord “appears to withdraw from the evil, but the evil withdraw from Him, while He from love still leads them” (DP 330:2). Yes, there are times in our lives when He seems to withdraw from us, just as there are times when He seems not to see or hear. But this is an appearance.

In our own lives or in the lives of individuals we know, it sometimes appears as if the Lord is passive and unaware. And on the world scene there are happenings that make us almost want to say, “Doesn’t the Lord see this going on?” Quoting the Writings again, “The Lord is as if He did not see” (AE 409:2).

Now, what truly was the nature of the Lord’s life in the world? What the Writings reveal about this might be surprising to people who think of Jesus born into the world, having a quiet childhood, a passive and meek ministry, and then going quietly to His death. No. That is not the case. There are people who point out that the Lord roughly cast the money changers out of the temple, and that He did that with so much spirit and zeal that the disciples remembered that it was prophesied that He would be consumed with zeal (see John 2:17, Psalm 69:9).

What the Writings tell us is that the Lord’s life in the world was one of combat and victory. It was not a combat with a handful of people in the land of Canaan. It was a combat with the most terrible forces of all the hells which threatened the life of the human race. The Writings tell us that He was exercising tremendous power. By His own power He reduced the whole of hell into order (see AC 9486). “He fought alone with all the hells and subjugated them,” and is depicted as one “marching in the multitude of His strength, mighty to save” (AC 9715).

The Writings say that He had a burning love for the salvation of mankind. He was engaged in a blazing battle for mankind. And where do we find the hints of that? In Isaiah’s prophecy. “I looked but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me” (Isaiah 63:5). “His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head” (Isaiah 59:16, 17).

Do we have here two opposite things? the quietness and the seeming inaction on the one hand and the continual battle on the other? No, they are both true. The Lord was engaged in a Divine work. Remember that the Lord as a child said, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2), and that He said to His disciples that He had food to eat that they knew nothing about. His food was to accomplish certain work (see John 4).

Now since He came into the world to give us freedom, He was most especially careful not to violate that freedom. Do you know of a passage that says that the angels who are with us are told that they must act gently with us? It is Arcana 5992. This is the passage which says that angels are with us, protecting us every moment. It reminds us of the saying that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. It tells us that if the angels see in us a new hell opening, they endeavor to close it. But the Lord enjoins them not to be violent with us but to lead us gently to preserve our freedom. They are enjoined not to break our loves, just as Isaiah prophesied: a bruised reed He will not break nor a smoking flax will He quench. On this the Writings say, “He neither shatters man’s illusions nor stifles his desire” (AC 25). He does not break fallacies “but bends them to what is true and good” (Ibid.).

There are times in life when the Lord seems so remote. People ignore Him or challenge Him by their attitude and behavior. Could He do anything about that? Could He force their attention and compel their allegiance? The Writings say that He could do that very easily. “Nothing would be easier for the Lord than to compel man to fear Him, to worship Him, and indeed as it were to love Him,” but that is something the Lord will not do (AC 2881). We are told that compelled worship is not worship and is not pleasing to the Lord (see AC 8588). But what is spontaneous is pleasing to the Lord (TCR 495).

What is the Lord doing in our lives right now? There are times when we sense His power and His Providence. There are times when He speaks to us, as it were, with a loud voice. There are such instances in the Gospel story. For example it is said that once Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38).

So much of the time He treats us with what the Writings call “patience and tolerance” (Prophets and Psalms, Isaiah 42). We challenge Him and He is patient. We ignore Him and He is quiet. We think and act in shameful ways, and it is as if He withdraws into a desert place.

But He does not withdraw. He is working with us even at those times when He seems so far away. As our lesson (AC 2796) said, we do not realize that our states are changing, and that He is directing our states. Just as while He was on earth He was fighting for the salvation of the human race without anyone realizing it, He is fighting for us. He is acting with us. In fact He is “striving” with us even to the point of touching our freedom of choice without violating it (TCR 74).

The Writings say that whether we know it or not He is “pressing to be received” (TCR 498), continually soliciting us to open the door (see DP 119). How significant it is when we use that freedom that He is guarding so carefully, when we take initiatives against what is evil and selfish, when we take initiatives of love and new seeking of truth in our lives.

That is what we can do as He tells us in His Divine Human, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”

Amen.

By Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh

“A bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!'” (Matt. 17:5)

Our subject is the Transfiguration of the Lord, that amazing event recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, when the Lord was transformed before the eyes of Peter, James and John. We will consider this in four parts, each answering a question: First, what took place and how did it actually happen? Second, what did it teach about Jesus? Third, what is its representative meaning? And fourth, What does it mean for us?

What did happen?

The Lord, with His disciples, had come into the region of Caesarea Philippi, a city north of the land of Israel situated at the headwaters of the Jordan River. Nearby were the slopes of Mount Hermon rising to snowcapped peaks. We can remember this mountain from the 133rd Psalm which speaks of the delightful “dew of Hermon” descending on the mountains of Zion. Choosing Peter, James and John who accompanied Him on other intimate occasions, the Lord went up onto this mountain to pray. The disciples, seemingly dozing off after their climb, suddenly became fully awake to observe that their Lord’s face was altered as He prayed, now shining like the sun; and His clothing glistened with whiteness, like the snow, beyond any imaginable whiteness of clean linen. Also, the disciples saw two men whom they recognized as Moses, their ancient lawgiver, and Elijah the prophet, who appeared in glory and spoke with the Lord of His forthcoming death in Jerusalem.

Peter, overwhelmed at this wondrous sight, said, “Lord, … let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Matt. 17:4). As he said this, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matt. 17:5) All three disciples heard this and fell on their faces, greatly afraid. When the Lord came to touch them and raise them up, the vision had ended. He was alone, no longer surrounded by flaming glory and glistening light.

What happened on this occasion was a real experience, not a dream or hallucination. The three disciples were introduced briefly into conscious life in the spiritual world. Their spiritual eyes were opened and, for a few moments, they saw as the angels see: beholding the deeper spiritual qualities of their Lord that are visible in that superior realm. Indeed, the disciples saw the face of the Lord like the sun because His Divine love shines forth in the spiritual world as a sun. The doctrine of the New Church teaches that He is seen by the angels above the heavens, encompassed by the flaming brilliance of His own Divine love.

Spiritual visions are common in Scripture, especially with the prophets, and these took place through an opening of spiritual senses latent in us all but now opened only rarely. For example, John experienced visions when banished to the Isle of Patmos. Again, “in the spirit,” as at the time of the transfiguration, having his spiritual eyes opened, He saw the Lord as a Divine Man, “His eyes like a flame of fire,” His hair “as white as snow.”

Having considered so far what actually happened at the transfiguration, let us now ask what it teaches about Jesus. The voice from the cloud which put the disciples into a state of such profound humility and fear identified him as the “Son of God.” “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matt. 17:5)

Who is this “beloved Son”? The doctrine of the New Church describes Him as the “Divine Human,” God in Human form. “Before the Lord came into the world He was present with men of the church but only medially through angels who represented Him; but since His coming He is present with men of the church immediately, and this because in the world He put on also a Divine Natural Form Manager: shortcode must include a form slug. For example, something like '[form form-1]' in which He is present with men” (TCR 109). Jehovah God put on a degree of life called the Natural, “thereby becoming Man, like a man in the world,” we are told, “but with the difference that in the Lord this degree … is infinite and uncreated … ” (DLW 233, emphasis added). He made His Natural Divine.

We are told that while the Lord “was indeed born as is another man, … this human the Lord entirely cast out, so that He was no longer the son of Mary, and made the Human in Himself Divine … and He also showed to Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured, that He was a Divine Man” (AC 4692:5). “It was plainly the Divine Human of the Lord that was thus seen” and identified by the voice heard from the cloud as the “beloved Son” (AE 64:3).

Many gospel teachings show the importance of this recognition of the Divinity of Jesus; from John, for example, where it says that “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son … He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Again, “Jesus said … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). In another instance, when the disciple Philip said to Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father … ” He answered: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father … ” (John 14:9). “I and My Father are one,” He said (John 10:30).

“They who are truly men of the church … are acquainted with and acknowledge a Trine,” we are told in the Writings of the New Church, “but still they humble themselves before the Lord and adore Him alone, for the reason that they know that there is no access to the Divine Itself which is called the Father’ except through the Son, and that all the holy which is of the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him. When they are in this idea they adore no other than Him through whom and from whom all things are, thus One” (AC 2329:4).

We turn now to the third question of our consideration. What was the representative meaning of the transfiguration?

We must preface this by pointing out that every account in Scripture has a representative or parable-like sense. This is illustrated by the Lord’s parables which contained a deeper meaning. In some places, the prophets “acted out” a style of life that demonstrated the state of the nation. What they did had symbolic meaning. In a similar way, the transfiguration of the Lord represents the transformation of the Word. In fact, everything that is said in this account about the Lord can be understood as referring to the Word and our reception of it.

Consider these parallels. Jesus was present in an external body. So, too, the Word of Scripture is an external body of history, laws and prophecy. Jesus revealed a Divine spirit within His body. So, too, the Word of Scripture has a spirit of truth. When the disciples went up onto the mountain, their vision was opened to see Jesus in a new way. When we climb above mundane thoughts and concerns, we elevate our mind to a state in which we can be given a new vision of the meaning of the Word.

“The Word in its glory was represented in the Lord when He was transfigured” (TCR 222; SS 48). We are told in different words that “when the Lord was transfigured, He presented Himself in the form in which the Divine truth is in heaven” (AE 624e). In other words, He caused Himself “to be seen as the Word” (AR 24).

It is significant that the two men seen talking with Jesus were Moses and Elijah, both closely linked with the Word of Scripture. Moses obviously represents that part of the Old Testament we call “the Law,” while Elijah represents the Prophets (see also AE 624e).

Moses and Elijah, when talking to Jesus “spoke of His decease” (Luke 9:31). The parallel representation is that the Law and the Prophets of Scripture treat of the Messiah, some prophecies specifically foretelling His death.

An important representation or parallel is to be found in the fact that a cloud overshadowed the disciples during the transfiguration. Matthew’s gospel describes this as a “bright cloud.” We think of a puff of cloud momentarily enveloping a group of climbers on a mountain slope, a cloud penetrated by the sun’s rays, bright but obscuring the sight of nearby objects. It was from such a passing cloud that the voice was heard saying: “This is My beloved Son” (Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35).

We are reminded here of other instances in Scripture where clouds are mentioned: how Mount Sinai was covered by clouds when Moses went up to receive the Commandments; the promise that the second coming of the Lord would be “in the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 24), as it is said: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him … ” (Rev. 1:7).

While the transfiguration of the Lord represents the Word in its glory, the overshadowing cloud represents a particular aspect of the Word called in New Church doctrine the “sense of the letter” (SS 48), or Divine truth in its outmost or literal meaning (AR 24). When we read of anything in Scripture, as we read here of clouds, we can interpret the meaning on different levels literal or symbolic. For example, to believe that Christ will return to earth surrounded by clouds when the Last Judgment is at hand is to think literally. We can also think of the same statement symbolically.

The Writings of the New Church have much to say about the symbolic or representative meaning of clouds. This derives from the fact that clouds appear in the spiritual world as well as in the natural world, “but the clouds in the spiritual world appear beneath the heavens, with those who are in the sense of the letter of the Word, darker or brighter according to their understanding and reception of the Word … consequently ‘bright clouds’ are the Divine truth veiled in appearances of truth … and dark clouds’ are the Divine truths covered with fallacies and confirmed appearances … ” (AR 24).

When the Word is read according to this spiritual representation, we can see new meaning in the account of the overshadowing cloud. It refers to an obscure understanding of Divine teachings. It represents truth veiled over with appearances drawn from a literalistic understanding of the Word. Here is an illustration: When the Lord spoke to Nicodemus about being “born again,” Nicodemus wondered how it would be possible to enter again into his mother’s womb (John 3:4). He took the statement literally. The Lord intended it symbolically.

Consider another example: The Lord once said He would raise up the temple in three days if it were destroyed. Many took His words literally, wondering how He could do this when the temple had taken 46 years to build. But He spoke of the temple of His body and His resurrection in three days (see John 2:19-21).

Now when the bright cloud overshadowed the disciples, the symbolic meaning is that the church at that time (which the disciples represented) “was only in truths from the sense of the letter” of the Word (AE 594a).

The remarkable thing to note, however, is that the voice which identified Jesus as the “beloved Son” came from the cloud. This revelation, so crucial to Christian belief, is powerfully given in the sense of the letter of the Word rightly understood. The Writings give this explanation: “the bright cloud’ which overshadowed the disciples’ represented the Word in the sense of the letter; so from it a voice was heard, saying, This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him,’ for no announcements or responses are ever made from heaven except through outmosts such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word, for they are made by the Lord in fullness” (SS 48, emphasis added; see AC 9905).

This teaching that Divine revelations must be made in the statements of Scripture is illustrated in the parable of Lazarus and the beggar. Lazarus, the rich man who went to hell, pleaded with Father Abraham to send someone to his brothers on earth to warn them of this fate. The answer was: “They have Moses and the Prophets …. If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead” (Luke 16:29-31). Unless revelations are stated in and confirmed by truths in external form, they have no power. When presented in that form they have awesome power and effect.

Thus it was that Peter, James and John humbled themselves profoundly when the voice came out of the cloud. It was not only the voice that affected them, but the message: that their Lord was Divine Man God in Human form!

What, then, does all of this mean for us? What spiritual benefits come from reading about and understanding the transfiguration of the Lord?

There is a sense in which we can put ourselves in the place of Peter, James and John and be witness to, and profoundly moved as they were by, a miraculous transformation of our understanding of the Word. The transformation for us is in the mind. First it is seeing the glory flaming in the cloud seeing the spiritual sense of the Word within the letter which gives it Divine life; for as the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6).

There is a wonder here a miraculous transformation of Scriptural teachings that have meant little or nothing to us now suddenly glowing with Divine love and enlightening our minds with Divine wisdom.

Second, it is sensing a holy fear at the presence of the Lord in His Word. It is humbling ourselves before Him, being willing to serve and obey Him. It is saying to the Lord and really meaning it, “Not my will but Thine be done!”

Lastly, it is being touched by Him and lifted in spirit by His presence and His words. For He said, “Arise, and do not be afraid” (Matt. 17:7).

When we consider the entire sweep of the Lord’s ministry and its impending conclusion, do we see a reason He brought these disciples to the mountain for His transfiguration? Would the experience strengthen them for the days ahead, for their lives as apostles? Do not we need such strength for the days ahead? Do not we need the same encouragement to learn and live our faith? We do! What a comfort it must have been to Peter, James and John, being greatly afraid during

the transfiguration, to have Jesus afterward touch them and say, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” They lifted their eyes and saw no one but Jesus only (Matt. 17:7, 8). Here is a representative parallel for us. He is all we need. In our times of fear and need the Lord Jesus Christ can touch and comfort us. He extends His Divine mercy and love to us wherever we are spiritually because He has drawn near by assuming our nature.

This is what the transfiguration can mean to us. It can mean a renewal of our religious resolve and a rededication to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified Human.

Amen.

By Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr.

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father..” (John 14:8-9)

Jesus and His disciples. If we look closely at the Lord’s relationship with His disciples, one of the primary things He tried to do for them was teach them who He was (and still is). He wanted them to know that He was Divine. Through His miracles, His transfiguration, His walking on the water, His raising of Lazarus from the dead, and finally His own resurrection, He was working to get them to understand that He was (as one teaching in the Writings for the New Church puts it), “Infinite, Uncreate, Almighty, God and Lord, altogether equal to the Father” (Doctrine of the Lord 55)-at least as far as they could understand these things.

He has some success. Speaking for the disciples, Peter once said: “We have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69; cf. Matthew 16:16). And after Thomas saw that Jesus had indeed risen as He said, he professed His faith by saying, “My Lord, and My God” (John 20:28).

There is but one God. And yet, when it comes right down to it, even these disciples didn’t quite understand the central message Jesus was trying to convey. They could not comprehend that He was the one God of heaven and earth. They could believe that He was the Son of God, but not God Himself, Jehovah come down on earth. They are not to blame for their misunderstanding. After all they talked with Jesus, ate with Him, traveled with Him-He was a Person to them. They also heard Him talk about God His Father, as if He was talking about someone else. So Jesus led them as far as He could in the right direction-that He was the Son of the living God. Anything beyond that was “wholly incomprehensible” to them (see Arcana Caelestia 6993:2). We have to remember that at the time of the Lord’s birth there was extreme darkness in all the world about spiritual things. Jesus brought about the dawning of a new church which would see more clearly. And at such a dawning, there was a beginning of understanding, a beginning of belief and worship, with many things yet to be said and comprehended. As Jesus Himself said:

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:12-13)

We now live in an era where that new truth is available. The Lord has revealed the truth He promised to reveal. He has opened up for us the Scriptures, and in them we may now see the truth about Him-the truth He taught so long ago, and yet was not completely understood. He wants us to be absolutely clear about things those people were just beginning to understand. There are not two Persons, or three in the God-head. There is one God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the one we are to believe in and worship. This is why He was so blunt with Philip when he requested in innocence (and perhaps even frustration): “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). As we read, He said to Philip:

Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father, so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?… Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me..” (John 14:9,10)

The central truth of the Word of God, the truth that Jesus tried so hard to get people to believe while on earth is that there is but one God. He is not only the Son of God, but the God of heaven and earth, and one with the Father (see True Christian Religion 379). This is what we are all called upon to believe.

The importance of a correct idea of God. There is a teaching in the work of the Writings called True Christian Religion, a work appropriately named for this topic, which describes how important it is for us to understand who our God is:

A correct idea of God is to the congregation like the sanctuary and altar in a church, or like a crown on the head and a scepter in the hand of a king, as he sits upon his throne. From this hangs the whole body of theology, like a chain from its anchor-point. If you are prepared to believe me, the idea everyone has of God determines his place in the heavens. (True Christian Religion 163)

Why is it so important for us to have a correct idea about God? Why is it that this one teaching-this one facet of belief will determine our welfare to eternity? Why is it like the sanctuary and altar in a church, or like the crown and scepter of a king? Why is it the most important concept in all of religion? If I were to ask of all of you here today, “How do you get to heaven?” I’d probably get responses such as this:

“Live a good life.”

“Obey the Lord’s commandments.”

“Shun evils as sins against the Lord, and then live a good life.”

or something along those lines. And these would be correct answers. But a correct idea and belief in the Lord is even more basic than these statements. It is no accident that there are two great commandments. The second one is: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). In general this is a command to live a good life. But the first and great commandment in the Law is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind (see Matthew 22:37-38). The reason for this is that we need to know who is asking us to live a good life. For religion to make sense, we have to know what kind of God the Lord is. Why is He asking us to act in certain ways? If we don’t understand why He needs us to act according to His commandments, what’s to convince us to do so when the going gets tough, when temptation sets in and we feel like doing something else? The truth about God is indeed the starting point from which all the other facets of religion hang as links of a chain from an anchor point.

Father / Son imagery. Now some people might raise a legitimate complaint about the way the Lord has put His Word together. If it is so important for us to know who the Lord is, and specifically to acknowledge that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the one God of heaven and earth, why didn’t He just say so? Why in the world would He leave anything in His Word which would confuse us, or cause many people to misunderstand this most central teaching? Why would He speak to the Father as if to another? Why would He call Himself the Son of God, and yet expect us to believe that He is more than that?

We already discussed one reason: the people alive during His life on earth could not believe anything further than that He was the Son of God, and not God Himself. This is an important reason, for the Lord always accommodates Himself to the understanding of the people He is trying to lead. He is constantly trying to make Himself accessible and knowable to the extent possible. And He did just that for the people He taught and healed while He was on earth.

But as you have probably already realized, there is a much deeper and more profound reason for the way the gospels were put together. There is a truth about the Lord our God which is played out for us in the stories about Father and Son which we could not know otherwise. There are three ideas I’d like to share with you today which illustrate how the Father / Son imagery can help us, rather than be a source of confusion.

1. Many names for one God. First, let us remember that when we’re discussing the Lord, we’re discussing the Infinite. And, as one teaching so eloquently points out:

The human mind, for all its loftiness and superb analytical power, is finite, and there is no way of rendering it anything but finite. Therefore it is incapable of seeing the infinity of God as it is in itself, and so of seeing God. (True Christian Religion 28)

It goes on to say that we can see God in shadow-in other words, as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. This is where the various names of the Lord help us out tremendously. We cannot know everything there is to know about God; indeed we would be foolish to try. But the Lord has made it easier for us to know some things. He has given us an ability to look at different facets of Him, different Divine qualities that He possesses. And He labels each one of these qualities with a different name for Himself. So we have Jesus, which means “Savior,” and we have “Christ” which means “King;” and Jehovah, which literally means “the One who Is, or exists;” and “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” We also have some of His activities categorized under different names: He is the Creator and Redeemer, He is our Preserver and Comforter. All of these things help us to look at one aspect of God at a time, to understand it, and put it together with the other things we know about Him, so that our faith in Him can develop.

The same is true of the three most dominant names for God, which are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These also are different aspects of the one God, highlighting certain of His Divine qualities, so that we can come to understand our God more fully. So the first idea about the imagery of the trinity is that, although it may seem like a source of confusion for people, it is actually designed to help us understand our God more fully.

2. The Trinity. The second idea which will help us see the value in the imagery of the Trinity, is to see in concept how these three make one. There is one teaching which is extremely helpful in this regard. It goes like this:

These three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of a single God, which make one as soul, body and activity do with a person. (True Christian Religion 166)

The beauty of this teaching is that it makes so much sense. We all have a soul-a life force within us. We all have a body. And these two together make it possible for us to do things-to think and speak and act, to walk, to express love, to reason, and to serve other people. Working from this fundamental way in which we have been created, we can come to realize that it works the same way for God, for we are created in His image and in His likeness (see Genesis 1:26-27). That means that God has a soul, a body, and that He acts by means of these two. The conclusion then is that “Father” is the name which describes the Soul of the Lord, or His life-force-why He acts, what He cares about, who He is at His core; “Son” is the name of God which describes His body-the Human form we see in our Lord Jesus Christ, showing forth or revealing to all who He is, and what He wants for us; and “Holy Spirit” is the name given to what God does-the effect He has on us, the providence, enlightenment, comfort, and eventual salvation He can bring to us.

3. The soul, body, and activity of God. With this construct of soul, body and activity of the Lord, we turn to our third idea about the Father / Son imagery of the gospels-specifically to one story where all these ideas come together. The story is the one of Philip asking to be shown the Father, to which Jesus responded, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Jesus began this teaching episode by saying to His disciples:

“In My Father’s house are may mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)

We can now understand what He was really saying to them. If we think about the “Father” as the soul or life-force of God, we can see that His inmost desire is to bring us into heaven. What drives God at His very core, and causes Him to do every single thing He does, is love-a love for us, and a desire to make us happy from Himself (see True Christian Religion 43). This is God in Himself: love for all people, and that love is described by the name “Father.” What better image could we be given of God’s love, than that of a Divine Parent who cares for His children with infinite mercy?

And yet, Jesus says that He would prepare this place in heaven for us; that He would return and lead us there. Further He explained to the disciples (and to us), that we know how to get there: where He goes, we know, and the way we know (see John 14:3-4). Thomas reacted to this statement by saying:

“Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

And Jesus replied:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:5-6)

These words describe Jesus Christ, who called Himself the Son of God. “No one comes to the Father, except through Me.” “I am the Way the Truth and the Life.” This is why Jesus came on earth in the first place-to reveal to people through His actions and His teachings what kind of God He is and what He expects from us. We have many teachings about our Lord, and all of them help us to understand Him-all of them point to the fact that He is a God of love-a God who cares for us with more compassion and mercy than any human being could ever do. This is what Jesus Christ showed to us. This is the God teaching us about Himself, showing us His plans are for us, and explaining why He asks us to act in certain ways. The Son teaches us this, and through the Son, we see the love of the Father, or through the body of our Lord, we see His soul. As a teaching in the work True Christian Religion says:

“By means of the Human, Jehovah God brought Himself into the world and made Himself visible to human eyes, and thus accessible. (True Christian Religion 188:6)

And once we realize that He is accessible, we can see that He can make a difference in our lives: He can affect us. This is His operation, which is described under the name of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion. The beauty of these concept of our God is that they makes Him believable. He has a singularity of focus: all His energy is directed towards making us happy to eternity in heaven. Everything He teaches leads us towards that goal. In everything He does, He works to bring us closer to Him so that He can be a bigger part of our lives. He wants us to understand that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our one and only God. He wants us to understand the way He has put the gospels together-that we can see more about Him through the Father / Son imagery than we could without it. By means of the stories of Jesus Christ, living in this world, teaching people and healing them, He offers us a real picture of the kind of God He is-not merely an intercessor between us and God the Father, but God Himself who has the ability to teach us and heal our lives. He is one with the Father. This is the truth that Jesus was trying so hard to get His disciples to understand. There is but one God, and we are to place our lives in His hands. It is the first and great commandment, expressed in this way:

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Amen.

By the Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr.

Life progresses. I’d like you to think for a moment about what your life may be like a year from now. Countless things will happen to all of us between now and then. We will all experience another Easter, another Thanksgiving, another Christmas. Some of us may retire. Others may change jobs, or become grandparents for the first time, or move. Those of us who are married will celebrate an anniversary; it may be a third anniversary, or a thirtieth or fortieth anniversary. Those of us who are parents will notice that our children will develop substantially: they will become more independent and more competent. This might be the year for a child to move out of the house – even get married. We will all celebrate a birthday this year.

Whatever activities or landmarks fill our time, we can be assured that life will keep rolling by. Each day brings with it new experiences and challenges-some which give us joy, and others which test our endurance.

Through it all we will be developing as people. Our perspectives will change as we see more of life. We know that beyond the various things which fill up our day, we are supposed to be making spiritual progress. Each year we get closer to the time when our lives in this world will be over, and we will enter the spiritual world, which includes heaven and hell. Our primary goal in this world should be to prepare for that time – to be led by the Lord towards heaven. From time to time, then, it’s useful to reflect on how religion will play a part our lives. How will the Lord Himself help us to make some spiritual progress this year? What is He leading us towards? What does He want us to see about our choices and ways of acting, and consider changing? What is most important to Him?

The First Commandment. Today’s focus is on the most central religious principle to keep in mind as we strive to make progress in our spiritual lives: dedication to the Lord our God. That is why we will look at the First Commandment today – the first thing, and in one sense the most important, which the Lord commanded from Mt. Sinai. He said:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before My face. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:2-6)

“That which reigns universally.” There is a teaching in the Writings for the New Church which says: “What is stated first must be held in mind and must be seen to reside universally in everything that follows” (Arcana Caelestia 8864:3). In one sense this means that the First Commandment must be held in mind when we look at the rest of the commandments, for it “reigns universally” in them. For example:

* The next two commandments teach us how to worship the Lord alone or have no other gods before His face: we are not to take His name in vain, which means that we honor and revere Him; and we are to remember the Sabbath day, or take time to focus on the Lord and make Him a priority.

* We are not to steal, because the God whom we worship forbids it.

* He commands us not to commit adultery because He is the God of marriage.

* We are not to murder, lie, or covet because in doing so we are not loving the Lord nor keeping His commandments, as the First Commandment requires.

In general, the First Commandment calls us to commit ourselves to the Lord-to let Him reign in our lives. If we think about it, we need this command. For religion to make any sense, we have to know who the Lord is – He is the central focus, and the object of all our religious devotion. For us to see value in the Bible we have to know the Revelator – then it can be a Divinely authoritative guide for us. If we are to accept the path of regeneration or spiritual rebirth, we need to worship the Savior who makes it all happen.

One teaching in the Writings for the New Church says: “What reigns universally with a person is that which is present in every idea of his thought and every desire of his will. That which reigns universally within a person should be the Lord” (emphasis added, Arcana Caelestia 8865). Another teaching says: “A person’s whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life” (Arcana Caelestia 8858). The Lord asks us to let Him “dominate” our lives. He asks that we love Him above all things, that we make Him and His ways the priority in our lives, for He is the Source, the Beginning, the Lord our God.

The Tone. One of the things we notice about the First Commandment is that it is stated in the negative: “You shall have no other gods before My face,” rather than “You shall worship the Lord your God alone.” If we fail, He will “visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate [Him].” For He is a jealous God-apparently one whom we should fear. We might wonder why this is the case. If worshiping the Lord alone is so important, why does He appear so foreboding, commanding, and manipulative – so distant?

As you may suspect, there are several reasons for such a tone. First, the Israelites, to whom the Ten Commandments were first revealed, needed such an image. They would not have listened unless a powerful, jealous God was speaking. Such an image caused them to pay attention!

But another reason for the tone is that it teaches us how to make the Lord our central focus. “You shall have no other gods before My face,” it says. How? By not carving any images, or making any likenesses of anything in heaven, on earth, or in the waters below. All these represent things which stand in the way of letting the Lord reign in us. “Gods” can mean selfishness – putting ourselves before the Lord, which is the root of all evil. They can also mean worldliness, or a lack of concern for anything beyond what we can see and experience, namely the Lord and heaven. A “likeness in the heavens above or the earth beneath” means pretending to be a good person. A person who acts like a spiritual and moral person externally, is making a likeness or putting on a facade (see Arcana Caelestia 8871:1). The Lord calls such people hypocrites.

When we get to “the waters under the earth” we come to the direct opposite to worshiping the Lord. The waters and the things they contain represent a bodily-oriented person, who cares only for external pleasures (Arcana Caelestia 8872). Such a person is dominated by appetites for worldly things such things as food or possessions, or for physical, lustful pleasure. This is a far cry from what is orderly, with the Lord at the top, and these cravings much further down the list in their appropriate places (see Arcana Caelestia 911:3).

The purpose of stating the First Commandment in the negative is to warn us that we all have tendencies to love ourselves, to make ourselves appear like good people, to seek pleasure. If we focus on these things alone, the Lord cannot help us. Without Him, we live lives which are pictured by the Israelites in the land of Egypt-in bondage, controlled by negative influences which come to us by means of hell. Our lives will have qualities to them which don’t bring us happiness, but instead make us feel miserable. We will act in selfish and manipulative ways, and cause harm to the people around us. But the Lord wants us to realize that it doesn’t have to be that way. He can free us from these negative influences. If we put Him first He delivers us from the influences of hell (see Arcana Caelestia 8866). He gives us a rationale for the way things should be, with Himself at the top governing and directing our lives, with charity to other people next, as He commands. Then we can take care of our own needs, and experience pleasures in their proper measure, with appropriate goals: eating to remain healthy, earning money to support a family or even to live comfortably.

Gideon’s Task. The story of Gideon cutting down his father’s altar to Baal is a perfect example of what the Lord is getting at by means of the First Commandment. At the time of the Judges, Israel had strayed from the Lord. They had entered Canaan, and were trying to conquer the inhabitants so that they could inherit it as their own. But instead of staying loyal to the Lord, as the First Commandment said, they were seduced into the worship of the native people. As a result the Lord couldn’t lead them to victory, and the were oppressed by their enemies.

It was during this unhappy time that the Lord appeared to Gideon. He came while Gideon was hiding from the Midianite overlords, and said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12). But Gideon wasn’t heartened by these words. He replied: “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” (Judges 6:13). He asked why the Lord had forsaken them.

Obviously it was because the Israelites were not worshiping the Lord. So the Lord asked Gideon to carry out a very specific task. He was not to go and attack the Midianites – that would come later. First he was to tear down the altar of Baal that his father had, and cut down the wooden image next to it. Then he was to build an altar to the Lord, and use the wood of the image to offer a burnt sacrifice to the Lord (Judges 6:25-26). In other words, he was to return to the worship of the Lord – this is what would bring back prosperity for Israel. After Gideon obeyed this command he went on to lead the Israelites to victory of the Midianites.

Offering happiness. By means of the First Commandment the Lord offers us happiness. Again the appearance is otherwise. It sounds like He’s demanding commitment, or else He will punish us and bring misery to our lives. But God would never do that. What He is really saying is that He can’t help us if we don’t worship Him. We are free to worship whomever, or do whatever we want. We can prioritize our lives in any way we choose. If we reject the Lord’s ways we will feel consequences. One evil leads to another, for evil builds upon itself (see Arcana Caelestia 8876). Short term pleasure gives way to misery and an empty life. These are symbolized by the “third and fourth generations.”

But the negative message is turned into a positive one in the internal sense, or the meaning within the words. The Lord’s “jealousness” represents His ardent desire to save us, and to warn us so that we know of the dangers of evil (see Arcana Caelestia 8875). He really wants to “[show] mercy to thousands” (Exodus 20:6). He desires that we “love [Him] and keep [His] commandments” (Ibid.), for then He is able to bless us with peace and happiness, and to inspire us to be good, worshipful people.

The ideal. We are taught that the people who live in heaven love the Lord so much that they want Him to be a part of every aspect of their lives. When they wake up, when they eat a meal, when they are working or socializing, they want the Lord to be in their thoughts. As a result they constantly “have the Lord’s life within them” (Arcana Caelestia 8865).

Such a state of mind is also reflected by an image of the Lord presented in the book of the Writings called The True Christian Religion. It speaks of a man who saw a picture of “one Divine Person with rays of heavenly light around His head, with the label: This is our God, at once Creator, Redeemer and Regenerator, and so Savior” (True Christian Religion 296). It is a picture of an infinitely loving God who wants nothing more than our happiness. He is our Creator, and the one who can bring new life to us by leading us to become better people. He does so by leading us through the process of regeneration, or spiritual rebirth, during which He is leading us closer and closer to heaven. In this passage, the man who found such a picture kisses it, takes it home in his pocket, shows it to his wife and children, so that they can all delight in it.

This is our goal, and also the thrust of the First Commandment – to capture a concept of the Lord our God, to know what kind of God He is, and to keep Him in mind always. It is a high ideal, but it is attainable! Why else would the Lord command it? The purpose in bringing it up today is so that we may all renew our commitment to the Lord and remind ourselves that He should be the most important facet of our lives.

Life continues. One day leads to the next; weeks and months slip by in a never-ending progression of activity. The Lord asks that we strive to include Him in our thoughts, and to ask for His leadership during all these events and daily decisions. He longs to shower His mercy upon us, but that can only happen to the extent that we turn to Him and allow Him to guide us. May we too take delight in knowing the Lord our God, and in dedicating ourselves to Him, so that we may receive His blessing.

Amen.

By Rev. Grant R. Schnarr

The Lord had appeared before His disciples, most of them rejoiced that they had seen Him again. But He was alive. All the times that He had spoken of, rising on the third day, had come true. They remembered, they believed Him.

And yet there was Thomas who was a very earthly kind of person, known as “Doubting Thomas,” who said, “I won’t believe in the Lord unless I can put my finger in the holes in His hands and put my hand in His side.” What happens? Eight days later the Lord appears before Thomas and says, “OK, Thomas. Reach your finger in my hands. Put your hand in my side. Handle me and see that it is I.” Thomas didn’t need to do that any more.

He said to Him, “My Lord, my God.”

And the Lord said to Thomas, “You have seen. That’s why you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed in Him.”

Why was it that the Lord appeared to His disciples after His crucifixion? It might have been to show that He was alive, that He had conquered death. That’s a great part of Christianity, that He is the resurrection and the life. But even more than this, He appeared to His disciples so that they would worship Him in His risen form, that they wouldn’t think back on Him historically, think about His life in the world, but to see that, yes, He is very much alive now. He has risen, He’s alive, He’s with them still. “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age,” He said to them.

The Lord came on earth to make Himself visible to the human race, to make Himself accessible to people so that they could know Him, so that they could understand Him, so that they could, if they chose, be one with their Creator through that understanding.

Before the Lord had come, what kind of God did they worship at that time? The Writings for the New Church say that they worshipped an invisible God, incomprehensible. After all, if God is love itself, life itself, reality itself, that’s pretty incomprehensible for us finite beings. How can the finite comprehend the infinite? It’s impossible. Beyond that, though, they had a perception of the Lord within. They could think of His humanity, so to speak, His love and wisdom within, perceive what it was. But there was no external form, no concrete image, to put that into. Again, it was an invisible God, sort of perceiving who God was, but not really being able to grasp Him in their imagination.

And then through the process of time, as people turned away from the Lord, as the leaders of the church at that time, began to make up teachings, began to lead the people to themselves rather than from God, that picture of the Lord became very clouded. And so we can look at the Old Testament, and we see their concept of God – an angry God, a punishing God, a God who can repent, a God who wants vengeance. This is the way they saw Him because of their infantile state, because of the dark state that they were in.

Where was the relationship with God and man? If you think of God as being love itself and desiring nothing more than to be one with that which He had created, that wasn’t taking place and the end of creation was in danger, so the Lord came to her (?) “Jehovah bowed the heavens and came down,” the Psalms say. He presented Himself to mankind so that could understand Him, so that they could see Him, so that they could see the infinite God in human form as Jesus. He could set up a new church that had the opportunity to worship Him in truth and sincerity, had an opportunity to be joined with their creator like never before.

So the Writings for the New Church say the following, “By means of the Human Jehovah God sent Himself into the world and made Himself seen before the eyes of men, and thus accessible. The Lord made the natural man in Himself Divine in order that He might be the first and the last, that He might thus enter with men even into their natural. He was then able to conjoin Himself to man in His natural, yea, in His sensual. And at the same time to His spirit or mind in His rational, and thus to enlighten man’s natural light with heavenly light.

It’s not as if the Lord said Goodbye, to His disciples and zoomed off a million miles away, or into some other realm of existence. No, He was still right there. He’s right here today. He hasn’t gone anywhere. In our natural lives we cannot see Him, but God exists around us, within us, in a way that He didn’t before His advent. He came into the natural, He made that natural within Him Divine so that He could be with us, not only from within, from our perceptions, but also without, so that now we can grasp God in a form and understand Him. So now we can have a personal relationship with our Maker.

So how do we have that personal relationship with the Lord? We have to recognize His Humanity, not like many Christian churches have done today, solely seeing His Humanity and sort of separating it from His Divinity and the Divine Father appear in Jesus, my friend and buddy, my pal. If we do that, if we separate it out, then we take away that Divinity of the Lord. And when we take that away we take away some of the respect He had, the admiration, the love, the responsibility that we have to the Lord. We can’t see Him as merely being human, we’ve got to see Him as Divine, life itself, in the Human form.

The Writings say that we should look at God from essence to person, think of His essence first, that God is life itself, that God is love itself, the very reality of these two concepts of God. His essence though, shows itself in the human form of Jesus Christ. And we can take all these unknowable things and put them down in a form that can be grasped. And we can see the Lord with His arms open, waiting to take us in. And He will take us in and hold us as long as we want Him to, in our own freedom. That’s how we should see the Lord.

So the Lord said, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” He that has seen that Humanity has seen the Divine within. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.” No one comes to that Divinity but through the Human of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Human.

You know, many of us who are receivers, wandered away from traditional Christianity because of that very point, that it made Christ too human, that they’ve made God more of a fable, made God a comic strip character, rather than something real and living. But we can go too far. We can make God a complete abstract concept in our life. God is life itself. God is love itself. God is impersonal. God is a concept. But what good does that do us in our relationship with Him to do that? We can’t worship an It. We can’t be conjoined with an It. We can’t love life itself, the esse, the first principle. Reality, what does it mean? We can’t talk to it. We can’t love it. We can’t be one with it? Why should we obey what it says? What good is it going to do us? That’s the whole reason the Lord came, so that we could see Him in that Human form, see that Divinity, so that we could be one with Him and have a personal relationship with Him, see that He is a very real God, very real person. So, when He appeared before Thomas, that’s why Thomas said, “My Lord and my God,” to that Divine Human.

One of the ways we form a relationship with the Lord is through turning to His own Word. This book is unlike any other book that has ever been written. Not only does it teach us about God, but it is a living book. If we read the New Testament alone, think of the picture that we get there, seeing God in human form. What a picture that is! What a beautiful picture of who God is, how He presents Himself.

Look at the New Testament. Look at the Lord`s life and see how He presents Himself to us, not with preconceived notions, but take a good, honest look. We see the Lord joking around with His disciples. When He was talking to Peter He said, “Peter, from now on your name will be the Rock.” He was saying. Petra. “From now on I’m going to called you Petra.” That’s like saying, “Rick, from now on I’m going to call you Rock.” Or saying, “Stanley, from now on you’re Stonely.” It was a pun. It was comical. And yet it says something deeper.

How about when He appeared, when He was whipped in front of the whole Sanhedrin who were judging Him. And Caiphus says, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Living God?”

He said basically, “You said it. It is as you say,” right back to them.

When Pilate said to Him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“You said it.”

How many times have we heard in pulpits in different churches, ‘”Are you the king of the Jews?” “It is as you say.” And they led Him away,”‘ in a monotone voice.

The Lord was human. “You said it. Yes, I am.”

We see Him laughing, the Scribes and the Pharisees, “You whited sepulchers.” “You who strain at a gnat and yet swallow a camel.” Human.

When He’s in the temple, clearing out the temple. “My house should be a house of prayer and you have made it a den of thieves.”

And then we see another side of Him. As He’s trying to raise Lazarus from the dead, and all these people don’t believe it. He’s been with them for three years and no one really understood. There He is. He’s weeping. He’s weeping because of their disbelief.

When He was in the Garden of Gethsemene, that Human was going through such anguish, knowing what would happen, that it was said that He sweated as if drops of blood.

Remember when He was even riding into Jerusalem, and all the people were cheering, Luke tells us the Lord was weeping at that time. Why was He weeping? Because God had come to the light into the darkness to save His creation, and the darkness comprehended Him not. As John said, “He came to His own and His own received Him not.”

A human God, someone we can relate to. He shows us all the different aspects of humanity on purpose, so that we won’t see Him as a God afar off, so that we won’t see Him as an abstract concept, but we can see Him as someone who has gone through many of the things that we go through, and even worse. We can relate to Him, that we can be with Him, that He understands us, that He’s here and now. He’s not somewhere else.

Keep that in mind. The Lord is very real. If you picture the Lord as an old man with a beard, holding a scepter, way off there somewhere, you’re missing out on a lot. The Lord is very real. He’s here and now. He’s there, ready to have a relationship with us, if we are willing to open our minds and hearts to him.

We can see Him in the literal meaning of the New Testament so easily. The Writings also say that there are deeper meanings to the Word, that the whole Old Testament, for example, has a continuous internal sense, a continuous inner symbolic meaning which deals with many different aspects of our lives, which deals with the Lord. So that story of the Israelites coming out of Egypt through the wilderness into the promised land, is also a story of the Lord’s life on earth, how He came out of the slavery of that human hereditary evil and worked toward the promised land, His glorification, making Himself Divine. And the Writings lay out a lot of this for us in the Arcana Caelestia, 12 volumes. The Psalms, for example, are not just prayers of David, but on a deeper level, a symbolic level, are prayers of the Lord to the Father – that human part of Him – praying to the Divine within, becoming one with it.

And when we read the Word in that sense, study it, and look for the symbolism, the deeper meaning, all of a sudden the Word becomes alive. It’s a living book. The Lord is there speaking to us. So, John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That’s how the Lord shows Himself to us, can talk to us in His Word. It’s alive. The Writings say that the Word is the soul medium of conjunction between the Lord and man, the sole medium of communion between the heavens and the human race, that when we read the Word with simple minds and simple hearts that the angels of heaven affect us. Whereas we understand the literal sense, they understand the deeper internal sense. And when we read the Word we are affected by it. The Lord can be with us in a special way to the degree that we can read the Word with the willingness to be led, to understand.

Some people read the Word as if it’s a textbook and they are going to have a test on it. They look for the facts. If you do that all you’re going to get are the facts. If you look at the Word with pessimism as you read, all you are going to get is pessimism. If you look at the Word with preconceived dogmatic notions about what you’re looking for in certain doctrines, then all you are going to see are certain doctrines. The Writings say, “Those who approach the Word with preconceived doctrines, it’s as if they only read one page and flip it over, they miss this page, they read the next one, they flip that over. They’re only reading half the Word.” The approach is like that.

To approach the Word with open minds, open hearts, those who approach the Word with a willingness to be led, simply to say, “Help me.” To read it, even if you were reading something about David going off and doing this or that, or Saul, or Solomon, you are going to get something from it. Sometimes you will be amazed at the answers you get in the Word. When you ask a specific question about your life, “How am I doing? How can I do better?” the Lord will answer you in an incredible way, an astounding way. You’ll see this is a living truth. This is alive. At other times it’s much more subtle. It was pointed out once that a lot of the time it’s just a feeling you walk away with, a feeling that we’ve been somewhere, a feeling that we’ve been with someone, that they are still with us in a special way. And that someone is the Lord.

The Word is very important, very important to read. But not only the Word, but to do something with that.

There is also prayer, the whole realm of prayer, come to know our God, to understand Him. The Lord’s prayer is a very special prayer. After all, the Lord gave us that prayer. He says, “When you pray, say this..” He gave us that prayer. The Writings of the New Church say two things about the Lord’s prayer. One, that that prayer in its deeper, inmost sense, deals with all the different facets of our relationship with God and man, and when we say that prayer we are saying a general prayer to help us out in all fields. And if we can see that deeper, inner sense we’d understand that it has all kinds of things to do with our life.

But beyond that, we’re told that when we say the Lord’s prayer, because of the way it’s been written, that we can communicate, can have communion with, all of the heavens, all the different societies of the heavens. So that prayer has a special power, a power for good, an effect on our own lives and hearts.

There’s more than just reciting prayers. It’s funny, it’s amazing, many churches haven’t picked up on this, especially some of our larger churches. The Lord said, “Do not use vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them.” When we pray, sometimes all we have to do is talk to the Lord. The Writings define prayer as “speaking with the Lord.” It’s very simple. Talking to Him, “How am I doing today? Help me out in this one. Help me to get through this. Thank you.”

There’s many things we can do, just to talk to Him. At first when we do that, when we are not used to it, it may seem a little strange, talking to the Lord. You remember that Paul Newman movie, Cool Hand Luke, after he had escaped for the third or fourth time, in that church he was looking up and talking to God, he looked up seeing if someone was listening to him. We’ll feel that way a little bit when we first start. But what happens is, after a while when we do this, we begin to feel the Lord’s presence in a very real way. And we begin to feel it’s more than what we bargained for. It’s not as if we do this and ended up all of a sudden feel it, there’s some kind of psychological reason for it. No. The Lord comes into our presence, His presence comes into us even more than it would have at that time, and we can feel Him and understand Him. We will be astounded.

Even more than this probably, the most important thing, we want to have a relationship with the Lord. If we want to bring Him into our hearts and tell Him, we’ve got to put ourselves in the order of His creation. We’ve got to shun that evil and selfishness that we all know we have within, that block out the Lord’s life, that block out His love. That’s why He’s given us His teachings, so that we can use them to get our act together, to put ourselves back in that order, to put ourselves on the right path, that He can flow into us with His wisdom, He can come into us with His love. And with that love comes joy and happiness.

It could be sometimes, that we like God to be way up there in an abstract concept because then when we want to do what we want, He’s not there to make us feel bad, He’s not there to make us feel guilty. Think about that. How uncomfortable would you feel if you are doing something that really was raunchy, and had that real awareness that the Lord is right there with you, it would be a bad feeling. Sometimes we leave Him way off in the distance. We keep Him close enough so that when we feel guilty we have somebody to turn to, but for the most part in our lives, we keep Him way off there. If we are going to do that, and we have a perfect right to do that, the Lord lets us be free to do that, but if we do, let’s be honest with ourselves. We are creating a hell in ourselves, and that after death that’s exactly where we will go.

The Lord is not a God afar off. He is here with us. He has His arms open to us ready to receive us into Himself. When we hold the key, we can open that door and let Him into us. We do that by learning of Him in His Word which He has given us, by turning to Him for help, by being aware of His existence, and by following His teachings. When we do that, we open our eyes to Him. We can see Him. More than that, He will be with us. And even more than those disciples, we will know the Lord, who He is even more than Thomas, and we will be able to say at this time with full hearts as we comprehend our God, “My Lord and my God.”

Amen.