Category Archives: Stories in the Bible

The Ark of the Covenant in Dagon’s Temple

By Rev David A Moffat

A CHILDREN’S ADDRESS

Based upon 1 Samuel 4.

This story happens when the prophet Samuel is still a young boy. Although he has already heard the voice of the Lord, he is not yet the judge of Israel. The events recorded here show us how the people did not understand how they should behave.

Throughout the book of Judges (which precedes this story), and even throughout Israel’s history, the people are attacked by various tribes and nations who lived near their homes. This story concerns a group of people called the Philistines. [It is worth saying that our modern use of the word “Philistine” has little to do with the Old Testament nation, who were an intelligent and cultured people.] On this occasion, the Israelites and Philistines were at war, and the Israelites were being defeated. They wondered what to do, and remembering the many miracles the Ark of the Covenant had brought about in their history, they decided that they would bring the Ark to the battlefield. They thought it would bring them victory over their enemies.

Now, when the Israelites brought the Ark from the Tabernacle to the battlefield, the Philistines heard the people shouting, and they were very scared, because they realised that something special had happened. They also knew that they had no choice but to fight, even though they thought they were going to die. But they did not die – in fact, they beat the children of Israel, and captured the Ark of the Covenant.

What does this story mean for us?

What did the Israelites FORGET to do? They did not pray to the Lord for guidance! In fact, it is the Philistines who recognise the power of God. No wonder the Israelites lost the battle.

What did the Ark of the Covenant contain? It carried two special tablets of stone, on which were written the ten commandments (you can find them in Exodus 20). They thought that just by bringing the Ark to the battlefield, they were sure to win the fight.

Where did the Ark belong? Not in the Temple, which had not been built yet, but in the special tent the people had made while they were travelling to the promised land many years before. It is called the “Tabernacle”.

Not only did the people forget about the Lord, they forgot that the commandments should be obeyed, not only in their actions, but in their hearts and minds. It is usually very easy to obey the commandments, because they describe actions which most people never do. But it is not so easy to obey them inside ourselves. Let’s look at some examples.

You shall not murder. Have you ever killed someone? Hopefully no one here has ever killed another person. But have you ever said, “I’ll kill you if you do that!”? Or have you ever thought you would LIKE to kill or even just hurt someone else very badly, because of how you felt about something they did? It is easy to obey this commandment in our actions, but if we break it in our hearts, it becomes easier for us to break it in our actions too. That commandment should be “written on our hearts” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 & Psalm 119:11) – when we know that even thinking bad things about other people is wrong and when we hate to think those things, we will NEVER actually hurt them in any way. That is what it means to leave the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle, which is where it should be.

Here’s some more.

You shall honour you father and mother. Most people do as their parents tell them – can you think of thoughts or feelings you might have which would break this commandment?

You shall keep the Sabbath day. How do we keep this commandment in our actions? We come to church. But how do we keep it in our hearts and minds. One way is to realise that our religion ought to be something which doesn’t begin and end on Sunday. We should obey the commandments every day of the week, otherwise we cannot really call ourselves Christians.

ADDRESS

He next part of our story (1 Samuel 5) is a fascinating lesson for us all. Once the Ark is captured, the Philistines take it to the temple of Dagon. Presumably they did this as an offering, thinking that Dagon had granted them victory over the God of the Israelites (look how they trembled in fear once they thought that God was on the Israelites’ side – 1 Samuel 4:6-9). Overnight, the statute of Dagon falls over. The people put him back in his place, but when he falls over again, he smashes.

The effects extend beyond the temple. The Philistines experience a disease – tumours, and an infestation of rats. So, they move the Ark from city to city, and find that the disease follows the Ark.

Idol worship in general is religion from an unbalanced perspective. It is taking a facet of God or of life, and making it god, so it represents an approach to life or a doctrinal stance which takes a part of the truth and makes it the whole.

Dagon represents a religion based upon knowledge and reasoning, a fish-man. Correspondences show us that fish represent knowledges. We can see this in the story of the disciples’ first encounter with Jesus (Luke 5:1-11). In that story, after fishing all night to no avail, Jesus instructs the fishermen to go back out onto the lake and try again – this time they are able to catch a great number of fish. This reflects how, through the Lord’s presence in our lives, and our willingness to follow his instructions, we can gain a great many knowledges from the Word, where previously it may have seemed barren and fruitless. But Dagon is also part man, which represents our ability to reason – to apply and assemble knowledges together into a coherent system of thought.

Now, we can worship this intellectual religion, but when we do this, we don’t feel any need for obedience or real commitment. So, to worship Dagon is recognising the value and power of the 12 step programme without putting it into practice in our lives. It is acknowledging the power of prayer without actually praying. It is Christianity which is thought about, but never practised. This is the very reason the children of Israel were defeated by the Philistines.

The Philistines represent a life lived according to the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. An intellectual religion is not, of itself, a threat to our spiritual lives. But living as though intellect is all that matters is. It is the Philistines WORSHIP of intellectualism that is a problem, as though that will bring them happiness, even salvation. This is their unbalance.

We should recognise the distinction between a point of doctrine and a life lived by that principle. The doctrine alone cannot harm us, even if we subscribe to it with our minds, but if we live it, we are in great danger. Jesus’ Parable of the two sons (Matthew 21:28-32) teaches us this. It is not the son who SAYS he will obey his father, but the son who ACTUALLY obeys his father, despite what he has acknowledged with his lips, who has responded to his father’s call. So, it is possible to hold to the doctrine of faith alone with the lips and yet live a life of obedience to God. It is possible to acknowledge the true way of living, and yet never come anywhere near doing it!

What is interesting is how the Ark affects this scenario.

The Ark [SLIDE] represents the Word, because it contains the ten commandments. When the two are set side by side, even when the Word is taken captive by the reasoning of a religion which is merely thought about and reasoned from and not applied to the life, the Word shows clearly that such a life is preposterous. No matter how we read the Word, we cannot fail to notice the Lord’s commands to action. A false prophet is known by his fruit (Matthew 7:15-23); The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46); Fasting acceptable to the Lord (Isaiah 58) – we can fill page after page of such references. “The commandments condemn the worship of learning without living. To know the way and not walk therein results in the defilement of character and our environment.” (Hoeck, The Tree of Life, vol 2, p. 47)

So, we can prop up our intellectual doctrine all we like, but ultimately it will be destroyed. And that destruction is brought about when the intellect is separated from the knowledges it once rested on. What remains, if anything at all, is reasoning which has no connection with reality whatsoever. It is, in fact, madness!

I feel that this story has particular relevance for the New Church, which claims a special knowledge of the Scriptures, through correspondences. That knowledge alone will not save any one of us. Indeed, it is possible to devise the most spectacularly erroneous beliefs from that knowledge, and from misplaced reasoning. This is why Swedenborg writes that this knowledge should always be checked against doctrine derived from the literal sense of the Word (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, paragraphs 50-61). Genuine truth is available to all through reading the literal sense of the Word. It does not need to be constructed via some hidden and mysterious code requiring a minimum degree of human intellectual prowess. This is the presence of the Ark.

So, what is the solution? Chapter 6 details a rather bizarre ritual, devised by the Philistine Holy men. They arrange for a new cart to be tethered to two cows whose calves have been taken away. On this cart they place the Ark of the Covenant, accompanied by golden images of the diseases which afflicted the people – five golden tumours and five golden rats. Then they watch and see where the cart goes – will it wander aimlessly or will the cows take it home?

How do you understand this strange scene? It is repentance from the heart, a simple acknowledgement of the reality of our lives, and the disease we find present there. It is not that the Word CAUSED this disease, rather it showed them the reality of their disease. The golden images represent this heartfelt repentance.

Although I don’t want to explore the full implications of this chapter (which I haven’t really done for the preceding two chapters either, by the way), I will make one final observation. The Philistines set up this strange ritual based upon the sneaking suspicion that there was a connection between the Ark and their disease, even though they were quite uncertain that this was the case. Their reasoning probably dismissed the link – putting it all down to coincidence. But at some point, it has become too obvious to ignore any longer. This is what repentance is like for us too. We can fail to see the connection between our suffering and our life practices. The wonderful thing is we don’t need to see it – we only need to act upon it. We can test it out – try the path of repentance, and see if it makes a difference.

But beware! Just thinking about repentance won’t work. It requires a life change, and some real effort.

Amen.

The Golden Calf

By Rev David Moffat

Recent weeks have shown me, quite graphically, how adept humanity is at creating pathology out of any good thing. What exactly do I mean by that? Turning what is good and positive into something harmful. For example, there is a Japanese form of psychotherapy called Naikan, involving the rendering of useful service as a means to overcome mental disorder (Stephen & Robin Larsen, The Fashioning of Angels, p. 162); yet we can be absorbed in doing good for others as a means of avoiding our own inner work. Pam and I watched the film Spanglish a few days ago. One of the central characters proved herself quite efficient at doing just that, performing what she considered to be kind actions for people, without thought of consequences or the feelings of those involved. As a result, she caused pandemonium, and was left wondering why they didn’t feel some form of gratitude towards her. This chapter, Exodus 32, provides us with a pathology of religion.

In order to understand the basic problem here, we need to recognise the special relationship between the three central characters in the Exodus story: Jehovah, Moses and Aaron. One of the preliminary stories to the children of Israel’s flight from Egypt is found in Exodus chapters 3 and 4: Moses discovers the burning bush which is not consumed by the fire. Here Moses meets God, Jehovah, who gives him the commission to bring the people out of Egypt. Moses is understandably terrified and tries every trick in the book to wriggle out of doing the job. It culminates with Moses’ claim, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (Exodus 4:10) The drama continues:

So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. … Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.” (Exodus 4:14-16, emphasis mine)

So, we see that messages and commands were passed from Jehovah, their source, through Moses and on to Aaron who would relay them to the people. We should note that throughout the Exodus story (and here I would include the books Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), this chain would have operated. Very many times in the text it says, “Jehovah said” or “Moses said”, but for a message to reach the people it would have to pass along the line, at least at first. Another confirmation of this is found in Exodus chapter 34, where it is said that Moses had to wear a veil after speaking with the Lord, because the people were afraid of the glow of his face. In short, Moses was an important intermediary between themselves and the Lord, yet the children of Israel could not understand him and they needed another intermediary, Aaron.

The spiritual meaning of these three is simple. The Lord in His unknowable Divine Goodness gives us his messages through Divine Truth (represented by Moses), which is the form of that Goodness. But we have a hard time understanding Divine Truth too, in its spiritual form. It must descend to a natural level (Aaron). This is a picture of the Word and also the way the Lord flows into our lives with His guidance: from the Divine through the Spiritual world and on to the Natural (in the case of the Word, in the literal sense).

Now, in our story, Moses is on Mount Sinai, receiving the ten commandments. But the people are only aware of his absence from the camp: “as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Exodus 32:1) So, when they approach Aaron with this awareness, he has lost his connection with the Divine through the Spiritual. So, where does he derive his sense of direction, of right and wrong? From the people. He simply follows along, doing what he has been asked to do: to make gods. This is what happens to us in worship and in life. Whenever we loose the spiritual connection with God, we loose any direction other than that provided by our own desires.

Reading the Word provides us the most relevant example in religious terms. When we read the Bible without the guidance of true doctrine, without a true understanding of the nature of God, then we are led astray by our own ego. Why are there so many churches in the world? Because there are so many interpretations of what the Bible says. And what is amazing, is that vew few of those churches will admit to interpreting the Bible, believing that they possess God’s Truth Itself. But they are misguided, and we can be too, especially when we attempt to force our own understanding upon the Word instead of letting it speak to us. We see this illustrated in Aaron’s actions, constructing a golden calf to satisfy the will of the people.

Now, it is interesting to see that this is an attempt at true religion, just with the heart removed! “Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings” (Exodus 32:6). On a natural level, they actually performed their worship “by the book” as it were. The only problem was the presence of the idol. The people focussed on the wrong thing! What follows in the remainder of verse 6 is interesting, “and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” It shows us what happens when the heart leaves our worship. It is driven by our own desires, and exists to please us. We do not necessarily deny God, but we worship the wrong thing. It might be our own doctrines, or it might be the means by which God works in the world. So it is with natural, external religion without the guidance of the internal. This is what the “golden calf” represents.

What is natural must always point to the Lord. Worshipped for its own sake, the natural is worthless. This is Karl Marx’s “Opiate of the masses.” It is easy to see how the Israelites could fall so easily into idolatry. Their religion had little external difference with the idolatrous practices of their neighbours. Their rules and regulations, their strict adherence to the law ensured that they could represent the connection to the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, but it took only a miniscule turn away from that adherence for them to fall away. Thus the penalties for error were so severe.

The story of the golden calf shows us perhaps the first Biblical example of religious extremism, even terrorism (the Levites indiscriminately killing over 3000 people: Exodus 32:25-29). It is easy for us to think that God commands such violence, but this is not so. It was allowed because a people were unable to conceive of God as anything other than angry and vengeful. This was a time when religious extremism was the only way to preserve the tenuous link with the spiritual. We no longer need this extremism, thanks to the Lord’s work in the world. But we still see it, in religiously motivated terrorism, in legalistic religions, including the fundamentalists, who maintain a strict legal code of ethics, despite their avowed doctrine of salvation by faith alone. And many Christian still live by the belief that there are those who are in, and those who are out. Such beliefs belie their inherent naturalism.

To underline this difference even more clearly, we see the two distinct reactions of God. The first, is God’s heart of the salvation of every person. “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'” (Exodus 32:7,8) He sends Moses back into the camp to set things right. And indeed everything that happens from that point onwards (even the nastier stuff) is to the end that the people as a whole might be saved. It is actually incarnational, reflecting the Lord’s purpose and ministry on earth. The Lord provides that merely external worship can be of service to lead to heaven and eternal happiness.

The second reaction is quite different: “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9,10) We must admit that this second statement represents an appearance, which we derive from the letter of the Word when we are separated from a true understanding of the Lord. If this is the only way we can relate to the Divine, He provides it for us.

Now it might seem that I have been talking about religion to this point. Well, in one sense I have, but not exclusively. This story has relevance to our daily “secular” life too, although I have to say we need to see that “all religion has relation to life” and the two cannot truly be separated as the world “secular” is sometimes used to suggest. These passages from the teachings of the New Church are highly instructive:

Nothing natural exists which does not have its cause [in the spiritual]. Natural forms are effects and cannot appears as causes, let alone causes of causes or first origins. Instead they take the form they do from the use they perform in the place where they belong. (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 2991)

A life of Christian goodness is what composes heaven, not a life of natural goodness. (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 7197)

Worship of the golden calf represents the misplaced belief that causes are to be found in the natural world. Difficult as it is for us to see (we have trouble relating to the spiritual, just as the children of Israel found Moses threatening), nothing in the natural world can be attributed with causing anything. Take, for example, the politics of the playground. Little Johnny hits Sam. Sam hits him back, and when the teacher asks, “Why did you hit Johnny?”, he responds, “Because he hit me.” That is not strictly true: actually he wanted to hit Johnny. Every situation offers us a choice, but its easier to blame our circumstances than it is to face the reality of our own intentions. Of course, it is difficult for children to learn this lesson. Indeed, many adults still live their lives as though this circumstance or that action demands or even compels such and such a response. But when we blame our actions on what he/she does to me, my illness or my circumstances, we fall for the same trap as the Israelites and worship the golden calf of a natural life disconnected from the spiritual. Intriguingly, we see Aaron do just this, his explanation of his actions (“And I said to them, `Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.” [Exodus 32:24]) is quite different from the description of the actual events (Exodus 32:4).

There’s another way we do this too. We imagine that doing certain things will make up for our own deeper insecurities. I return to the woman in Spanglish who insists on doing what she calls good things for everyone, to quieten her abysmal self esteem. She imagines that if she acts in this way, she will feel better about herself, it will somehow solve her problem. But it never works. Even if she does something which is appreciated by others, the “fix” lasts only so long, and she is bound to repeat the pattern of behaviour. The same can be said of any action which we imagine will solve our spiritual problems: overwork, overspending, acting the martyr, drugs or alcohol. This is the beginning of an addiction: using natural things to “cure” (or “medicate” to use Terrance Real’s term – see I don’t want to talk about it) deeper problems.

What, then, is the solution? What will lead us to happiness? Our Moses must reconnect with the camp. Any real change can only come about by addressing causes – which exist in the spiritual. I have to face the monster of my own intentions and desires. I have to do the inner work of spiritual growth, whatever that entails. It might be simple reflection for some, what Swedenborg calls “repentance” or it may involve some form of counselling. What matters is that we address the causes (which exist in the spiritual realm of our lives) and in that way we will find some peace in the natural world of effects despite our circumstances.

Returning to the playground, we can see that if it were not for the intervention of the teacher, Johnny and Sam would continue to hit each other. The only difference which is likely to occur in this scenario is one of escalation. It is unfortunate that our world’s political leaders seem to behave in just this manner. This is no path to peace or happiness. The only solution is for one or both parties to make the commitment to peace, to examine their own intentions and make positive changes there. Once the change occurs in spirit it flows down into nature, not before.

[Following the address, we spoke again about Naikan, referred to in the introduction. If useful actions for others cannot change us, why does Naikan work? This is because it can divert the attention away from our own problems and disorders, which can tend to overwhelm anyone. It focusses upon a good outside of oneself. It provides us with a new perspective and offers the possibility of change. But it is not an answer in itself, and it should never be used to mask the problem or avoid the work. The same is true of depression medication. Just because it makes us feel better (TEMPORARILY!), doesn’t mean we don’t have to do the work. There are many other things which do just the same: playing pleasant music, using incense and other aromas or introducing light into our environment, are just a few examples. They will help us feel better, but they can never substitute for performing the spiritual work.]

Amen.

The Murder of Abel

By Rev. Patrick A. Rose

“Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.'” (Gen. 4:9-10)

There are some people who go out of their way to avoid organized religion. Their feeling is that the history of organized religion has been dominated by hypocrisy — dominated by people who profess to act in the name of the Lord, and in the name of love, but in reality are mean, spiteful, hateful and cruel. It may be that those who reject organized religion are being overly sensitive, and completely unrealistic. People are people, after all, and one cannot expect people, even people in the church, to be perfect. All too often, though, the history of religion is a sad and sordid story, filled with examples of people who went out of their way to be spiteful, hateful, cruel, and even sadistic. Atrocious wars, the torture of heretics, and even genocide: the sorry history of organized religion cannot be explained away simply in terms of human imperfection.

Now this does not mean that there have not also been, throughout the centuries, countless examples of good, kind and caring people. Religion at times indeed brings out the best in people. This, after all, is its purpose. Sometimes, though, it seems to fail in this purpose. Sometimes it can seem as if religion brings out, not the best, but the worst in people. This is nothing new. It has been this way for a very long time. Right near the beginning of the Old Testament, in the fourth chapter of Genesis, there is a story of how the sphere of worship, the sphere of thanksgiving, is shattered by cruelty, by hatred, and by murder. Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord. Abel’s offering is accepted by the Lord. Cain, though, had not done well, and his offering is not acceptable to the Lord.

In response, Cain murders his brother Abel. While they are talking in the field, Cain rises up and kills him. Cain pretends not to know what happened to his brother. “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ And he said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen.4:9). But the Lord, of course, knew what had happened. “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10). It is a horrifying story — of a man who not only murders his brother, but does so because the Lord accepts his brother’s offering and not his own. In essence it is a story about the Lord’s church, and about what can go so tragically wrong amongst people who have gathered to worship the Lord. The story of Cain and Abel can be explained on a number of different levels. In general, though, it is a story about the relationship between faith and charity in the Lord’s church. Abel, we are told, stands for charity (AC 366) or heavenly love (AE 317:3). More specifically, he stands for good conjoined with truth (ibid.). When people are in good conjoined with truth, when they live a life of good according to the truth, then all is well in the church. Abel’s offering is pleasing to the Lord (Gen. 4:4). Cain, on the other hand, stands for the things of faith separated from charity and love (AC 366). Truth is meant to be the “keeper” of charity (AC 372). It is meant to serve by leading a man into charity. When, though, a person believes that he doesn’t need to live his religion, when he separates the truth he believes from the way he actually lives, there is then something tragically wrong. He does not allow the truth to lead him towards love and charity. And, without these, without love and charity, there is nothing to stop the hells from dominating a person’s mind. As the Lord told Cain in refusing his offering, “If you do not do well, sin lies at the door” (Gen. 4:7). Or, as we read in the Arcana, “when there is no charity there are unmercifulness and hatred, consequently all evil. Sin in general is called the ‘devil,’ who, that is, his crew of infernals, is ever at hand when man is destitute of charity” (AC 364). This is why religion so often seems to fail.

This is why the history of organized religion is filled with so many examples of mankind at its very worst. When people do not live their religion, when they think the truth, but do not obey it, then there is nothing to keep them from evil. There is nothing to keep the hells from entering. When people do not live their religion, they in effect open the doors for the hells. And then good, and good affections, are destroyed or murdered within the church (AE 817:3). Cain rises up and murders his brother Abel. It is not that religion itself has failed. It is people who have failed. They have failed to live what they know, and so have opened themselves up to the terribly destructive power of the hells. And the hells are indeed destructive, destructive beyond belief, for they are filled with hatred, hatred which breathes destruction towards all that is good and true. Now none of us likes to think about hell. We don’t like to think about evil spirits, and the misery they can bring. Part of us would like to pretend that hell simply didn’t exist. Hell, though is real. One of the reasons that Swedenborg was allowed to look into the hells, and to describe what he saw, was so that we might know that the hells are indeed very real, and very destructive (TCR 312e). We are told that “all who are in hell are in hatred against the Lord, and thus in hatred against heaven.” (AE 1013:2). When those in hell merely hear the Lord mentioned, they are inflamed with anger, both against the Lord, and against all who love Him.

They hate the Lord, and they hate those who love the Lord, and they are perpetually trying to destroy all who are in heaven (AE 693:4). Those in hell are, in essence, murderers. Hell is said to be the source of murder itself (AE 1013:2). Because hell is, in essence, hatred against the Lord, it seeks the destruction of all that is truly human, all that comes forth from the Lord. Hell seeks the destruction of human life, and it burns with the lust of destroying human souls. And the reason that the devils of hell seek to murder and destroy human life is not primarily because they hate their victims, but because they hate the Lord (AE 1013:4). This is why Cain murdered his brother Abel. It was because Cain was angry with the Lord for not accepting his offering. And so Cain attacked his brother Abel, simply because the Lord had accepted Abel’s offering. It was spiteful; it was completely callous and vicious. It was hateful. And it portrays perfectly the way in which the hells, out of a hatred for the Lord, seek to murder and destroy all that is good and true. This is what was involved in Cain shedding the blood of Abel. The blood of a person stands for his life, life that is not his but is of the Lord with him. And it stands for charity, because charity does not originate in person, but is in him from the Lord (AC 1010:1). The hells seek to destroy charity. They seek to destroy love. From hatred they seek in myriads of ways to destroy all that comes from the Lord. And the many ways in which the hells seek to do this is represented in the blood of Abel. In the Hebrew the word for blood is plural: “What have you done?” the Lord said. “The voice of your brother’s bloods cries out [or shrieks out] to Me from the ground. “Bloods” stand for the many terrible things which flow forth from hatred (AC 374:3). Indeed hatred is, we are told, “the fountain of all iniquities.” (AC 374:2). Now once we realize that the hells are in hatred against all those things which come from the Lord, it becomes obvious why the hells are always trying to infest the Lord’s church. They hate the church. They would like to destroy or murder the life of the church, because the church is from the Lord. And this is why, as a protection against the hells, the Lord has commanded those in His church that they shall not kill.”Thou shalt not kill.” It is a commandment which we might assume is addressed primarily to those outside of the church, perhaps as a law for the civil state. After all, it is almost unimaginable that somebody in the church would commit murder. And yet the Ten Commandments have been given by the Lord specifically for His church. They have been given specifically for those who seek to follow the Lord. And so it is that those in the church are commanded by the Lord not to kill. When the Lord was in the world, He explained clearly what He meant by this commandment: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder,’ and whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ Shall be in danger of the hell of fire” (Matt. 5:21-22). The Lord was teaching that unjustified anger, hatred and revenge were also forms of murder. He was teaching that there are far more ways of feeling hate, and there are far more ways of expressing hate, than by actually taking the physical life of another human being. Probably one of the most common ways of killing others is by slandering and defaming them. If we hate or despise someone, and so try to destroy his reputation, try to destroy his image in the eyes of others, then this is a form of murder (AE 1012:3). And if we do this, if we allow ourselves to act from spite, from hatred, then we are opening the door to the hells.

“Hatred,” we are told, “constitutes hell with man” (AE 1015:3). It need not be this way. Certainly it need not be this way within the church. We do not need to allow ourselves to act hatefully and vengefully. We do not need to talk spitefully and contemptuously about others behind their backs. If we do, then in a sense we shed blood, for we are acting destructively towards charity — charity which is, in many ways, the very lifeblood of the church. We do not need to spill blood and so open this doorway to hell. And it is most certainly a doorway to hell. Each of us, at some point in our lives, has experienced hatred — the desire to really hurt some other human being. It is a dangerous desire, for it burns within the heart. It has a tendency to burn with a consuming fire — eating away inside us — destroying all happiness and peace. This is hell. It is hell-fire itself. And to the degree to which we allow ourselves to be consumed by anger, or hatred, or revenge, to that degree we bring misery upon ourselves and upon those we associate with. It is a way in which the misery of hell enters the church of the Lord on earth. The Lord’s church on earth has been provided so that we might be led to heaven. The truths of His church have been given so that we might live them, and so come into the life of charity and love. The church is to be the gateway to the spiritual love of heaven itself. And this is something wonderful, something precious, something holy. It is something to protect, something to cherish. And this is why it is so very important that we remember the commandment of the Lord not to kill, not to hate, not to be hurtful. It is important, not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of the Lord’s church itself. When the people of the church do not live their religion, then, in the words of the Lord to Cain, “sin lies at the door” (Gen. 4:7), and the hells can be very close indeed. But the opposite is also true. When the people of the church do live their religion, then the gates of hell cannot prevail (Matt. 16:18). When people live their religion, then heaven itself draws close to the church, and the Lord can bless His church with love. How can the people of the Lord’s church come into heavenly love? They come into it by receiving it from the Lord. Spiritual love is not something we produce within ourselves. It is not something we attain simply by willing it to be so. Love, and charity, come from the Lord. Charity is likened to the life-blood of the body (AC 1010:1). And the Lord will give us this life of charity provided only that we obey His commandments, and do not allow hatred to destroy this life. If we shun what is hateful, then the Lord will bless us with love. As we read in Apocalypse Explained: “So far as one shuns murders, and thus shuns deadly hatreds and revenges that breath slaughter, so far the Lord enters with mercy and love” (AE 949:3). Or, as it is said in Doctrine of Life, “In proportion as any one shuns murders of every kind as sins, in the same proportion he has love towards the neighbor” (Life 67). And so it is that we need to shun murder as a sin. Murder includes all forms of enmity, hatred and revenge. And these must be recognized and shunned as sins — as evils against the Lord Himself. When we act with enmity, when we act from hatred, we might imagine that we are acting only against our fellow human beings. It involves more than this, though. To act in this way is not only an evil against other people. It is also an evil against the Lord. That is what a sin is. Sin is an evil directed against the Lord. And to act hatefully, to act from revenge, is to attack the very love and charity that come from the Lord Himself. This is why we must shun what is hateful and hurtful. We must live our religion. We must act charitably in all our dealings with one another. Only if we take care to act fairly and justly towards one another can the Lord dwell amongst us. Only then can His church truly be with us. Only then can He bless us, and bless His church, with mercy, with kindness and with love.

Amen.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

By Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, cam where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him.., and took care of him.” (Luke 10:34-35)

One of the basic facts of human existence is that we all experience changes of mood. We all know that we feel better about life sometimes than other times. We go through states of sadness and joy, depression and vibrancy, confusion, grumpiness, exuberance. There are times when we thoroughly enjoy the task at hand, and other times when we’d much rather be doing something else. Sometimes we are industrious–on a mission to get things done. Other times we plod around from one thing to another with little energy. At one point in the day we may feel like being around other people and being social, but a little later on we’re much happier to be by ourselves, reading a book or taking a walk.

Mood swings, or changes of state are a reality for us. And the Lord says that’s normal. One reason we experience these changes is so that we may not experience sameness of life, and hence have the joy of life sapped from us (see Heaven and Hell 158). But through it all the Lord has another goal. He defines changes of state as something affectional-having to do with our feelings (Arcana Caelestia 4850). And as we may already know, the Lord leads us by means of our affections (see Arcana Caelestia 4364:2). He uses our moods, together with the opportunities they present us, to lead us towards heaven. All these states are “being directed by [Him] forever towards ends which the Lord alone foresees..; they are bent by Him as far as possible towards what is good” (Arcana Caelestia 2796).

An important fact arise out of this situation. These moods of ours often take place with other people around. If we are feeling argumentative, we will often argue with someone. If we feel affectionate, there’s a high likelihood that we will display that affection. If we feel judgmental, often someone is feeling judged. If we are in a supportive mood, someone is being comforted.

The net result is that we have an effect on those around us. Our moods, and the choices that we make because of them, make a difference in the lives of others. The Lord is working behind-the-scenes in many ways to inspire that effect to be positive.

This brings us to the parable of the Good Samaritan. It addresses this very fact-that we have an effect on others, and that the Lord wants that effect to be positive. More than likely you’ve heard this story before. It is one of the most familiar in the Word, containing a straightforward message about charity. In it the bad are really bad, and the good are really good. The Lord shows a stark contrast between the priest and Levite, and the Samaritan. The Samaritan had been a neighbor to him who fell among thieves.

Now we could talk about a lot of things by means of this parable, because the Lord has packed a lot of truth into it. For instance, we could talk about the church and how it can abandon people when it loses its focus, as demonstrated by the priest and the Levite. We could talk about how the Lord came to set up a new church with anyone who would hear His message of charity. Another subject which arises out of this parable is prejudice and its ramifications. We could spend lots of time on the basic principle of respect for all people, of whatever nationality or personality. And we could focus on how to help people when they are in desperate need, retracing the individual steps the Samaritan took in his care of this man.

But what we will focus on this morning is the merciful attitude displayed by the Samaritan, and the opposite one displayed by the others in this parable. This Samaritan is a role-model because of his perspective on the needs of another human being. Listen to these words again from the gospel of Luke:

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him.., and took care of him.” (Luke 10:34-35)

Heaven and Hell.

The lawyer to whom the Lord spoke had asked Him the question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). The answer that the Lord gave by means of this parable was, “Take care of those around you. Live a life of charity, and you will inherit eternal life.”

The question remains: How do we work with the Lord to make sure our effect on other people is positive? What specific direction does He give us, aside from telling us that we are supposed to be charitable?

The first place we look for answers is to the spiritual world, which includes heaven and hell. Heaven and hell are the places where our “eternal life” is played out-eternal life in heaven for those who show genuine compassion for their neighbors, and eternal life in hell for those who don’t. Another reason for turning out attention to the spiritual world is because of the stark contrast we see there. As in this parable, the good are really good, and the bad are really bad. In the spiritual world there is not the same ambiguity that we sometimes feel in this world. There is a separation of good people from evil people, whereas here we all live together, and its sometimes hard to tell the difference. In heaven all are good Samaritans, and in hell, all are self-serving people like the thieves, the priest and the Levite.

The Concept of Sharing. There is a teaching about the spiritual world which applies directly to the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It is the concept of “sharing.” We read about this from the work, Heaven and Hell:

In the heavens there is a sharing of all with each and of each with all. Such sharing goes forth from the two loves of heaven, which are…love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor. To share their delights is the very nature of these loves. (Heaven and Hell 399)

Another teaching expands this by saying, “Heavenly love is such that it wishes what is its own to be another’s” (Heaven and Hell 268).

Think of the joy which comes from sharing life together as husband and wife. Think about the amount of give and take that comes with any lasting friendship. In any relationship there is a sharing of time. During that time we are committed to thinking about the needs of someone else, to hearing their ideas, to being in their company. We teach children to share their toys instead of hoarding them-something which doesn’t come easily to most. From these earliest states, we are teaching them not to be selfish-to think about someone else besides themselves. This is what people in heaven do all the time.

The Lord used the Samaritan in His parable as a person who expressed this desire. He gave of his time to meet the needs of a traveler left half dead. If we look at the details, we see he went way above the call of duty. Not only did he bandage this man’s wounds, but he anointed them with oil and wine-costly substances. He took time to find an inn and cared for him there. When he had to leave, he paid the innkeeper to care for him, and promised to return-apparently to make sure that everything turned out alright.

This is a perfect example of the way things work in heaven. People there thrive on doing more for others than is expected. They see a need, and they devote their energy to fill it. Angels, or the people who live in heaven, love to serve-to give of their talents and energy so that others will benefit.

Of course the Lord’s parable shows the opposite as well. It demonstrates the hellish attitude of selfishness. Here we most commonly think of the callousness of the priest and the Levite. But they were not the most devious people of the parable. The thieves were. The Lord teaches us: “[Those in] the love of self take away from others and rob others of all delight, and directs it to [themselves]” (Heaven and Hell 399). Instead of sharing, it is taking. Instead of heaven, it becomes hell. This teaching goes on to describe the urge to destroy others-to use everything of theirs to satisfy self. Isn’t that what these thieves had done? A man was on his way to Jericho. Thieves lay in wait. They stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, leaving him half dead, without so much as a thought about his suffering. Those in hell, with their small hearts, delight in destroying each other. They pretend to be friends, but their whole energy is devoted to using their so called friends for personal gain. Truly hell is not a very pleasant place to live.

“Go and do likewise.”

Again, the lawyer asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The Lord answered in effect, “Love your neighbor as Samaritan did. Share your talents and energy with others. Rid yourself of feelings of superiority and contempt. If you do, you will live to eternity in heaven with other people like the good Samaritan. If you don’t, a world of enmity, cunning, deceit, and back stabbing awaits in hell.”

But of course our preparation for that life takes place in this world. And things aren’t so clear here. It may be easy to rationally understand what we’re supposed to do, but often it’s hard to know exactly how to do it. We can’t be sure of other people’s intentions. We go through states where we know we’re not acting on the best of intentions, but feel justified in doing it anyway. Treating others the way they treat us is a common urge, but it doesn’t always lead to charitable actions. It’s a challenging thing the Lord asks of us. He knows we won’t be perfect; we won’t be thoughtful and kind all the time. But He wants us to try.

That is why the Lord pleads with the lawyer at the end of His parable by saying, “Go and do likewise.” It doesn’t sound like pleading, but I believe it is filled with the Lord’s intense desire for our benefit.

Part of what the Lord wants us to see is an image of His love for us. The Samaritan’s compassion is an image of the Lord’s compassion. He wants us to be aware of His intense desire for our happiness. He is mercy itself, and every ounce of His divine energy is devoted to sharing what is His with us-to blessing us with happiness, to taking away our pain and suffering. He wants to do everything within His power to bring meaning and peace to our lives. (see Divine Love and Wisdom 230; cf. n. 47; True Christian Religion 43).

But the way He does that is primarily through people. He needs us to be charitable-to feel compassion for other human beings and act on that compassion. The image of the Lord as a Parent will illustrate this point. Picture a child falling off his bike and scraping his knee and chin. Say his mother watched this accident. She may feel tremendous love for her son, and a great deal of sadness at his pain. But it doesn’t do her child any good for her to stand there feeling sad. Her love is expressed by picking him up, comforting him, and bandaging his wounds. This is love expressed in a useful action.

Such is the Lord’s love-it needs to be expressed. But the way the Lord expresses His love is through people. He too loves that little boy who fell off his bike. He expresses this love by inspiring the mother to care for her child. Of course the Lord is present with each one of us directly, but His main way of serving us is through other people. As a teaching in the book Married Love explains: “The Lord loves all people, and so wills good to all.. [He] performs good or useful services indirectly through angels, and in the world through people” (n. 7:3).

So behind this parable of the Good Samaritan is the Lord’s yearning that we will help Him to bless other people. We can be sure that He is doing many, many things without our help, but an integral part of His plan is for us to recognize our responsibility to serve.

Seeing this fact of the Lord’s system of care, puts several things into perspective. He has given us the ability to serve others, and when we do, we are serving Him as well. The Lord has given us power. He had given us abilities which make us human-abilities to feel like we’re acting on our own initiative, that we are the makers of our own destiny. This means that we have the ability to be charitable to others, or cruel-whichever we choose. We have the ability to make a difference in the lives of other people. Sometimes that effect is small; other times it is significant. The Lord reminds us of this reality, and asks us to reflect on it-to see the ways these truths work in so many situations.

We know, for example, that an employee who feels respected will tend to do a better job than one who is constantly put down. So many studies on efficiency and management techniques boil down to this simple fact: treat people well, with a charitable attitude, and they’ll tend to work to their potential.

In our contact with children, there are plenty of opportunities to guard our temper, and recognize that harsh words leave an impression on little minds. The Lord asks us to recognize children as potential angels, to respect their feelings, and to help them begin their journey towards heaven.

The Lord gives us dozens of opportunities every day to have a positive effect on other people. But of course we have just as many chances to favor ourselves instead. Again, that is why the Lord pleads with us at the end of the parable: “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).

Let another place in the Word serve as a summary of the message of the Lord’s parable. The seventh commandment is “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). It coincides with the thieves in this parable. It may seem like a minor link, but the internal message is identical. The message of the seventh commandment is: “Do not take away.” Those in hell with their selfish hearts do just that: they rob others of all delight and direct it to themselves (Heaven and Hell 399). This is what the Lord commands against. Don’t take away from others their feelings of security, self-esteem, confidence.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan the Lord explains the same truth in positive terms. The attitude displayed by the Samaritan is a heavenly attitude. The Lord teaches us to share our abilities and our time, so that others may benefit. That’s the way people act in heaven-the place where the Lord is leading us. He knows we go through many different moods or states in any given day. He asks that we recognize the effect we can have on those around us. And by means of our affections, He is quietly leading us to comfort, to support, to respect, and to show mercy to those around us.

Amen.

The Possessed Man of the Gadarenes

By Rev. David A Moffat

Today we are considering the story of the man possessed by the legion of demons. But before we do, it will be instructive to examine the significance of the land on the east side of the sea of Galilee, where this man lived. To do so, we must go back into Old Testament history, to Numbers chapter 32.

In that chapter, the people of the tribes of Gad and Reuben approached Moses with a request to settle the land east of the Jordan river instead of crossing over with the other tribes into the Holy Land. Now Moses remembered an earlier event when the children of Israel were not prepared to cross into the promised land, almost forty years earlier, and he panicked. At that time, he had sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan. Those spies returned to the Israelites’ camp with news of a fertile land which was easily capable of supporting the people, but most of the spies also reported fearsome stories about the inhabitants of the land, and they were able to put the people off the idea of entering the land the Lord had promised them. As a result, the people had been compelled to wander in the desert for almost four decades more. Now, Moses finds himself in a similar situation: poised ready to enter the promised land, and the people don’t want to go! No wonder he’s nervous!

Nevertheless, a compromise is reached: those settling on the eastern side will establish cities and strongholds for the women and children and farms for their cattle, and send their warriors over the Jordan to accompany and aid the rest of the nation. What is really fascinating is the involvement of the half tribe of Manasseh. They had no part in the original negotiation, yet they are granted land on both the eastern and western side of the Jordan. There is no good reason why this would be done in the literal story. This points us to a spiritual interpretation – as does Moses’ nervousness about not entering the promised land.

The whole saga of the children of Israel leaving Egypt for the promised land represents our spiritual journey, from bondage in selfish principles to a life of true spiritual freedom in cooperation with the Lord, who is the source of all life. To leave bondage but not enter into that full, spiritual life, is in fact the affirmation of the things which bind us, and so it was imperative that the children of Israel not only leave Egypt but actually take possession of the land of Canaan, which represents spiritual life. That Gad and Reuben remained on the East side of the Jordan reflects the reality that we have a natural life too, and that the spiritual life does not demand that we give up natural life, but live it in accordance with what is spiritual. This is where Manasseh comes in. In being given land on both sides of the Jordan, it represents the common ground between what is spiritual and what is natural: Swedenborg describes Manasseh as representing, “good in the natural man from a spiritual origin … it is good that constitutes the church, and this good flows in immediately out of the spiritual man into the natural, and without this influx the church is not with man” (Apocalypse Explained paragraph 440, section 7). “Manasseh” is the quality which makes our external observance of religion real.

Now, let’s fast forward to Jesus’ time. The picture is very different now. The nation of Israel is a shadow of its former self. It is greatly diminished, even on the Western side of the Jordan, but it has lost all control over the territory east of Galillee and Jordan. The eastern shore has become gentile. It is now a region known as Decapolis, a Greek word meaning “ten cities”. This is reflected in our story by the presence of a large number of swine, or pigs. Jews regard pigs as unclean animals and will not eat them, so they have no reason to farm them, as was clearly happening on the eastern side of the sea of Galillee when Jesus arrived there. This is descriptive of a religion that has lost touch with natural life. It no longer enters into the everyday lives of those who are in touch with it. It has lost its relevance: it has become “pie in the sky”, and any external observance is empty and meaningless. The reason for this lies in the fact that it is ruled by an external power itself. Rome’s rule over Palestine represents the rule of worldly concerns in place of the Lord, but that’s another story.

Now, let’s turn to the possessed man. We find his condition described in verses 3-5 of Mark chapter 5: “his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.”

There are three aspects to this man. Firstly, he “dwelt among the tombs.” In his day it was not unusual for the poor and dispossessed to do this. If you recall images of Christ’s tomb, you will see how this might be possible. Tombs were commonly natural or manmade caves, which would be large enough to provide sleeping quarters for the living as well as space to lay the dead. Anyone who needed accommodation could break into such caves and find shelter. This actually provides us with a remarkable allegory for natural life. On a number of occasions I have referred to the work of Gurdjiev and Ouspensky, and it is relevant again here, where they speak of natural life as being a state of sleep. The spiritual life is a state of true wakefulness, as it is a state of true life, but as we live on this earth, we often find ourselves among people who exist in a kind of zombie-like state, while awake they are asleep to the deeper realities of life, and while alive they are spiritually dead. So, this man typifies the natural life – living among the dead – in an extreme form.

The second part of his condition underlines this: he could not be bound. What do his chains represent? They are indicative of the external bonds of decency, self control, and lawful behaviour. The fact that they are external is emphasised by his “shackles”. The word is actually “fetters”, in other words, they are bound to the feet, which represent the natural life. But this man breaks these. His behaviour is driven by unbridled selfishness and worldliness. In truth, he is no different from the “respectable city dwellers” except insofar as his natural desires have broken the bonds of natural decency. Any why should it not? It has not real reason to remain bound. It recognises no rule of law above whatever serves its own ends. With no higher power and no recognition of spiritual goodness, whenever it is unleashed it becomes wild. Swedenborg tells us that this is what happens in the spiritual world to people who have lived wholly selfish, natural lives. Once the external bonds of respectability and natural expectations are removed, the inner selfishness breaks out and takes control of the life of the individual. Again let me reiterate, that this man is no different internally from the people in the cities who have rejected him and driven him out into the countryside. They may well see themselves as good people, religious people, but at heart there lies a passion which focusses exclusively upon self and worldly possessions, and given the chance, would do anything to achieve their ends. We live in a world where we are confronted almost daily with shocking images of every kind. We declare ourselves outraged at such behaviour – but given free reign, what am I capable of? What would I do if no one were watching or if I thought I could get away with it? If we are unwilling to face such questions, we may be internally possessed by the same unclean spirits as this man.

The third aspect of his condition reflects the result of this man’s life. Mountains and tombs speak to me of the highs and lows of life – a common experience for all of us, whether we live a spiritual life or not. For the spiritual person, the highs are brought about by a closeness to the Lord, and a humble acceptance of his care and concern for us. But for the selfish person, the highs derive from our own inflated self importance, the lows by our apparent loss of that importance. Day and night similarly reflects this experience, but in the understanding: it is day when we know what we want to further prop up our selfish desires, and we can see our way to getting it, night, when that understanding eludes us. What marks this person out from the spiritual one is not so much that they have highs and lows, but the result of them – self harm. No matter what the circumstances this man finds himself in, he is continually working against the power of the Lord, and is unwittingly self-destructing. If you spend some time observing people around you, it is all too easy to see. Selfish behaviour is basically self defeating.

So, Jesus enters the scene, and this man’s life is transformed: he is found, “sitting and clothed and in his right mind.” (verse 15) To conclude, I would like to focus on the two different reactions to Jesus’ work in this man’s life: the reaction of the people or the region, and that of the man himself.

The people of the region don’t like it. This seems odd, because Jesus has essentially removed a problem. But it reflects the fact that we tend to compartmentalise our lives – religion is for Sunday mornings, it shouldn’t stray into the rest of the week or interrupt what we want to do. So when it does, we get upset regardless of how positive and useful it may actually be. We may well like the fact that this uncomfortable man, who reminded us of our own shortcomings, has been silenced, but we really don’t want to change. What is more, Jesus complies. He leaves them in freedom. I am reminded about an email I received many months ago now, which asked what was going wrong with our society that teenagers were taking guns into schools, killing their teachers and classmates. It concluded that “we’ve asked God to leave our schools, and being the gentleman that He is, He left.” Too often we’re happy living a mediocre existence, as long as its not actually depraved or deprived. But it takes the recognition of our actual, spiritual depravity to make us change, and the Lord won’t force that upon us, we have to do it for ourselves.

But the demon-possessed man who is now in his right mind (the only one on that side of the Jordan, I would suggest!), wants to go with Jesus. It is utterly amazing to me that Jesus refuses! He leaves the unbelievers alone because they ask him to, yet he will not grant the request of the only man who truly recognises Him. Why? It’s all about balance. Having lived a wholly natural life, the man can now see the value of the spiritual, and wants to live a wholly spiritual life instead. But Jesus will not allow it. We can’t lock ourselves away in ivory towers, however safe, or appealing that may look. We cannot live a spiritual life unless it is grounded in our present, natural reality. The man now has his connection with the spiritual, his relationship with the Lord, his “Manasseh” to sustain him through life, and he must use it by continuing to live to the best of his ability in this world. We all have this experience. – we enjoy a week at church camp, but we must return to live in the real world again, even though we don’t want to. We enjoy the peak experience and we would like to hold onto it, but it slips through our fingers so easily if we try. What is more, there is still work to be done. Our spiritual awakening marks the beginning of a journey to the life of heaven, it does not secure it. There are many areas of our lives which remain unconverted, and it is these imperfections that the man is now sent to address:

“Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marvelled. (Mark 5:19,20)

Amen.

The Prodigal Son

By Rev. Thomas L. Kline

“This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24).

Jesus said that a man had two sons. The younger son went to his father and demanded his inheritance. It says he went to a far-off country, and there he wasted all that he had with riotous living. A famine arose in the land, and the young man had nothing to eat. And so he hired himself out to go into the fields to feed the swine. He was so hungry that he would have eaten the food of the pigs. But suddenly, he came to himself. He said to himself, “I will go to my father and ask him for forgiveness, and I will become as a hired servant to him.” We can picture the young man coming back after a long journey. Will his father forgive him? Will his father be angry with him?

His father is waiting for him! His father sees him at a distance, runs to him, and embraces him. The father has compassion on his son. And at the end of this story, we hear those words of the father to the older brother: “It is right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”

There is something in each of us that is touched by the power of this parable. This is because it is a story of hope. We might have a friend or relative that seems to turn from the Lord. We might have a friend that for a time seems lost, spiritually wounded, a person in a time of spiritual crisis. And the everlasting message of this parable is that there is a way back. The Lord gives us a path to restore our souls no matter how hopeless the situation.

The father figure in this parable is so important. It is a picture of the Lord Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ as our heavenly Father. And what we see is a picture of the Divine love. When the young man returns, we don’t see the father demanding payment or retribution for the son’s sins. We don’t see anything that suggests the traditional dogmas of Divine atonement or punishment for sin. No, those old-fashioned, traditional ideas of God are not based on Scripture. In this parable we see only forgiveness after the long journey of repentance and reformation. The father celebrates his son’s return. The Lord rejoices when we come back to our spiritual home.

There is a message in this parable for a church congregation. The reason why Jesus even told this parable was that the church leaders of that time came to Him complaining that He was spending too much time with sinners. The scribes and Pharisees were murmuring because Jesus was associating with sinners, drunkards, and tax collectors. And the Lord’s answer was simple: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” This is why He had come to bring sinners to repentance, and to restore their lives.

And so we ask the question of ourselves: What is the purpose of our church? What is the purpose of this congregation? Certainly the church is for the worship of the Lord. Certainly it is for the proclaiming of the Lord’s Word. It is for the life of charity and service. But the church also exists for something else.

In the book of Revelation, the New Church is said to be the “healing of the nations.” The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. It is a vision of the church as a hospital, the church as a place for spiritual healing, the church as a place where the sick and wounded come. There is a battle going on in the world today. It is a great battle between heaven and hell. And, as in any battle, there will be casualties: our sons and daughters, our friends and neighbors, our family. And the church is the place for those who are hurting, those who at times have failed, those who are dying spiritually, to come and receive support in the road that leads back to a restoration. It is a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine physician.

But there is a more interior meaning to this story. It is a level of meaning opened by the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. This story of the prodigal son is the personal story of our rebirth and regeneration. It is the story of the Lord’s healing our troubled heart. And in this story, we find, step by step, the journey that we take as the Lord leads us on the path to heaven.

Let’s just look at the steps of regeneration outlined in this story.

Number one is permission, what the Writings of the New Church call the “doctrine of permission.” In this story the father allows his son to leave and go to a distant land. It almost seems that the father willingly gives his son all of his inheritance knowing that this will lead to grief and pain for the son. And how can this be? Why would a loving father do this?

The Writings of the New Church say that this permission to leave is a picture of the magnitude of the Lord’s love and wisdom in our lives. The Lord loves us so much that He will even allow us to turn from Him at times if this is what we truly choose. He will allow us to turn from Him and even experience the consequences, the pain and suffering of that turning away. And this is said to be of His permission, not of His will.

He grieves when we turn and suffer the consequences of evil. The pain of evil is not the Lord’s punishment; no, the Lord weeps for us. And still, in His love He allows this because in His infinite wisdom He foresees that sometimes it is only through the process of the journey that we can finally choose what is good, fight for what is good, and make what is good our own. So number one: the Lord permits us to leave.

And step number two: If we do choose to turn from Him, He is not passive. If we do choose to turn from Him, He protects and guides us every step of the way. He is with us on the perilous journey.

We have a beautiful teaching in the Writings of the New Church that during times of temptation and despair it seems as if the Lord has left us, whereas in fact He is closer than ever. The Lord is closest to us in times of temptation.

In this parable it seems that once the son left home and went to the distant land, his father was out of the picture. It seems that his father just stayed home and worried. It is important to realize that this is written from the viewpoint of the son: When we turn from God it seems as if He is distant from us; that’s how it feels to us.

But from the Lord’s perspective, He never leaves us. If we could re-write this parable from the Lord’s viewpoint, the father would be with that son in that distant land, actively protecting, guiding and leading.

How does the Lord protect us when we are in the distant land? First is the famine. The Lord allows us to hunger in the distant land. He allows us to hunger for righteousness. The Lord will never let us be completely satisfied with evil. No, something inside of us will hunger for a life that is higher. And it is this hunger that finally causes us to turn back to the Lord. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

Another thing He does when we are in the distant land: He withholds us from further evils. In the parable, it says the son was almost to the point where he was about to eat the food of the pigs, but he didn’t eat it. A person who has been in a state of disorder will often say, “Yes, I was in terrible disorder, but somehow there was something preventing me from going all the way down to hell. Something was holding me back.” The Lord’s hand is there protecting us from the hells even when we are in active evil.

A third thing He does when we are in the distant land: The Lord causes us to remember our home; He lets us remember our spiritual home. In the story the son remembered his father’s house. We hear the words, “I will arise and go to my father.” It’s a memory of heaven. The Writings of the New church speak about heavenly memories that stay with us always. Memories of heaven that remain with us sometimes we call these “heavenly remains.” No matter where we are in life, we all have a memory of heaven (sometimes from our earliest childhood) stored up in the interior parts of our minds. And that memory of heaven tempers and bends our life back to our spiritual home, when we are in the height of temptation and despair.

But then we come to the climax of the story, the turning point, and it is the turning point in our lives. The story says that the young man was in the field, far from his home, hungry. The young man, when he was at his lowest moment of despair, came to his senses. One translation says, “He came to himself.” It is the beginning of true repentance. For the first time we find him thinking the words, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”

The young man suddenly sees his life in a new way. It is as if his eyes are opened. It is interesting that the Writings of the New Church use the word “inversion” when they talk about this change. When it seems as if things can’t get any worse, suddenly we come to this turning point; we come to this moment of change, and our lives are totally inverted. Everything is changed from top to bottom. The love of self that used to be at the top is now at the bottom, and in its place is a love of the Lord and the neighbor. We hear the words, “I will go and serve my father; I will hire myself to him; I will be as servant to him,” and we begin to lay down our lives. Jesus said, “He that shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

And we find that there is a road back home. That’s the young man journeying back home, retracing every step that He had taken. The Writings of the New Church call this “reformation.” And notice the power of that word: the Lord literally “re-forms” us. He makes us anew.

And then there is a time of rejoicing. Here are some of the internal meanings revealed in the Writings of the New Church: The ring the father put on his son’s finger pictures “internal conjunction.” The robe pictures “truths of our faith and trust in God.” The sandals picture our life changed even to the most “down-to-earth” parts. And the fatted calf pictures our life of charity.

So this entire 15th chapter of the gospel of Luke deals with the subject of lost things and the Lord’s rejoicing over what is lost being found again. Let us take these wonderful teachings and apply them to our lives. Let us reach out with hope and forgiveness to those who are hurting, supporting them on the Divine path of restoration. Let us express this love of the Lord Himself as He comes to restore our own lives toward heaven, realizing that in His sight we are all in need of the Divine healing. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine physician, and tells His everlasting message of hope: “It is right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”

Amen.

The Rich Young Ruler

By Rev. David A Moffat

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Matthew 19:21 & 22)

Matthew chapter 19 records Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man (it’s also found in Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 18). It seems that he was a member of the crowd who simply turned up to hear Jesus speak on that day. We are not told that he asked his question in trickery, as was so often said of the Scribes and Pharisees, so we can only assume that he was genuinely interested in the answer. But Jesus’ words challenged and saddened him.

When we try to apply Jesus’ teaching in a literal way, we may well find it difficult – how do you define “rich”? Certainly, there are many people in the modern world whom we would describe as rich, but do we number ourselves among them? If we compare our modern lifestyle with the society of Jesus’ time, the great majority of us live in a way which even the rich of Jesus’ day would envy. That is certainly true of Western nations. Are we to become poorer than the poor of Jesus’ time? Is that even possible nowadays?

Jesus continues: ” it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (verse 24) The disciples question (v. 25: “Who, then, can be saved?”) intrigues me. The simple, literal implication would be that salvation comes from being poor. But note what the disciples have already given up themselves (verse 27), and here they are despairing of their own salvation, it would seem. It all suggests a deeper meaning. So, what do these riches represent? We find the answer by looking elsewhere in the gospel. In John chapter 8 we find Jesus teaching in the temple treasury, and speaking of Himself as the “Light of the world.” (John 8:12) In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), Jesus launches a direct criticism of the religious leaders – indeed in verse 14 of that chapter the Pharisees are said to “love money”. What is this currency that they love above all else? It is knowledge from the Word. In the case of the Pharisees, the fact that it is derived from the Word is if no particular importance, it is the status it gives them which holds so much appeal.

This sheds new light on the present chapter. This rich young man represents one whose delight is in knowledges from the Word, and also an external observance of the law (verses 17-20). But Jesus tells him it’s not enough! He must sell all he owns and give to the poor, and in so doing, he will have treasure in heaven. How can we sell our knowledges of the Word? There are other parables which speak of buying and selling – the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price come to mind most readily (Matthew 13:44-46). These parables speak not so much of an exchange of goods as a change in priorities. If we are to sell our hard earned knowledges of the Word and religious teaching, it is to put them in a lower priority. But what should take its place? Love, or to use the old fashioned term, charity. As Jesus said, “…give to the poor.”

This is difficult news for us to hear. After all, those of us who go to church regularly have probably worked pretty hard to acquire these teachings from the Word. We can look back and pat ourselves on the back – “Look how far I’ve come!” And we can look around us at everyone else and pat ourselves on the back some more – “Look how much better I am than all those others who can’t be bothered!” Have you spotted the problem yet? Knowledge and teaching is fine, but it points to something greater than itself – it points to the love from which those teachings were derived. The acquisition of knowledge is an orderly step in the process of regeneration, but it is so easy to get stuck there, thinking that we’ve arrived. This is a spiritual danger we must all overcome.

When we reach this challenge we might feel as though our learning has been for nothing, but the reality is so much bigger than that. If we do put charity in first place, Jesus promises, “treasure in heaven.” More riches! But these are of a fundamentally different kind. It is not that we discard or dismiss all learning, but we begin to acquire riches of learning that we never suspected were there before – that learning is filled with insights, implications and subtleties of meaning previously unavailable to us. Swedenborg tells us that it is the presence of charity and innocence which allows this influx from the Lord to take place (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 3436.2; see also Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 4214 and De Verbo, paragraph 28). We can know all about the Word, but unless we actively practise charity and repentance we will never truly understand it.

But beware! There is a difference between the doctrine and practice of charity. This is illustrated graphically in another of Jesus’ parables:

“A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’

“He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go.

“Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Him, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)

If there is anything you could say Swedenborg harps on about, it is his unrelenting opposition to the doctrine of faith alone. But that doctrine of itself is not the danger to our salvation so much as the life to which it leads. As a result, it is possible for those who adhere to that doctrine in word only to obey and carry out the will of God. These are represented by the first son. The New Church teaches the doctrine of charity. But let us not fool ourselves into thinking that proclaiming our allegiance to that doctrine is the same as living by it. If we declare that doctrine with our lips but fail to allow it into our heart and our lives, we are represented by the second son. Being right does not get us into heaven. If we live in such a state, how can we claim to be any better than those other churches who obey the Lord’s Word, by living lives of love and kindness?

To underline the devastating effect of placing truth in first place, Swedenborg points out that it is the death of charity which brings about the death of the church. In Revelation 2 we read:

To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, … Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent. (Revelation 2:1, 4, 5)

In researching our children’s class for a few weeks time when they are studying the heart and lungs, I came across this illuminating passage:

… by the faith that is going to perish in the last times nothing other than charity is meant. No other faith can possibly exist, except faith that is grounded in charity. The person who has no charity is incapable of possessing any faith at all, charity being the soil in which faith is implanted, its heart from which it derives its being and life. The ancients for this reason compared love and charity to the heart, and faith to the lungs, both of which lie inside the breast. That comparison is also a perfect simile; for to imagine a life of faith without charity is like imagining life from the lungs alone without the heart, which is an impossibility, as may become clear to anyone. (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 1873.3)

Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20) “Two” representing good and truth, love and wisdom, charity and faith, the “third”, representing the result of that union, what Swedenborg terms, “use”. You see, when I turn to the Word to find teaching about the primacy of charity, I really am spoilt for choice!

I’m sure I’ve said nothing new or startling so far. The theory is easy, but the practice is difficult! That’s because people do things we don’t like, and in order to truly love them we have to fight our own self interest.

Now, we don’t generally like to think of ourselves as selfish, but I’m sure you can relate to how easy it is to be loving for a day. If you have to spend a single day in the company of a stranger, it’s no real challenge to extend them your kindness. A second day, similarly, is no great problem. But as we develop a relationship, their habits begin to annoy you, and you learn all their faults. I think that’s where we get the saying, “Charity begins at home.” It is in truly knowing a person, “warts and all”, and loving them nevertheless that we find the true expression of that saying.

This is the problem we face in our churches. As you look around the room, I guess you can identify at least one fault for every person here. Some will annoy you more than others. My self interest points them out, because it helps me feel better about myself. I even make up faults if I can’t see any, and if I dislike someone’s actions towards me I actively misinterpret them. The church dies when charity dies. In a community such as ours it is easy to see how that happens in a very real way. No one in their right mind, sensing an atmosphere of animosity, judgmentalism and selfishness, would ever want to return, no matter how insightful the teaching from the pulpit might be.

But the church exists to challenge that natural self interest. The doctrine of charity urges us to look to the positive, rather than the failings of others: “[People who have faith that inheres in charity] notice the goods [in others], and if they do see evils and falsities they excuse them, and if possible endeavour with that person to correct them…” (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 1079). This, we are told, is what the angels do (Arcana Caelestia, paragraphs 1088.2 and 7122.2) How can we aspire to any less? Any difficulty we may have seeing the positive in another suggests a will bent on self love and justifies (but only in our own minds) our actions of hatred. Noticing that leaning in ourselves, it is beholden upon us to effect repentance, making every effort to express loving actions to that person.

The flip side of this, of course, is that the church grows and becomes alive when charity is present. A sphere of love is an attractive place to be. We are irresistibly drawn to it. In their book, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch point this out. In the sixth chapter, entitled “Whispering to the Soul”, they suggest that our practice of love is perhaps the most powerful witness of our faith. They quote a description of the early church by Diognetus:

They dwell in their country, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country and every country of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in a lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews and foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. (p. 104)

M Scott Peck’s book The Different Drum is prefaced with a short story illustrative of the same message. Saddened by the impending closure of his religious order, an abbott consults his friend, a local rabbi, about the sorry state in which he and his fellow monks find themselves. “Treat each one as though he were the Messiah”, is his strange advice. Initially puzzled, the monks slowly come to recognise it’s value: whatever human failings may be seen in myself and others, I can love every one by looking for the presence of Christ in that person. The story ends with the visitors to the monastery who return again and again to experience the peace and love that they find within its walls, and soon the small community is a thriving, living expression of the Lord’s Church.

The bottom line is this: when charity dies, we’re all losers. It infects and corrupts our worship, it destroys our relationships and sours our experience of life. It is my sad experience that charity dies all too often and all too easily, whether it be through excessive criticism or negativity, giving someone the “cold shoulder”, or harbouring a grudge. But when charity takes the first place, in our teaching and in our lives, miracles happen.

After all, Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, …” not by what you teach, or by the laws you keep, or by how moral, upstanding or beyond reproach you believe yourself to be, but, “if you love one another.” (John 13:35).

Amen.

The Sun-Dial of Ahaz

By Rev Chris Skinner

“And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees ,nay but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.” 1 Kings 20 verses 10-11

This passage from Kings is one that is most interesting and provides us with the opportunity to study the Word and see how these apparent natural phenomena are used by the Lord to convey wonderful spiritual truths about the state of the church and the state of the individual. To fully appreciate the significance of this passage we must put it in the context of the Jewish church at the time and it will then be clearer how our text provides a forceful reminder of how the ability of the Lord to reach his people depends on the willingness of each of us to turn to Him.

Hezekiah became King after the death of his father Ahaz. Ahaz was a very evil King who destroyed all the places of worship and had no regard for the people and only looked to his own selfish intentions in everything he did. When Hezekiah came to the throne he made a very sincere attempt to reverse the damage done by his father and was recognised as a very devout and faithful ruler who restored righteousness. He restored their places of worship and endeavoured to treat his people with respect.

It is in this context that we see Hezekiah and his dialogue with the prophet Isaiah. Hezekiah recognised the difficulties his nation faced and the work he needed to do as King. If we read this chapter in its entirety we will see that Hezekiah was sick and wanted to be made well. He spoke with the prophet Isaiah who granted him a wish which is the subject of our text. We can recall the text ‘the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint’ which demonstrates a state which recognises the need to change.

In order for us to understand what is being conveyed to us about the church and ourselves we must look at portion of the text of the Word in context otherwise we can draw conclusions from a particular verse or series of verses which is incorrect. We must therefore see Ahaz, the shadow going back ten degrees and the dial or steps of Ahaz in a correspondential form.

As far as the dial of Ahaz or steps of Ahaz is concerned it is uncertain as to whether there was an actual dial or whether the steps of Ahaz were located in such a way as to form a dial as the sun rose and set. However the significance relates to the steps of Ahaz which should be seen as representing the decline of the Jewish Church and also the way we decline spiritually if we turn away from the Lord and rely on false reasoning from self. In successive periods the Jewish Church progressively fell into evil and falsity of every kind and the reign of Hezekiah was an oasis in an otherwise downward spiral.

Much of the Word of the Lord is written in appearances to protect the truth from falsification and profanation and this passage of scripture is no different. The idea of the shadow going back ten degrees is an appearance but in so doing conveys wonderful truths for our use. The sun of this world represents the Divine Love of the Lord which is always present with us. The shadow cast on the steps is a vivid picture of how light is diminished if evil rather than good is favoured.

The question can be asked. How could the shadow go back ten degrees. The Lord is order itself and cannot act outside of this order and therefore the backward movement of the shadow is only an appearance. So many things in this world are only an appearance. We say that the sun rises and sets but in fact the sun does not move it is the earth that moves. If you look in the night sky just after dusk the moon appears much larger and soon afterwards gets smaller. This also is an appearance as it is the angle to the earth and the refraction of light that gives this appearance. Light and colour in our world is created by the gases in the atmosphere between us and the sun.

From this we see that the passage is illustrating spiritual principles and the ten degrees backwards is showing us that if we turn to the Lord then more light will be given and the shadow on our life will be lifted to some degree. Ten signifies many which represents our many spiritual states some of which are good and also remains which we draw upon when we turn to the Lord We often think of the word enlightenment and the lifting of the shadow occurs when we allow the Lord into our life and put the truth into action.

If we read further in this chapter we will see that Hezekiah was given 15 more years on his life to achieve his work for good but even this was not enough to halt the decline of the Jewish nation which had confirmed itself in evil desires and selfish action. The significance of the number 15 is that it represents a new state. Hezekiah was repentant and he was granted a new state of mind.

We can gain much from the spiritual principles given in this passage as it shows how reliance on our own selfhood and not on the truths from the Lord will lead to destruction. It can also be a very poignant reminder of how our change of moods and treatment of others is a reflection of our inner states. Many of our moods and states are likened to the effect of the sun or lack of it and these are also very much part of the Word. In that well known Psalm 23 we read ‘though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil’. We often refer to our psychological states as gloomy, dark or bright. When we feel moody or miserable we tend to focus only on ourselves and look inwards rather than outwards to other people. I am sure we have all seen the phrase on church notice boards ‘God seems far away! Who has moved ? How many times have we suddenly noticed that we have descended into nastiness, bad thoughts, worldly reasoning and self satisfaction and have been brought up with a jolt. Hezekiah through sickness was brought up with a jolt.

Hezekiah used his life to attempt to reverse the trend in the life of the Jewish nation. How can we reverse the bad trends in our life. We can start by being positive, being pleasant looking to the Lord and changing our attitude. How many times have we laid awake at night worried about things. Everything appears gloomy and dark but in the morning with a fresh attitude things are brighter. Our relationships with others can be turned around by being honest open and making sure we communicate with each other. So much unhappiness is caused by one person thinking that another is angry with them when it is not the case. It is an appearance and we must strive to ensure that in all our relationships the Lord is at the centre.

The major lesson from this passage from the Word is that the Lord is constant. His love for us is never ending. It is our turning away from him and loosing sight of the spiritual principles and truth given in His Word that will cause us to go astray.

Let us use this wonderful story of the shadow moving backwards to focus on the Lord’s love and how the events, activities and relationships in life are affected by the way we either turn to or away from the Lord. The Lord is ever present and the shadow will be large or small depending on how we respond to the love that the Lord has for each one of us.

Amen.

Turning Water To Wine

By Rev. Michael Gladish

“Jesus said.. ‘Fill the water pots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.’ And they took it..” And the water was made wine (John 2:7-9).

Water as a symbol for truth has many uses. We can drink it, freeze it, wash or cook with it, sail or swim in it, use it as a solvent to mix or separate things, even power machinery with it. Plants and animals can’t live without it any more than we can, and everybody knows how important some humidity can be in the air we breathe or circulate around our homes.

Water can be cooling, refreshing, invigorating, nourishing, and certainly is essential for the cleansing of the blood and tissues within the body. (Incidentally one thing few people seem to know is that water often is the most effective antacid you can get; drinking it simply dilutes the offending acids in the stomach and helps the digestive system restore its normal balance.)

Without water we dry up and die. So it is with truth in our minds. We need to know a lot of things in order to survive: what’s helpful and what’s harmful, what’s healthy and what’s not, how to get along with other people and how to get along without them, how to make a living, how to find fulfillment and meaning, where to go when we’re in trouble. If we don’t know the basic laws of our environment we are bound to get hurt or sick, and we can get into a lot of trouble in our relationships as well.

But this is just the beginning. Water in the Scriptures corresponds specifically to the truth of spiritual life. So we also need to know about the Lord, the spiritual world, faith, charity, the will and understanding, the process of regeneration, Divine Providence and many other things along these lines. We need to know them so that we can use them, and we can use them, like water, in many different ways.

In the story of the Lord’s first miracle the water we read about was stored in 6 large stone jars or pots. It was not for drinking or for cooking, but for washing, specifically for washing the dry dust of Palestine from the feet of visitors or guests as they entered the house. This is the water that the Lord turned into wine, in fact much better wine than the host of the wedding feast had served up to that point.

How did He do it? We don’t know. But there is one thing we do know: the miracle required the co-operation of the servants in the house. First they had to fill the water pots, and then they had to draw some out, and take it to the master of the feast. Maybe the water turned to wine as it filled the jugs. Maybe it did so as they were drawing it out. Maybe it did so as they carried it to the master. The point is that the Lord didn’t just “zap” the water, apart from the actions of the men and women in the story, but He did the miracle as they worked with Him, doing His word. This is important, as we’ll see, and makes it quite different from the situation where the devil suggested that the Lord should turn stones into bread (Matt. 4:3). In that case the miracle would have been for Himself, to satisfy His own hunger after fasting, and to prove His power apart from any other need. So of course He refused. But in this case the Lord was meeting the needs of a large group, and the fact that it was at a wedding party should be enough to tell us that it had something to do with our eternal life, for as we read in Matthew (22), the kingdom of heaven is compared to a marriage feast.

But what is the symbolism of the wine? The general idea is that wine, as fermented grape juice, represents the Spirit of the Word, the spiritual sense as distinguished from the literal sense, the understanding of the truth as distinguished from the truth itself.

With this in mind the basic elements of the whole story begin to fall into place. Here was a wedding party in Cana of Galilee. And Jesus and His mother and His disciples were all invited. And they ran out of wine. Now it doesn’t say that Mary was in charge of anything, but when she saw that they were out of wine she went to her Son and told Him. But He said, “What does that concern of yours have to do with Me? My time has not yet come,” whereupon she told the servants, who must have been aware of the Lord’s commanding presence, “Do whatever He tells you to do.”

Again, as we know from other lessons, the region of Galilee represents the part of our minds that is receptive and open to instruction. Cana specifically seems to be a name taken from the word for a vessel, or perhaps a basket made of reeds or wicker. So it is that the Lord comes to us when we are open and receptive. We believe also that Mary represents the affection for truth, the longing not only to know but to apply the truth in helpful ways. And just as Mary responds to the need of the people at the feast by speaking to Jesus, so our longing to know and do what is right leads us to the Lord, the source of truth.

But the Lord says, “My hour has not yet come.” What does this mean? Although the verses are not explained in detail in the Writings it seems clear that the people at the wedding represent the church, and when the people run out of wine the problem being represented is a lack of understanding in the church. This certainly was the situation when the Lord began His ministry in Galilee: the people of the Jewish church knew the truth, that is, they knew the teachings of the Old Testament, and they tried to live by those teachings, but they didn’t have any feeling for their spiritual sense. They were simply bound by the obligations of the letter (and also subject to the domination of those who could use the letter of the law to prove their points and get their way) because the nobler Spirit of the law was missing; it had run out.

The Lord asking what all this had to do with Him was in a sense rhetorical, for it had everything to do with Him – not that the spirit of the truth was missing but that He had come to restore and teach it again. He knew they wouldn’t fully appreciate it, so He said that His hour had not yet come, but in doing the miracle He showed that He had the power to change their lives if they would co-operate with Him.

And so here we are in the midst of the story. We are the members of a new church that has been invited to the enjoy the delights of heaven itself on earth, reveling in the true marriage of love and wisdom through the marvelous insights that the Lord has provided in the spiritual sense of His Word. Here we are at the wedding feast expecting to be provided with all that we can eat and drink. And yet as we participate in the life of the church it’s not unusual for us to become disenchanted or to suffer various disappointments. We may start to lose the sense of wonder and excitement that we felt when we discovered the church or when we first fully entered into it. We may let our interest in the doctrines wane or become pre-occupied with personal and organizational problems or external concerns. And then we start to feel empty. We have run out of wine.

Suddenly it seems the party’s over. And it’s a sad thing! The life of the church to a large extent is the spirit of the truth working in our relationships and responsibilities. It is the joy and fulfillment of understanding and participating in the marriage of what is good and true from the Lord through His Word. But if the spirit of that truth is lacking, what’s the point? We might as well go home. In our world today we can watch religion on TV, or we can just read about it, or we can seek and find it in some other circle of friends outside the church.

But in the story the mother of the Lord comes to Him with the problem. The affection for truth, the longing that we all have within us for the joy of that fulfillment, “speaks” to Him hoping that He will do something to restore the sense of life and purpose. So we, too, may pray that the Lord will help us in our disillusionment and restore the joy of involvement in the church.

But how? What does the Lord say? In the story He points to the six large, stone jugs in the courtyard of the house – near the entrance – and tells the servants to fill them with water. Then He tells them to draw some out, and take it to the master of the feast.

Now here is an improbable scene. The water in those jugs was for purification, for washing hands and feet as people came in from outside. But these people were inside already. Why should they go back to where they started? Or if they had water to pour why did they have to pour it into those jugs instead of having it turn into wine right away?

Well, the answer is that the water could not become wine apart from this process. And what is the process within us? In a sense it is a return to basics; it is a commitment to refill the reservoirs and refresh the memories of the simple truths of the Word that have been given to us for the cleansing of our lives. Remember there were six water pots, each one of two or three “firkins” (about 20 or 30 gallons). “Six” is a number that reminds us of the labor of creation, and therefore a full state of preparation for the influx of life from the Lord. “Two or three” (much like 20 or 30) reminds us of all the goods and truths that we learn from the Word as we enter into the life of the church. And the “servants” represent all the lower truths or thought processes that take orders from the will and conscience above.

So what we have here is the improbable or unlikely suggestion that we can get real spiritual fulfillment from the simple work of reformation, the preparation of our minds to wash and cleanse the externals of our lives so that we are free of the dust and dirt that may come in from all our worldly concerns. What we have is the principle of knowledge, faith and obedience as the starting point for all Divine miracles, the willingness to learn what the Word teaches and to apply it in the simple rituals of courtesy and hospitality and kindness and friendship and acceptance of others.

And in our case we have the special responsibility of learning new and deeper truths from the Lord than He has ever revealed to people before.

Of course, even these truths of doctrine and of the spiritual sense are still just bits of knowledge, like water in a jug, until we draw them out and put them to work. But if we do so as the Lord directs, then out of this reservoir of knowledge and experience, with His help we will also draw the deeper insights, the rich, rewarding and refreshing insights of spiritual life that are full of all the complex, variety of flavors of the vineyard that is the Lord’s church.

The acknowledgment of Providence, the Writings say, is nothing if it doesn’t include the acknowledgment that it works in the smallest details of everything. And “small” in our experience may also mean the seemingly insignificant things. But one lesson that the Lord teaches us in this first of all His miracles is that true spiritual life is gained first of all through very natural and external commitments. What is it the Buddhists say? – “If you want to be enlightened, cut wood, or fetch water.” So in the Writings we learn that filling the water jugs and then drawing out from them represents the commitment to serve, to live according to the things we know, to act, to do, to use the principles of truth in our own lives so that the Lord can flow into these things and transform even the most ordinary routines into opportunities to feel the delight of heaven.

Water is truth. Wine is the spirit of truth. We can’t have the latter without the former. Nor will the knowledge of the Word become the wisdom of life until we put it to work. But when we do, with the Lord’s help a most amazing miracle can take place, so that no matter how unfulfilled we may have felt we can return to the celebration of life inspired and renewed in faith.

Amen.

What Cripples and Confines Us

By Rev. Ian Arnold

The senses are the source of all the illusions that reign in a person, and they are the reason why few have any belief in the truths of faith and why the natural man is opposed to the spiritual man, that is, the external man to the internal. Consequently, if the natural or external man starts to have dominion over the spiritual or internal man, no belief at all in matters of faith exists any longer, for illusions cast a shadow over them and evil desires smother them. Few know what the illusions of the senses are and few believe that these cast a shadow over rational insights and most of all over spiritual matters of faith a shadow so dark that it blots them out

[For example,] It is an illusion of the senses – a purely natural one, or an illusion about the natural creation to believe that the sun is borne around this globe once a day, and that the sky too and all the stars are borne round at the same time

It is [also] an illusion of the senses that only the body possesses life and that when it dies that life perishes. The senses have no conception at all of an internal man present within each part of the external man, nor any conception that this internal man resides in the inward dimension of the natural creation, in the spiritual world. Nor consequently, since they have no conception of it, do they believe that a person will live after death, apart from being clothed with a body once again.

Unless a persons thought can be raised above sensory impressions so that these are beheld as existing so to speak beneath him, he cannot possibly discern any interior aspect of the Word, let alone things of heaven such as are totally removed from those of the world, since the senses take hold of them and stifle them. (Arcana Caelestia paragraphs 5084 & 5089)

There is no doubt that the teaching given to us in the Writings give us very good reason to celebrate our senses. After hundreds of years, and centuries of teaching that has regarded our senses with suspicion, as a danger to us, never to be indulged unless we really had to, here comes the liberating teaching given by the Lord in the Writings saying none of that. Our senses are God-given, and they are part of the whole and balanced person that the Lord meant each and every one of us to be. I repeat, our senses are to be celebrated; not to be held at arms length, not to be regarded with suspicion, not to be looked upon in some way as the enemy of spiritual life.

But having said that, the teaching that we are given also holds up a warning to us. We celebrate our senses, as we rightly and justifiably can do; but they can also be our downfall, they can trap us. Amongst the twelve apostles who followed the Lord, His closest friends and followers, there was one who betrayed Him, and that was Judas. And Judas, in that complex that is represented by the twelve disciples, represents our senses. Our senses are all part of the whole, all part of the balance, all part of the full picture; but have the potential to be our downfall and a trap for us.

In the reading from the seventh volume of the Arcana Caelestia earlier in the service, it talked there of the way in which our senses can be a trap to us. Because with regard to our understanding and appreciation of divine truth, if we start from the point of view of our senses, then our ability to grasp those sublime and spiritual truths will struggle. You cannot start from your senses, because by starting with your senses you are inevitably led into doubt and denial. “I’ll prove it to you.” “Let me see.” “I want to feel.” “Show me the reality of what you say about the spiritual world.” “Show me that it exists, satisfy my senses”; but of course it doesn’t work like that.

However, if our senses are called upon to support and illustrate the Divine Truth that you are being called upon to investigate and appreciate, then its a different matter. Think of the writer of Psalm 8, who must have walked outdoors on one magnificent evening beneath a cloudless night sky, and looked up at it: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! ” How great you are. Creation tells me wonderful things about You, things that I already see to be true in my heart.

So the senses can have this wonderfully reinforcing role in our spiritual development as children of the Lord. But we start with the truth, and find illustration in the senses; we don’t start with the senses and try to arrive at the truth. Some of you know, indeed a lot of you have on your fridge, this wonderful little quotation from the Writings:

“Thought from the eye closes the understanding, but thought from the understanding opens the eye.”

The senses have their role, but it is always a subordinate and supporting one. They can never be our starting point.

The senses have the capacity to cripple us. That’s a strong statement, but it is true. If you take as your starting point your first impressions of things, then you will run into all sorts of problems. They will cripple you and prevent you reaching your created capacity and fullness. When this poor man was lying there crippled, he was of course simply unable to fulfil his created potential. Just think of it for a moment. We’ve looked at this with regard to our understanding and appreciation of divine and spiritual teaching, but look at it also in our management of our relationships with each other. Our senses throw up illusions and appearances and fallacies. Its interesting that the Writings use that word “fallacies” always in connection with our over-dependence on our senses and on first impressions.

Now my first impression of another persons behaviour may be that they need ten years in jail! My sense impressions may tell me that somebody who puts graffiti on a newly built wall should get a flogging! But that’s my sense impressions talking to me. And if I listen to them too carefully and give them credence, then they start to twist and cripple my handling of relationships with other people. You listen to some people, and you hear them talking as though they are crippled people: distorted, because they are talking from what their senses are telling them, from the illusions, the fallacies, that the senses throw up to us. Our senses cripple us. They distort us, and they hold us back from being the full, active, whole spiritual person that the Lord created us to be. This is what is being brought home to us by the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda.

Lets be honest and inclusive: we are all at the pool of Bethesda. The fact is that we all carry with us (the Writings say we cannot help doing so) illusions and fallacies based on the senses, so at one level or another we are crippled people. The Lord only speaks to us about what is real to us. This incident would not have been recorded in the Word if it did not have relevance to life’s experience as you and I confront it. We are all at the pool of Bethesda.

I mentioned at the beginning that this man was reckoned to have had an attitude problem; that perhaps he didn’t want to be made well. Commentators both inside and outside of the New Church make a great deal of the Lords question to him, “Do you want to be made well?” But I also said that if he had an attitude problem, there was a cause behind it. And the cause, I submit, was that he was in denial. I believe he was in denial; that he was for all those years somehow incapable of seeing himself and looking at his situation for what it was. And that’s very easy to do: to be in denial about the predicament that we find ourselves in. And if we are in denial, then of course we can’t see our need to be healed. “Do you want to be made well?” “Yes, yes of course I do. But the cause of my tardiness, of my lack of enthusiasm over these years is because I’ve been in denial; I haven’t seen things for what they really are.” It was only when the Lord came on the scene that he began to see himself and the pathetic situation that he was in.

We are taught many times in the Writings, and this is from the book Apocalypse Revealed by the way, that when the Lord comes into particular problems and predicaments that we are in, He challenges us. He challenges us so that we come to the point of recognising what we so far have resisted recognising. 376 in Apocalypse Revealed, in part reads:

“Moreover in the Word very often it is read that the Lord answers when they call and cry; also that He gives when they ask. Nevertheless, the Lord gives them to ask, and what to ask, and the Lord therefore knows this beforehand; but still the Lord wills that a man should ask first, to the end that it may be as if from himself, and thus appropriated to him.”

He comes and challenges so that we may recognise what we have not wanted to see, what we have not truly wanted to come to terms with.

And that is the key; that is the key. That is why the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda was there for 38 years! And that is why we will be there for 38 years if we resist the reality, if we tell ourselves that it is not so. We need to be honest with ourselves, and that can be very difficult. Don’t tell yourself its not difficult; it is difficult. It is even difficult to be honest with the Lord. We can listen to ourselves justifying, excusing, not going to the heart of what it is we are talking to the Lord about. It is only when we reach the point of being candid and brutally honest about ourselves that the Lord can look at us and see that we are now ready to be healed.

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

Lovely! Lovely, isn’t it? You know, we resist that honesty about ourselves, and yet beyond that honesty is a beautiful peace: a peace with our souls, a peace with our Maker; and most of all a feeling of being restored, brought back, healed, so that we can fulfil our created potential to be of use, in this world and in the spiritual world, to others.

Amen.