From 76452.3552@compuserve.com  Wed Jan  1 05:33:28 1997
From: 76452.3552@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 1997 05:33:28 +0000
Subject: SERMON: Change
Message-ID: <199612311830_MC2-E2A-672E@compuserve.com>

CHANGE
by the Rev. Eric H. Carswell

Behold I make all things new.
You must be born again.
Create in me a clean heart O God.

The subject of this sermon is change.  Nearly everyone reacts to the
prospect of change with mixed feelings.  Change is both feared and desired.
 It is feared, because change might leave us less happy and it is desired
when the present is intolerable.  While most people have some mixture of
feelings about the future, how many people feel confident that in the long
run they will be happier with their life in the coming weeks, months and
years?  We have been taught that the Lord is working constantly in
thousands of ways to lead us to more and deeper happiness, but still we are
not always optimistic about this actually happening.  Why?

As we think of changes there are two broad categories into which they fall.
 There are certain changes that go on around us, like a new job or moving
to a new place, and there are changes that occur within our minds,
affecting the way we react to what is happening around us.  It is easy to
focus primarily on external events and it is easy to worry about the future
of these things.  Its not easy to take on a new challenge or change some
other major pattern in our life.  On the other hand, certain aspects of our
present life may fill us with sadness, impatience or anger, and all we live
for is the hope that something will happen to change the present situation.
 While we all have some control over the things that occur around
ourselves, this control is limited.  Sometimes we may feel helpless to
bring about change, or prevent some change that we do not like.  This sense
of helplessness may help us remember that the kingdom of heaven does not
come from the things that are around us, but rather comes from what is
within us.

We have just finished one calendar year and are beginning a new one.  What
are the significant changes that have occurred in your life during the last
year?  Some of these changes may deal primarily with things around you and
only indirectly with the life of your mind which will last to eternity. 
How are you different from what you were a year ago?  Another way of asking
this question is, in the eyes of the Lord, what essential changes have
occurred in your life?  Maybe you can think of a number of new ideas that
have come to you in the past year.  If these have been important, they will
have affected the way that you lead your life.  Maybe you have some sense
of progress in fighting against the inclinations to do or think evil things
that your have recognized in your regular self examination.

But whether you sense any change or not, some has occurred in the last
year, and more will take place in the coming year.  It is impossible to
stand still in your spiritual nature.  So long as you are making any
choices at all, your eternal character is being formed.  Now, does this
idea fill you with dread?  Hopefully it doesn't!  The only thing that we
have to dread is whether we have been kidding ourselves about trying to
follow the Lord and doing what He teaches us in His Word.  We need not
dread the Lord's part in our regeneration.  The Lord has seen what our
quality tends to be at any point in our life, and He constantly works to
lead us to a better life.  We are told that if a person allows the Lord to
lead him, he is lead to heaven; and if he does not suffer himself to be led
to heaven, the Lord works to bend him to a milder hell than he himself
would strive for.

In terms of the Lord's constant upward pull on our lives, leading us to
higher state of happiness or at least to a state of less misery, the only
sensible attitude toward the future is one of optimism.  Do you have faith
that the Lord really does see what is going on in your life and is at this
very moment working to bring about changes that will affect you today,
tomorrow, and to eternity?  Even when the Lord's care and presence may seem
remote, this faith can sustain hope for the future.  Certainly if we do our
part, the Lord will lead us to greater happiness that we have yet known. 
As we face the future, do we have confidence that it will bring us more
understanding, happiness and peace?  This confidence should not be
considered unduly optimistic.  The Lord does not ask impossible things of
us before we will sense any benefit.  The Lord promises us in the book, The
Doctrine of Life, that the fight against our evil inclinations is not
horribly difficult for those who have not given free rein to the evils that
try to flow into their thoughts and deeds.  He promises us that if we will
but resist an evil in our intentions once in a week or twice in a month, we
will be able to perceive a change. (Doctrine of Life 97)

Since we will be happier in the long run by following the Lord, what is it
that keeps us from pursuing wholeheartedly the path to heaven.  The primary
idea that keeps us from this course is that a part of our mind does not
really believe that the future that the Lord holds out for us will be
better than the life we already enjoy.  A part of each of us loves the life
that comes naturally to us.  When we have nearly exhausted our patience
trying to deal charitably with someone, it may seem that an eternity of
this behavior would be unbearable.  Fortunately, the Lord does not expect
us to spend eternity doing things that we really don't want to do.  The
angels love to do what the Lord wants them to do.  It is only those who
have loved what is evil while in the world who are eternally frustrated. 
The wonder of the Lord's plan for us is that if we resist the part of our
mind that does not want to obey Him, gradually that part of our mind will
lose its attraction and finally become altogether quiet.  Then we will no
longer have to force ourselves to obey the Lord; obedience is what we will
desire.  If we have faith that greater happiness is truly what the Lord has
in store for us, and if we do our part in bringing it to pass, then the
future will find us more greatly blessed than the past.

As long as our life is going much as we might plan it, or at least is doing
pretty well, it is not too hard to acknowledge the Lord's presence and
guidance.  This acknowledgment is much more difficult in times of trouble. 
The loss of ones' job can be devastating, and so also is the tragic passing
of a spouse or child into the spiritual world.  While we may get some
comfort from knowing that these changes are not really the will of God, but
rather are permitted by Him, such events can shake our confidence in the
future and even our concept of faith in God.  However, if our faith in the
Divine providence depends on having changes in the world around us go our
way, we can benefit from have this faith challenged.  The Lord's government
affects every least thing in the world around us to help form our eternal
character.  Disappointments in our own plans can help us remember the
Lord's perspective.

While we ourselves may become depressed by certain events in our lives, we
may notice that some other people do not have this reaction.  Even when
life does not go as they expect, these people seem to be able to maintain a
certain peace of mind even when saddened by what has occurred.  We may
guess that this peace of mind arises from a genuine confidence in the Lord
and trust that He is working to bring some good of all the changes that
come about in our lives.  The Lord's continual goal as He oversees the
changes of our lives is that we should be withdrawn from evil inclinations
and habits. (Divine Providence 177)  While He does not directly desire that
we should be miserable to accomplish this goal, He understands in His
infinite wisdom what is necessary to bring about the needed changes in what
we love.  While the events around us may be the cause of pain and sadness
at times, we have the promise from the Lord that if we work to react to
them with confidence in the Lord's guidance, then the life of our mind will
continually progress into peace and contentment.

Part of the mystery of the Lord's government of our lives is that it must
remain invisible to us except in retrospect.  If we could see or perceive
the Lord's leading, either we would be bound to follow it and become little
more than very complex robots, or, we are assured, we would resist its
leading continually. (Divine Providence 177)  We would resist because the
changes that this leading would bring about appear to be to our
disadvantage.  Nearly everyone has had times when he could say that if
someone had told him a few years earlier what he would be doing in the
present, he would have denied it and may even have found it laughable. 
Sometimes it is primarily events beyond our control that have influenced
what we are presently doing.  At other times we find ourselves doing
something different because our priorities have changed.  We now want to do
something that before we would not have.  Because of changes like this, it
is important that the Lord's leading is not known to us.  Looking at the
future from the perspective of what we presently love, it is very difficult
to imagine being truly happy acting from a different motive.  Our loving
heavenly Father works with unimaginable care and patience to bend us slowly
away from what we presently think and will, toward a new and better state
of mind.  His efforts are constant in trying to lead us to a better life.

Faith in the Lord's efforts to protect and guide us is one of the
fundamental beliefs of religion.  The stories of the Old Testament show the
Lord's constant presence and influence on the daily life of each person. 
While His influence one our lives appears less obviously than it did in the
Old Testament, we can be assured that it is as constant and powerful. 
While the Lord was in the world, He clearly taught of His care for all men.
 He reminded us that the smallest parts of our lives are observed and
directed by God.  He said that the very hairs of our heads are numbered. 
He told us that not one sparrow falls without Him knowing it, and assured
us that we are of more value than many sparrows.

As we look forward to the coming year, let us hope and pray that our faith
in the Lord's love and care will increase.  We can be sure that if we allow
the Lord to work in our lives, there will be changes for the better in the
coming months and years.  If we do our part by approaching the Lord in
prayer, reflecting on teachings in His Word, and seek to bring His will
into our daily lives, the future will surely be better than we have
previously known.  While it is true that our path toward heaven is a long
and gradual one, if we work with the Lord, humbly acknowledge that it is He
who will change our loves, at times we should be able to notice some
change.  At some point in the future we should be able to look back and
clearly see that the Lord has entered more fully into our lives.  The Lord
promises that He will come and make all things new.  The end of the book of
Revelation promises, "Surely I am coming quickly."  May we desire it words
for us, "Even so come, Lord Jesus."  AMEN.

Lessons:        Isaiah 1:16-20
        John 3:1-21
        Divine Providence 176
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Fri Jan  3 15:09:29 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 1997 10:09:29 -0500
Subject: SERMON: One with the Lord
Message-ID: <97Jan3.100832-0800_est.2732-3+99@bifrost.novalink.com>

                  One With the Lord
     A Communion Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, MA, November 3, 1996

Readings: Deut. 28:1-14. If you obey the Lord your God. 
          John 17:13-26. So that they may be one, as we are one. 
          N.J.H.D. #210-213. The Holy Supper.

"The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be
one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely
one." (John 17:22, 23)

This passage continues to amaze me.
     In our church, we give special significance to Jesus' words earlier in
the Gospel of John when he says "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30) We
do not separate God into different "persons" of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit as many other Christian churches do. Rather, we see these three as
different parts of the one and only divine person--the Lord God Jesus
Christ. When Jesus says, "I and the Father are one," we think, "Of course.
Just the way my body and soul make one person." This all makes perfect sense.
     But then Jesus throws a wrench in the works. He says that he has given
us the glory that the Father has given him, so that we may all be one in the
same way the Father and Son--and the Holy Spirit also--are one. How can we
be one with the Lord in the same way the Lord's own divine soul and body are
one? How can Jesus be in us just as the Father is in him? It seems almost
blasphemous to presume that we would have the same relationship--the same
oneness--with the Lord that the Lord has within himself. Yet it was the Lord
himself who said these words.
     This is an especially appropriate issue to explore this morning, as we
approach the Lord's table for holy communion. Our very word "communion"
comes from a Latin word whose root means to bind together. If we follow this
meaning, when we take communion we are somehow being joined together. But
with whom, and how?
     Of course, communion is a... well... communal thing. We do not do it
alone in our rooms. Rather, we come together as a faith community to
celebrate the Lord's supper together. In this, it is similar to a family
meal. In our families we traditionally have at least one meal each day
together--though if it is a particularly busy family, our gathering around
the dinner table may take place only once or twice a week. If the family is
a happy one, our times together at the supper table do bring us closer
together with our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters, and other
friends and family members who share meals with us. In the case of my own
family when I was growing up, it was quite an event to have all ten of us
around our big, round table every evening for supper!
     A church is also a kind of family. However, though we often share our
church with members of our biological family, that is not the primary bond
that holds a church family together. The church is not based on material
relationships, but on spiritual ones. We share a church with each other
because we share a common faith with each other. Each of us comes to this
church, not only because many of us have relatives here, but because we wish
to approach the Lord with others who share our belief that God is one, and
is the Lord Jesus Christ. We wish to share the Holy Supper with others who
see deeper levels of spiritual meaning in the bread and wine that we take
into our bodies. We wish to share our church with others who believe that
the Lord's salvation is available to all who will live in the best way they
know how, according to their own beliefs.
     When we are out in the world, we find that many people do not share
these beliefs with us. Some believe that only those who belong to their
church are saved. Some believe that the bread and wine of communion
represent the body and blood of Christ given in a very literal way--in the
crucifixion--to satisfy the justice of an angry Father who demands
punishment for his wayward children. Others have still different beliefs
that do not agree with our own. Some do not believe in God at all--and may
ridicule those who do. Others are simply not interested in religion, nor in
thinking deeply about life and its meaning. While the world may not hate us,
the world is often indifferent--and occasionally hostile--to the beliefs
that we hold dear. When we come together at this church, we can feel a
oneness of faith with each other that we cannot find anywhere else.
     Yet as wonderful as this faith connection with each other is, Jesus'
words in John lead us to look for an even deeper kind of oneness. He said
that we would be one with him in the same way he is one with the Father.
Completely one. What could this oneness be? What is the oneness that Jesus
had with the Father--with the divine being that is the center and the
creator of the universe?
     This oneness has to do, not just with beliefs, but with love. To
complete the sentence in our text from John, Jesus says, "...that they may
become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and
have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:23) Our oneness with
the Lord has more to do with a sharing of love than with a sharing of beliefs.
     When we think about it, it is hard to say that the Lord even has
"beliefs" in the way that we do. We grasp a small bit of the truth as seen
reflected in the Bible, our church's teachings, and many other sources of
understanding here on earth. But the Lord is universal truth. The Lord does
not have to believe in anything because the Lord is everything good and true
that could possibly be worthy of belief. While we share beliefs with each
other, and hope that our beliefs approach the divine truth that is the Lord,
it is love that first and foremost binds us together with the Lord.
     Love is also what binds us most closely to each other. As members of
the same church, we do share beliefs with each other, and those beliefs do
bring us together. But our togetherness does not become genuine oneness
unless we do more than simply share a common faith. It is when we love and
care for each other that we begin to feel a real and close human connection
that goes beyond our heads to our hearts. We can be a church community when
we love each other and show our love by the way we treat each other. When we
share our joys and sorrows with each other. When we care for each other in
our times of pain. When we come together to celebrate our festivals and
holidays. When we work with each other on the many and varied activities of
the church. These are the things that really make us one.
     This is the same oneness that the Jesus we know and worship has with
the invisi-ble divine Father within. It is the oneness of love uniting.
     The Lord offers us this same oneness. It is a oneness we achieve, not
by merely believing and sharing our beliefs, but by acting on those beliefs
and showing them through our love for each other. The statement of faith
that we say together each week ends with the words, "...they are saved who
believe in him, and keep the commandments of his Word. This is his
commandment: that we love one another, as he hath loved us."
     Our love for each other is directly connected with keeping the Lord's
command-ments. When we are following the Lord's teachings, we are loving
each other, because that is what the Lord's teachings are all about: how to
love each other and not hurt each other. Only when we do this can the Lord
can show us his love.
     Of course, the Lord always loves us, no matter what we do, good or bad.
But when we do not love each other, we reject the Lord's love, which means
that we cannot feel it.
     On the other hand, when we do love each other, the Lord can come into
our lives in ways stronger than we could have ever imagined. In our reading
from Deuteronomy, the Lord makes many promises to the children of Israel if
they will only obey him and keep his commandments. Spiritually, these are
the same promises the Lord makes to us if we will keep his commandments.
Whatever our material circumstances, he will bless us with a rich and full
spiritual life, with deep and satisfying friendships, and with a sense of
love and of purpose in our life. In other words, the Lord will bless us with
a deep and spiritual oneness with himself and with each other.
     This is the oneness that the Lord has within himself. It is the same
oneness that he wishes us to have in him, and with each other, so that we
may be completely one--with the Lord's love within us, and at the center of
all our relationships with each other. It is the oneness of mutual love and
understanding. Today we celebrate these gifts from the Lord by gathering
together to eat the bread and drink the wine of holy communion. Amen.


From leewoof@novalink.com  Tue Jan  7 14:45:58 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 09:45:58 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Fellowship of Communion
Message-ID: <97Jan7.094534-0800_est.2741-1+261@bifrost.novalink.com>

              The Fellowship of Communion
       A Communion Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
            Bridgewater, MA, January 5, 1997

Readings:  Exodus 24:1-8. The blood of the covenant.
           Mark 14:12-26. The Last Supper.
           _Arcana Coelestia_ #3735.3. The bread and wine mean love.

Then Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the
people; and they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will
be obedient." Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said,
"See, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in
accordance with all these words." (Exodus 24:7, 8)

To our modern sensibilities, this scene from the book of Exodus seems a bit
barbaric. Some would even call it grotesque. In celebrating a new covenant
with the Lord, the Israelites slaughtered animals, drained the blood into
basins, and offered the animals as burnt sacrifices to the Lord. Moses then
took half the blood and threw it against the altar, while the other half he
sprinkled on the people. I don't know about you, but I would feel a bit
queasy if I came to church one day only to have the minister sprinkle the
blood of cows and sheep on me. At any rate, I certainly wouldn't wear my
Sunday suit!
     Scenes like this are one reason many Christians do not know what to
make of the Old Testament. It all seems so ancient, and sometimes barbaric,
that there seems to be no connection to anything we would now consider
religious or spiritual. How could these things be any part of the Word of God?
     It may be helpful to look at these practices in the context of ancient
Jewish culture. This culture was similar in many ways to the cultures of the
surrounding peoples, while in other ways it represented distinct advances
over some of them--such as worshiping one God instead of many. In their
religious ritual, the ancient Jews were similar to their neighbors in
practicing animal sacrifice. (They had made the advance of abolishing
_human_ sacrifice as part of their religious ritual.)
     To understand why animal sacrifice became such an integral part of that
culture's worship, we need to recognize that these people were largely
herdsmen. Their livelihood depended on their sheep and cattle. In fact, a
person's wealth was often counted in cattle. In effect, when the Israelites
offered their cattle and sheep to the Lord, they were offering the most
basic element of their livelihood.
     Our culture and livelihood is not based on cows and sheep. We have such
a great variety of occupations that our economy is not centered around any
particular type of work. Rather, it is based around money--a medium of
exchange. We would not think of bringing cows and sheep to church--that is
not the way we pay our bills. Instead, we bring what _we_ use to pay our
bills: money.
     There is more similarity in these two seemingly very different
practices than may at first appear. When a cow or sheep was brought to the
Jewish temple as a sacrifice, only certain parts of it were burned on the
altar. Other parts were set aside as food for the priests, their families,
and the other temple workers. The same was true when bread or oil or wine
was brought as a sacrifice: symbolic portions were burned on the altar,
while the rest was for those who did the work of the temple. In other words,
the people's gifts of animals and food items supported the temple just as
our gifts of money support the church and those who do its work.
     At the time of Jesus, animal sacrifice was still an integral part of
Jewish religious practice. The Lord's Last Supper with his disciples--from
which we get our sacrament of the Holy Supper--was an observance of the
Jewish Passover. In this ritual, an animal was slaughtered, the blood
devoted to the Lord, and the meat eaten as a sacred observance. To someone
versed in the Judaism of the Old Testament, it might be surprising that
Jesus did not use the blood of the Passover lamb as the basis for the ritual
which he instituted at the Last Supper. Rather, he chose bread and wine as
the central elements of the ritual that we continue to celebrate in Holy
Communion.
     I suspect this had something to do with the changing nature of Jewish
society. At the time of our Old Testament reading, the Israelites were a
newly nomadic people--a people of the desert. Having no settled place in
which to live, they could not develop any plant-based agriculture, nor could
they develop the variety of occupations that comes with settling down and
forming towns and cities. By New Testament times, the Jews were (re)settled
into their land, complete with towns and cities. Cattle and sheep herding
was still a common livelihood, but it was no longer the dominant
occupation--especially in the larger towns and cities. A religion centered
around animal sacrifice was no longer the natural outgrowth of the culture
that it used to be.
     However, the bread and wine that Jesus put in place of animal flesh
were basic food items in the culture. There was something about the
representation of things that we eat and drink that was central to the
meaning of the ritual. This is where we can begin to get at the deeper,
spiritual meaning of the Holy Supper. Physically, we sustain our bodies
through food and drink. These provide us with the nourishment we need to live.
     What sustains and nourishes our spirits? Jesus said, "One does not live
on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matt.
4:4, Deut. 8:3) This is another way of expressing what Swedenborg said many
centuries later: that the bread and wine of the Holy Supper are not meant to
be taken literally; rather, they are intended to call to our mind what
sustains our spirits: the understanding of truth and the mutual love that
come to us from the Lord. These are what sustain and nourish our spirits.
     When I use the phrase "mutual love," I have to make an admission: when
I translated the passage from Swedenborg for this service, I may have
stretched Swedenborg's meaning a little. I said that the Lord's body and
blood mean "his divine love, and mutual love with people." What Swedenborg
probably intended was the Lord's love for us and our love for the Lord in
return. However, I have good authority for presuming that this includes what
we think of as mutual love--love for each other. After Jesus had mentioned
various acts of kindness and mercy toward others, he said, "I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you
did for me." (Matt. 25:40)
     Any good word we say; any act of kindness we do for another person is
an act of love for the Lord also. When we do genuine good for someone, we
are caring for the good that is in that person. This means we are loving and
strengthening the Lord in that person--for the good in every person is from
the Lord and _is_ the Lord. So Jesus' words are not just a figure of speech;
they are true in a very literal sense.
     Let's look back for a moment on the ground we have covered. We started
with the ancient Jewish practice of offering the best of their
livelihood--of their cattle and sheep--as a sacrifice to the Lord and an
offering to the temple. Then we moved to the Lord's renewal and
reinterpretation of that practice when he instituted the Holy Supper.
Finally, we considered the spirit behind both of these practices: that of
showing love for the Lord, both by being attentive to the Lord and by
showing our love for all the Lord's brothers and sisters through acts of
love and kindness.
     Keeping the Lord's commandments of love and kindness was also central
to the original covenant with the Lord. Moses did not just sprinkle the
blood of the sacrifices on the people; he also read the book of the
covenant--the laws that the Lord had given to the people. When they
responded, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be
obedient," he then sprinkled the blood on them with the words, "See, the
blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you _in accordance with
all these words_." The original covenant was not based on the sprinkling of
blood, but on the keeping of the Lord's commandments. The sprinkling of the
blood from animals given to the Lord by the people represented the deeper
life commitment of love for the Lord's commandments.
     The fellowship of our communion, then, is not based simply on coming
together and sharing this sacred meal together. It is not based only on a
ritual observance. It is based on our mutual commitment to love each other
as the Lord has loved us. And it is based on our willingness to extend that
love, not just to the people we are sharing communion with, but to all the
people we come into contact with every day. The Lord said, "Whatever you did
for one of the _least_ of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Whatever
we do, even for those we may think least of, we are doing for the Lord.
     If our sharing of communion today strengthens in our hearts and minds
these loving truths that the Lord is offering us, then we will truly be
sharing the fellowship of holy communion with the Lord, with each other, and
with the good that is in all people.


From 76452.3552@compuserve.com  Tue Jan  7 17:25:52 1997
From: 76452.3552@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 12:25:52 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Paths of Life
Message-ID: <199701071226_MC1-E47-213F@compuserve.com>

The Paths of Life
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
January 5, 1997

        You will show me the path of life.  Psalm 16:11

Many times in the Word the progression of our lives is compared to a
journey.  Sometimes the paths that we walk on are ones that lead to heaven
and other times they are pathways leading to hell.  During the calendar
year that has just been completed each of us has journeyed huge spiritual
distances.  For some here today there may be a sense of having gone through
major changes in what they cared about, knew, thought, and consequently
there are now differences in what they say and do from a year ago.  For
others here today there may be of a sense that little has changed in their
perspective on themselves, others, and the life they lead.  If this is
indeed the case, then for such a person the distances traveled are like
those of a person who rarely ventures outside of his home or immediate
community.  The pathways are very familiar and well worn with frequent use.
 

A lack of change isn't necessarily bad.  Someday, after our lives in this
world are over, each of us will become a member of a community in heaven or
hell.  We will no longer undergo the same kind of changes that we are
capable of in this world.  A fundamental quality of our lives will be fixed
and set for eternity.  

If you reflect on the patterns of the life of your mind over the past year,
what has characterized these patterns.  Anyone of sound mind and who is
concerned about what the Lord has commanded will be aware that there are
serious faults and flaws within these patterns.   Concerning this
capability, consider the following from the True Christian Religion:

        No one in the Christian world can fail to recognize sin. . . Sinful
evil is nothing else but evil directed against the neighbor; and is also
directed against God, and this is sin.  But the recognition of sin is
useless, unless a person examines what he does in his life, and observes
whether he did such a thing in secret or openly.  For up to this point all
that is mere knowledge; and then the arguments of the preacher are merely
noise going in his left ear and out his right one. . .But it is quite the
reverse, if a person, recognizing what is a sin, examines himself, finds
one in himself and says to himself, "This evil is a sin," and fearing
everlasting punishment abstains from it.  Then for the first time the
preacher's teaching and oratory in church is taken in with both ears and
reaches the heart, so that he turns from being a pagan into a Christian. 
(True Christian Religion 525)

The patterns of deeds, words, thoughts, and intentions that make up our
daily life here are also continuously defining the quality that our lives
will have to eternity in heaven or hell.  We have a capability of making
spiritual journeys in this life that we cannot after death.  We have the
capability during our lives in this world of acknowledging and receiving a
growing love for good things we previously hadn't been particularly
motivated by.  It is these loves that will determine our eternal home and
the measure of our spirit.  This is what is meant by the following: 

        [I]f during the bodily life the natural [level of a person's life] 
has not been prepared to receive the truths and goods of faith, he cannot
receive them in the other life, consequently cannot be saved. This is what
is meant by the common saying that as the tree falls so it lies; or as a
person dies, such he will be.  (Arcana Caelestia 4588)

Obviously, it is not enough to be able to see other people's faults and
flaws as also their strengths and virtues.  

        A purely natural person can see evils and good qualities in others,
and can also criticize others.  But because he has not looked into and
examined himself, he sees no evil in himself; and if any evil is uncovered
by someone else, he employs his rational faculty to conceal it, like a
snake hiding its head . . .This is caused by the joy of evil, and this
surrounds him like a mist over a marsh, absorbing and altering the rays of
light. (True Christian Religion 564:3)

One of the ideas that has become popular with some people and is a
characteristic of  "New Age" thought is that evil doesn't really exist. 
>From this perspective God or some higher power controls every event to
perfect the world.  People will say, "I'm believe that everything that
happens to me is exactly what I need at that point in my life."  While this
can seem to be an admirable faith and trust in God, it can also be a
fatalistic attitude that encourages apathy about the daily choices that all
of us make.

In the Lord's Word, there is clear references to "the path of life" and
also to pathways that aren't good and beneficial.  The first Psalm states:

        Blessed is the man 
        Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, 
        Nor stands in the path of sinners, 
        Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;  (Psalms 1:1)

Another Psalm contains the prayer:

        Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!  (Psalm 119:7)

And in the prophecy of Jeremiah the Lord called to the people saying:

        Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your
doings good."  And they said, "That is hopeless! So we will walk according
to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil
heart." (Jeremiah 18:11-12)  

As you would well know, it is true that the Lord knows about the tiniest
detail of our lives and is working within these tiniest details to lead us
to the happiest eternal home we are willing to be led to.  His perfect
knowledge is also spoken of in the Psalms:

        O LORD, You have searched me and known me. 
        You know my sitting down and my rising up; 
        You understand my thought afar off. 
        You comprehend my path and my lying down, 
        And are acquainted with all my ways. 
        For there is not a word on my tongue, 
        But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.  (Psalms 139:1-4)

How do we understand the existence of evil within a creation whose tiniest
details are overseen by a loving God?  In the book of the Writings of the
New Church,  Divine Providence, these two are reconciled.  The Lord's
perfect love and wisdom mean that He is constant in His desire and effort
to lead all human beings to heaven.  He is considerably more concerned
about the pathway that will guide us to our eternal homes than the
temporary significance of any particular spot on that route.  

The key to understanding the existence of evil within the Lord's creation
is that it is a fundamental law of the Lord's order that each of us have an
inner spiritual freedom.  Unless we are free to act according to our best
understanding of what is good and true we would cease to be human beings
who were capable of real happiness.  So the Lord has given all adults of
sound mind the capability of seeing and acknowledging what is true and good
and a fundamental freedom of heart and mind to desire and think whatever
they choose.  Anything that we do or say that doesn't come from a free
choice doesn't really become a part of our eternal quality.  If a woman
goes to work every day, but resents having to be cooperative and helpful as
part of her job, she may still do many useful things in order to keep her
job and continue to get a paycheck, but all these useful things would
disappear in a moment if she became financially independent.

The Lord wants us to gradually come to a free choice of acknowledging Him,
and the importance of loving, believing, and doing what is good and true. 
But if He forced us to do this with threats or bribes, we would never be
really happy.  Consequently, He will allow us to spiritually wander into
states of mind and to do things that are terribly harmful to others and to
ourselves.  He allows evil, but constantly tries to lead us to see its
consequences and to turn from it.  It is our responsibility to reflect on
the patterns of thought and act that presently characterizes our life and
to see what is hurtful to us and to others.   It is a law of the Lord's
government of our lives that we should make a conscious effort to become a
better person day by day. (Divine Providence 100)

The Lord has given us a written Word to teach us the ideas that can lead us
to be better human beings.  These are ideas that we could not know from our
own experience.  If we learn what is true and use it to guide our lives, we
will be walking in pathways that lead to heaven.  The Psalms speak of this
with these words:

        Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.  (Psalms
119:105)

It is our responsibility to daily use what we have learned from the Lord to
make better, more useful decisions.    He will not make us be good.  He
will not force us to acknowledge His presence and His order.  Human beings
are quite free to conclude that there is no God, no order in the universe
other than the laws of nature.  They are free to live for their own benefit
with little regard for how their choices affect the lives of others.  We
are free to choose the paths of thought and act that will lead to an
unhappy life in hell.  But this is not what the Lord wants.

The Lord is working with perfect love and wisdom to guide us towards the
paths of life.  Over the past year, He has at every moment of every day
watched the tiniest details of our hearts and mind, of our relationships
with others, of the natural environment in which we live and considered
their potential to influence for good.  He is with us and working to change
our path even if we are at the gates of hell.  He will never abandon us. 
This is good reason for great optimism.

However, the universality of the Lord's care is not cause for inattention
and apathy in regard to our patterns of intention, thought, and act.  Over
the past year, we have all had times in which we evil loves and false ideas
dominated our attention and intention.  These states of mind may not have
ever been expressed in word and deed, but many of them did influence what
we said and did.  They brought harm to others and they brought discontent,
anger, impatience, resentment, and unhappiness to each of us.  The Lord
would lead us from these pathways but He will also allow us to continue to
follow them to eternity if we choose to do so.

In the past year each of us has had the capability of making significant
spiritual progress.  We have the capability in the coming year of doing the
same.  We can be a different person when 1998 rolls around.  The Lord
guarantees it.  All we have to do is willingly follow Him.   As it is
stated in Psalm 25:

        Good and upright is the LORD; 
        Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
        The humble He guides in justice, 
        And the humble He teaches His way.
        All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, 
        To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
        For Your name's sake, O LORD, 
        Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
        Who is the man that fears the LORD? 
        Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.  Psalm 25:8-12

 AMEN.

       Lessons: Selected quotes from the Psalms
                John 14:1-6, 
                Arcana Caelestia 3854

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.  
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Sun Jan 12 02:25:07 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 21:25:07 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "You're Welcome!" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Jan11.212438-0800_est.2740-3+146@bifrost.novalink.com>

                   You're Welcome!
          A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, MA, January 12, 1997

Readings: Judges 19:13-21. Welcoming the traveler.
          Matthew 10:1, 5-16. Jesus sends his twelve disciples.
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #7418.2. Shaking the dust off your feet.

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust
from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment
than for that town. (Matt. 10:14, 15)

As promised in my New Year's sermon and in the newsletter, today I am
starting an occasional series of sermons on the spiritual aspects of being a
church that welcomes people and serves their spiritual needs. As a church, I
believe it is time for us to begin planning for outreach and growth. This
will be a primary agenda item at our Church Committee meeting next week--and
I encourage you to come and participate in that meeting. The more people we
have involved in this work, the more progress we will make.
     At our Church Committee meeting, we will discuss _practical_ aspects of
outreach and growth--such as programs to offer, visitor follow-up, and use
of the building and grounds. Here in our worship service, we will consider
_spiritual_ aspects of growth and outreach. There are, of course, many
techniques and formulas for reaching out to new people and making them more
likely to come--and return--to our church. But these techniques and formulas
mean nothing if we as individuals and as a faith community do not serve the
spiritual needs of the people we attract. Techniques and formulas are the
form or pattern of our outreach; the spiritual service that we offer people
is the _substance_ both of our outreach and of our church. If there is no
substance behind the church growth techniques that we use, what good are the
techniques? They are empty.
     Some of you may not be here today as members of this congregation; you
may be here as individuals wishing to gain spiritual nourishment. Perhaps
you are concerned that this sermon will have a lot to say to active members
of this church, but not much for you personally. However, what I have to say
this morning is not only about how a church needs to welcome people through
its doors and serve their spiritual needs. It is also about how each one of
us needs to welcome people into our lives and serve their spiritual needs on
a person-to-person basis.
     It is only when each of us as _individuals_ become people who welcome
and serve others spiritually that our church as a whole can do so. Our
church--any church--is not some abstract concept above and beyond the people
who make it up. No. We, the members and friends of this church, _are_ the
church. Yes, we do have the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God as the
center of our church. But it is only when the Lord and his Word are welcomed
into our hearts and minds, and expressed in a life of active service for
others, that we actually become a church. The church exists, not where the
Lord and his teachings are merely known, but where they are _lived_.
     Our reading from the book of Judges gives us an image of welcoming
others and serving their needs. The Levite and the woman and young man who
were with him were travelers. Their destination was the house of the Lord.
They were sitting in the open square of the city where everyone could see
them; yet no one had offered to take them in.
     There are many such travelers in the world today--many in our own
community. They are seeking "the house of the Lord," but no one has offered
to take them in on their way. They may have talked to religious friends and
even gone to various churches, but somehow they did not find a welcome.
Somehow their spiritual needs were not met.
     These are spiritual seekers. They may have been hurt by previous
contacts with organized religion. Perhaps they grew up in a church that used
fear and guilt as motivators toward religious belief. Perhaps they have felt
the sting of a clergy person or "religious" lay person who professed great
faith and personal righteousness but did not live by it--who, instead, took
advantage of others in the name of religion. Perhaps they are wary of those
who claim to be spiritual--and their wariness may be for good reason.
     The travelers in our story from Judges had good reason to be wary also.
They had already passed by a city of foreigners--people who could be
expected not to respect them or take care of them. They wanted to stay at a
city of their own people. But even the city they reached--a city of
Israelites--turned out not to be a friendly place. If we had continued
reading, we would have found that the people of that city very much wanted
to take advantage of the travelers. They _did_ mistreat and kill the woman.
If the old man coming in from the field had not felt compassion for them and
taken them into his home, it is likely that all three would have been
mistreated and killed.
     Women in the Bible often represent our heart or feeling side. Just as
the woman was mistreated and killed, many people have had their feelings of
love for the church mistreated and killed by painful encounters with
organized religion and with "religious" people who are wolves in sheep's
clothing. They have not had their spiritual "animals" fed--meaning having
their simple good desires nourished and strengthened; they have not had
their feet washed--meaning getting help to put their outward lives in order;
they have not been given the food and drink of nourishing love and
satisfying spiritual truth. Instead, they have all too often been made to
feel guilt and shame at not living up to the church's legalistic standards.
Jesus' message of life changing love and understanding has all too often
been transformed from a guiding shepherd's staff into a bruising billy club.
     We can expect to find that many of the people looking for a church have
had this kind of experience with religion. Those who have had good
experiences with their church are not likely to be looking elsewhere. But
those who have had bad experiences with some other church--if they have not
lost interest in church altogether--are the ones likely to try us out. Of
course, there are also people who are simply looking for something more
satisfying than what they now have. However, even with these people, I
suspect that if we scratched the surface, we would find wounds that need
healing. _All_ of us have wounds that need healing. Some of us have found
healing balm in the church. Others are still looking for it--still bearing
wounds with no one to help.
     Jesus' ministry consisted of preaching, teaching, and healing.
Historically, the Swedenborgian church has been very good at preaching and
teaching. If we wish to provide a full ministry in the pattern of our Lord,
we must add to our other two strengths a strength in healing. While Jesus
often did draw crowds for his teaching, without his healing work he never
would have made such an impression on people. As Jesus said in one of his
encounters with the self-righteous teachers of the Law, "Which is easier: to
say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take
your mat and walk'?" (Mark 2:9) When we show people by our loving care that
our church has the power to heal emotional and spiritual wounds, the real
strength of our ministry reaches them. Teaching is good; it gives a map and
compass for life. But healing people's inner wounds is the _heart_ of the
church.
     This is true for each of us individually. If we wish to be a part of
the Lord's renewed Christian church on earth, our task is not only to learn
what the church teaches. It is to _live_ by those teachings through working
to care for and heal the inner wounds of the people we encounter each day.
Some people may not be ready or asking for healing. But when we see someone
who is hurt and is reaching out for help, it is the essence of Christianity
to give that help in a loving and respectful way.
     This is also true for us as a church. We would all like to see this
church grow. But people will not come to our church--and they will
especially not _return_ to our church--just because _we_ want it to grow.
No! To use a material analogy, we do not usually shop at certain stores
because we want to help those stores survive. Rather, we shop there because
they have the items we need at prices that we feel we can afford. There may
be a grocery store right down the street, but if it does not serve our
needs, we will drive out of our way to one that does.
     When Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to preach the good news of the
kingdom and to heal the people's sicknesses, he gave them specific
instructions on how to proceed. One of his instructions was in a verse I
used in my text: "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words,
shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town." We may
want to think of ourselves as the Lord's disciples, going out to preach the
good news of the new Christianity, and to heal the world's ailments. This is
how the Swedenborgian church has too often taken that passage historically.
We had something to offer to the world; if they did not receive it gladly,
well then, we would just shake the dust off our feet--because they clearly
were not worthy of what we offered.
     I would suggest that this passage would be more helpful to us if we
turn the tables. In our reading from the _Arcana_, Swedenborg says that this
verse "is not referring to houses or towns that do not welcome the
disciples; rather, it is talking about people in the church who do not live
according to their faith." In other words, _we_ are the cities and towns
which the Lord is sending his disciples to visit. Whenever someone comes to
our church or to one of us individually seeking to find genuine Christianity
in us, the Lord has sent that person on the mission--whether the person
realizes it or not. The Lord is always the one who motivates people to seek
spiritual growth and healing.
     We know that those who come to us have a desire for spiritual healing
and understanding; otherwise they would not have left their hobbies and TV
sets at home and come to an unfamiliar place to be among people they do not
know doing things they are not used to. A person does not walk through our
doors by accident; there was a conscious effort of will behind that risky step.
     The question, then, is not whether those who come to us are worthy of
our faith; the question is whether _we_ are worthy of the faith they have
showed in us by coming. If we only preach and teach our faith, but do not
live by it, then we are not worthy of their faith. And do you know what?
They will sense that we do not really mean it, and they will not come back.
They will shake our dust off their feet--and we will fare no better than
Sodom and Gomorrah.
     But if we really _mean_ what we preach and teach; if we show our love
and concern for people by welcoming them, treating them with love and
respect, talking and _listening_ to them, and trying to learn what we can do
to serve their spiritual needs--if we do these things, then we can share the
peace of our church with them. And do you know what? They will come back for
more because they know that we love them and care about them, and are here
to serve their spiritual needs. This is what being a Christian--and being a
Christian church--is all about.


From 76452.3552@CompuServe.COM  Wed Jan 15 20:28:19 1997
From: 76452.3552@CompuServe.COM (Eric Carswell)
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 15:28:19 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Purpose of "Wilderness" States of Mind
Message-ID: <199701151528_MC2-F4F-B93B@compuserve.com>

The Purpose of "Wilderness" States of Mind
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
January 15, 1997

        And the water in the skin was used up, and [Hagar] placed the boy
[, Ishmael,] under one of the shrubs.  Then she went and sat down across
from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, "Let me
not see the death of the boy." So she sat opposite him, and lifted her
voice and wept.   Genesis 21:15-16

One of the mysteries that confronts believers in a loving God is the
presence of great disorder and resulting great sadness in this world.  The
idea that easily comes to our conscious thought is: "If the Lord is a
loving, all knowing and all powerful God, then why has this happened? (or
why is this happening?)"   In the Writings of the New Church there are two
answers to this question, which are very important to keep distinct.  

The first answer is that disorder and the resulting sadness occurs because
the Lord has given human beings the freedom to choose to say and do evil or
destructive things.  This evil is not what the Lord wants to have happen. 
While He works from His infinite love  and wisdom to bring as little harm
and as much good from evil as can be achieved, still horrendously terrible
results can occur from individuals or groups exercising their freedom.  The
Lord tolerates this evil because without its possibility there could be no
freedom and without genuine freedom there could be no lasting human
happiness for people in this world or for angels in heaven.  The happiness
that is heaven can only come to those who freely choose to love and so to
be led by the Lord.  So while the Lord is terribly saddened (see Apocalypse
Revealed 471) by the evil and destructive choices people make and resulting
sadness that occurs to others and themselves, He cannot stop this evil
without also canceling the possibility of heavenly joy.

There is a second reason for evil and its resulting sadness and there is
good reason to keep this reason distinct in our minds from the first.  The
Lord allows each of us to experience the consequences of the evil
inclinations and false ideas that exist within our minds so that, if we are
willing, each of us can recognize our need for His presence in our heart,
mind, and life.  This is the meaning underlying the story of Hagar and
Ishmael nearly dying in the wilderness.  As a parable it presents the idea
that sometimes the emptiness and sadness that we feel can help us learn an
important lesson.  The lesson is that we need to change and be changed by
the Lord.  

I do not think it is wise to view all evil or destructive situations and
the resulting sadness that occur  as lessons for us.   It isn't always
healthy to think: "What is the Lord trying to teach me by this tragedy?"  
The Lord certainly can help us to become wiser as a result of experiencing
consequences from other people's evil, but He does not send that person to
us to teach us a lesson.  For example if a man gets mugged and badly beaten
by a thief, there may not be bigger lesson for him to learn from this than
that terrible evil exists because of human free will.  He may not have been
acting imprudently when he was attacked.  He may not have any personal need
to experience the terror and pain of being beaten.  The Lord did not decide
to have him mugged to teach him something.

While it isn't wise for a person to view every event as occurring primarily
to teach him a personal lesson, it is also incredibly stupid to view all
events as being just a matter of other people's choices or chance events. 
A person who lives from this perspective does not take any personal
responsibility for what occurs.  As a result, he doesn't learn anything
from the consequences of his choices.  The Writings of the New Church would
say that at the central core of his life he really doesn't believe in the
existence of truth or eternal life.  (see Arcana Caelestia 2682:3)

The story of Hagar and her son Ishmael being sent out into the wilderness
with insufficient food and water is, on the surface, a terrible punishment
from Abraham.  It seems that because the young boy, Ishmael, had mocked his
infant half-brother, Isaac, that they were both condemned to death. 
Concerning this the Arcana Caelestia makes the following comment:

        Anyone may see that these historical details embody deep wisdom
from the fact that Abraham, who was rich in flocks and herds, also in
silver and gold, sent away his servant-woman who had borne his son, and the
boy Ishmael whom he loved much, with no more than some bread and some water
in a flask.  He could also foresee that they would die once they had used
these up, which would indeed have happened if the angel had not come to
their aid.  What is more, these details regarding the bread and the flask
of water, and their being placed on her shoulder, are not really important
enough to be mentioned.  But this incident did in fact take place, and it
has been recorded because these details embody and mean the first state of
those who are becoming spiritual, to whom to begin with some good and some
truth, and indeed only a small amount, are supplied; and after that their
water comes to an end, at which point they receive help from the Lord. 
(Arcana Caelestia 2674)

The deep wisdom in this story from Genesis describes people who are on the
spiritual pathway to heaven.  It describes an experience that is absolutely
essential for their continued development.  The Arcana Caelestia summarizes
the significance of this story as:

        The state of human beings prior to their reformation is one in
which they wander from one position to another in matters of doctrine
regarding faith.  They are reduced to a state of ignorance, so that they do
not know any truth at all.  This gives rise to grief in them, but at the
same time comfort and help come from the Lord, and enlightenment, and
instruction from the Word.  (Arcana Caelestia 2671)

In this story, Hagar can represent each of us.  The events that happen to
her can happen to a person as part of his adult life.  The Writings of the
New Church say that what is described in this story occurs to few people,
because so many people live such superficial and natural lives that they
would never experience a state of grief because they didn't know the Lord
would say was the truth about what they should think or do.  The Arcana
Caelestia describes it this way:

        Few are able to know about [this] state because few at the present
day are being regenerated.  To people who are not being regenerated, it is
all the same whether they know the truth or whether they do not, and also
whether what they do know is the truth or whether it is not, provided that
they can pass a thing off as the truth.  But people who are being
regenerated give much thought to doctrine and to life since they give much
thought to eternal salvation.  Consequently if the truth deserts them, they
grieve at heart because truth it the object of all their thought and
affection.  (Arcana Caelestia 2683:3) 

Lots of people could say in response to this idea, "Of course, I care about
the truth."  But what some of them mean is, "Of course, I want to know how
best to get promoted at work;" or "Of course, I want to know how best to
manipulate my son to get him to do what I want;" or "Of course, I want to
know how I need to speak and act in order to have friends and a good
reputation."  None of these describe someone who really cares about what
the Lord wants.  They describe someone who wants to achieve a worldly or
selfish goal and who is interested in knowing how best to accomplish it. 
Such a person will accept any idea that seems to further his or her pursuit
of the goal sought.  Such a person really doesn't care the least bit for
what is genuinely true from the Lord and consequently the only grief he
would know was the frustration and sadness at not getting the promotion, or
controlling his son, or losing the trust of his friends and his good
reputation.

While nearly everyone in his or her early adulthood has a sense of knowing
a tremendous amount of information and ideas about this world, how people
act, their own thoughts and concerns.  For those raised with a strong
religious background they enter early adulthood knowing a tremendous amount
of information and ideas about the Lord, His Word, eternal life, and what
the Lord wants us to do in our lives.   It can be somewhat surprising to
learn that actually we enter adulthood having received "a very small amount
of truth."  (Arcana Caelestia 2674)  Knowing factual information and
knowing the truth in terms of seeing its implications for our lives are two
very different things.  Nearly all of us have experienced this distinction.
 A simple example is when we know something but don't think of it when
we're making a decision.  A husband can be told dozens of times, "If you're
going to be late coming home, please phone me."  When he is late again
without phoning for the umpteenth time, his wife can plaintively ask,
"Don't you remember that I've asked you to phone?"  The husband would be
hard pressed to say, "No, I've never heard you say that before."  Yes, he
has the memory of being told, probably more times than he would like, but
when the situation arises of him being late, his mind is so focused on
other concerns that the thought doesn't come to mind, "I'm going to be home
late and a consideration I can show my wife is to phone her and tell her." 


Hagar and Ishmael were sent out into the wilderness with only a small
amount of bread and water.  In reality, we enter adult life with a very
primitive idea of what love really means, of what is genuinely good, of
what it really means to be kind and helpful.  We enter adult life with a
very primitive understanding of our own motivations and patterns of
thought.  But, until we come to a state of mind  in which we recognize the
importance of knowing more about these things, we won't be ready to learn
or accept them even if the Lord could introduce them into our thoughts.

The Lord allows a person to spiritually wander with this insufficient
understanding.

        [T]he state of those who are being reformed . . . is a state when
they are carried away into various errors.  For they are given by the Lord
to think much about eternal life, and so to think much about the truths of
faith; but because they do so from what is their own, they cannot do other
than wander into this position and then that, both in doctrine and life. 
Thus they accept what has been instilled into them since early childhood as
the truth, or they accept what others have convinced them to be true, or
which they think out themselves, quite apart from the recognition that
various affections of which they are not aware exist to mislead them. 
(Arcana Caelestia 2679)

A person who care about knowing and living according to the truth, will not
be happy about the results of this spiritual wandering, or this lack of
understanding.  He will be frustrated, then discouraged, and finally in
despair over his inability to see what is true about himself, his thoughts,
and his role in the important aspects of his life.  Over and over again, he
will find himself stumbling or failing.  Finally he will reach a spiritual
bottom in his life.  He will sense that he doesn't know any truth at all in
regard to the issue he is presently facing.  He will realize he doesn't
know how to be the kind of employee, the kind of father, the kind of
friend, that the Lord would like him to be.  It is only in this state that
he is really ready to turn to the Lord for help.

Hagar didn't collapse in despair the moment she realized that she and
Ishmael would be sent into the wilderness.  If she was convinced that going
meant certain death, she might have refused to go, instead wailing and
beseeching Abraham to reconsider.  No, she went out into the wilderness
apparently with some thought that she could make it on her own.  We can
imagine, the growing desperation as she realized that it was hopeless.  If
her concern was only for herself, she would have abandoned Ishmael.  But
she could not.  Nor could she stand to see him die right in front of her. 
"She could not bear to look and yet could not bear not to look."  (Arcana
Caelestia 2684)

When a person reaches a state of spiritual despair then he or she is ready
to be taught.  An angel appeared to Hagar and asked her "What is the
matter?"  This question represents a person coming to an insight or
perception of his need for help.  It is this recognition to which the Lord
has been leading the person.

        Those who experience such . . .desolation are brought to the point
of despair, and when in that state they receive comfort and help from the
Lord, and at length are taken away out of that state into heaven, where in
the presence of angels they are taught so to speak anew the goods and
truths of faith.  The primary reason why they undergo [this] desolation is
so that the things of which they are firmly persuaded, originating in what
is properly their own, may crumble . . . and also that they may receive the
perception of good loves and true ideas, which perception they are not able
to receive until those false persuasions originating in what is their own
are so to speak softened.  And it is the state of distress and grief even
to the point of despair that effects this change.  What good is, and indeed
what blessedness and happiness are, nobody with even the sharpest mind is
able to perceive unless he has experienced the state of being deprived of
good, blessedness, and happiness.  It is from this experience that he
acquires a sphere of perception; and he acquires it to the same degree that
he has experienced the contrary state, for the sphere of perception and how
far it extends are determined by his experience of the two contrary states 
(Arcana Caelestia 2694:3)

There are times when evil and destructive things occur in our lives caused
by our own choices based on an inadequate understanding of what is true. 
If we are to become wise, we will experience sadness over these things. 
This is a sadness that the Lord wants us to feel, not for its own sake, but
because of what it leads us to.  It lead us to turn to Him in freedom.  It
opens us up to receive a kind of life from Him that we never could have
before.  Without this state of sadness the happiness of heaven would be
impossible.  

May we day-by-day work to follow what we have learned from the Lord, with
open eyes to the results.  There will be times when we realize that we need
to understand what is true much better than we have in the past.  May we
care enough to receive this recognition, and the blessings that follow from
it.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Genesis 21:8-21
                Matthew 5:3-10
                Arcana Caelestia 2694:2

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From 76452.3552@compuserve.com  Mon Jan 20 16:29:00 1997
From: 76452.3552@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:29:00 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Samson: A Flawed Hero
Message-ID: <199701201129_MC2-FA5-C38A@compuserve.com>

   Samson: A Flawed Hero
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
January 19, 1997

        "No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to
God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me,
and I shall become weak, and be like any other man."  Judges 16:17

What do you think of when Samson's name is mentioned?  Samson's strength
and many victories over Israel's Philistine enemies made him a heroic
figure.  He killed a lion with his bare hands.  He defeated an army of
Philistines with no better weapon than the jawbone of a donkey.  In his
final victory, Samson, blinded and held captive, used his great strength to
push over the two main support pillars in a temple crowded with Philistine
revelers, killing more with his death than the rest of his life.

Despite Samson's strength and these victories, the stories recorded in the
book of Judges paint a picture of him as a clearly flawed individual.  Over
and over again he got into trouble as a result of his own choices and
apparent naivete.  Children upon hearing these stories tend to ask why
Samson told Delilah the secret of his strength after three times telling
her a false explanation and three times finding that explanation tested. 
They ask, "Why couldn't he see that she was going to betray him to the
Philistine leaders?"

Another aspect of Samson's character is the nature of some of his "heroic"
deeds.  There are several of them that seem maliciously destructive.   For
example, can you picture the amount of time and energy that Samson put into
capturing 300 foxes in order to tie them tail to tail with a fire brand
between them and the utter chaos that would have ensued when he lit the
fire brand and released the pairs of these foxes one at a time in many of
the ripe wheat fields of the Philistines.  Or on another occasion, when the
Philistines surrounded him in one of their towns at night while Samson was
visiting a harlot there, he waited till midnight and then quietly ripped
the gates of the city, door posts and all, out of their place and then
carried them nearly forty miles away and left them probably conspicuously
on the top of a hill in the middle of Israelite territory.  It seems to
have been a fairly clear example of his wanting to shame the Philistines. 
In a more modern situation, we can imagine the kidding that could go on
from people of other cities: "So, I understand your city gates went for a
little walk."

What do the stories of Samson mean?  Why was given such great strength? 
Samson's long hair represents the power of the Lord's Word can have in a
person's life.  Concerning it the Writings of the New Church state:

        The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to
open heaven, whereby communication and a relationship of love are effected,
and also the power to fight against false ideas and evil loves, thus
against the hells.  A person who is in genuine truths from the sense of the
letter of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew . . .
and this in a moment, merely by a look and by an effort of the will. 
(Apocalypse Explained 1086)
  
This passage refers to the power resting in "the sense of the letter" of
the Word.  The sense of the letter of the Word is the basic understanding
or literal meaning of the sentences, images, and stories of the Word.  If
the power of the Word rested in its original written form, we would all
need to become proficient in ancient Hebrew, Greek and in Neo-Latin. 
Certainly those of us who use translations miss some of the nuances that
are presented in the letter of the original language, but we trust that if
we follow the work of dedicated translators, we will still be led by the
Lord to see the stories, images, and ideas, He wants us to know and
understand.

An example of the Word in the sense of its letter can be seen when we
consider the opening words of the 23rd Psalm.

        The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
        He makes me to lie down in green pastures; 
        He leads me beside the still waters.  Psalm 23:1-2

We understand the sense of the letter of these verses when we associate in
our mind the quality of the Lord's leading in our lives with the image of a
wise and skilled shepherd tending to his flock.  There are a myriad other
passages that are beloved by many of us and to which we turn to remind
ourselves of the fundamental relationship we want to have with the Lord and
what He wants us to do to follow Him.  For example:

        I will lift up my eyes to the hills, From whence comes my help.
        My help comes from the Lord, Who made the heavens and the earth.

        You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

        Behold I stand at the door and knock.

It is these passages and many others in the Word that have the power to
open heaven, the power to help us defeat the spiritual enemies that we
face.

Samson's enemies represent the intellectual doubts and questions that can
trouble us or lead us away from the Lord and the life He wants us to live. 
These doubts, questions, and false conclusions can lead us to see ourselves
falsely, to see others falsely, to see life falsely.  Their power in some
periods of our life is huge.  During Samson's lifetime the Philistines
dominated and rule the land.  

How can we fight the influence of these doubts, questions, and false
conclusions?  In part by recognizing them, acknowledging them, and turning
to the Lord for help in fighting them.  In part by turning to the Word for
rock solid reminders of what is really true and good.  We can in times of
trial recall to mind specific passages from the Word that can foster hope. 
We can remember the absolute promises of the Lord and be strengthened in
dark times.  We can in times of confusion recall to mind the inescapable
direction that the Lord would give to our lives.  

        He has shown you, O man, what is good; 
        And what does the LORD require of you 
        But to do justly, To love mercy, 
        And to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:8

These are not vague human reasonings.  They are not blind optimism or some
Pollyanna-like view of the world.  They are promises from the Lord. 
Promises that allow the Lord Himself to be present.

But what of Samson's failures and blunderings?  All of them were involved
in his intimate relationships with Philistine women, Delilah particularly. 
These women appear to represent the ideas prompted by motivations that are
not good, (Arcana Caelestia 4855), that is they are not from the Lord, ones
that will certainly lead to destruction if they are followed.  These women
represent the thoughts that come from wants and desires that are sometimes
confused and obscure.  They can show up in our minds as self-justification
and rationalizations.  Unlike the combat of Samson and Philistine soldiers
these are not a direct, face to face, confrontation.  They are more like a
quiet nagging presence, slowly wearing away at our resolve on an issue. 
They slowly induce greyness into our thinking until we have more and more
trouble seeing what is right and wrong.   They have the capability of
taking away the power of the Word.

The fundamental message of Samson's life is that the power of the Word is
an incredibly rich resource for us to turn to in our lives.  But the truth
that we find in its pages will not be enough to save us.  A strong
intellectual comprehension of the Word will give us the power to fight our
spiritual lions, to defeat the Philistine soldiers that would seek our
death, but unless this intellectual comprehension is married to a core
ruling love of what is good, we will inevitably lose its power, just as
Samson lost his hair and his strength to the wiles of Delilah.  The Lord
has told us that unless we are spiritually reborn we will not see the
kingdom of heaven.  Unless we do our part of repentance and actively shun
evils as sins, seeking the Lord's aid in this work, our potential will be
lost and we may end up as slaves doing menial work for some evil principle
of life.

Delilah found the secret of Samson's strength and had it removed.  Part of
our mind would keep us from thinking of the Lord's words.  It would keep us
from seeking to learn, seeking guidance, seeking comfort in the pages of
revelation.  It would have us left on our own to face the challenges of
life.  As Samson said to Delilah:

        If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become
weak, and be like any other man."  Judges 16:17

We need to turn to the Word of the Lord for guidance.  We need to regularly
gather from its pages ideas and images that can speak powerfully to us.  We
need to turn to these solid foundations in times of spiritual conflict. 
But these words will not save us by themselves.  Salvation is not primarily
an intellectual activity.  It is a matter of our heart or will.

When we realize that we have abandoned the Lord in some area of our life
and have been enslaved like Samson blinded and chained to a Philistine
mill, all is not over.  We can return to the memory of ideas that have been
important before in our lives.  We can recall what we have learned and it
power, like Samson's hair, can begin to grow long again.  Even in times of
great darkness, the Lord can return with His infinite power, if we seek His
help.

Samson is not the image of a perfect spiritual person.  His strength is
something the Lord wants for us all, but it needs to be qualified by a love
of what is good, guiding it, purifying it.  May we turn to the Lord's Word
over and over again, seeking words of comfort, strength, and direction.  It
is only through the Word that the Lord can be with us and strengthen us in
freedom.  He will certainly guide us.  

While we may blunder at times like Samson, we may even enter into times of
serious spiritual challenge and trouble, we will never be abandoned by the
Lord.  He will always be there to renew our strength and guide us toward
our heavenly home.   AMEN.

       Lessons: Judges 14:1-9, 16:1-22
                
People who are in external things separate from what is internal have no
power to resist the evil loves and false ideas which are from hell.  This
is true because all power to resist these is from the Lord.  Therefore they
who have been separated from what is internal, who also have been separated
from what is Divine, have no power; consequently they are borne along by
evil loves and false ideas whithersoever hell carries them, like a tuft of
cotton or a straw by the wind.  Arcana Caelestia 10481:2

All the power of truth is from the good of love.  This  cannot be
comprehended by those who have only a material idea of power. . . In the
heavens all power is from the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord's
Divine good; from this the angels have power. By the power which they have
from this they protect a person by removing the hells from him; for one
angel prevails against a thousand spirits from the hells.       Arcana
Caelestia 10182:2

The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to open
heaven, whereby communication and a relationship of love are effected, and
also the power to fight against false ideas and evil loves, thus against
the hells.  A person who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter
of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew . . .and
this in a moment, merely by a look and by an effort of the will.       
Apocalypse Explained 1086

Truth ideas from good loves have all power, and that on the contrary false
ideas from evil loves have no power. That truths from good have such power
cannot be apprehended by those who have the idea that truth and its faith
are mere thought; when yet a person's thought from his will produces all
the strength of his body, and if it were inspired by the Lord through His
Divine truth, man would have the strength of Samson.    Arcana Caelestia
10182

People who are in external things separate from what is internal have no
power to resist the evil loves and false ideas which are from hell.  This
is true because all power to resist these is from the Lord.  Therefore they
who have been separated from what is internal, who also have been separated
from what is Divine, have no power; consequently they are borne along by
evil loves and false ideas whithersoever hell carries them, like a tuft of
cotton or a straw by the wind.  Arcana Caelestia 10481:2
All the power of truth is from the good of love.  This  cannot be
comprehended by those who have only a material idea of power. . . In the
heavens all power is from the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord's
Divine good; from this the angels have power. By the power which they have
from this they protect a person by removing the hells from him; for one
angel prevails against a thousand spirits from the hells.       Arcana
Caelestia 10182:2

The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to open
heaven, whereby communication and a relationship of love are effected, and
also the power to fight against false ideas and evil loves, thus against
the hells.  A person who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter
of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew . . .and
this in a moment, merely by a look and by an effort of the will.       
Apocalypse Explained 1086

Truth ideas from good loves have all power, and that on the contrary false
ideas from evil loves have no power. That truths from good have such power
cannot be apprehended by those who have the idea that truth and its faith
are mere thought; when yet a person's thought from his will produces all
the strength of his body, and if it were inspired by the Lord through His
Divine truth, that person would have the strength of Samson.    Arcana
Caelestia 10182:6


All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Mon Jan 20 16:37:12 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:37:12 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "How May We Help You?" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Jan20.113723-0800_est.2737-1+555@bifrost.novalink.com>

                How May We Help You?
        A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
         Bridgewater, MA, January 19, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 30:19-26. Your Teacher will not hide himself anymore.
          Mark 9:14-27. "I believe; help my unbelief!"
          _Divine Providence_ #259.3. The three central points of the church.

The father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)

Last week we began an occasional series of sermons on the spiritual aspects
of becoming a church that welcomes people and serves their spiritual needs.
At the Church Committee meeting today we will be discussing growth and
outreach, so I would like to make it two sermons in a row. Our Church
Committee meeting is for discussing the _practical_ aspects of growth and
outreach; here in our worship service, we are considering the _spiritual_
side of church growth.
     As I mentioned last week, church growth is not only a matter of
implementing various programs and techniques known to be successful for
bringing new people into the church. Far more important than these programs
and techniques is our spiritual growth as individual people and as a faith
community. Only when we are growing within ourselves and among ourselves--in
our relationships with each other--can we have genuine growth as a church.
     Even if we are successful in bringing in new people through various
techniques and programs, this does not serve the Lord or our community if we
are not growing spiritually and helping the new members of our church to
grow spiritually as well. The Lord does not need a church full of people
just for the sake of having lots of people filling the pews and making the
hymn singing good and loud! No, the Lord wants a church whose growth in
numbers and strength is an expression of growth in the faith, love, and
service of the people who are filling the pews.
     Another way of saying this is that the Lord does not particularly need
our prayers, praises, and hymn-singing. But the Lord loves to receive these
from us if they are an expression of heartfelt love for the Lord and
commitment to love and serve other people. We can boil everything we do as a
church down to a single goal: to bring people closer to God so that all who
are touched by this church may overcome what is wrong and hurtful within
them, and learn to love and serve others more and more fully and deeply.
     This goal is expressed in more traditional Swedenborgian language in
our denomination's statement of purpose. I would like to quote part of that
statement:

         The General Convention exists to help people be open to the
     Lord's presence and leading...
          With the purpose of creation being a heaven from the human
     race, we see the central purpose of the church as the promotion
     of the process of regeneration. External forms such as
     buildings, liturgies, and organizational structures are valid
     only insofar as they are useful to this end. It is especially
     vital for an "organized religion" that its life of piety be
     constantly grounded in a life of charity. (_Journal of the
     Swedenborgian Church, 1996_, p. 174)

In other words, the reason we have a church, with buildings, worship
services, and Church Committees is to help open people to the Lord's leading.
     It is also to help people regenerate. "Regeneration" is a fancy word
for being reborn and growing to spiritual maturity. This involves living
each day from the faith and love that we get from the Lord and the Bible. If
we keep our minds focused on this as we work together for growth in our
church, then any growth we achieve will be real and genuine growth, because
it will be growth in numbers and in the spirit of the Lord.
     Last week, in our first sermon in this series, we focused on the need
to help people in healing their spiritual sicknesses--healing the inner
wounds that result either from our mistaken choices or from the blows that
life sometimes deals us whether we did anything to deserve them or not. In
today's reading from Mark, there was a man whose son needed healing. The man
appealed to the Lord for help. In responding to that cry for help, the Lord
attended not only to the healing that the man's son needed, but also to the
inner healing--the healing of faith--that the man himself needed. The man
cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief." This morning I would like to
consider some of the ways we as a church can help those who believe, but
want help in their unbelief.
     Perhaps this calls to mind serving the needs of people outside our
church--people who do not have the wonderful teachings that we enjoy.
However, each one of us here today is also a person who believes, but needs
help in our unbelief. Each one of us has a need for healing and
strengthening in our faith. Each one of us has our times of doubt; our times
when we do not understand how God could allow certain things to happen; our
times when we are bewildered by nagging spiritual questions that we simply
cannot resolve for ourselves. The teachings of our church can not only help
the unbelief of the world; they can help our own belief. We will help the
unbelief of the world only if we are actively learning and growing in our
own faith.
     As we consider how we may help those who come to our church seeking a
spiritual home, then, let us consider the cornerstones of our faith--the
central points upon which our church is built. These are the essence and the
core of what we as a church have to offer to the spiritual wayfarer who
seeks shelter among us.
     Swedenborg can be very wordy and long-winded; but when it comes to the
basics of our faith, he is wonderfully brief and to the point. He says,
"There are three central points in the church: accepting that the Lord is
divine, accepting the holiness of the Bible, and living a life that is
called kindness (or 'charity')." (_Divine Providence_ #259.3)
     If you have ever thought the teachings of the New Church were
complicated, all you have to do is consider these three simple points, and
you will have the whole thing wrapped up in one package. Accepting that the
Lord, Jesus Christ, is divine--that the Lord is the creator and sustainer of
the universe; believing that the Bible is God's Word for us; living a life
of kindness and service to other people. This is what the entire Bible and
all thirty volumes of Swedenborg's works are all about! Believing in Jesus,
learning from the Bible, and living a good and useful life. Now you know
what to say to your friends when they ask what your church's beliefs are!
     These three simple points also give us a focus in all our efforts to
reach out to people and serve their spiritual needs. We live in a world that
has a welter of differing beliefs and attitudes. Within the Christian church
itself, there are many different opinions about just who the Lord is, just
how the Bible is holy, and just what it means to live as a Christian, or to
be "saved." Some of these beliefs even contradict each other.
     Any church that considers itself Christian would say that the Lord
Jesus is in some way divine, but there is a great deal of confusion about
exactly how that is true. When it comes to the Bible, some say it is holy
because every word in it is literally true, while others think parts of
it--especially in the New Testament--represent the genuine truth from God,
while other parts--especially in the Old Testament--are no longer relevant.
As for the religious life, some say believing in Jesus is all we need to be
saved, and that the way we live has little bearing on our salvation. Others
recognize that the way we live also determines whether we are "saved" or
not, but they have trouble reconciling this with statements in the New
Testament that only those who believe in Jesus can be saved.
     What our church offers that is unique among Christian churches is a way
to cut through all the confusion that has grown thicker and thicker in
Christianity throughout the many centuries since the Lord's ministry on
earth. We offer a form of Christian belief that is deeply satisfying to our
minds and hearts, and at the same time has a direct and practical bearing on
the way we live each day. When people come to us for help in their
unbelief--or when we need help in our own unbelief--we have a deep well of
spiritual teachings that can satisfy the thirsty soul.
     Let us take a very brief look at these teachings with which we may help
both ourselves and the people of our community.
     Our church's teachings about the Lord Jesus Christ are satisfying to
both the simplest and the profoundest seekers of the Lord. We believe that
when God could no longer reach us through prophets and priests, God came to
us directly in the person of Jesus Christ. The Lord was born as a baby and
grew up just as we do, facing all the struggles and experiencing all the
joys of human life on earth. Through that life, the Lord taught us what
genuine spiritual life is. The Lord showed us that it is through loving each
other and keeping the commandments of the Bible that we are saved and become
children of God.
     Our church has an especially rich treasure chest of teachings about the
Bible--God's Word. Or I should say, our teachings turn the Bible itself into
a treasure chest of spiritual teachings. For centuries that chest has been
locked, and only the outside of the chest--the literal meaning of the
Bible--has been available to us. But through Swedenborg's writings--through
Swedenborg's explanation of correspondences--the Lord has given us a key to
the deeper, spiritual meanings within the Bible. We no longer have to fret
about whether ancient Jewish history can really be part of the Word of God.
We know that the history and everything else in the Bible tells the
spiritual history of our own inner growth as Christians. In the battles of
the Old Testament we can find help to face our own inner battles as we
struggle against our old self while building our new self.
     We also know from our church's teachings that our struggle to overcome
our old self and build a new self does not happen only inside of us. It
happens in all of our daily life. Each time we face a decision of whether to
respond to another with patience or impatience, with anger or an attempt and
understanding; each time we make a choice to do for another person what we
would have them do for us, we are working out our spiritual growth through
the way we live. Faith alone not only fails to save us--it is not even
faith. If we say we believe something but do not act on it, then we really
do not believe it at all. But when we express our faith in an active life of
serving others and taking their feelings into account, then our faith is
real because it is a faith we live by--a faith we trust.
     How may we help those who come to us? We can start by constantly making
our own faith a stronger part of our lives. When we learn what our church
teaches and put those teachings into practice, we are already on the road to
helping people who come our way. For then we have a desire for their
spiritual healing and growth in our hearts. Then we can offer them the
riches of our church with full conviction, because we ourselves have
experienced the church's deeply healing power.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Mon Jan 20 21:44:34 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:44:34 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing List.  1/12/97
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970120164411.25bfb9c0@mail.one.net>

For Cinti. 01-12-97

	CARE FOR THE MORROW

	A New Year's Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	
	"Take therefore no thought for the morrow:  for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself." (Matt. 6:34)

	MOST OF US HAVE MIXED FEELINGS as a new year begins.  The future is
unknown, and when people are faced with the unknown, they react in
different ways.  Some people are decidedly uncomfortable as they
contemplate the future.  They think of all the terrible things that might
happen, and of all the problems and difficulties that may confront them,
and they retreat into a world of worry and depression.  Other people,
confident in their own ability or their own fortune, assume that happiness
and prosperity lie ahead, and believe that they will somehow be immune to
misfortune.  The first group pessimistically assumes the worst.  The second
group blindly assumes that nothing will go wrong.  But then there are other
people -- people who face the future without any preconceptions, yet
without undue worry.  They are undisturbed by any thoughts of what might
lie ahead, for they know full well that the Lord will look after them.
	Much of our happiness and enjoyment in life revolves around the issue of
how we view the future.  In this, as in all things, we should be governed
by the teachings of the Lord.  And the teaching of the Lord on this subject
is both clear and to the point -- we are not to be solicitous or anxious
for the morrow:  "Take therefore no thought for the morrow:  for the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself."  If we ignore this teaching
of the Lord we make a serious mistake -- indeed, we commit an evil.  To
indulge in excessive worry about the future, and to fail to trust in the
Lord, is wrong.  And, like any evil, it will, sooner or later, bring us
unhappiness and misery.
	A person who is worried about the future and who does not trust in the
Lord is indeed already miserable.  When he has troubles and misfortunes, he
worries that there will be no end to them.  And when things are going well
for him, when he is prospering, even then he still dreads the worst.  He is
obsessed with the future, obsessed with worry, to the point where his whole
mind is weighted down.  When a man is overly concerned for the things of
this world, such thoughts, we are told, "carry the lower mind downward, and
are like weights which drag it down."
	Now the person who is weighted down with worry about his future in this
world may feel that his attitude is a realistic one.  After all, he thinks
to himself, there are so many different things that can and often do go
wrong.  This may well be the case, but what he doesn't realize is that the
essential cause behind his anxiety does not lie in the uncertainties of an
imperfect world.  The real cause for his anxiety is to be found within
himself, and with the spiritual associations he has invited.  Undue worry
about the future comes from infestation by evil spirits.
	The Writings describe how Swedenborg went through a period of being
disturbed by all kinds of worries.  He was troubled about money matters,
about the character of the people taking care of his house, about what he
was to write, and so on.  He observed that he hadn't been troubled by such
things in the past.  And he noticed that the reason he was now worrying
about them was because he was being infested by evil spirits.
	Swedenborg was aware of the spirits around him.  We are not.  And so we
tend to forget the fact that there are spirits influencing us.  It doesn't
always occur to us, when our minds are troubled, that evil spirits are
present.  We tend to forget that when we do what is evil, this evil
inevitably associates us with evil spirits, spirits who encourage us in our
evil, and who bring with them a sphere of sadness and misery.
	This is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to worry, when we allow
ourselves to commit the sin of not trusting in the Lord.  If we allow our
thoughts to dwell on a concern for things which might happen in the future,
we are in danger of being overwhelmed by an infestation of spirits from
hell -- something that will hurt us physically, mentally and spiritually.
	On the physical plane, worry affects the body.  It can destroy a person's
health.  And because those spirits who are attracted by worry bear relation
to the stomach of the Grand Man, worry especially affects the health of the
stomach.  As we read in the Arcana:  "As solicitude about things to come is
what produces anxiety in man, and as such spirits appear in the region of
the stomach, therefore anxieties affect the stomach more than the other
organs."  It is no wonder, then, that stomach problems are commonly
associated with anxiety about the future.
	Mental health is also affected.  Melancholy, or depression, is directly
linked by the Writings to solicitude for the morrow.  So too are various
types of insanity.  The Writings teach that "the Lord alone makes provision
that man may not come into . . . insanities, and thence into innumerable
phantasies; and in order to prevent this, He commands that we shall have no
care for the morrow."  And so it is that to disobey the Lord by worrying
excessively about the future makes a man especially susceptible to insanity.
	As for our spiritual health, to be solicitous for the morrow and to fail
to trust in the Lord is extremely harmful indeed.  It cuts us off from
influx from heaven, and it immerses us in the sphere of hell.
	
	WHAT THEN SOMEONE DO if he is "a worrier"?  How is he to go about changing
his outlook on life?  Obviously, the answer lies in turning to the Lord and
placing one's trust in Him.  And yet we should be clear just what this
trust actually involves.  Many people think they have trust in the Lord,
but they in fact trust in Him in the wrong way.
	First of all, in order to trust in the Lord, a person must believe in Him,
and believe that He governs the universe.  Without a belief in God, a man
has nothing at all to uplift him from his worries.  If things go badly, he
has no real consolation, no higher power to which to turn.  If a man
believes in the Lord, though, he knows that the Lord will look after him,
the Lord will protect him.
	But a man's belief in the Lord must involve more than a na?ve trust that
the Lord will keep him from worldly misfortune.  It is relatively easy to
trust in the Lord when things go well for us.  We can then ascribe our good
fortune to the Lord, and we can trust that He will continue to give us what
we want.  But what if things go wrong?  What if tragedy should strike us?
If we na?vely trust the Lord to protect us from worldly misfortune, who are
we to blame if worldly misfortune arises?  Many people blame the Lord.
When they are confronted with hardship, or with tragedy, they are angry.
They ask why the Lord let it happen to them, and they are angry with Him,
because they had trusted Him to bring them worldly success and fortune.
	The Arcana talks about people who expect the Lord to bring them worldly
fortune.  Such people, it is said, "grieve if they do not obtain the
objects of their desire, and feel anguish at the loss of them; and they
have no consolation, because of the anger they feel against the Divine,
which they reject together with everything of faith, . . ."  If our belief
is that the Lord will give us what we want, then this belief and trust are
shattered when we don't get what we want, or when we suffer in ways we
think that we shouldn't suffer.
	The truth is that to truly trust in the Lord is not to expect the Lord to
give us what we want; to trust in Him is to be content with what He gives
us.  It is to have confidence that the Lord gives us what we need, even if
it is not what we expect.  It is, quite simply, to believe that the Lord
knows best.
	This takes humility.  We often think that we know what we need.  If only
we had this or that.  If only such and such a thing would happen, we would
be happy.  Yet so often our own opinions about what will bring us happiness
are mistaken.  They are delusions.  Often the very things people expect of
the Lord would, in fact, be harmful to them, and so the Lord, in His
wisdom, does not provide them.
	Indeed, the Writings indicate that the very fact that someone is in good
can make it harmful for him to be given what he wants, at least right away.
 We are taught that lest a basically good man become conceited with his own
goodness, "those that are in faith rarely obtain the objects of their
desire, while they desire them, but yet, if it be for their good, they
obtain them afterwards, when not thinking of them."  Likewise, we are
taught that it would often be harmful, for similar reasons, if the Lord
withheld good men from worldly misfortunes.
	The Lord does not wish misfortune upon us.  Neither is He the one who
brings the misfortune.  Misfortune doesn't come from the Lord -- it comes
from hell.  But the Lord will permit or allow misfortune to occur when He
foresees that it may be beneficial, in some way, to our eternal happiness.
He may foresee that, for particular people, their spirits will grow and
develop in the midst of worldly adversity.  And, for the Lord, our
spiritual development and our eternal happiness are of far greater
significance than any temporary worldly circumstance.  Therefore, if we
expect the Lord to bless us with worldly prosperity, or if we expect Him to
exempt us from worldly misfortunes and tragedies, we may be sadly
disappointed.
	We can, though, most certainly trust in the Lord to bring us happiness.
But we must remember that this happiness -- eternal happiness -- sometimes
comes through ways we do not expect, sometimes by means of worldly
suffering and worldly loss.  And if, through worldly misfortune, people are
discouraged from descending further into evil, or if they are strengthened
in their desire for what is good, then, within these misfortunes there are
hidden blessings from the Lord.
	We need to trust the Lord in this.  We must trust that whatever it is that
the Lord gives us, and whatever it is that He allows us to undergo, He is
leading us towards eternal happiness.  He wants us to be happy forever and
ever.  And if we trust the Lord this way -- if we trust that He is leading
us towards everlasting happiness in heaven, then we will be able to receive
something of this happiness, something of the happiness of heaven, even
whilst we still live in the world.  Happiness from heaven will flow into
our souls, and deep within our minds we will be aware of a sense of
contentment, a sense of peace.
	We all realize that worldly fortune is only a partial factor in a man's
happiness.  A rich man, for example, may be completely miserable, and a
poor man may still find contentment in the few good things he has.  The
roots of happiness and unhappiness do not lie in external circumstances,
but within the human heart.  Happiness, real happiness, flows into the
heart from the Lord.  And it flows into the heart when a man is content
with his lot.  If a man is content in the Lord, then no matter what his
external situation is, no matter what happens to him, he will still have
within himself something of happiness, something of peace.
	Therefore, if we are to experience happiness in the present, we must trust
that the Lord is leading us to happiness in the future.  And to this must
be added one very important point.  If the Lord is indeed to lead us to
future eternal happiness, we must believe that He is doing so.
	When a man does not trust in the Lord, he prevents the Lord from leading
him towards happiness.  The man who distrusts the Lord is cursing himself.
He is bringing misery upon himself.  If he experiences worldly prosperity,
he is not really happy.  He always wants more, and he is always afraid of
losing what he has.  And if he experiences misfortune, he then blames the
Lord, or blames the world around him, and he is filled with bitterness.
The Lord tries to lead a man towards happiness, but the man who does not
trust in the Lord insists on leading himself, and he leads himself into
evil, into unhappiness, into anxiety, into bitterness, into misery.
	Trust in the Lord has the opposite effect.  When we have faith in the Lord
we then place ourselves in the stream of His providence.  We allow Him to
lead us in all things towards eternal happiness.  We may not know how the
Lord is leading us.  We may not know the actual paths along which we will
take us.  But it does not matter.  It is not our concern, for we have
placed ourselves in the hands of the Lord Himself.
	We have our responsibilities, our part to play.  We must live each day to
the best of our ability, and according to our best understanding of the
Lord's Word.  And to live each day properly we must, it is true, have the
vision and the foresight to plan prudently for the future.  The Lord does
not expect us to ignore the future.  He has given us the use of reason, and
He expects us to use our heads in planning for our future worldly needs.
But what He does not expect us to do, indeed, what He expressly forbids us
to do, is to worry needlessly about the future.  We can do our best each
day, and that is that.  We cannot do more.  Only the Lord knows the future,
and this is good.  If people knew where the Lord was leading them, if they
knew the future, they would then not have the opportunity of placing
themselves in His hands.  They would not have the opportunity of placing
their trust in Him alone.
	So it is that as we go forward into a new year, we should realize that the
fact that we do not know what is in store for us is a blessing.  It
provides us with the wonderful opportunity of giving the Lord our trust,
and of allowing Him to lead us into this new year, into the future, and
from there into all eternity.  We can rest content and peaceful in the full
knowledge that every instant He is guiding us, protecting us, and blessing us.
	At times we all make the mistake of worrying too much.  At times worldly
cares get the better of even the best of us.  But on such occasions we
should stop and remember.  We should remember that the Lord is leading us,
and that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to worry about.  All we need
to do is place our trust in Him.
	"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil:  for Thou art with me; . . ."
	"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
		Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Ps. 23
		Matt. 6:25-34
		AC 8478:3-4
 

___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
Info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From 76452.3552@compuserve.com  Mon Jan 27 19:09:11 1997
From: 76452.3552@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 14:09:11 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Taking Up Your Cross
Message-ID: <199701271616_MC2-103A-885@compuserve.com>

   TAKING UP YOUR CROSS
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell

        Then Jesus said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For
whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake will save it." Luke 9:23-24

One of the things that Christians sometimes comment on when they visit one
of our churches is the absence of any crosses in the exterior or interior
decorations.  For some this absence may cause them to wonder if we really
can call ourselves a Christian church.  We certainly believe that the Lord
was crucified on Good Friday.  And as is spoken of in the text, the Lord
spoke of each of us taking up a cross daily.  There is a very legitimate
use of the cross as a powerful symbol in the New Church. 

The reason we have tended to avoid using the symbol of the cross is because
of the meaning that traditional Christian doctrine has given to it.  This
meaning is spoken of in the following passage from the True Christian
Religion:

        It is a fundamental error on the part of the church to believe that
the passion of the cross was the real act of redemption.  That error,
together with the erroneous believe in three Divine persons existing from
eternity, has so perverted the whole church that there is no remainder of
spirituality left in it.  Is there any subject which does more to fill and
pack the books of orthodox theology today, or any that is taught and driven
home more zealously in seminaries, and is more often preached and ranted
about in pulpits, than the belief that God the Father in his anger with the
human race not only drove it away from Him, but actually placed it under
the ban of universal damnation, thus excommunicating it; but because He is
gracious, He persuaded or impelled His own Son to come down and take upon
Himself the sentence of damnation, so as to appease His Father's anger; and
it is only in this way that He is able to look upon the human race with any
favor?  They add that this too was accomplished by means of the Son, for
instance in order to take upon Himself the damnation of the human race, by
allowing Himself to be flogged . . ., have his face spat upon, and then be
crucified as accursed in the sight of God.  The Father was propitiated when
this had been down, and through His love for His Son revoked the damnation,
but only for those for whom the Son interceded, so that He was in
perpetuity a Mediator with His Father.
        These and similar phrases ring through our churches today,
reverberating from the walls like the echoes in woodlands and fill the ears
of all listeners.  But is there anyone, whose reasoning faculty is
enlightened and made whole by the reading of the Word, who cannot see that
God is mercy and clemency itself, since He is love itself and good itself,
and these qualities are His essence?  And that it is therefore a
contradiction to say that mercy itself or good itself could look upon the
human race in anger, and pass sentence of damnation on him, and still
remain what He is in His Divine essence?  Such actions can hardly be
attributed to an upright person, but rather to a wicked one; nor to an
angel of heaven, but rather to a spirit from hell.  So it is an unspeakable
crime to attribute such acts to God.
        But if one enquires the reason, it is this: people have taken the
passion of the cross to be the real act of redemption.  From that source
these errors have flowed, just as one mistake produces a whole series, as a
disordered mind can only yield madness.  True Christian Religion 132

Among the terrible results of this theological interpretation is that
Christians of various denominations have come to believe that people who do
not attend their church and receive its sacraments or people who have not
acknowledged that Christ died for them are irretrievably hell-bound. 
Perhaps you have had a conversation with such a person who expressed deep
concern for your soul because you couldn't say that you were "born again"
or had asked the Father to attribute His Son's blood to your salvation. 
Many such Christians are very sincere about their worry for the salvation
of non-Christians.  When they look out at the world it would be hard not to
feel a deep sadness at all who don't believe as they do and consequently
from their belief are damned to eternity.

As the True Christian Religion passage above states, this is one of the
fundamental errors of traditional Christian doctrine.   It has led to
tremendous sadness.  It has led to a judgmental and condemning attitude
among many.  It has supported the belief among some that unwavering
non-believers can be justifiably mistreated and neglected as not counting
in God's eyes.  This view of the passion of the cross inevitably destroys
an understandable idea of the Lord as a loving God.  Because of these
abuses, the many members of the New Church have understandably been
reluctant to use the symbol of the cross.  But let us be careful lest abuse
take away a valuable use.

The Lord has told us, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23)  The
cross can be a valuable symbol for anyone who is trying to follow the Lord.
 It represents the effort we have to make, the battles we have to fight, if
we want to grow spiritually.  The cross we must take up represents the
spiritual temptations we must battle with the Lord's help if we are to
become better human beings.

The sacrifice necessary to grow spiritually represented by taking up our
cross is important.  It is however actually an illusion of sacrifice and
this is what the Lord meant by the words that He said immediately after
referring to it.  He said: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."  (Luke 9:24) 
What we are actually giving up are the evil loves that we are inclined to
be motivated by from our natural spiritual heredity and also the false
ideas these evil loves produce.  What we are actually giving up are deadly
poisons that take life.  We are giving up spiritual chains that would make
us slaves.  However, the Lord knows that this is not the way it will appear
to us as we begin our battles.  It will seem like a great sacrifice not to
follow our natural inclinations.

Take for example the person whose life and useful is being significantly
harmed because she hates to have anyone disappointed or sad even for a
moment.  If she sees that a good friend wants her to join with relish in a
"down and dirty" gossip session and instead gently but firmly changes the
subject, she may see disappointment in the eyes of her friend.  Her
response to seeing this disappointment could be that she feels strongly
drawn to go back to the destructive and uncharitable subject of
conversation that she just tried to steer away from.  Continuing to not
participate in it may feel like a huge sacrifice.  The evil spirits with
her may encourage the thought in her, "I'm pushing away one of my best
friends, perhaps forever, by not joining her in this conversation."  They
may try to remind her of other times that she has been a party to
destructive gossip and who is she to be so righteous in this situation. 
All of these thoughts and the feelings accompanying them could feel
terrible to this woman.  And yet the reality is that the sphere of gossip
encouraged by participating would have been hurtful to her, to her friend,
and to others in the community.  To the extent that she and her friend each
know that the other is capable of saying incredibly "catty" things about
others, neither of them can feel really safe with other if anything
suggests that their close bond of friendship may not prevent one from
gossiping about the other.  What the woman might recognize is that although
it is very hard for her at that moment to disappoint her friend, actually
she is choosing something better for both of them.

The Lord knows of two radically different perspectives we can have on many
subjects.  When I have taught math to elementary school students, I have
over and over again prompted some of the more advanced students not to tell
those who are struggling, "Oh, that is easy to do that kind of problem."  I
have said, "The math problems in your textbook will always be easy when you
understand what you're doing."  Similarly, the Lord knows that before we
have fought the spiritual battles that allow Him to make good loves and
true ideas feel like our own, it will feel like we are sacrificing our life
to do what is good and right.  He knows before we have formed good habits
the pull of our natural inclinations will be a very powerful force in our
mind.   

A friend was just saying to me that one of the simple and powerful
teachings that the Lord gives us is, "Shun evils as sins."  This means we
need to recognize motives and ideas that come naturally to our minds that
we need to consciously reject and intentionally act differently from
because the Lord wants us to.  The work of doing this is what the Lord
meant by His words, ""If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily."

But the Lord also wants us to know that the sense we have of sacrificing
something when we compel ourselves to think, speak, and act in better way
isn't really a sacrifice of something we really want or need.  It is giving
up something dangerous and hurtful.  The sense of sacrifice has led some to
believe that it is hard to get to heaven as in the following passage:
 
        There are some who believe that to live the life that leads to
heaven, which is called the spiritual life, is difficult, because they have
been told that an individual must renounce the world, must divest himself
of the lusts called the lusts of the body and the flesh, and must live
spiritually; and they understand this to mean that they must discard
worldly things, which consist chiefly in riches and honors; that they must
walk continually in pious meditation on God, salvation, and eternal life;
and must spend their life in prayers and in reading the Word and pious
books. Such is their idea of renouncing the world, and living in the spirit
and not in the flesh. But that this is not at all true  (Heaven and Hell
528)

In reality the Lord has told us that it is not so difficult to live the
life that leads to heaven as is believed as in this following passage from
the book of the New Church, Heaven and Hell:

        That it is not so difficult to live the life of heaven as some
believe can now be seen from this, that when any thing presents itself to a
person that he knows to be dishonest and unjust, but to which his mind is
borne, it is simply necessary for him to think that it ought not to be done
because it is opposed to the Divine precepts. If a person accustoms himself
so to think, and from so doing establishes a habit of so thinking, he is
gradually conjoined to heaven; and so far as he is conjoined to heaven the
higher regions of his mind are opened; and so far as these are opened he
sees whatever is dishonest and unjust, and so far as he sees these evils
they can be dispersed, for no evil can be dispersed until it is seen. Into
this state a person is able to enter because of his freedom, for is not any
one able from his freedom to so think? And when a person has made a
beginning the Lord quickens all that is good in him, and causes him not
only to see evils to be evils, but also to refrain from willing them, and
finally to turn away from them. This is meant by the Lord's words, "My yoke
is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:30).  (Heaven and Hell 533)

Each of us has our own cross to bear.  We each have different battles to
face.  Some of us are too judgmental and some are too mushy.  Some are too
focused on our own needs and others are so driven by having others happy at
this very moment that they give up too much.  Some of us battle with
discouragement, impatience, anger, lack of mercy, and the list can go on
and on.

It is important to see though that the battles we face are not putting up
with other people's flaws.  The stereotype image of the man sitting on the
barstool telling someone, "My wife doesn't understand me" is not in itself
the cross this man has to bear.  His cross may be to, in spite of the ways
his wife disappoints him, to continue to try to act in friendly, supportive
ways, and to battle anger, resentment, and the thought of getting divorced.
 The cross we have to bear is an inner battle to do what is good and right.
 Our commitment to follow what the Lord has said is good and right will
inevitably bring an attack of the hells that we will feel as the pain of
temptation.  This is the cross we must bear.

One of the clear examples that sacrifice is not the reality of spiritual
life is conveyed by the service of the Holy Supper.  It is called the most
holy act of worship.  When we participate in this act of worship, we do not
come forward to give away a piece of ourselves.  We do not come forward to
do some private act of self-inflicted pain.  Instead we come forward to
receive something from the Lord.  We eat the bread as a symbol of the new
love the Lord would implant in our hearts and we drink the wine as a symbol
of the wise ideas that He would bring to our thoughts.  The reality of what
He is leading us to is that He wants to bless us.

At times we can sense the blessings of leading a good life.  At other
times, our conscious state of mind is aware of the effort to be better than
we naturally incline to.  It is to this state of mind that the Lord has
said:
        If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. Luke
9:23-24

May we recognize what He means by these words and follow them.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Luke 9:23-25
                Psalm 51:1-12

The "cross" means temptations, and "to follow the Lord" means to
acknowledge His Divine and to do His commandments.  The "cross" means
temptations because the evil loves and the false ideas coming from these
loves that cling to a person from his birth infest and thus torment those
who are natural when they are becoming spiritual. And as those evil loves
and their false ideas that infest and torment can be dispersed only by
temptations, temptations are signified by the "cross." Therefore the Lord
says, that "they must deny themselves and take up their cross," that is,
that they must reject what is their own, "their cross" meaning what is a
person's own (proprium), against which he must fight.   Apocalypse
Explained 893:3

...no temptation can arise unless the good of truth, that is, the love or
affection for truth, exists in him. For anyone who does not love the truth
he knows, or is not affected by it, does not trouble about it at all,
whereas anyone who does love it is worried lest it should suffer harm. 
Nothing else constitutes the life in a person's understanding than that
which he believes to be the truth, and nothing else the life of his will
than that which, he has become convinced, is good.  This being so, when
that which he believes to be the truth is attacked the life of his
understanding is attacked; and when that which, he has become convinced, is
good is attacked the life of his will is attacked.  And therefore when a
person is being tempted his life is under attack.        Arcana Caelestia
4274
                
All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.  
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Mon Jan 27 21:25:20 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 16:25:20 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Lead Us Not Into Temptation," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Jan27.162626-0800_est.2750-1+1269@bifrost.novalink.com>

              Lead Us Not Into Temptation
          A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, MA, January 26, 1997

Readings: 2 Sam. 22:21-32. God is pure to the pure, perverse to the crooked.
          Matt. 26:36-44. Pray not to come to the hour of trial.
          _Divine Providence_ #283. Evil must be seen to be removed.

With the loyal you show yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself
blameless; with the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you
show yourself perverse. (2 Sam. 22:26, 27. Also Psalm 18:25, 26)

This past Tuesday as I was driving into Bridgewater on Bedford St., heading
up from Rt. 495, a billboard caught my eye. It said in big, bold letters,
"Happiness is helping others." I thought, "What a nice sign!" Then I noticed
the billboard right next to it. It was a cigarette ad, showing a young woman
who was obviously enraptured with the wonders of this particular cigarette.
The brand name was in large, colorful letters prominently displayed. In
smaller, more boring letters across the bottom something else was written. I
couldn't quite read the whole thing as I drove by, but it started, "Surgeon
General's warning..."
     I am certain that whoever had put up those two billboards side by side
did it especially to illustrate what I wanted to preach about this week. I
have been thinking a lot about divine providence lately--both about the book
by Swedenborg and about the idea of how God cares for us. I have especially
been thinking about the issue of evil--why there is evil in our lives... why
God permits evil things to happen, both inside of us and out in the world.
So today we are going to talk about the good stuff: _evil_!
      I say that with tongue in cheek, but this kind of careless
contradiction is just what strikes me about those two billboards right next
to each other. One offers a very Christian thought: that happiness is
helping others. The other is part of an organized effort to make a profit
from a product known by its makers to hurt others.
     Those two billboards are more than a couple of signs by the side of the
road. They are, to adapt an old expression, billboards of the soul of our
world. They sum up the contradictions of our human experience here on
earth--contradictions that go all the way back to that mythic time in
pre-history when the race of people known to us in the Bible as "Adam and
Eve" ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. From that time in our
human history onward, our lives have been an inappropriate and sometimes
glaring mixture of good and evil.
     As a nation, we send humanitarian aid to other countries at the same
time we are supplying various military factions with weapons to use in
shooting and killing people. As a people, we make great advances in surgery
and healing at the same time we are mass-marketing liquor, cigarettes, and
other drugs known to be damaging--even deadly--to the human body. On a more
personal level, we love and provide for our children at the same time we are
passing on to them all the faults of character that we have never quite
faced up to and overcome. That quick temper; that tendency to overindulge;
that lack of courage to say "no" when we know someone is doing something
very wrong; that pride that looks down on people outside of our family or
group. The list could go on and on.
     As human beings, we are bundles of contradictions. The deeper we dig
inside ourselves and into the workings of our society, the more
contradictions we find. Some of them are blatant, like the two billboards.
Others are more subtle, like helping others, not so much because we care
about them, but because we want to make _ourselves_ feel good. We want to
pat ourselves on the back and say "what a good boy (or girl) am I!" Now
_that_ is a contradiction: doing good things for other people in order to
make _ourselves_ happy. I do not think this is what the billboard meant, but
it is one of those subtle ways that we can take the truth--that we gain
happiness from helping others--and turn it into something false--that our
goal in helping others should be to make ourselves happy.
     Contradictions! Contradictions! What I find a little scary is that if
we get ourselves too far into these contradictions and self-deceptions, even
our faith in God can seem to support the faulty conclusions we draw. This is
illustrated by a passage from the Bible that has been running through my
head lately. It is the one I used as my text: "With the loyal you show
yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself blameless; with the
pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse."
     Just a minute! Those first three were fine, but what about that fourth
one? We are talking about _God_ here... It says, "with the crooked you show
yourself perverse." God? Perverse? That goes against everything our church
teaches. Some religions do teach that God is both good and evil. This is
usually associated with various Eastern religions; but Christianity is not
exempt. There are many passages in the Bible about the destructive wrath of
God--and many Christians take these passages quite literally. For many
Christians, God is not only a God of creative love and compassion, but also
a God of destructive anger and vengeance.
     "With the crooked you show yourself perverse." It is the same jam we
can get into with words we say in our service every week--words that come
from no less than the Lord's Prayer. Each week we say, as we pray to the
Lord, "Lead us not into temptation." Does this mean that the Lord _would_
lead us into temptation if we didn't pray to the Lord not to? Is God being
perverse to us when we are spiritually "crooked" enough to need some
temptations to straighten us out?
     Even Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane urged his disciples to stay
awake and pray that they may not come into the time of trial (or
temptation). His own prayer was an example of this: "My father," he said,
"if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what
you want." The "cup" that Jesus was praying might pass from him was the
crucifixion--the greatest temptation that the Lord faced in his entire life
on earth.
     What can we make of all this? Is it God's will that our lives should
contain so much trial, temptation, and struggle? Is it the Lord who leads us
into temptation? There are many places where the Bible says that God tempts
us. Yet it is incompatible with the teachings of our church that the Lord
would bring us pain and struggle, for the Lord is pure love and wishes to
bring us only happiness and joy.
     Swedenborg gives us help here. He admits in _True Christian Religion_
#650 that,

         It is a new idea in the church that the Lord attributes good
     and never evil to us, and that the devil (meaning hell)
     attributes evil and never good to us. This is a new idea because
     we read in many passages in the Bible that God is angry, takes
     revenge, hates, condemns, punishes, throws people into hell, and
     tempts us--all of which are the actions of an evil person,
     meaning they are evil.

But Swedenborg goes on to explain that these statements about God in the
literal meaning of the Bible only _appear_ to be true, while in the deeper
meaning, God never tempts or punishes us. In _The Doctrine of the Sacred
Scripture_ #94, Swedenborg gives one reason why such things are said in the
Bible's literal meaning. Some people need to think that God will punish them
if they do wrong--so that they will avoid doing what is wrong! But in
_Apocalypse Explained_ #246, Swedenborg tells us how temptations really work:

          ...It is not the Lord who "reproves and chastens" us;
     rather, it is hellish spirits who are in false ideas similar to
     our own. These evil spirits are the ones who "chasten"
     us--meaning they tempt us. We know that God does not tempt
     anyone...
          This is how temptations happen: We come into them when we
     are brought into our own ego. Then hellish spirits who have the
     same false ideas as we do--and the same evil loves--attach
     themselves to us and hold our minds in these false ideas and
     evil loves. But the Lord holds our minds in true ideas from
     faith, and in the good things of kindness. Since we are then
     continually thinking of heaven and salvation, we experience deep
     anguish of mind--and from this comes the battle that is called
     "temptation."

What Swedenborg is saying here is that it is not the Lord who leads us into
temptation, but our own false thinking, and the evil (or destructive) things
that we love when we are thinking and feeling from our ego. Evil spirits
attach themselves to these false and evil things in us, and try to keep us
headed in that direction. But these false and evil things conflict with
everything we know and feel about loving others and believing in our
church's teachings. And the Lord tries to move us in _that_ direction. So we
experience inner anguish and struggle as these two forces--evil and falsity
from hell, and love and wisdom from the Lord--struggle with each other
inside of us.
     An example might help. Let's say we have a tendency to lose our temper
with our family members. When we think about it, we know that when we have
an outburst of temper, it hurts the people it is directed at. It hurts our
husband or wife; our children; our parents; our brother or sister; our
friends--it hurts the people we love. We know that it is not the way the
Lord would have us live. Yet when we are having the outburst--and often
before and after it, too--we argue within ourselves that we are justified in
getting angry and lashing out because those people deserved it for what they
said or did.
     So we have a struggle inside of us between our destructive inclination
to lash out--together with the faulty reasoning we use to justify it--on the
one hand, and on the other hand our desire to love the people around us and
our knowledge that the church teaches us to love others and to treat them as
we ourselves would wish to be treated.
     It may seem to us that it is the Lord who is "being perverse" and
leading us into temptation. But if it were not for our self-centered
feelings--our feelings that _others_ should be serving _us_--we would have
no struggle; we would receive the love and wisdom that comes to us from the
Lord and show it to all the people we come in contact with. But when our
ego, or selfishness, gets in the way, then we have a struggle. It is our
selfishness, not the Lord's love, that causes us to come into the anguish of
temptation.
     Yet the Lord does allow our evil and self-centered thoughts to express
themselves from time to time in hurtful actions, such as outbursts of
temper. Why? As Swedenborg explains in the passage we read from _Divine
Providence_, if the evil that is inside of us never came out, we would not
be aware of it so that we could overcome it. It would stay inside us and
fester until it finally ate us up from the inside out.
     The Lord allows us to see and even express our selfish thoughts and
feelings because only when we see that they are there--and see their
destructive effects--can we face them squarely, and with the Lord's power,
put them aside. We will never rid ourselves of them entirely--they will
always be at the edge, wanting to come back. But with the Lord's help we can
move them away from the center of our thoughts and feelings.
     When we pray to the Lord to "lead us not into temptation," we are
praying for something the Lord already wants--and that is a good way to
pray! We don't want to change God's mind. God is already perfect; any change
would be for the worse. But we do want to bring ourselves into harmony with
God's will. When we are ready to let go of our self-centered desires and the
faulty thinking we use to justify them, then the Lord can lead us, not into
temptation, but out of temptation and into the joy of spiritual life.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Tue Jan 28 04:29:52 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 23:29:52 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970127224811.38c7123a@mail.one.net>

For Cinti. 01-26-97

	FINDING THE LORD

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	" . . . uses, which are goods, are from the Lord, and consequently are
Divine; yea, they are the Lord Himself with man." (Div. Love XIII)

	AT SOME POINT IN OUR LIVES, usually fairly early in childhood, we first
ask the question, "Where is the Lord?"  To that question we receive a
simple answer.  He is everywhere.  Wherever you go, whatever you are doing,
He is with you.  He is omnipresent.
	Such an answer, though, can only be a beginning.  In many ways it can be
difficult to understand how He can be everywhere.  The Lord when He
appeared on earth showed that He is a Man.  He is a Divine Man.  How can a
Man, even a Divine Man, be everywhere?
	If the Lord were just some kind of nebulous force or field pervading the
universe, it might be perhaps easier to understand.  But the Lord is not
some vague entity pervading the universe.  The Lord is Human, Divinely
Human.  The Writings use the phrase, God-Man.  Furthermore, when we say
that He is everywhere, we do not mean that He is stretched out throughout
the universe, so that part of Him is in one place and part of Him in
another.  What we mean is that the whole of Him, His complete self, is
totally present wherever we may go.  The Lord is with us right now.
Nothing of Him whatsoever is missing.  It seems difficult to comprehend.
	The difficulty is compounded, in some people's minds, by the fact that
when they look around, they can seen no obvious evidence of the Lord's
presence.  Certainly they do not see the Lord with their physical eyes.
And so they wonder.  They wonder how there can be a Man who is everywhere,
a Man they cannot even see.
	Now we are to come to understand how the Lord is with us, there is
something we must do.  It is a very simple thing, a thing so simple that,
by ourselves, we might never think of doing it.  We must close our eyes.
This is what the Writings tell us to do.  We read that "this Divine is so
obscure to man as not to be manifest to the eye when opened, but only to
the eye when closed."
	Closing our eyes might sound a strange thing to do.  Consider, though,
what it is we see when we look around us.  The more we see, and the more we
examine the world around us, the more we come to see that wherever we look,
the things we see are most wonderfully created.  It doesn't matter where we
look.  We can examine the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the
mineral kingdom, or even probe the very depths of the atom itself.
Everywhere there is such perfect order, such perfect design, such perfect
construction, that a person who has an open mind will never cease to be
struck with awe and wonder as he beholds the created universe.  But never
do we find any particular evidence of the existence of God.  There is
nothing that particularly stands out as something that demonstrates, beyond
doubt, that the Lord is with us.  And the reason we do not notice any such
evidence is that we cannot notice something that is everywhere.  If the
Lord suddenly appeared right in front of us, we would notice Him.  We would
be convinced, at least for a time, of His existence.  But the Lord is not
in front of us.  The Lord is everywhere -- in every single particular of
the universe.  Everywhere we look, without fail, we see something of the
incredible love and the incredible wisdom with which the Lord has made this
universe.
	Therefore, if you would find the Lord, there is no point in continuing to
search for Him with your eyes.  You have already seen enough evidence of
His presence, for such evidence is present wherever you look.  What remains
is to close your eyes, as it were.  In other words, you must stop looking
and start thinking instead.
	We must think about what we have seen -- think from the light given us in
Divine Revelation.  What is it that we then come to see with our minds?  We
see, first of all, that the universe around us, in every least detail,
reflects an incredible wisdom.  But we also see something else.  The wisdom
we see manifested is not a blind, cold intelligence, but has a purpose.
Everything has a use.  People, of course, do not always see this use, but
then it is only a matter of time before they discover that they have
blundered.  Consider the lesson of ecology.  Just a few decades ago, few
people had any idea that each species was important.  Now we know that we
cannot exterminate a particular species without it having repercussions for
a whole range of living things upon the earth.  The reason for this is
simple.  Every living thing has its use, and if this living thing is made
extinct, the use it performs will go unfulfilled, and all other living
things will then suffer in one way or another.
	Now for all things to have a use, for all things to have a purpose,
implies the existence of a universal love.  It is love, and love alone,
which can have a purpose, can have a goal it desires and after which it
strives.
	We see this within ourselves.  All that we do, unless it be by accident,
has a purpose, a purpose we want fulfilled.  And this purpose, this desire,
is determined by the love which motivates us.
	Now there are two important things which must be noted about love, and
about the wisdom through which it works.  First of all, both love and
wisdom are non-spatial.  They have nothing to do with space.  Can you talk
about the physical size of love?  Of course you can't!  Anybody can see how
ridiculous it would be to ask how many feet, or how many inches across,
one's love for something was.  We may, of course, think of love as
occupying a particular place:  a person's love resides within his head.
But the Lord's love is not confined in this way.  The Lord's love goes
forth in fullness, universally.  The Lord's love is the salvation of the
human race.  His desire is that He might bring all who are willing to
Himself in heaven.  All that the Lord does, wherever it may be, has this as
an end.  And the Lord's love is omnipresent.  It is everywhere.  It has
nothing to do with physical space.  There is nowhere in the universe where
you can say that part of the Lord's love is not present.  And what of
wisdom?  It is of the Lord's wisdom, for example, that people should love
one another.  This is the Lord's truth.  We should be unselfish.  Does this
principle of Divine wisdom have anything to do with where we are?  No!
Wherever we go, this truth is always true.  The Lord's love and wisdom are
universal.  They are not limited by physical distance, physical space.
	The second thing that should be noted about love and wisdom is that they
are human.  We are not human because we are in human bodies.  The body is
not what makes us human.  Humanity itself is to love, and it is to love
wisely.  We are human because we have this capacity.  And the more we
experience love, that is, unselfish love for others, the more human we
become.  The human bodies we have are simply a consequence of our having
human souls, and our bodies were created for us by the Lord in order that
through them we might express our love.
	So it is that the Lord is indeed Human, a Divine Human, a Divine Person,
for He is love and wisdom itself.  And because His love and wisdom are
infinite, He is infinitely Human.
	We might feel uncomfortable at the thought of a Divine Human Being without
a material body.  Indeed, this is one reason the Lord came down to earth
and assumed a material body.  He came so that He might show us, beyond any
doubt, that He is Human.  Because of this, when we think of Him, when we
pray to Him and worship Him, we do not have to stretch our minds, and think
so abstractly that we lose sight of Him.  We can think of Him as a human
being, indeed as the Divine Human, in whose image we are all made; and we
can picture His love and wisdom as glowing and shining forth from a human
face and from within a human body.
	This is how we are to think of the Lord.  When we get down on our knees
and pray, we are to picture the Lord as a human being, with Divine love
showing in His face, love which reaches out to us through His outstretched
arms.
	But though we picture the Lord this way, let us not be misled into
thinking that His body, the body He assumed on earth, limits Him in any
way.  That body was glorified.  It was made Divine.  The Lord, when He
appears in the heavens, still appears as a Man, with a glowing countenance.
 But He is not limited, in any way, by space.  We can be with the Lord
wherever we are.
	The Lord is everywhere, then, because He is love, and love is not limited
by space.  Nevertheless, this love is reflected in space.  The visible
universe everywhere around us testifies to a loving Creator.  Because the
Lord is love, there is nothing, nothing whatsoever, which does not have a
use, a purpose, and therefore does not serve in some way, for the benefit
of mankind.  Even evil things would not be permitted if it were not
possible for them to be overruled in some way for what is good.
	So it is that the Lord, as love, is present in every single use.  Because
all things have a use, and because uses, in the final analysis, are the
Lord's, He is therefore in all things.  He is within them, if they are
good, or outside of them, restricting and controlling them, if they are evil.
	In the New Church we make much of use.  And it is important that we do so.
 The Writings make it plain that uses, when considered interiorly, are from
the Lord Himself.  Inmostly, good uses are Divine, for they are an
expression of the Lord's love.
	Our tendency is, of course, to think of uses in terms of external things.
This is because, when we do something useful, we do something in the
external world.  But a use is only a use if it serves a purpose.  And there
is no purpose unless it fulfills a desire, or a love.
	Even if you wash the dishes, one of the more mundane of worldly chores,
you are doing it for a purpose.  You are doing it partly so that things
will look tidy, and tidy surroundings are pleasing to the mind.  You also
wash the dishes so that people can eat off them, and be nourished.  In
either case, you are washing the dishes from a love of helping and pleasing
other human beings.
	This doesn't mean that when someone is washing the dishes, he or she is
necessarily filled with feelings of charity and love.  Ultimately, though,
the things we do are motivated by love.  And if within what we do there is
a desire to serve others, then, deep down, the uses we perform in this
world are not really natural things at all.  They are spiritual.  They are
things that come forth from a love of helping others, a love that is an
image of the Divine love.  We are doing what the Lord wants to be done.
The work we are performing, the uses we are performing, are His uses.  In
performing these uses from a sincere heart, our love touches the source of
all love, the Lord Himself.  Our lives, our actions, have become part of
the Divine purpose -- that people should serve one another.
	If we return to that simple question often asked by children -- "Where is
the Lord?" -- we can see that the Lord is everywhere.  But we can see
something else as well.  Though He is everywhere, we can only find Him in
what is of use.  This is where our love meets His love.
	Therefore, if we are to ever find the Lord, we must be of use.  In heaven
we will all be assigned our uses.  And on earth, during most of our lives,
we have jobs which should be our primary way of serving our fellow human
beings.  But usefulness must extend beyond this.  Our whole philosophy of
life must be a search to be useful to others.  Before we start work, when
in school, we should strive to learn so that we can be of greater service
as adults.  When we have finished work, after we retire, we must continue
to seek for ways to be of service to others.  If we should lose our jobs,
we still must strive towards the same goal -- to be helpful to others in
some way.  Even when we are sick, and can do very little, there are still
some things we can do, which will bring happiness to others.
	Where is the Lord?  He is everywhere.  He is with you when you worship,
for in worship you learn from His Word, focus your mind upon Him, and gain
the knowledge and determination to do His will.  But you cannot find the
Lord in such worship alone.  You will only find Him if you go out and
determine, during this week, as during every week, to do what you can, do
as much as you can, to serve, not yourself, but those around you.  It is in
uses that the Lord is present, with His love and with His wisdom.
	The Lord is everywhere, for His love is universal.  He is with you
wherever you are.  But if you, in turn, are to be with the Lord, if you are
to turn to Him, then you must live a life of love.  You must live a life of
use.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Ps. 139:7-18
		Mk. 10:35-45
		Love XIII
 


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
Info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From 76452.3552@compuserve.com  Mon Feb  3 17:57:30 1997
From: 76452.3552@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 12:57:30 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Actions and Words Aren't Enough
Message-ID: <199702031259_MC2-10AB-3203@compuserve.com>

ACTIONS AND WORDS AREN'T ENOUGH
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
February 2, 1997

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of
heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

Growing up most of us have seen stage magicians or read about people with
magical powers who invoked their magic with special incantations.  They
might say "abracadabra." or "hocus-pocus" and then something amazing would
happen.  Probably many a young child or early adolescent has longed for
this kind of magical power that could be tapped with right wave of the hand
and the right words.  But we know that life isn't this simple.  But
sometimes even Christian believers have bordered on a similar idea.
Wouldn't attaining happiness be easy if all we had to do was call on the
name of the Lord?  Wouldn't it be reassuring if we could just go through
the right set of ritual practices and be guaranteed a heavenly home?

What if a person was feeling sad, oppressed, frustrated, or scared and
called "Lord, Lord" and immediately a powerful sense of peace, calm, quiet
happiness descended.  It would be even better if we could do it once in our
life and be fixed forever.  But this isn't the way the Lord has created us
and the world of spiritual forces in which we live.  He said explicitly,
"Not everyone who says to Me, ^?Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of
heaven."  Words alone won't bring us peace and happiness.  Actions alone
won't do it either.  We don't earn happiness or heaven.  Happiness and
heaven comes from our heart or will and to receive it we need to receive
the profound spiritual change that is regeneration.  A change of heart
necessary .  

We also know that receiving happiness is not a matter of convincing the
Lord.  He wants to give us as much happiness as we can receive.  He wants
each of us to go to heaven.  The light and warmth of His love and wisdom
shines on us constantly.  And we receive it differently when we are in good
state than when we are in a bad state.  He doesn't have to change - we do.

An essential idea for us to get to heaven is that words and action alone
will not bring the life of heaven to us.  If we think of them superficially
they won't even guarantee that we will be effective in our work or
appreciated by the people around us.  Considered superficially our words
and actions don't guarantee that we will be decent human beings.

We know that a person can attend church, read the Word, say prayers, and
live a basically moral life, yet he or she can still harbor envy,
impatience, and distrust in his or her heart.  And this means that person
still would not be happy, because they would not have life of heaven within
heart

Each of us needs to consciously work together with the Lord to allow Him to
bring about the miraculous changes in what we fundamentally care about and
are motivated by.  This is regeneration.  For this to happen we need to
learn from Lord, seek the necessary insight to recognize the evil
motivations and false ideas that regularly mar our lives,  acknowledge them
to the Lord, pray for help, and then fight the influence of these evil
motivations and false ideas can have on our words and acts.  But while
regular effort is essential, the action apart from the thought and will
behind it does not earn happiness.

Our actions come from some kind of marriage of will and thought within our
minds.  Every least thing that happens within our thoughts, moods, words,
and actions has its life and energy from something we care about or love. 
We have affections of widely varying qualities and focus.  Some are
stronger than others.  Some are fairly obvious in their focus and others
are much more subtle^?so subtle that we may have great difficulty
identifying their quality and what aspects of life influence them.  And
these affections don't exist without ideas, beliefs, sensed reality or
experience to support them.  Consider the implications of the following
passage about the necessary origin of good and truth within our lives:

        Good has its origin in the Lord, and likewise truth; for the Lord
is Good itself and Truth itself and these two in Him are one. For this
reason good in the angels of heaven and in people on earth is good in
itself only so far as it has been united to truth; and truth is truth in
itself only so far as it has been united to good. It is well known that
every good and every truth is from the Lord.  Therefore, as good makes one
with truth and truth with good, it follows that for good to be good in
itself and for truth to be truth in itself, they must make one in the
recipient; that is, in an angel of heaven and a person on earth.  (Divine
Providence 10)

These two things, love or good and wisdom or truth, each from the Lord,
must come together in our lives in the things we think, say, and do.  So
long as they exist only in our minds as abstractions, they have little
reality or affect on who we really are.  When they come together in act
they are as it were married within us and become a part of who we really
are.  Concerning this marriage the book of the New Church, Divine
Providence, states: 

        There is a marriage of good and truth in the goal [of our thoughts
and actions], and there is a marriage of good and truth from that goal in
the effect. The marriage of good and truth in the goal is a marriage of the
will and the understanding, that is, of love and wisdom. There is such a
marriage in everything that a person wills and thinks, and in his
consequent conclusions and purposes. This marriage enters into the effect
and, indeed, produces it; but in the process good and truth appear to be
distinct, because what is simultaneous then produces what is successive.
For instance, when a person wills and thinks about being fed, clothed,
having a home, conducting any business, performing any work, or engaging in
any discussion, he first wills and thinks about these things, or forms his
conclusions and purposes, simultaneously; but when he has reduced into
effects what he has willed and thought, the one follows after the other;
nevertheless, they continue to make one in his will and thought. In these
effects, uses relate to love or good, while the means employed to furnish
the uses relate to the understanding or to truth.  (Divine Providence 12)

An important thing for us to recognize is that any single action can come
from innumerable different loves and be given direction by innumerable
different sets of ideas.  A woman can do her job well because she wants to
be of service, or because she wants to be well-regarded, or because she
wants to be paid, or because she wants to grow in power or authority.  A
man can do considerate things for his wife because he wishes well to her,
or because he doesn't want to get nagged, or he is hoping his good deed
will lead her to want to make love to him, or because he wants to
manipulate and control her with a sense of obligation or guilt.  The
actions proceeding from these different motivations and thought may appear
similar on the surface but they will be fundamentally different in their
origin.
   
There several important ways that this idea applies to relationships in
this world.  Many people are tempted to think that they can earn love and
friendship.  We can think, "If I can just find the right words, the right
actions, I will be loved.  So if the person we hope to be loved by is
angry, or just cold, we can tell ourselves, we didn't do it right.  We
continue to search for some magic key.  We think if I just did it right
everything would be fine.

The problem isn't always that we are at fault.  The state of mind of
another depends not on environment but on his or her response to
environment.  We cannot by our efforts make others respond in a friendly or
loving way.  If wife are trying to get along with a husband, if she
comments on something she can be perceived as arguing or nagging.  If she
is quiet, she can be perceived as ignoring.  If she is nice, her actions
can be sensed as buttering up.  A person can think if only I had done or
said things right everything be okay.   He can tell himself "If I was
perfect everything would be fine.  This applies to many other events and
issues that we can be concerned about.  We can think if we just act in the
right way everything will turn out well--that we can change the heart of
enemy.  If we put in enough work, work hard enough, do it the right way,
things will go the way we want them to.  And it doesn't necessarily work. 
The Lord doesn't guarantee the world around us will go as we wish, that
people will behave towards us as we might hope or wish for.  What He calls
us to is an inner peace, inner fulfillment within our efforts.

It is the initial marriage of motivation and thought that determines the
true quality of any act.  Consequently, the Lord told us that calling on
His name, may mean nothing at all.  It may be utterly empty of any desire
to have his qualities of love and wisdom in our lives.  Yes, we do want to
use our best understanding, patience, and care.  We want to use our words
wisely, and consider our actions.  But we can realize in some areas of life
these words and actions do not have absolute value.  The results depends on
response of others

We are building on sand if our peace of mind and happiness depends on
others.  We are building on a rock if we realize that our happiness and
unhappiness comes from our own response to life.  It comes from own heart. 
We cannot earn happiness or heaven by words and actions.  Yes, prayers,
efforts to do the Lord's will are essential.  But they cannot earn heaven. 
A fundamental goal that we need to seek is to cooperate with the Lord to
bring about a change of heart^?a change of heart that will come when good
and truth are married within our lives.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Matthew 7:21-29

Apocalypse Explained 295   Because anyone's will is his love, and God's
will is the Divine love, it can be seen what is meant in the spiritual
sense by "doing the will of God" and "the will of the Father," namely, that
it is to love God above all things, and the neighbor as oneself. And since
to love is to will, so it is also to do; for what a person loves, that he
wills, and what he wills he also does. Therefore "doing the will of God" or
"of the Father" means doing His commandments, or living according to them
from the affection of love or charity. This is what is meant by "the will
of God" and "of the Father" in the following passages. In John:  "God does
not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He
hears him."  (9:31).  In Matthew (that the one who does the will of the
Father who is in the heavens shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens):
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."  (7:21). 
In the same: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven." (6:10).

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.  
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Wed Feb  5 17:24:04 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 1997 12:24:04 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Our Spiritual Diet," by the Rev. George F. Dole
Message-ID: <97Feb5.121912-0800_est.2776-4+276@bifrost.novalink.com>

                   Our Spiritual Diet
               by the Rev. George F. Dole
            Bridgewater, MA February 2, 1997

Readings: Daniel 1
          Mark 4:21-34
          Psalm 119:105ff.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and
he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
(Daniel 1:8)


On the literal level, the stories in the book of Daniel serve as a source of
encouragement in times of difficulty, and certainly neither Israel nor
Judaism was a stranger to such times. After a brief moment in the sun under
David and Solomon, the nation divided, clinging precariously to a measure of
independence while overshadowed by much more powerful neighbors. Then first
Israel fell, followed ultimately by Judah, and the dark night of captivity,
of exile, closed in. After the return from exile, Judea was subject to
Persia, then to Greece, and then to Rome, with only one brief span of
freedom under the Maccabees. Generation after generation needed the message
of Daniel, needed assurance that it was possible to remain faithful against
apparently impossible odds, that the Lord would deliver those who trusted in
Him.

Politically, we have no such experience. We live in what is arguably the
most powerful and independent nation the world has ever seen. We do not know
what it is like to have our country occupied by a conquering army, to be
dispossessed of our homes and taken against our wills to the country of our
captors. The literal story of Daniel is not particularly relevant to our lives. 

Like all the stories of the Bible, though, it expresses principles that
apply on a much deeper level. As a parable of the struggles of our own
souls, it is as fresh and telling as ever. We do have our inner tyrants, we
do feel ourselves at times pressed hard to abandon our religious values and
give in. The writings of our church enable us to move beyond this level of
generalization and to identify a particular kind of tyrant who may be all
too familiar.

In traditional doctrinal terms, Babylon corresponds to "the love of dominion
from the love of self." In its crudest form, this expresses itself as a lust
for power, attempting to force other people to do what we want them to. We
see it sometimes in people who do have power, whether in the nation, in the
community, or in the church. We see it also, if we look, in the people who
feel powerless, and who believe that their problems would be solved if they
only had the power that they want.

In order to bring the message home to ourselves, though, we may have to look
for subtler forms of this "love of dominion." I would suggest that in
contemporary terms, the obvious candidate would be called "the need to be in
control"--in control of our lives, in control of what other people think of
us, in control of what we think of ourselves, in control of our children or
our marriages or our health or our destinies. It is a very "natural" need,
both in the sense that it is perfectly understandable and in the sense that
it is not very "spiritual."

Natural as it is, it is a hard taskmaster for the simple reason that there
is not very much that we do or can control. The universe is very big, and we
are very small. Plan as we may, we do not know what the future holds for us.
Other people have an extraordinary tendency not to want to be controlled any
more than we do. In fact, in order to feel that we are in control, we have
to live in a very small world, largely a world of our own making. The only
way we can make ourselves feel big is by blinding ourselves to everything
that is bigger than we are.

Our own times of "captivity" are likely to be the times when we feel as
though things are getting out of control. As long as life runs along
smoothly, we are content to let it run without our close supervision. But
let the threat of uncertainty raise its head, let there be some real doubt,
some real anxiety, then the "take charge" attitude has a strong appeal.
Politically, it is easiest for dictators to come to power when the
alternative seems to be chaos. "Mussolini made the trains run on time."

Daniel pictures the small voice in us that insists that the Lord is in
control. Theologically, that is quite obvious. We know perfectly well that
God is infinite and omnipotent and so on and so forth. I know perfectly well
that parachutes work, too, but I suspect that if I were about to take my
first sky dive, that knowledge would not carry the conviction it does when I
stand safely on the ground. Trusting the Lord's care when things seem to be
getting out of control is not an issue of doctrinal correctness. It is a
matter of believing with the heart as well as with the head.

"Trusting in the Lord" does not necessarily mean sitting back and doing
nothing, though. I am fond of the pseudo-Buddhist maxim, "Don't just do
something, _sit_ there," because it points to the folly of rushing into
action before we have a clue as to what the problem is, of doing something
just for the sake of doing something. Swedenborg's definition of charity as
"acting _with prudence_ to the end that good may result" (_The New Jerusalem
and Its Heavenly Doctrine_, #100) reminds me of the sign I saw some years
ago: ''Caution: be sure brain is engaged before setting mouth in motion."
However, the goal of the sitting, the goal of engaging the brain, is still
action of some sort or other.

In that sense, our trust in the Lord is simply the context in which we
decide what to do. It helps us to see the situation in proportion, to
realize that we have a very real but very limited responsibility. We might
actually see this imaged by the Daniel story in the fact that Daniel did not
mount a challenge to the throne. He simply asked for control over his own diet.

This is the point at which a light began to dawn for me in exploring the
meaning of the chapter. Our food is what we take in from the outside world
and, quite literally, "incorporate." It is processed by our digestive system
and to a considerable extent then becomes part of our own living tissue. In
this sense, our spiritual diet is made up of what we take in from the world
around us, the solid food being the feelings we are sensitive to and the
drink being the truth or falsity we take in.

There is no way we can devour the whole world. Our awareness of the world
around us is immensely selective, and that selectivity is not random. Our
fundamental goals, what Swedenborg calls our ruling love, focus our
attention. When we are ruled by a need to feel in control, we are sensitive
to every threat, to every indication that things might be about to go wrong.
Some people get to be very good at this. There is the mother who somehow
gets sick every time her favorite daughter shows signs of wanting to leave
home. There is chairman who finds compelling reasons to delay the vote until
he has had time to work behind the scenes. There is the child who has
discovered a parent's Achilles' heel--the list could go on and on.

The point is that since we can attend to only a tiny fraction of what is
actually happening, we center our attention on that fraction that is
important to us. That becomes our steady diet: in the case of the Babylon of
the need to be in control, it is the heady wine of power.

Daniel opted for natural food, for vegetables and water. It may sound a bit
flippant, but we can see this as being less interested in what other people
might be cooking up than in what might be sprouting in their lives. It is
the difference between the minister who focuses on church politics and the
one who focuses on pastoral concerns. In the same situation, they will be
aware of very different things.

The voice of what is sometimes called "realism" says that your contract is
up for renewal next year, so you'd better make sure you have enough people
on your side. That turns out to be the broad way to an atmosphere of
mistrust and political in fighting. The voice of Daniel says that these are
human beings we are dealing with, people standing in the presence of their
Lord and moving toward eternity. It urges us to listen as hard as we can. We
can hear only a little of what they are saying, but if we really try,
perhaps we can hear the most important part.

There is nothing necessarily impractical or unrealistic about this.
Actually, if we pick up on what is really important to others, we are
picking up on the sources from which the political realities flow. We are
looking behind the facade, seeing through the smokescreen.

Our Lord was fully aware that the world we live in is not always a safe one.
In fact, ours is both physically and spiritually far safer than his. He
advised his disciples that he was sending them out as sheep in the midst of
wolves; he advised them to be wise as serpents as well as harmless as doves.
We need to learn from experience what tends to work and what does not. We
need to develop skills both in observation and in expression, in receiving
and in giving. Good intentions are no substitute for competence.

In fact, if we are genuinely concerned with each other, if, in doctrinal
terms, we are "in love toward the neighbor," we will _want_ to learn. We
will be impatient with our ignorance, our clumsiness, our ineffectiveness.
We will try to help and then try to learn from the results of our efforts.

This is one of the points at which the need to be in control points us in
the opposite direction. The need to be in control prompts us to justify what
we have done, to take credit for anything that looks like success and to
avoid the blame for anything that seems to go wrong. The need to be in
control says that circumstances must give us the answer that we want. It
cannot afford to be contradicted. Like the Soviet Union, whatever it
publishes it labels as _Pravda_, "Truth." This is the mentality that closes
Scripture, incidentally, by going to it not to learn but simply to find
proof of its own dogmas. Whether we are in favor of the death penalty or
against it, we can find Scriptural support for our preference and claim that
we believe this because the Bible tells us so. In fact, though, we are
telling the Bible what to tell us. We are still "in control," and not about
to relinquish it.

The Lord gave His disciples instructions when he sent them out, some
specific and some general. But perhaps the most practical, the most
realistic thing he told them was, "Behold, I am with you always," because no
matter where or who we are, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves
in, this is absolutely true--and it is the most important fact of our lives.
It is the fact that Daniel stands for in the midst of captivity, the fact
that not only guided him but nourished him as well.

"Take heed what you hear," the Lord said. The world does not tell us what it
is; we choose what fraction of it we will give importance to. The world
offers us all kinds of food for thought and feeling; we are the ones who
select a particular diet. Daniel "resolved not to defile himself with royal
food and wine," and contrary to the expectations of skeptics, flourished.
May we be at least as attentive to our spiritual diet as we are to our
physical one.

Amen.


From leewoof@novalink.com  Tue Feb 11 02:05:54 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 21:05:54 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Deliver Us From Evil," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Feb10.210049-0800_est.2807-2+76@bifrost.novalink.com>

                Deliver Us From Evil
        A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
         Bridgewater, MA, February 9, 1997

Readings: Jer. 7:1-7. Amend your ways and let me dwell with you.
          Luke 3:7-14. Bear fruits worthy of repentance.
          _Divine Providence_ #117. Evils must be shunned as sins against God.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your
doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. (Jer. 7:3)

As I was preparing today's sermon, I realized that if I wanted to do a
Valentine's Day sermon, it would have to be this week. By next week,
Valentine's Day will have gone by. But by the time I realized this, it was
already too late--the wheels had been churning in my head for too long, and
they were going in a different direction.
	Today's sermon is about as far away from Valentine's Day as you could get.
I am going to complete the thought we started two weeks ago, when the sermon
was titled "Lead Us Not Into Temptation." Today my title is "Deliver Us From
Evil." You will have to find something else between today and Friday to get
you in the mood for Valentine's Day, because I am not going to give you much
help!
	Two weeks ago we considered how we get into temptation, and how the Lord is
always working to lead us out of temptation by leading us away from our own
harmful habits and tendencies. But of course, we all do have bad habits that
have developed over the years. Some of those habits are obvious to other
people; some of them we hide from others so they will not see them; and some
of them we do not even see ourselves, as Swedenborg suggests in our reading
from _Divine Providence_.
	The Lord cannot always lead us out of temptation, because the wrong--or
evil--things that build up in us block the way. Many times it is too late
for the Lord to "lead us not into temptation," because we are already right
in the middle of the destructive ways of thinking, feeling, or acting that
bring on the temptations. In this case, we need the Lord to deliver us from
evil. Today we will look a little more closely at how this can happen--how
the Lord can deliver us from evil if we will work with the Lord.
	You see, the Lord cannot automatically flush away everything that is wrong
with us. Oh, maybe it would be possible theoretically, but consider the
consequences. Each one of us is a mixture of good and bad motives, good and
bad thoughts, good and bad actions. We might think, "If only the Lord would
take away all the bad parts, I would be completely good, and everything
would be wonderful!"
	But it is not that easy. Consider our bodies. Some of us have bodies that
are in better working order than others. At the moment, mine is not doing so
well. I have been having coughs and sniffles. In Swedenborgian doctrinal
language, my nose and throat are "involved in evil." My head has been
involved in evil once or twice in the past week, too. . . . I'm talking
about headaches, so you can stop imagining things!
	Now, if the Lord had taken away the evil parts of my body during the past
week, I would currently be without a nose and a throat, and perhaps without
my whole head. I suspect I would be missing a few internal organs as well. A
hospital that treated people's illnesses in this way would soon be out of
business--and when it comes to overcoming human evil, the Lord is much more
skilled than even our finest physicians.
	No, the Lord cannot simply take away the evil parts of ourselves because
they _are_ parts of ourselves. Taking them away would mean killing us, just
as taking away vital but diseased parts of our physical bodies would cause
our death. It is necessary for the Lord to take a less drastic and less
dramatic approach. It is an approach that may leave us impatient for more
results in the short term, but in the long term we will come out far better.
If we help instead of hinder the process, we will not only come out with all
our spiritual limbs and organs intact, but with much stronger and healthier
ones than we had before.
	I keep mentioning that we need to work with the Lord; to help the Lord
deliver us from evil. How do we do that? Some Christians would say that
there is nothing at all we can do. Our salvation from sin and death is
purely a matter of God's grace. A person who believes this very strongly
would probably not admit much more than that we can cooperate with God by
believing in Jesus as our savior. Our church agrees that as Christians we
must accept Jesus as our Lord and savior. But that is only the _beginning_
of our journey as Christians. Once we have entrusted our lives to Jesus, we
have the job of re-forming our lives into the pattern that Jesus has shown us.
	Now this gets tricky. Those Christians who believe it is only God's grace
that saves us do have an element of truth in their belief. It is only by
God's power that we can be saved and rescued from the wrong ways of
thinking, feeling, and acting that stand in the way of our spiritual life
and health. If we rely on our own strength, we will fail. Any apparent
success we have will be superficial. It will be nothing more than an effort
to straighten ourselves out to avoid getting into trouble or having people
think badly of us. But, as Swedenborg points out, if we avoid evils for
these external reasons, we only shut them up inside of ourselves; we do not
remove the self-centered desires that our evils spring from.
	Because of this, it is important for us to recognize in everything we do
that anything _good_ we do is really the Lord working in us; it does not
come from ourselves. Yet we do also need to work with the Lord every step of
the way--not just the one time we decide we are going to have faith in the
Lord and become Christian. As the prophet Jeremiah says so forcefully, 

     Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways
     and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not
     trust in these deceptive words: "This is the temple of the Lord,
     the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." (Jer. 7:3, 4)

It is not our attendance at the temple of the Lord, nor even our profession
of belief in Christ that allows the Lord to dwell with us. These are only
doorways. It is when we take our faith to heart and amend our ways and
doings that the Lord can come and dwell with us. When we do this, we are
letting the Lord dwell with us in this place--in the temple of our bodies,
minds, and spirits.
	Let's be more specific. In our reading from Luke, John the Baptist echoes
Jeremiah's preaching when he tells the people to "bear fruits worthy of
repentance." The people pressed _him_ to be more specific. "What then should
we do?" they asked. So he gave them a specific answer. "Whoever has two
coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do
likewise." These are fruits worthy of repentance. These outward actions of
consideration for others' needs are taught to us by the one who was sent to
prepare the way of the Lord--and later by the Lord himself.
	What I especially like about this passage is that even this wasn't specific
enough for some of the people in the crowd. The tax collectors who came to
be baptized asked, "Teacher, what should we do?" Unfortunately, he did not
tell them to stop collecting taxes! But he did tell them to collect no more
than the amount prescribed for them. Since tax collectors gained much of
their wealth by over-collecting taxes with the Roman soldiers to back them
up, this was no small obligation that John laid on them.
	Some soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" Once again, he
did not tell them not to be soldiers anymore--much to the chagrin of
pacifists everywhere. Instead, he told them, "Do not extort money from
anyone by threats or false accusations, and be satisfied with your wages."
This was a difficult thing also. With all his armor and weaponry, a soldier
was a frightening man, and could easily make much more than his wages by
engaging in a little extortion on the side.
	Those of us who are not tax collectors or soldiers may wish that someone
from our own occupation had been there to ask what _we_ should do. But these
two answers give us a pattern that we can apply to our own situations.
Whatever our work may be, our religion teaches us that we should avoid using
our position to hurt others or to profit at their expense. Instead, we
should do our work honestly, fairly, and with concern for others.
	This may seem obvious to us. In our church especially, there has always
been a great emphasis on living the life of "charity," or kindness. It is a
central belief of our church that faith by itself does not save us, but
faith expressed in good works of love and kindness toward others does. These
two passages from the Bible join together with hundreds of others to assure
us that this is so.
	What may not be so obvious is that while we are busy cleaning up our act
outwardly, we are making way for the Lord to change our deeper feelings and
thoughts. Sometimes this business of confronting our evils seems too much
for us. We are told to search out our selfish feelings and false ways of
thinking and to fight against them. But when we start paying attention to
all the thoughts and feelings that fly through our heads minute by minute
and day by day, the task seems overwhelming. Mixed in with our good thoughts
and feelings there are so many petty jealousies and unfounded angers. Mixed
in with our love for others and desire to live in a Christian way are so
many uncharitable thoughts about others and alluring urges to do things we
know we shouldn't. How can we ever deal with it all?
	We cannot. There is too much going on inside of us and we have too little
control of it to overcome all our selfish feelings and thoughts. By the time
we had taken care of one of them, a dozen more would have already passed
through our minds unchecked. Fortunately, the Lord does not expect us to
clean up our minds and hearts by ourselves. The Lord will do that for us if
we will focus on an area where we can have more effect--with the Lord's
help, of course. That area is the things we actually say and do.
	We all have wrong thoughts and feelings. It is part of the human condition
in a world that is a mixture of good and evil. However, we do not have to
_act_ on those wrong thoughts and feelings. What the Lord requires of us is
that, when we have an urge to say or do something we know we
shouldn't--because we know it is wrong and hurtful--we refrain from saying
or doing that thing. As Jeremiah says, the Lord requires that we amend our
_ways_ and our _doings_.
	If we will do this, recognizing that it is by the Lord's power that we
amend even our words and actions, then the Lord can come and dwell with us.
The Lord will dwell within us, in the temple of our hearts and minds. Then,
upon the foundation of our good words and deeds, the Lord will gradually
deliver us from the evil of our self-centered thoughts and feelings, so that
we may be clean both inside and out, and dwell with the Lord forever.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Wed Feb 12 21:57:01 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 16:57:01 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970212165027.390f1d24@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________

For Cinti. 02-09-97

	THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"How lonely sits the city that was full of people!  How like a widow is
she, who was great among the nations!  The princess among the provinces has
become a slave!" (Lam. 1:1)
	
	JERUSALEM, THE CAPITAL OF ANCIENT ISRAEL, was a most beautiful city.  It
was set in the southern part of the land, surrounded by mountain ranges on
every side but the south east.  If you stood in that city and looked
around, you would see these mountain ranges all around.  And if you then
turned to the south-east, you would see a gap in the mountains where you
could look out over the wilderness towards the far distant mountains of Moab.
	Mountains, in the Word, symbolize the Lord and the love that comes from
Him.  It was as if Jerusalem, surrounded by these beautiful mountains, was
being protected by the Lord's love.  The Psalms speak of this protection:
"As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from
this time forth and forever."  And the city of Jerusalem was indeed
protected, and in a special way, for it was a special city.  Jerusalem,
after its complete conquest by King David, around 1000 B.C., became the
capital of the Holy Land.  David's son, King Solomon, then built the Temple
there, and Jerusalem thus became the center of worship for all the Israelites.
	It is important to realize just how fundamental Jerusalem and the Temple
were to the Israelites.  Their worship was built upon and centered around
sacrificial offerings, and these offerings could only be made in the
Temple.  And so it was that every adult Israelite, and in particular, each
adult male, would regularly travel to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to
sacrifice to the Lord.  They were commanded to attend three annual
festivals, though in practice many of them would attend only the Passover.
	From all across the land, pilgrims would regularly journey to this holy
city, to worship Jehovah.  In the Psalms King David speaks of this annual
pilgrimage:  "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of
the LORD.'  Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go
up, the tribes of the LORD, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to
the name of the LORD."
	This is why Jerusalem, in the Word, symbolizes both worship and the
doctrines which teach us how to worship.  Indeed the New Church takes its
very name from Jerusalem.  The New Church, the New Jerusalem, consists of
new doctrines which teach a new way of worshiping the Lord.
	Jerusalem, then, was a very beautiful city, and a symbol of something very
holy:  the worship of the one true God, and indeed, the promise of heaven
itself.  Its name, Jerusalem, means, "Habitation of Peace."  It was a
sanctuary where people could gather to give thanks to and to draw close to
God Himself.
	Eventually, though, this sanctuary, this beautiful city, this center of
worship, was to fall into the hands of enemy soldiers.  During the reign of
Solomon, who built the Lord's Temple in Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Israel
reached its greatest height.  After Solomon, though, the kingdom then began
to decline.  Following his reign, the kingdom of Israel split into two.
Jerusalem now became the capital of only the two southern tribes, Judah and
Benjamin.  Eventually, as the result of their repeated sins, the northern
tribes were carried away captive to Assyria by the Assyrian army, never to
return.  The southern kingdom continued intact for somewhat more than a
hundred years, but eventually, Judah itself would also fall prey to foreign
soldiers, and the city of Jerusalem itself would be plundered by the
Babylonians.
	The fall of Jerusalem was a terrible event.  The Babylonian army of King
Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city and conquered it.  The temple of the Lord
was ransacked.  The king and his family, all the nobles, all the craftsmen,
and anybody the invaders thought useful, were taken away to Babylon.  Only
the poorest people were left to fend for themselves in this once beautiful
but now devastated city.  For a while the Babylonians set over the Jews a
puppet king by the name of Zedekiah, but Zedekiah himself proved
rebellious.  Once again the city was besieged.  The city ran out of food
and within the walls of Jerusalem there was the most terrible famine.
Jerusalem fell again, and this time the city was broken up, and the Temple
and most buildings of significance were set on fire.  Zedekiah's sons were
slain in front of his eyes.   Then the king himself was blinded, and he was
taken to Babylon.
	The fall of Jerusalem involved a great deal of terrible human suffering,
both physical and emotional.  Jerusalem, the "Habitation of Peace," had
become a site of terrible destruction.  For those who lived there, and for
those who worshiped there, it was a most horrible tragedy.
	Now a great deal of the horror and dismay that accompanied the fall of
Jerusalem can be seen in a small book of the Word called Lamentations.  The
Book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah, and in fact
immediately follows the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is generally known as
the prophet who, more than any other, prophesied gloom and doom.  From his
name comes the English word, a jeremiad, meaning a tale of woe.  And
Jeremiah indeed talks of many sad things because he saw many sad things.
	It is important to realize that Jeremiah not only witnessed the fall of
Jerusalem, but had also, earlier, been given the task of warning people of
this impending destruction.  The Lord had chosen him to warn the people of
Jerusalem of the consequences of their actions, and to implore them to
change their ways before it was too late.  If they would return to
following the commandments of the Lord, they could remain in the land that
the Lord had given them.  But all that Jeremiah said -- all his warnings --
were met with contempt.  At one point he was commanded by the Lord to write
down on a scroll all that he had been told, warning of what would happen to
Judah if they did not repent.  Jeremiah had his scribe, Baruch, write down
all he dictated, and then he had Baruch read it before all the people
gathered in the temple.  Baruch was called before the king, and when the
king hears the warning words of Jeremiah, he cuts the scroll into pieces
and throws the pieces into the fire on the hearth.  Jerusalem sealed its
own fate by ignoring and despising the warnings the Lord gave through
Jeremiah.  But even then, Jeremiah did not cease his warnings.  He warned
the people to leave the city before it was too late, and to surrender
themselves to Babylon, rather than face famine, sword and pestilence.
Jeremiah was accused of weakening the resolve of the people, and he was
lowered by ropes into a dungeon in which there was no water, just mire.
Jeremiah sank into the filth, and he, the prophet of the Lord, was left to
die of hunger.
	Jeremiah was later rescued from that dungeon, only to witness the very
destruction that he had prophesied.  And the sadness, the terrible sadness,
that he experiences, is recorded in the Book of Lamentations.  Lamentations
is a small book, just five chapters in length.  It is, unquestionably, the
saddest book in the entire Word.  In Latin its name is Threni, from a Greek
word meaning wailing.  The Book of Wailing, of Weeping, of Lamentations.
In Hebrew it was called Ecah  Ecah is the first word of the book in Hebrew,
and it means, simply, How?  "How lonely sits the city that was full of
people!"  And from that very first verse throughout  all five chapters,
this small book of the Word is filled with the poetry of sadness.  In a way
it might be said to be a litany of tears.  The verses have a structure that
reflects the Hebrew alphabet.  For example, in three of the chapters each
verse begins with a different letter of the alphabet, in order.  It is
almost as if, in English, we were to say, "A is for anguish, B is for
Babylon, C is for crying, D is for death," and so on.  And the images this
book presents are awful:  of infants and children starving in the streets,
of young women being raped, of young women and young men being slaughtered
with the sword.
	Now if we read the Book of Lamentations, it is easy to start feeling
depressed.  It is a book that is filled with sadness, with lament, with
suffering.  It describes pain, physical pain, emotional pain.  It is
perhaps a book of the Word that we would rather avoid.  And yet it is a
book of the Lord's Word, and it has been given to us so that we can read it
and learn from it, and, in the process, draw closer to the Lord Himself.
	Most of us have a strong tendency to avoid thinking about things that are
sad, things that are unpleasant.  Some even think that the main purpose of
religion is simply to cheer people up and make them feel better about
themselves and about life.  Certainly the message of religion is a happy
one, a very happy one indeed.  Religion, indeed, has as its goal nothing
less than everlasting happiness.  But a person will not arrive at such
happiness by avoiding the more unpleasant aspects of life.  For each one of
us there are things we must face, things we must pass through, if we are
eventually to reach heaven.
	Now there are many hard things that a person will experience during the
course of an average lifetime.  And some people will experience not just
hard things, but tragedies -- events that bring them close to complete and
utter despair.  Indeed, if the truth be known, all of us at times pass
through such dark tunnels, times when we wonder whether our hearts will
ever again be filled with sunshine and with happiness.  Not all of us will
experience and face external tragedies.  But within our spirits, deep
within our minds, such states of despair are inevitable as we walk the path
towards heaven.
	What is the darkest state, really, that we can ever experience?  It is to
think and to believe that somehow we are doomed to hell.  It is to come to
doubt that we will ever manage to reach the gates of heaven.  We see too
much evil, too much selfishness, too much lust, too much worldliness,
within our hearts.  And if the truth be known, we are scared, scared that
perhaps we are just too wicked to be saved.
	Such a state is portrayed by the fall of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem, after all,
represented the things of the church.  It was at Jerusalem that men would
gather to worship and draw close to their God.  And we know that the Lord's
church is, essentially, not something outside of us, but within us.  Within
our hearts, within our minds, there need to be the things of the church:
truths we have learned from the Word, and the determination and humility to
obey these truths.  And it is interesting that very often Jerusalem, or the
church, will appear to prosper and grow within us during the earlier states
of our lives.  As young people, as young adults, we can be very idealistic,
and enthusiastic, about our religion.  As we turn to the Lord, and follow
Him, there is within us this habitation of peace, this Jerusalem, where the
Lord dwells within our hearts.
	It is only later that we realize, sometimes with horror, that within us
there are also spiritual enemies.  The mighty empire of Babylon represents
the love of dominion, the love of self.  And we slowly come to see that
there is in fact a great deal of selfishness -- so much concern for
ourselves and for what we want -- in all that we do.  And as we peer into
our spirits, we no longer see Jerusalem as a beautiful city built high upon
the hills.  Rather, we see it in ruins.  We realize much of what we thought
we believed, much of what we thought we loved, lies broken within us.
	It is a terrible thing to see the church itself falling apart within us.
We can find ourselves questioning whether or not we love the Lord.  We can
find ourselves even doubting whether He exists.  We feel a sense of disgust
at our evils, our sins.  Deep down inside of us everything spiritual seems
to disintegrate.  We feel confusion, anxiety, pain and fear within our
hearts.  And we are convinced that we are doomed to hell as too wicked to
ever be saved.  Jeremiah wept bitterly at the fall of Jerusalem.  And in
our hearts we do the same:  we weep at the way in which the church seems to
have fallen apart within us.
	But we need to remember something.  Despite everything, the Lord still
loves us.  He is still with us.  Indeed, when we go through states of such
deep despair, He is then closer to us than at any other time:  watching
over us, protecting us, sustaining us.
	When Jeremiah saw his beloved city in ruins, he did not give up hope.
Despite all the sadness, all the tragedy, recorded in the Book of
Lamentations, Jeremiah still speaks of hope: "'The LORD is my portion,'
says my soul, 'Therefore I hope in Him!'  The LORD is good to those who
wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  It is good that one should hope
and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."  And indeed there was
reason to hope.  The Lord had not forgotten Jerusalem.  About fifty years
later the city would start to be rebuilt and the Jews would start returning
home from Babylon.
	And so too with us:  we should not give up hope.  States of spiritual
despair, states of spiritual temptation, might feel as if they are going to
last forever, but they do not.  Rather, they are a stage through which we
pass -- and through which we must pass -- on our way to heaven.
	We can never fully accept the Lord as our Savior without experiencing
spiritual despair.  The experience of despair, you see, teaches us
something very important.  In states of despair we feel condemned.  We feel
as if we are going to go to hell.  We get to sense and to experience what
life would really be like without the Lord.  We come to realize just how
weak we are all by ourselves, and how much we truly need Him -- how much we
need His salvation.  This is why the Lord allows us to experience despair
-- total utter despair.  And this is why the Lord, and the Lord alone,
later brings us out of despair -- so that we might experience His
salvation, might experience the power of His outstretched arms.
	The Book of  Lamentations is not, then, a book we should overlook because
we might think it to be too sad and depressing.  Yes, it talks about sad
and depressing states.  But it is a book about life.  It is a book about
our lives, and about the course that our lives will take as we walk the
path to heaven.  It is a book which helps us see that the Lord is not only
with us when things are going well and when we are feeling happy.  He is
with us through the hard times as well.  He is with us not only when we
feel good about ourselves.  He is also with us when we feel totally
wretched and depressed about ourselves and about our own wickedness.  He is
with us when we weep from despair.  He is always with us because He loves
us, and He cares, cares deeply, about the state of the church within us.
And if we trust in Him, and wait for Him, and obey His Word, then in time
He will restore and He will rebuild Jerusalem  -- the Habitation of Peace
-- within our hearts.  He will deliver us from destruction and from despair
and He will save us and bless us with happiness and with peace forevermore.
	Do not be defeated by despair.  Do not give up.  The Lord is with you
wherever you go.  He is with you wherever you are.  And if you hope in Him,
then He will save you.  Jerusalem will be rebuilt.  The Habitation of Peace
will be restored.
	" . . . be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create
Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy.  I will rejoice in
Jerusalem, and be glad in My people."
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR OWN LORD, BE GLORY AND
DOMINION FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Lam. 1:1-16
		Jn. 16:16-24
		AC 2694:2


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Thu Feb 13 20:23:47 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 15:23:47 -0500
Subject: SERMON: What Should Be Together and What Separate?
Message-ID: <199702131524_MC2-113B-F9FE@compuserve.com>

What Should Be Together and What Separate?
by the Rev. Eric H. Carswell

        [The Samaritans] did not receive [Jesus], because His face was set
for the journey to Jerusalem.  And when His disciples James and John saw
this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from
heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"  Luke 9:53-54

The disciples were outraged when a village of Samaritans rejected the
messengers who had been sent ahead to prepare a place for Jesus to spend
the night.  They had the conviction and maybe even cockiness that can
sometimes accompany people who see themselves on the "winning team."  By
this time Jesus had a large following.  Shortly after this event Jesus
chose seventy disciples beyond the twelve apostles and sent them out in
pairs into every city and place where He was about to go.  (Luke 10:1) 
Since Jesus was becoming so well known and obviously had such power, the
disciples were ready to condemn those who didn't receive Him as they
thought was appropriate.  They were ready to call down fire from heaven to
destroy those who weren't on their side.

The Writings of the New Church state that the village of the Samaritans
does indeed represent a state of opposition to good and truth.  They
represented the false ideas or doctrine of those who reject the Lord. 
(Apocalypse Explained 223)  This state of mind occurs many times in life. 
Picture a six-year-old with a firmly set face insisting that it was right
that he hit his playmate because of what he had done.  Now, of course, a
six-year-old doesn't from himself chose to reject the Lord the way an adult
can, but that state of determined ill-will justified by a set of ideas is
what is represented by the village of Samaritans not receiving the Lord. 
Another example would be a person who has lapsed into apathetic inactivity
in an important area of life, like work, marriage, or parenting, because he
or she has concluded that no matter what is done it won't make much
difference.  Still another example would be someone who continues to
inappropriately rescue another adult from the consequences of his or her
bad habits supposedly to "help" that adult, when the fundamental motivation
is that the rescuer can't stand to see the other person experience the pain
of those consequences.  In each of these cases what is genuinely good or
what is the Lord's potential presence is being rejected and this rejection
is being supported by a false view of what is right, reality, or genuinely
helpful.  

While we cannot know the reality of what is in a person's heart, we can be
aware of expressions, tones of voice, words, and actions in others that
don't seem to accord with what the Lord has taught us.  There is a part of
our mind that categorizes or pigeonholes these expressions, tones of voice,
words, and actions in others.  It tends to sort them into groups, perhaps
into things that are genuinely evil or bad, somewhat bad, somewhat good and
genuinely good.  It tends to divide up the world into those who are on "our
side" and those who aren't.  Obviously in this story from Luke the
disciples have decided that the people of the Samaritan village were the
bad, sufficiently so that their destruction by fire from heaven was
justified.  When we reflect on this story, actually the disciples would
have been equally condemned by their own judgment.  They too were rejecting
the Lord or what is good and justifying it with false ideas.  Their idea
that people who did not immediately accept the Lord were worthy of
punishment brought on by others is a false one.  It is the order of
creation that evil brings unhappy consequences, but the good never seek to
bring these consequences into being from any desire for harm.  Good people
do indeed have a hand in consequences, very clearly in the example of the
judge who passes sentence on a convicted criminal, but the intention should
always be to either help the individual see that past behavior is harmful
or to protect the good of the greater community.  In either case the good
person is focused on promoting and preserving what is good.  It has love or
the spirit of charity within it.  This spirit was not what the disciples
had in their hearts when they asked the Lord if they should call fire down
from heaven on the village.  Their words brought about a very strong
response from the Lord:

        He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner
of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's
lives but to save them."  (Luke 9:55-56)

The part of our mind that tends to divide up our experience into different
categories has wonderful strengths and a terrible weakness.  That part of
our mind is what we refer to as our understanding.  It can work like a
surgeon's scalpel dissecting our experience into identifiable and labeled
parts.  This cutting up of experience is necessary.

        A human being . . . is unable to have the idea of one without first
of all having the idea of several.  For that which is a single whole with a
person is formed from several parts, or what amounts to the same, things
existing simultaneously come into being consecutively.  Many attributes
exist in the Lord, and all are Jehovah, and therefore the sense of the
letter [of the Word] regards these as separate entities, whereas heaven
never does so.  Heaven acknowledges one God with an idea that does not
divide Him; nor does it acknowledge anyone other than the Lord.  (Arcana
Caelestia 3035)

But cutting up and labeling our experience also has some destructive
consequences just as dissection in a biology lab cuts up the very features
that are essential for life.  Left to itself, our understanding tends to
divide up people into smaller and smaller categories.  When each of us
looks at ourselves from this intellectual point of view, we sometimes can
feel like there is no one really like us.  We can feel all alone in a world
of others who are so different from us.  When we look at others, we can
divide them up into categories that sometimes have us feel that the group
that is people like us are very small compared to the vast numbers of those
who are different.  For example, if we compare the members of our church
organization to the population of the world, we can feel terribly isolated
and potentially overwhelmed.  Even within this congregation, the
intellectual scalpel of our understanding can so divide us up into
different segments or groups that it makes the idea of unified action seem
futile.  

This dividing up of reality occurs especially when we focus on the most
external quality of the things we see.  

        . . . For those people who are confined to what is external devoid
of anything internal do not look on the internal aspect of the Church in
any other way.  They give the name falsity to that which is true, and the
name truth to that which is false.  They do so for the reason that being
confined to what is external does not enable anyone to see whether a thing
is false or true; only what is internal makes this possible.  Internal
sight is a necessary ability which can make judgments about things seen by
external sight.  To make such judgments internal sight must be fully in the
light of heaven.  But it is not in the light of heaven unless the person
has faith in the Lord and this faith leads him to read the Word.  The fact
that the Jewish nation was confined to what was external devoid of anything
internal, so that it believed what was true to be falsity, and conversely
what was false to be the truth, is quite evident from their teaching that
one was allowed to hate an enemy and also from their life of hating all who
did not belong to their semblance of religion.  Indeed it is quite evident
from their belief that they pleased and served Jehovah when they treated
gentile nations in a savage and cruel fashion. . . . Indeed their teachings
asserted that even an ally who for some reason had been declared an enemy
was to be treated in much the same way.  From these considerations it
becomes quite clear that nothing internal at all lay within their semblance
of religion.  If anyone at that time had told them that such actions were
contrary to the inner spirit of the Church they would have replied that
this was a false idea.  (Arcana Caelestia 4903)

By itself the understanding divides and tends to be destructively critical.
 This state of mind is sometimes called the "Ishmael rational" from its
identification with Abraham's first son Ishmael in the book, Arcana
Caelestia.  Concerning this state of mind we are told:

        . . .the person whose rational is such as consists in truth alone,
even though this is the truth of faith, and does not at the same time
consist in the good of charity, is altogether such.  He is quick to find
fault, makes no allowances, is against all, regards everyone as being in
error, is instantly prepared to rebuke, to chasten, and to punish, shows no
pity, does not apply himself and makes no effort to redirect people's
thinking; for he views everything from the standpoint of truth, and nothing
from the standpoint of good.  In short, he is a hard man.  The one thing to
soften his hardness is the good of charity, for good is the soul of truth,
and when good draws near and implants itself in truth the latter becomes so
different that it can hardly be recognized.  (Arcana Caelestia 1949:2)

The thinking part of our mind separated from good or love is what divides. 
Love is what joins together.  True love has the following qualities:

        It is the essence of Love to love others outside of one self, to
desire to be one with them, and to render them blessed from oneself.  (True
Christian Religion 43)

Love and its accompanying desire for accomplishing what is useful are what
joins together all the angels of heaven into a one.

        Heaven consists of countless communities.  They all vary, and yet
are one, for all are led as one by the Lord.  Such was the situation with
the first Ancient Church that although there were so many forms of internal
and external worship, at the general level as many as there were nations,
at the specific level as many as there were families making up nations, and
at the particular level as many as there were people in the Church, they
all nevertheless had "one lip" and "their word was one"; that is, they all
shared one doctrine in general and in particular.  Doctrine is one when all
possess mutual love, or charity.  Mutual love or charity causes things,
though varied, to be one, for it makes one out of varied things.  If all,
no matter how many^?are governed by charity or mutual love, they have but
one end in view, namely the common good, the Lord's kingdom, and the Lord
Himself.  (Arcana Caelestia 1285)

Another passage speaks of the spiritual laws that produce this unity.

        Heaven consists of myriads of angelic communities, and yet the Lord
leads them as one angel, or as one human being. The reason of this is that
among all there is mutual love from the love of the Lord. When this love is
among all, and in all, then all can be disposed into a heavenly form, which
is such that many are a one, and the more in number they are, the more
strongly they are a one. The case herein is like that of the countless
things in the human body, which, though distinct and various, yet make a
one. The reason is that they are in a form like that of heaven, for the two
correspond. . . .The conjunction of the angelic communities into one heaven
has reference to these laws:--
  1.    Every oneness that is in the form of the heavens comes forth in
accordance with the heavenly harmony of many associated together. 
  2.    Love brings about a spiritual relationship, from which comes
heavenly harmony. 
  3.    There must be a universal connection, in order that all the
individuals may be held together in a relationship of love. 
  4.    The universal connection must flow into the individual connections,
and must make them. 
  5.    The universal connection is the Lord, thus love from Him, and
consequently love to Him. 
 6.     The individual connections are derived from this, and are those of
mutual love, or of charity toward the neighbor. These are the laws by
virtue of which heaven, consisting of innumerable angelic communities, is
nevertheless as one human being.  (Arcana Caelestia 9613)

In order to have this unity we need to have the Lord's love growing within
our hearts.  We need to see below the surface of apparently different
externals that would have us separate ourselves from others, condemning
them or ourselves.  The disciples thought that the Samaritan village should
be consumed by fire from heaven.  This is not the spirit that the Lord
wants to foster within our hearts, minds, and lives.  He would lead us to
see the ways in which we are all His children.  He would lead us to see the
ways in which by working together with the different backgrounds,
strengths, and motivations that exist within each of us, we all can be
blessed and from our unified action we can help bring the Lord's kingdom
more fully this world.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Luke 9:51-56

Heaven consists of countless communities.  They all vary, and yet are one,
for all are led as one by the Lord.  Such was the situation with the first
Ancient Church that although there were so many forms of internal and
external worship, at the general level as many as there were nations, at
the specific level as many as there were families making up nations, and at
the particular level as many as there were people in the Church, they all
nevertheless had "one lip" and "their word was one"; that is, they all
shared one doctrine in general and in particular.  Doctrine is one when all
possess mutual love, or charity.  Mutual love or charity causes things,
though varied, to be one, for it makes one out of varied things.  If all,
no matter how many^?are governed by charity or mutual love, they have but
one end in view, namely the common good, the Lord's kingdom, and the Lord
Himself.        Arcana Caelestia 1285

                
All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Tue Feb 25 05:00:54 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 00:00:54 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Get Real!" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Feb24.235708-0800_est.2822-4+11@bifrost.novalink.com>

                          Get Real!
              A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
              Bridgewater, MA, February 23, 1997

Readings: Ezek. 36:22-36. I will replace your heart of stone with a heart of
flesh.
          Matt. 6:19-24. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be.
          _Divine Love and Wisdom_ #40. Love and wisdom are substance and form.

I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh. (Ezek. 36:26)

I remember, from my growing up days, an expression that was used when
somebody said something particularly dreamy or impractical. "Get real!" a
friend would say. And the bubble was burst. . . . Get back to _reality_, was
the message. Back to the practical, the solid, the here-and-now.
     I wonder how many of us have encountered this sort of reaction when we
have made a remark to a less religious friend about God or the spiritual
world, or even the Golden Rule. "Get real!" they might say, "Don't bother me
with that impractical, airy-fairy _spiritual_ stuff. I'm only interested in
what is _real_. . . what I can see with my eyes and touch with my hands." Or
at least, that's what people might say if they told us what was really on
their minds. Usually all we get is a funny look or some vaguely dismissive
remark--and we know that our friend thinks we are just a little bit dreamy
to believe in all that _gawd_ stuff.
     "Get real!" What does that mean? To the person making such a
shoot-from-the-hip remark, the answer seems obvious. Reality is what is
solid. Reality is what I can see and touch. The _best_ kind of reality is
the green stuff that I can put in my pocket and buy all sorts of good things
with. Now _that's_ reality.
     The people who have a firm grasp on reality are the ones who always
seem in control of the situation; the ones who are successful in business
and have fat wallets and purses; the ones who live in nice houses and drive
fancy cars--and, of course, the ones who have a good looking husband or wife.
     The "obvious" answer to the question "What is reality?" is that reality
consists of the solid objects that make up the material world. From a
personal perspective, it is the things we can possess; the things we can
take physical pleasure in. Especially, it is our bodies. There are many
people in this world who, if pressed to say what is real, would eventually
give an answer such as this.
     I suspect that even those of us who consider ourselves to be religious
often have a sneaking feeling that the things we can see and touch here on
earth are somehow more real than all of those spiritual things that the
church teaches us about. We may "believe" in the spiritual world, but would
we bet our lives on it? Or would we feel more comfortable betting our lives
that _this_ world is real. . . and we'll just have to find out about that
other world once we die?
     It is a very natural thing for us to start out feeling that the
material world is the realest thing, while the spiritual world is a bit
vague and impractical. We are born with no knowledge of the spiritual world
at all. As infants, our minds are entirely taken up with our physical
comfort or discomfort. When our little Caleb is hungry or otherwise
uncomfortable, he cries--and keeps on crying until he is fed and made
comfortable again. When he has a full stomach; when is warm and dry; and
especially when he is being (physically) held, he is content.
     Chris is a year and a half old now, and he is still mostly concerned
with his physical comfort and with physical pleasures. He doesn't seem to
think about love--as much as he needs to _have_ love from us--but he
certainly does think about the toy that he wants and Heidi has! And if he is
hungry or cold or tired, he can cry a lot louder than Caleb!
     As we grow up, we do begin to value other things besides physical
pleasure and material possessions. We form friendships and relationships,
and we come to realize that these are important to us--even if we can't
always express why. We know it has something to do with love and trust, but
we don't have a very clear idea of what love and trust are. Most of our
experience as we have grown up has been with our physical bodies and with
our material environment. We are at a bit of a loss when we start delving
into the world of our minds and our relationships--what Swedenborg would
call the spiritual realm. Love and trust seem compelling to us, but not as
consistently real as the material things that we are so familiar with.
     Still, our earlier sense that reality equals our body and our physical
environment does get weakened by our first conscious movements into the
realm of love and friendship. As teenagers--and as adults also--we still
cling to many of our treasured possessions. But most of us, if asked to
choose between some favorite possession and our circle of friends, would not
hesitate long before giving up the possession in favor of keeping our
friends. We will even give away treasured possessions to especially close
friends as a sign and seal of our friendship. This is part of our path away
from reality-as-material toward reality-as-spiritual.
     Of course, that path is usually interrupted by the _reality_ of getting
out of school and having to get a job and support ourselves. Before that
time, having money was nice but not essential, since our parents provided
the essentials. But now we have to do that for ourselves--and not very
strangely, money seems even more real than it did before. It is all too easy
to get caught up in that version of reality, and all too difficult to break
out of the cycle that continually drums into our heads this message: "What
is real is what puts food on the table and a roof over our heads."
     Rather than thinking of the necessity of supporting ourselves as a
spiritual setback, though, I prefer to think of it as a challenge. Life in
this world is not going to automatically shepherd us into spiritual ways of
living. We can spend our entire lives focused only on our material
circumstances. In fact, unless we make a conscious decision to have it
otherwise, that is exactly how our lives will go. So life in this material
world provides us with a challenge: Will we simply accept life as it comes
to us, and remain focused on this physically compelling "reality"? Or will
we make a choice to look beyond the surface to a deeper reality that lies
within?
     One of my most memorable sessions at the Swedenborg School of Religion
was when the Rev. Horand Gutfeldt came to one of our classes as a guest
speaker. He spoke of many things out of his long years of experience in
ministry. The one that struck me most was his description of how our sense
of reality changes as we grow spiritually. He said that as we go through the
process of regeneration, or spiritual growth, we experience an "inversion of
reality." In other words, our sense of reality gets turned upside-down! What
seemed most real to us at the beginning of our spiritual growth seems least
real at the end, and what seemed least real at the beginning ends out
feeling the most real.
     Specifically, Dr. Gutfeldt said that whereas physical things seem most
real to us when we start out, the farther we progress on our spiritual
journey, the more real God and spirit seem to us, and the less real material
things seem compared to spiritual things. When we start out, having nice
clothes and a nice house may seem very important. But after some years on
our spiritual quest, love and caring and mutual understanding begin to feel
much more real to us than mere physical possessions.
     The Bible, as usual, doesn't spend a lot of time theorizing about these
sorts of things. Swedenborg does--and our reading from _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ provides us with a very direct statement that what is _real_ and
_solid_ is love together with wisdom. Yet I suspect that when you leave
church today, you will be more likely to remember the words I used in my
text, from the prophet Ezekiel: "I will remove from your body the heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh."
     This is a very memorable image. It begs us to look beyond the literal
imagery to the spirit within. But for a moment we will resist that urge and
focus on the literal image. Imagine a heart of stone. Oh, it is "real" all
right! What could be more real than a big, fist-sized hunk of rock? If we
get hit in the head with it, we are not likely to question its reality right
away. We will leave that sort of speculation until after the stitches come out.
     However, we are not talking about getting beat over the head with a
fist-sized hunk of rock. We are talking about having that fist sized hunk of
rock as our heart, beating in our chest. The words cannot even come out of
my mouth before we realize that a heart of stone does _not_ beat. It cannot
beat, because it is inert and lifeless. The prophet used a very apt image in
speaking of a heart of stone, because when we have a heart of stone, we are
dead--without the lifeblood that keeps our bodies warm and nourished and
_alive_!
     That heart of stone is our conviction that our own bodies and our
material possessions are the most important things in life. When we put
ourselves and our physical pleasures at the center of our lives, then we
truly have a stony heart. We completely miss the deeper realities of love
and concern for other people, because our heart is made of the stone of
materialism and self-centeredness. Even if we expand our sense of self to
include our families and friends, but draw a line that excludes people
outside of that circle, we still are putting stone instead of flesh at the
heart of our lives.
     Is that real? Is that what we really want from life?
     What is more real? A rock? Or a warm and beating heart? What is more
real? A nice house? Or the warm and pulsing love that can exist among human
beings if we will commit our hearts to the way of the Lord?
     Jesus also had a memorable way of pointing out what is real in life. He
said:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves
do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also. (Matt. 6:19, 20)
As real as the things of this earth seem, even from a material perspective
we know that they have not been here forever, nor do they last forever.
Moths will eventually eat those beautiful clothes, and that fancy car will
eventually rust away. The physical body that we give so much care to will
also return to dust before many years have gone by.
     But what of love? What of caring? What of the trust and mutual
understanding that we can build up within us and among us if we choose the
Lord's path?
     Ah! These things do not become moth-eaten or rusty. They are the center
and source of the universe. These things come straight from God--and they
last forever.
     My message for you this morning is: Let's get real!


From leewoof@novalink.com  Mon Mar  3 14:25:54 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 09:25:54 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "I'm Sorry!" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Mar3.092210-0800_est.3968-8+18@bifrost.novalink.com>

                     I'm Sorry!
       A Lenten Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, MA, March 2, 1997

Readings: Ezek. 18:21-32. Repent and turn from your transgressions.
          Luke 15:1-10. There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
          _Apocalypse Explained_ #585a.3 The meaning of repentance.

I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:7)

Today is the third Sunday in Lent, which means it is about time we got into
the spirit of the Lenten season. Lent is a traditional period of forty
weekdays that begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter. In Christian
churches that observe Lent, it is a time of fasting and penitence for sins
in preparation for the events of Holy Week. It provides a period of buildup
climaxing in our Easter celebration of the Lord's resurrection.
     As far as I can tell, Swedenborg does not say anything at all about
Lent. As a result of this, the Swedenborgian Church has not had as strong a
tradition of observing Lent as many other denominations. Swedenborg's
silence on the subject reflects the fact that Lent is an observance based
more on tradition than on the Bible. It does commemorate Jesus' forty days
of fasting in the wilderness; but since this event is not linked with the
events of Holy Week in the Bible, the connection with Easter is indirect.
Swedenborg says plenty about such Biblical events as the Lord's birth, life,
death, and resurrection. But he says very little about events on the church
calendar that do not have a direct Biblical basis.
     As a result of Swedenborg's silence on the subject of Lent, when
Swedenborgians do observe Lent, we look to the traditions of other churches
for a pattern to go by. And as usual, we can't help tinkering with what we
find! For Lent in particular, our Swedenborgian observances usually have a
different focus than traditional Christian ones.
      As I said, the traditional idea of Lent is as a time of fasting and
penitence. Especially in the traditionalist parts of the Catholic church,
this penitence has a definite flavor of _penance_. Lent is a time to pay a
penalty for the sins we have committed so that we can be absolved of them
and be prepared for the celebration of Easter. Those who follow this
tradition will often give up something pleasurable during the days of Lent
as a penance for their sins.
     Our church does not put so much emphasis on paying the penalty for sin.
We focus instead on recognizing sin in ourselves and overcoming it with the
Lord's help. From our point of view, the penalty for sin is built right into
the sin itself. Under civil law we must impose penalties for crimes in order
to protect innocent people. But under spiritual law, there is no need for
externally imposed penalties because sin brings its own pain with it. It is
the pain of lost friendships and fear of those we have wronged; it is the
pain of anger and distrust directed against us instead of love and
understanding; it is the pain that comes with the shrinking of our spirit as
we turn inward toward ourselves instead of expanding outward toward others
in love. The Bible calls this "penalty" for sin "death"--and it is indeed a
death of the spirit.
     Our focus on sin, then, is a practical one. We are not concerned as
much with avoiding the penalties for sin as we are with facing and
overcoming the sin itself. To use a mundane example, if we are in the habit
of running red lights, we could try to avoid the penalty for this traffic
"sin" by continually keeping our eyes out for police--and pay the occasional
"penance" of a traffic ticket when we get caught.
     This is not a very good solution. For one thing, sooner or later we are
likely to get caught. And the more times we get caught, the stiffer the
penalties become--until we lose our license. Another problem is that when we
are busy scanning for police we are not paying as much attention to the
traffic. It will not do us much good to avoid getting pulled over if we get
into an accident because we were trying to see if there was a police car
behind that clump of bushes . . . and didn't notice the car coming through
the intersection.
     A better solution is to tackle the "sin" itself. After all, the traffic
light is there for a reason. Sometimes it seems silly to wait for a red
light when nobody is coming in the other direction. Maybe sometimes it _is_
silly to wait. (At least we can now take a right on red at most
intersections!) But stopping at red lights is part of using our road system,
and when everybody observes that rule, there are fewer accidents than when
some of us decide those rules apply to all the _other_ drivers but not to
us! Only when we recognize that this law _does_ apply to us, and begin to
observe it, will there be a real solution to our habit of running red lights.
     Running red lights is an obvious example. Many of our struggles,
though, are with deeper issues within ourselves. Issues such as not
respecting others or believing others should serve our needs or being
jealous of what others have. These things are more slippery than civil and
social rules of conduct; we have trouble grasping them and noticing that
they are real problems. Yet these inner feelings are the root source of all
of our outward behavior. Everything we say or do comes from some motive;
some desire; some feeling within ourselves.
     How do we get at these harmful motives within ourselves? How do we see
them and do something about them? We know that when we lash out at someone
or make a belittling remark, it does hurt. And of course, we know that if we
cheat or steal or injure someone, that hurts as well. However, it is not so
easy to see where these hurtful words and actions came from--and it is still
more difficult to eliminate the bad feelings toward others that prompt us to
such things.
     The Bible does tell us that we need to repent from our sins--from our
wrong actions, and even from our wrong _feelings_ such jealousy and greed
and contempt for others. Our reading from Ezekiel is an especially clear
statement of the situation with regard to sin and repentance. If we have
been living in wrong and sinful ways, and then turn away from our former
ways of living and do what is lawful and right, then our former wrongs will
not be remembered in the Lord's sight. But if we have been living in a good
and righteous way, and turn toward wrong and destructive ways of living,
that is what will determine our spiritual course--and we will be headed
toward spiritual death.
     However, for more insight on just how to go about that repentance, we
have a special resource in Swedenborg's writings. Swedenborg gives us step
by step process through which we can identify and overcome the wrong things
within us that prompt our wrong words and actions. In traditional
Swedenborgian language, it is the process of repentance, reformation, and
regeneration. Now it just so happens that today is the first of three
Sundays before Palm Sunday. This gives us a perfect opportunity to observe
Lent by taking a closer look at each of these three steps. They are steps
that lead us away from the wrong parts of our lives toward a new life more
in harmony with the Lord's path.
     Swedenborg saw "repentance" as different than penitence in the
traditional sense. In a nutshell, repentance means recognizing our wrong
thoughts, feelings, and actions and truly regretting them. In simpler
language, repentance means saying, "I'm sorry!"
     We say "I'm sorry" to someone to let them know that we realize we did
something wrong, and that we regret having hurt them. But as we all know,
some apologies are genuine, and some are not. If we tell someone we are
sorry, but keep doing the same thing that we claimed to be sorry for, our
apology is worthless. It is only genuine if, after saying we are sorry, we
_stop_ doing what we apologized for! Otherwise, we aren't really sorry; we
are just trying to avoid the consequences of our actions.
     It is the same with repentance from a spiritual perspective. Genuine
repentance is regretting our wrong thoughts and feelings so much that we
resolve to stop acting on them. If we do this, eventually we will stop
taking any pleasure even in the _thought_ of doing the hurtful things that
used to give us a weird kind of pleasure.
     But we are skipping over some steps.
     Before we can even begin to repent from--or regret--the wrong things in
us, we need to learn from the Bible and from the church what things are
wrong. This is exactly why eight of the Ten Commandments say "Thou shalt
not!" If we do not know that it is wrong to be jealous or to look down on
others, we will never begin to overcome those faults in ourselves. One of
the main reasons for reading the Bible and coming to Sunday School and
church is to continually learn more about what is right and wrong so that we
can identify these things in ourselves and continually bend our paths in the
right direction.
     Most of us have learned enough about right and wrong to get started on
that path. The first step is to look at ourselves--at our thoughts, our
feelings, our actions--and identify some _specific_ fault in ourselves that
we wish to overcome. (Here, our Catholic friends may be in better shape than
we are because of their practice of confession.) A word to the wise: If we
try to tackle everything at once, it will be too much for us! Better to pick
out one or two things we can handle, and focus on them. The important thing
is to make a good start. The practice we get will help us move on to other,
more serious issues.
     Once we have identified some fault in ourselves, we must admit that yes
indeed, this is wrong, and then take responsibility for it. We do not
accomplish anything if we see something wrong in ourselves but promptly
excuse ourselves by pinning the blame on our parents or society . . . or all
those other drivers on the road! No, we have to recognize that _we_ were the
ones who ran the red light; _we_ were the ones who said or did something
wrong, and we did it because something needs fixing in our own attitudes and
motives. As long as we blame it on someone else, we will never do anything
about it. But as soon as we take responsibility for our own attitudes and
actions, we also gain the power to face and overcome the attitudes within us
that are wrong.
     There is a final part to repentance, and it is perhaps the most
important one of all. We must recognize, admit, and take responsibility for
our faults, not just by ourselves, but in front of God. We must recognize
that our wrong desires and actions are wrong not only because we get into
trouble for them, but because they are contrary to the loving and righteous
laws of the Lord. If we avoid saying or doing the wrong thing only to stay
out of trouble, or to be respected and popular, or to do well
financially--or for any reason besides knowing that it is wrong in _God's_
eyes--then we are not really repenting; we are only covering over our real
motives, which are probably centered on ourselves.
     This business of repentance is not easy. In fact, it is hard work. It
is hard to admit to things we may have been doing and excusing all our
lives. But it is worth the effort. For it puts us on the path toward life.
Toward _real_ life. Toward a life of fuller, deeper, and richer
relationships with each other and with the Lord than we could ever have
conceived of before. As Jesus says, "There is more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no
repentance." Amen.


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Mar  3 14:32:00 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 09:32:00 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Potter and the Clay
Message-ID: <199703030934_MC2-1203-93AD@compuserve.com>

The Potter and the Clay
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
February 23, 1997

        Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making
something at the wheel.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in
the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it
seemed good to the potter to make.  Jeremiah 18:3-4

These words from the prophet Jeremiah speak of one of the key issues that a
person who wishes to be wise must balance in his or her life.  Countless
times in our lives, we need to recognize how much responsibility we should
shoulder for what is happening in our lives and how much is properly the
Lord's role.

A person can take very little responsibility for problems or the outcome of
important aspects of his life.  He can, as it were, shrug his shoulders and
think to himself, "Its not my fault that I am the way I am," or "The
trouble that arouse in this situation really has so little to do with me,
that I need not think about it."  No matter what happens this person
doesn't feel any significant responsibility. On the other side, a person
can feel so responsible for the tiny aspects of her life and those of the
people and events around herself.  No matter what happens this person feels
responsible for not having done enough to produce a better outcome.

In the image of Jeremiah, the Lord compares Himself to a potter working
with clay.  The potter that Jeremiah watched had in mind a useful article
that he intended to create on his potter's wheel.  But there was some flaw
in the clay or some other problem and so the potter changed his goal and
decided to work toward a different result than he originally intended. 
Perhaps the potter intended to make a large water vessel, but part of the
side of forming vessel collapsed, so he cut it away and contented himself
with making the remaining clay into a much smaller bowl.

The Lord created each of us to become an angel in heaven.  He created each
of us with the capability of performing a useful role in an angelic
community better than any other angel ever has or ever could.  The
happiness of heaven arises fundamentally from fulfilling this use role to
eternity.  Consider the following quote on this subject from the Writings
of the New Church.

        Latent in the affection of every angel's will is a certain inner
tendency which draws the mind to accomplish something.  By accomplishment
the mind finds peace and satisfaction.  This satisfaction and peace produce
a state of mind receptive of a love of useful service from the Lord.  From
the reception of this love comes heavenly happiness, which is the life in
the joys just referred to.  (Conjugial Love 6)

But not everyone ends up performing their intended use.  Some people live
their lives in this world turning away from the Lord and serving their
neighbor.  They reject the values and life of heaven during their natural
life, and so reject it in the life after death.  They want to serve no one
but themselves and their own pleasures.  An amazing law of the life after
death though is that all, even the worst devils of hell must perform some
useful task.  The following extended quote from the Apocalypse Revealed
describes part of the progress a person who has led an evil life takes in
the life after death until he arrives at his eternal place in hell. 
Previously it spoke of the jobs that these evil people try to fulfill
shortly after arriving in the life after death.  But 

        Food [in the life after death] is similar to the food in our world,
but it is from a spiritual origin, and is given from heaven by the Lord to
all according to the uses they perform; to the idle, nothing is given,
because they are useless.  After some time [spirits who] loathe work [for a
time] sit solitary and idle; and as the idle have no food given them from
heaven . . . they begin to hunger, and they think of nothing else than how
they may get food and satisfy their hunger. When they are in this state,
there come to them some of whom they ask alms; and they say, Why do you sit
idle like this? come with us to our houses, and we will give you work to
do, and we will feed you. And then they rise up gladly, and go with them to
their houses, and there each has his work given him, and food for his work.
But because all who have confirmed themselves in falsities of faith are
unable to do works of good use, but only works of evil use, neither do they
do these faithfully, but only so as to appear for the sake of honor or
gain; therefore they leave their works, and only love to converse, talk,
walk about, and sleep. And then, because they cannot any longer be induced
by their masters to work, they are cast out as useless.  When they are cast
out, their eyes are opened, and they see a way leading to a certain cavern.
When they are come thither, the door is opened, and they enter, and inquire
whether there is any food there; and when they receive for answer that
there is, they ask leave to remain, and are told that they may, and are
introduced and the door shut after them. And then the overseer of that
cavern comes and says to them, You can never leave; behold your companions,
they all labor, and as they labor food is given them from heaven. I tell
you this that you may know. And their companions also say, Our overseer
knows what work each one is fitted for, and assigns it to each one daily;
on the day you finish it, food is given you, but if you do not, neither
food nor clothing is given; and if any one does evil to another, he is cast
into a corner of the cavern [and] tormented, until such time as the
overseer sees signs of regret in him, and then he is released, and
commanded to do his work. He is told also, that everyone after his task is
done is permitted to walk about, to converse, and afterwards to sleep. . .
Of such caverns, which are nothing but eternal workhouses, the entire hell
consists.  (Apocalypse Revealed 153)

All in the life after death must perform some work.  The angels form a
basis for all their happiness by serving their useful tasks.  The evil
spirits of hell do theirs only for the benefits they receive.  They are not
unlike some people in this world who do their work only for the sake of the
paycheck or to avoid being considered a deadbeat.  If anything occurred
that would allow them to quit their job and still retain their income and
their reputation, they would in a moment and from then on would consider
little more than their own self interest.

Why do some people have angelic values and habits forming through their
lives and why do some have hellish values and habits forming through their
lives?  Some people seem to picture that their spiritual progress or lack
there of is the Lord's responsibility.  They are not inclined to make any
effort to be a better person.  This leads to a life in hell.  We are told:

        [A person] ought not to slacken his hand, with the thought, "If I
can do nothing of good from myself, I ought to wait for immediate influx,"
and thus remain in a passive state, for this would be contrary to order but
he must do good as of himself; yet, when he reflects upon the good which he
does or has done, let him think, acknowledge, and believe that the Lord has
done the work in him. If he slackens his effort, thinking as has been said,
he is then not a subject into which the Lord can operate. The Lord cannot
flow into any one who deprives himself of everything into which power can
be infused. It is as if one were not willing to learn anything without a
revelation to himself; or as if one would teach nothing unless the words
were put into him; or as if one would attempt nothing unless he were put
into action as one without will. But if these things were done, he would be
still more indignant at being like an inanimate thing; (Arcana Caelestia
1712)

We are not a lump of lifeless clay and yet the Lord is constantly forming
us and shaping our life.  He knows the tiniest details of our lives and
works within these things to redirect our heart, mind, and life.

        The Lord's foreseeing is the seeing from eternity to eternity that
the case is so; but the Lord's providing is the directing that it be so;
and is the bending of a person's freedom to good, in so far as He foresees
that a person will suffer himself to be bent in freedom.  (Arcana Caelestia
3869:3)
 
The Lord has overseen the qualities that our physical body and natural mind
have.  He was acutely aware of the natural temperament we would inherit and
have shaped from our parents and the home each of us grew up in.  He knew
the hereditary inclinations to evil that would be particularly powerful in
our lives.  He oversaw the states of good that we experienced from the very
beginning of our lives.  He has told us that our work of change is that of
trying to conform our thought and life to what is true.  Gradually changing
our will is His job.  We cannot tell ourselves to care or not care about
something.  We can try to think in wise and caring ways.  We can make every
appropriate effort to have our actions express these thoughts.  But we
cannot make our selves want or not want something, or make ourselves feel
completely patient, or feel loving.  All we can do is work on the plane of
our thoughts and actions with the prayer that the Lord change our will.

The Lord is constantly working within our lives to lead us to the greatest
possible happiness and usefulness.  But He will not make us into something
we will not accept in freedom.  No matter what, we will perform some use,
some task, to eternity in the life after death.  Like the potter that
Jeremiah watched, if the original goal the Lord intended cannot be
achieved, He will still help form us into something that serves.  He
invites us to feel the peace, comfort, and hope of knowing how much He is
doing to lead us and those whom we love toward the happiness of heaven. 
And He wants us to know that our choices, our willing cooperation, our
as-from-self efforts to be better, wiser human beings that a part of us
wants to be, are absolutely necessary for a truly happy life.  He daily
guides and molds our life, seeking to get us to attend to what is good and
true for our own sakes and for the sake of all the people our lives will
touch.  May we work together with him that His desire that we become useful
and happy angels in heaven may be fulfilled.
AMEN.

       Lessons: Jeremiah 18:1-12
                John 3:1-8

True Christian Religion 393  It is an unchanging truth that faith and
charity cannot be separated, if a person is to have a spiritual life and so
be saved.  This is a fact which falls within the grasp of any person's
understanding, even it if has not been polished by vast amounts of
learning.  Is there anyone who is not led by some inward perception to see
and so to accept the idea intellectually, when he hears someone say that a
person who lives a good life and holds a proper belief is saved?  And is
there anyone whose understanding does not reject, like a speck of dust
getting in the eye, the statement that a person who holds a proper belief
is saved too, even if he does not lead a good life?  For his inward
perception at once causes the thought to strike him, how could anyone hold
a proper belief when he does not lead a good life?  And what would believe
be then but a painting of faith, rather than its living image?  Likewise,
if anyone were told that a person who lives a good life is saved even if he
does not believe, does not his understanding, as he turns it over and over
or considers it in his mine, see, perceive and think that neither is this a
coherent statement, since leading a good life comes from God?  For all good
which is essentially good comes from God.  Leading a good life then and not
believing is like clay in the potter's hand, which cannot be formed into
any vessel of use in the spiritual kingdom, but only in the natural one.
        

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@novalink.com  Sun Mar  9 22:16:47 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 1997 17:16:47 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Shape Up!" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Mar9.171353-0800_est.2728-5+7@bifrost.novalink.com>

                       Shape Up!
         A Lenten Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
              Bridgewater, MA, March 9, 1997

Readings: Malachi 3:1-5. The Lord is a purifier of silver.
          Matthew 15:1-20. Clean and unclean.
          Apocalypse Explained #1152.2, 3. Self-compulsion from evil, not to
good.

For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a
refiner and purifier of silver. (Malachi 3:2, 3)

Today on the fourth Sunday in Lent we continue with the second sermon in our
series on Repentance, Reformation, and Regeneration. "Reformation" is a
fancy sounding word; but if you break it down into its two parts, it comes
out re-formation. A Biblical image comes to mind, from the prophet Jeremiah:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Come, go down to the potter's
house, and there I will let you hear my words." So I went down to the
potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was
making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into
another vessel, as seemed good to him. (Jer. 18:1-4)

Reformation is, quite literally, re-forming ourselves into a shape that we
did not have before. However, we are not talking about getting our bodies in
shape for the coming of spring and summer. No, we are talking about shaping
up our spirits: the way we think and feel about each other, ourselves, and God.
     My topic, then, is "Shape Up!" Before you start thinking I have
reverted to the ways of my Evangelical brothers and sisters of the cloth, I
hasten to add that I am not here to tell you to shape up. That is not my
job. In fact, if there is any shaping up to be done, it is our job to tell
ourselves to shape up.
     This comes directly from the teachings of our church. Swedenborg says
in many places that genuine and lasting spiritual change can take place in
us only when we are in a state of freedom; not when we are under compulsion.
If I were a fire-and-brimstone preacher, and successfully planted the fear
of hell in your minds and hearts, and you shaped up to avoid that terrible
punishment, would I have accomplished any real spiritual change in you? Not
very likely. More likely, I would have prompted you to shape up outwardly,
but the inner feelings that prompted any previous wrong actions would remain
untouched. In other words, the change would be only skin deep.
     Yet there is an exception to the rule that genuine spiritual change
does not happen under compulsion. There is one person who can legitimately
compel us to do what is right. It is not the Lord. Even the Lord cannot and
will not compel us to do what is right, because the Lord knows that it would
either lead to change that is only skin deep, or it would destroy us as
human beings by taking away our freedom of choice. No, we ourselves are the
one person who can do it. If we compel ourselves to do what is right, says
Swedenborg, we are still free, because self-compulsion comes from our own
freely made choice to make changes in ourselves. And because it is our own
choice, if we follow through on our self-compulsion, we can make changes
that will be more than skin deep.
     So my purpose here this morning is not to push anyone toward change. We
each have to decide for ourselves whether there is anything that needs
changing, and provide our own motivation also-with the Lord's help, of
course. Instead, my purpose is to give a few signposts along the way that
might help any of us if we do want to make changes.
     One of the major signposts for shaping ourselves up spiritually is
provided in our reading from Malachi, as seen in the light of Swedenborg's
writings. The Lord says through Malachi that he will come to us "like a
refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier
of silver." Neither a refiner nor a fuller (a launderer of cloth) produces
anything good that is not already there. Their task is to take away the
impurities so that the good silver or cloth can emerge in a purer and more
useful form.
     It is the same for us in our efforts to reform ourselves spiritually.
As Swedenborg points out in our reading from Apocalypse Explained, there is
no need to push ourselves to do good. Contrary to the conventional wisdom,
Swedenborg says that if we do compel ourselves to do good things, the
so-called "good" things that we do are not really good, because they have
ego and materialism in them. This is true if we compel ourselves to do what
is good and right without compelling ourselves not to do what is wrong and evil.
     This sighnpost along the way points us in the direction of a focus for
our efforts that we might not have had otherwise. If we concentrate on
getting rid of the bad parts of ourselves, we will not need to push
ourselves to do good things. Once we have overcome our self-centeredness and
our material focus, good flows naturally (or should I say, spiritually) from
the Lord.
     An example might help. Let's say we have done something that hurt
another person, and we know it was wrong. We also know that we should
apologize, but somehow we just can't quite bring ourselves to do it. One way
to go about this would be to grit our teeth, go up to the person, and
apologize whether we like it or not. Perhaps in some instances this is what
we will need to do. However, I fear that in most such cases of forced
apologies, we really are not all that sorry for what we did.
     Malachi and Swedenborg suggest a different approach. Rather than
compelling ourselves to apologize, perhaps we will do better to look inside
ourselves find out what is making it so difficult to apologize. Will it hurt
our pride to openly admit that we were wrong? Would a sincere apology
require that we stop doing something that we know is wrong but have a bad
habit of . . . well . . . doing over and over? Are we afraid that the other
person will "have one against us" if we admit our mistake?
     All of these reasons, and many more like them, point to impurities in
ourselves that need to be refined away. Whatever blocks our apology-whether
it is pride or stubbornness or lack of consideration for others or any other
personal flaw-must be the focus of our efforts at self-reform. If we make
the apology without confronting the fault within ourselves that led us to
hurt the other person in the first place, then we are only covering over
what is really inside. Sooner or later, it will come out again.
     But if we do face and push away from ourselves the self-centered and
materialistic impulses that led us to act wrongly, then we accomplish a deep
and real purification. If we let go of the ego that prevents us from making
the apology, then we will not have to push ourselves to apologize. The
apology will come spontaneously. Once we stop looking at ourselves long
enough to see how we have affected another person, we truly will be sorry,
and we will wish to make amends for what we have done. There is no need to
force ourselves to make an apology; the only need is to remove our inner
obstacles to caring about the other person as much as we care about
ourselves. When we clear away those impurities, the pure silver of
thoughtfulness can emerge.
     All of this leads us to another signpost on the road of shaping
ourselves up spiritually. It is a signpost that Jesus plants very forcefully
in our reading from Matthew. In Jesus' day as in ours, there were many
religious people who focused mainly on outward acts of ritual and piety.
Some of these came to Jesus challenging him with questions about why his
disciples did not wash their hands before eating.
     We know that washing our hands before eating is a good idea. It helps
to keep our bodies healthy by keeping dirt and germs out of our bodies. But
the Pharisees washed their hands before eating, not primarily as a matter of
personal hygiene, but as a religious observance. There is nothing wrong with
this as long as we have a spiritual view of the meaning of washing. But
these particular Pharisees were being quite literal about washing as a
religious necessity, and they were condemning Jesus and his disciples for
not observing that ritual.
     Jesus' reply to them can help us get our own priorities straight. We
can spend lots of time and energy trying to get our physical appearance,
habits, and actions just right. But these are not the things that make us
clean or dirty spiritually. No, it is not what we put on or in our bodies
that makes us clean or dirty spiritually. It is what comes out of our
hearts. If evil intentions of either a gross or a subtle nature come out of
our hearts, then our lives are impure no matter how scrupulous we are about
personal hygiene. But if we focus on cleaning the inside of the cup-the
wrong thoughts and feelings that lead us to say and do things that hurt
others-then we can become clean from within outward.
     There are certainly many other signposts along the road of personal
reformation. There are also rough and slippery parts of the road. We
struggle within ourselves and with our friends and loved ones whenever we
attempt to make any real change. This is to be expected. Our bad habits are
not going to roll over and play dead just because we decide we want to break
them. No, when we make this decision, that is exactly when we realize that
we have been a slave to these "sins," as Jesus calls them. However, that
realization also is a signpost along the way. When we realize that we have
been held captive by our self-centered and worldly desires, then we have a
clearer picture of what our lives are really like-and what they could be if,
with the Lord's help, we broke that damaging power over our lives.
     We cannot hope to cover all the ins and outs of personal reformation in
one sermon or even in a whole series of sermons. Shaping ourselves up
spiritually is a lifelong process. It is a road leading to territory that we
have never seen before. Every curve in the road brings a new challenge. To
meet those new challenges, we need new understanding of the Lord's ways and
new strength from the Lord every day.
     The signposts we have considered this morning can help us along the
way. Perhaps they are more like the white lines along the side of the road,
always helping us to keep our direction, or focus, on the road instead of
straying off into rough terrain that leads us nowhere except into an
accident. If we can remember to focus on removing the wrong parts of
ourselves rather than struggling to force ourselves to do what is right, we
will avoid a lot of rocky, off-road traveling. And if we can remember to
focus not just on what we say and do, but on the thoughts and feelings that
prompt us toward those words and actions, we will stay on the right side of
the road and avoid many collisions.
     Now I have hopelessly mixed the metaphors of shaping clay, refining
silver, and driving on instead of off the road. So I can cheerfully close by
saying that perhaps this Lenten season is a good time to do some shaping up
so that we can ship out to the deeper and more loving life of the spirit
that the Lord is calling us to. Amen.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Tue Mar 11 04:17:54 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 23:17:54 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970310212617.2c7f038e@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________

For Cinti. 03-09-97

	THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

[Note that there have been, traditionally, two different ways in which the
commandments have been counted.  The prohibition against other gods is
sometimes considered a separate commandment from the prohibition against
graven images (in which case stealing would be against the eighth
commandment).  Sometimes they are counted as one.  The Writings explain
that these are one commandment.  The commmandment against coveting is in
fact two commandments:  one against coveting the neighbor's house, the
other against coveting all that is found within the house.]

	"You shall not steal." (Ex. 20:15)
	WE ARE CONSIDERING TODAY the seventh commandment of the Decalogue.  It is
a commandment we might be tempted to pay little thought to, assuming that
since we are not thieves, this commandment does not really concern us.  In
a sense this is of course so.  As law-abiding citizens, it is unlikely we
have committed theft, in the sense this is normally understood.  Perhaps as
children we occasionally did stupid things such as stealing apples, or
something similar.  As adults, though, we are people who respect the
property of others, and we do not appropriate it to ourselves when the
opportunity presents itself.  In other words, we do not break the natural
sense of the seventh commandment, which is, to quote the Writings, to
"steal, or to rob or to commit piracy in time of peace."  Neither do we
break this commandment in what is called the extended natural sense.  We
are told that the natural sense of the seventh commandment extends also to
various ways of exacting money dishonestly from others, and to cheating in
the payment of taxes, duties or debts.  We are also told that included
under this commandment is the sin -- and it is a sin -- of not giving a
proper day's work for our wages, and thereby stealing from our employer.
Indeed, the natural sense of the seventh commandment extends to all those
ways in which we might cheat others of what is rightfully due to them.  Any
New Churchman worthy of the name can see clearly that such practices are
wrong, and this despite the fact that many people around us feel that it is
acceptable to cheat in various ways -- whether it be dishonesty in the
payment of taxes, petty pilferage at their place of employment, or loafing
around when they are supposed to be working.  The people of the church
resist such practices as plain outright theft.
	It is important to realize, though, that this commandment, like all
teachings in the Word, has deeper implications than might at first be
apparent on the surface.  Obviously we must first and foremost ensure that
we do not transgress this commandment in the natural sense.  If, for
example, a New Churchman finds himself cheating on his taxes, he should
desist.  To do so is theft.  On the other hand, if we are fairly satisfied,
as we probably are, that we are in compliance with the natural demands of
the seventh commandment, it then behooves us to look deeper -- not because
of some morbid desire to condemn ourselves -- but so that our inner
spiritual lives might gradually be perfected.
	We need to look at our motives.  For example, do we sometimes find that we
are jealous of other people, and wish that what they have might be ours?
Or do we find ourselves secretly admiring those who manage to cheat and get
away with it?  Is our obedience to this commandment more a matter of being
timid -- of being scared of the consequences of being found out -- than
from a real desire to do what is right?
	A desire to do what is right.  This is what the commandment against theft
is really talking about.  Like the rest of the commandments, its purpose is
to guide us towards true charity -- towards a desire to do the neighbor
only what is good and not to harm him in any way.  Our neighbor can be hurt
in several basic ways -- and one of these ways is by taking away from him
what he has, or what he has a right to.  Therefore, merely wishing we could
take something away from another person is itself a form of theft -- for
there is then a desire to commit theft -- a desire to hurt others -- even
though there might not be the audacity to act upon this desire.
	As we look further and deeper, we come to see that here is a universal
principle of heavenly life:  not to deprive others in any way of something
that is properly theirs.  It is a principle that applies not only to
natural possessions, but to spiritual possessions as well.  So it is that
this commandment has application to both the spiritual and celestial planes
as well -- that is, to our spiritual relationships with others, and,
ultimately, to our relationship with the Lord Himself.
	On the spiritual level, the most obvious way this commandment might be
broken is by those whose duty it is to feed the spirit.  And so we read
that "priests, who minister solely for gain, or from a lust for honor, and
teach what they see or might see from the Word to be untrue, are spiritual
thieves, since they take away from people the means of salvation, which are
the truths of faith."  A solemn responsibility thereby rests upon the
priests of the church to search the Word carefully for the truth before
they preach or teach, and thus to do all that is humanly possible to ensure
that they teach the Lord's truth, and not simply whatever might be more
convenient, more popular, or more expedient.  But laymen also have a
responsibility.  If their words or actions demonstrate a contempt for the
Word and for the church, then by their example they tend to lead others
away from the means of salvation.  They too are spiritual thieves, for they
thus tend to deprive not only themselves, but also others, of spiritual
riches and happiness.
	Consider now the celestial sense:  that sense which has to do with our
relationship with the Lord.  Though in one sense we cannot really take from
the Lord what He has, we can still deprive Him of something that rightfully
should be His, namely, the acknowledgment that all that is good and truth
is from Him alone.  If we take credit for the good that we do, thinking
within ourselves that this good is somehow due to our own merit -- if we
are self-righteous, and do not have the humility to admit that all the good
we do is from power granted to us by the Lord -- then we are thieves,
thieves in the deepest sense of all.
	We must not be overly harsh on ourselves.  The Writings make it plain that
everybody, in the beginning of regeneration, takes credit for the good he
does.  At first all of us feel we merit a pat on the back whenever we do
something right.  Yet we must allow the Lord to gradually lead us away from
this mistaken notion.  Good is from Him alone.  All the angels see this,
and if we are to be prepared for heaven, we must come to see more and more
that by ourselves we really are nothing, and that by ourselves without the
Lord, we could do nothing but evil.
	Herein lies the very root of all theft.  Theft involves placing trust and
confidence not in the Lord, but in ourselves.  It is taking delight in the
thought of how good we ourselves must be to have accomplished whatever it
is that we have done.  It is to take credit -- to steal credit -- for the
good we do, and so to deny the merciful help of the Lord.  A similar thing
occurs also in the lower forms of theft.  For example, the minister who
teaches falsity, either deliberately, or through a wilful neglect to
consult the Word, is doing so because he is more interested in drawing
attention to himself and his own ideas and cleverness, than he is in
leading people to the Word and hence to the Lord.  A layman who manifests
contempt and apathy towards the things of religion in the face of others
also considers his own cleverness, his own ideas, as more significant than
the teachings of the Word itself.  And on a purely natural level, when
someone steals something, is there not behind this action something of a
sense of delight in his own craftiness?  The Writings point out that
someone who has come to take delight in theft would actually prefer to
steal something rather than have it given to him.  Indeed, many
professional thieves could actually earn more doing an honest job.  It is
the stealing itself which delights a thief, for it presents him with the
challenge of proving to himself how clever he is, and, at the same time,
how stupid and careless his victims are.  Why do people steal by cheating
on their taxes?  Obviously the immediate motive is to retain more money.
But lurking behind this, is there not a secret pride in their own
cleverness and cunning?
	Here is the special danger of theft.  It involves deceit and cunning.  We
are well aware that when somebody commits an evil, the more deliberately he
does so, and the more premeditation there is, the more serious an evil it
is.  Theft normally involves a great deal of premeditation.  It requires
planning and careful thought.  Perhaps the first time a man steals it is a
spontaneous thing -- a simple lapse in an otherwise honest life.  But if he
continues -- and theft is something that is highly addictive -- then the
delight of theft leads him into more and more cunning practices.  He plans
and goes over his crimes many times before committing them.  His whole mind
is absorbed in the sins he is going to commit.  So it is that his whole
mind, his whole spirit, is rapidly poisoned with evil.  We read in the
Doctrine of Life that "the evil of theft enters more deeply into a man than
any other evil, because it is conjoined with cunning and deceit; and
cunning and deceit insinuate themselves even into the spiritual mind of man
in which is his thought with understanding."
	Indeed deceit, especially when it involves the hypocritical use of
precious and holy things, can poison the very remains of good and truth
within a man.  The very seeds of heavenly life can be snuffed out as a
result of a growing addiction to the delight of theft.
	The sad thing about theft is that, as with any evil, it returns upon the
one who commits it.  A thief may think he is clever.  He may take delight
in what he considers to be his accomplishments.  But he is stupid, for he
is really stealing from himself.  He is actually taking away his own
spiritual life.
	Every now and then a thief steals something that is useless to himself --
something that is valuable only in the hands of the owner.  And sometimes
it happens that a thief unwittingly helps himself to something that is very
dangerous, something he is unaware might kill him -- a very dangerous
poison, for example.  But the fact is, all thefts are like this.
Everything that is stolen is, in essence, of no real use to the thief, and
is, in fact, harmful to him.  When a man steals, what he takes never
benefits him, not really.  If you think about it, what real and lasting
benefit did any thief ever gain from the things he steals?  Even on a
purely natural level, he often spends quickly what he has stolen, and so
must only go back for more.  In spiritual terms, that is, in terms of his
everlasting welfare, what he steals is of no benefit whatsoever.  In this
sense, everything a man steals becomes a curse for him ... it is like a
deadly poison he has unwittingly taken.  The cunning and deceit he
practices mean that his whole mind becomes infected with spiritual
destruction and death.  All that is good and charitable, all that is true
and honest, is destroyed, and his whole mind becomes immersed in evil.
This destruction is what is described by the prophet Zechariah as a flying
scroll which entered into the houses of thieves:  " . . . and it shall pass
the night in his house, and shall consume it, and the wood thereof and the
stone thereof."  The house is the human mind, the wood is the good within
it, and the stones are the truths.  Everything that is good and true within
the mind is totally consumed.
	So it is that after death, thieves, whether they be natural, spiritual or
celestial thieves, have taken from them all knowledge of what is true, and
all ability to pretend that they are good.  A man who is a thief is rotten
to the core, and the laws of the spiritual world forbid an evil man
possessing what is only apparently true or apparently good.  He is seen for
what he is -- and for a thief this is a special tragedy, for it frustrates
his attempts to steal.  The self-righteous man is no longer honored; the
proud and conceited priest is no longer even listened to; the man who is a
bad influence on other members of the church is cast out from those who are
God-fearing; and the simple thief is caught out before he even commits the
crime.  For these people it seems as if the Lord has stolen from them their
ability to steal.  And in accordance with this appearance, the Lord is
said, in the Word, to come as a thief when people die.  But in truth it is
the thieves who have stolen from themselves.
	As for us, we must be content with what is rightfully ours, or with what
we can honestly acquire.  The possessions we have, have been given to us by
the Lord in His providence.  The same applies to what others have been
provided.  We have been given as much as will benefit us.  To lust after
the possessions of others, to be jealous of them, is to seek something
which indeed benefits them, but which, if wrongfully obtained, would bring
a curse upon ourselves.  It is the same with truth, with good, and with
spiritual happiness.  We cannot interfere with the spiritual progress of
others, by, for example, using the Writings or the church for our own
convenience, our own selfish purposes, without bringing devastation upon
ourselves.  As for the Lord, if we are not content to accept the fact that
we are mere creatures, mere specks of dust in comparison with His infinite
majesty, and if we delight in vaunting ourselves in our own minds, rather
than seeking His everlasting mercy, then we cast away from ourselves the
only possibility of happiness that is open to us.
	In all our thoughts, and in all our dealings with others, let us never
forget that to seek our own happiness by taking from others what is theirs,
is to turn the blessings of others into a curse upon ourselves.  At the
same time, though, let us remember that if we but faithfully obey the
commandments of the Lord, He will provide us with all that we need.  He
will watch over us, He will look after us, He will protect us.  He will
lead us in the end to our eternal dwelling place in His kingdom, and there
He will bless us with all the good things of heaven to all eternity.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Exod. 20:1-17
		Zech. 5:1-4
		TCR 317-319
 


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From leewoof@novalink.com  Mon Mar 17 03:39:33 1997
From: leewoof@novalink.com (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 22:39:33 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Your New Self," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <97Mar18.142326-0800_est.3906-6+9@bifrost.novalink.com>

                     Your New Self
        A Lenten Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
             Bridgewater, MA, March 16, 1997

Readings: Exodus 20:8-11. Keep the Sabbath holy by doing no work on it.
          Matthew 12:1-13. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #8495. The meaning of the Sabbath.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the Lord your God. You shall not do any work. (Exodus 20:9, 10)

With a text like that, and all those readings about the Sabbath, you would
think that today's sermon would be about what it means to keep the Sabbath
in the Swedenborgian church. In a sense, that _is_ what this sermon is about.
     However, those of you who have been to church here within the past two
weeks know that I have an obligation to keep. I promised a three part Lenten
series on Repentance, Reformation, and Regeneration. Today is the fifth
Sunday in Lent, and we have reached the third sermon in the series:
Regeneration. So we have a little problem. I promised a sermon on
Regeneration, but I picked readings about the Sabbath.
     To tell you the truth, when I first started thinking about this sermon,
I did not intend to use readings about the Sabbath. But when it came time to
sit down and write, the passages on the Sabbath seemed to come up unbidden.
I have learned to follow such promptings, because usually it turns out that
the Lord has something in mind for the service that I may not have been
thinking about on my own. As we will see, this very experience of following
good promptings from the Lord--which we can occasionally enjoy when we get
ourselves out of the way--this experience gets to the essence of both
regeneration and the Sabbath.
     First, we must talk about this word "regeneration." "Regeneration" is
another one of those fancy words that the English language got from Latin.
As with many words from Latin, it is not the sort of word we use every day.
     "Hi, John! How's it going?"
     "I'm feeling great, Ginny! I've been regenerating all day.
     Somehow I can't picture overhearing this sort of casual conversation.
Words like repentance, reformation, and regeneration simply are not a part
of our everyday vocabulary. How about saying "I'm sorry," shaping up, and .
. . regenerating? What does "regenerating" mean? As with repentance and
reformation, we have other, more common words that we use to say the same thing.
     In scientific language, the word for regeneration is "reproduction."
When we have children, we are not simply "producing" them. That would imply
that we were building something that may have little or nothing to do with
who and what we ourselves are as people. No, we are _re_producing, because
something of ourselves is "produced again" in our children. Parts of both
our physical and our spiritual (or psychological) character is expressed in
our children--so we are re-producing ourselves in them.
     Do the words "produced again" bring to mind another, more common
phrase? Yes! "Regeneration" comes from the Latin word _regeneratio_, which
is one of several Latin words and phrases that mean, in plain English, being
"born again." We do not read about "regeneration" in the Bible. Instead, we
read about being born again. However, both are talking about the same process.
     Swedenborg gives two slightly different meanings to "regeneration," or
being born again. In a general sense, it means the whole process of
spiritual birth and growth, from the time we first make a decision to live
for the Lord to the time we reach spiritual maturity. But regeneration has a
special meaning when it goes with repentance and reformation. In this series
of three, regeneration is the final stage of spiritual rebirth and growth.
It is a stage when we gain the fruits of our labors. But I am getting ahead
of myself, and giving away the punch line!
     In the past two weeks, we have explored how we begin the overall
process of regeneration by recognizing the problems within ourselves, being
truly sorry for them, and resolving to stop acting on them. Then we looked
at some of the guideposts along our journey of leaving behind those "evil"
or damaging parts of ourselves. Being sorry and shaping up is not as easy as
falling of a log. It takes a conscious decision on our part, and it takes a
lot of inner _work_!
     This is exactly the work that our reading from Exodus refers to. The
third commandment says "six days you shall labor and do all your work." We
all know what physical labor is. Even those of us who do not make our living
at manual labor have experienced days of very literally working by the sweat
of our brows.
     In this culture we also have a well-developed idea of what mental work
is. Many of the professions that make up our economy do not primarily
involve physical labor. We have teachers and librarians, lawyers, political
leaders, business managers, counselors, real estate agents, salespeople, and
many other professions that involve mostly mental work, even if some of them
do have an element of physical labor as well. While some people sweat over a
shovel, others sweat over a contract. One is a physical tool; the other is a
tool of the mind and of commerce.
     As we move our thoughts from physical to mental work, we can also get
an idea of what emotional and spiritual work are. We have all experienced
emotional work of one kind or another. If something difficult and painful
happens in our family or among our friends or co-workers, it takes emotional
work to deal with it. This kind of work can be every bit as exhausting as
physical labor--even if it is a different _type_ of exhaustion.
     Spiritual work is similar to emotional work, and in many cases the two
are one and the same. But spiritual work always involves facing and
overcoming the difficult and painful parts of our own selves. Our spiritual
work is to face the faults, or "evils," in ourselves and overcome them
through reliance on the Lord and through following the laws, or spiritual
guidelines, that the Lord gives us.
     Metaphorically, we spend six days a week in this kind of spiritual
work. This is the work of repentance and reformation; it is the work of
regretting the hurtful parts of ourselves and reshaping ourselves so that we
are closer to the Lord's pattern for us.
     Then we come to that wonderful seventh day. We have been working by the
sweat of our spiritual brows for what often seems more like six years than
like six days, but finally we come to that sacred time of rest from our
labors. This is what Swedenborg means by the word "regeneration" when he
uses it in the special meaning as the final stage of our spiritual growth.
     Of course, we have to remember that just as Monday follows Sunday, each
"final stage" of our spiritual growth is a prelude to a new phase of growth.
Our spiritual growth is not a straight line, but a cycle--a spiral leading
gradually upwards, but bringing us around and around again through times of
spiritual work and then spiritual rest.
     What does it mean to rest spiritually? And what does this have to do
with being regenerated, or born again? In our reading from _Arcana
Coelestia_, Swedenborg makes two statements that we can especially ponder
this morning. First, he says that the Sabbath day represents the joining
together of the Lord's divine human nature with the human race. In plain
language, this means that our spiritual Sabbaths are the times when we are
very close to the Lord. They are the times that we have done the work of
putting aside the "other gods" of self and material pleasure as the focus of
our lives, and have opened ourselves up to the true God and source of our being.
     When we are focused on self and material pleasures or possessions, we
always have struggles, because these things can never truly satisfy us. How
many of us have had the experience of thinking we would be happy if we only
had that nicer car or truck, or that faster computer, or that bigger house .
. . and then when we finally did get it, after the initial pleasure, we
found that we were not much happier than before? It is all too easy to then
pin our hopes for happiness on the _next_ better thing. Part of our
spiritual work is to see that while these things may bring us pleasure, they
do not bring happiness. Happiness comes from within; happiness comes from God.
     When we let go of everything but God as the central and most important
thing in our lives, then we can have a true Sabbath of rest. Then we are no
longer struggling against the reality of the universe--which is that only
God's love brings true joy and happiness. When we seek the Lord first, then
all these other things can be added to us. Not that we will automatically
live in a fancy house and drive an expensive car. But when the Lord is at
the center, we are happier with the possessions that we do have. And
especially, we are happier in our relationships with our friends and family
members, because we are thinking of their happiness as much as our own.
     Swedenborg makes another statement to ponder in our reading from
_Arcana Coelestia_. He says that the Sabbath represents the joining together
of goodness and truth. In other words, it is when our thoughts and our
feelings are together. When we are in a phase of spiritual work, our minds
are divided. One part of us wants one thing, and another part wants
something else. Our head says one thing and our heart says another. Through
our spiritual work, we begin to resolve these differences within ourselves.
     At first, we have to force ourselves to do the right thing even when we
are longing to do something we know is wrong. But through our struggles to
"shape up" our attitudes and desires, an amazing thing happens. Before, we
felt pleasure in a habit that caused pain to others and was also
self-destructive. But the longer we work against it, the less pleasure it
gives us. Finally, we reach a stage of rest. We reach a time when our head
and our hearts say the same thing. When we not only _know_ we should not do
such and such; we have absolutely no _desire_ to do it. It becomes
distasteful to us. We no longer have to struggle against that old bad habit,
because we have been re-shaped, or re-born, in the image of God.
     This is the meaning of regeneration. It is also the meaning of the
Sabbath. Jesus teaches us this in our reading from Matthew, when he
reinterprets the Sabbath. The religious authorities of the day had gotten
stuck in a literal interpretation of the word "work." But Jesus said, in
effect, that it is not work to do what is good and right. It is only work to
_not_ do what is bad and wrong.
     When we have done _that_ work, then doing good things for others
becomes restful and peaceful for us. Then we are born again. We are born to
a new self--a self that comes not from our own desires, but from the love
and wisdom that constantly pours forth from the Lord, bringing peace and joy
with them. We can feel the joy of heaven, which is doing good things for
others because that is what we love to do.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Wed Mar 19 21:17:08 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 16:17:08 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Your New Self," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199703192118.QAA12444@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                     Your New Self
        A Lenten Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
             Bridgewater, MA, March 16, 1997

Readings: Exodus 20:8-11. Keep the Sabbath holy by doing no work on it.
          Matthew 12:1-13. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #8495. The meaning of the Sabbath.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the Lord your God. You shall not do any work. (Exodus 20:9, 10)

With a text like that, and all those readings about the Sabbath, you would
think that today's sermon would be about what it means to keep the Sabbath
in the Swedenborgian church. In a sense, that _is_ what this sermon is about.
     However, those of you who have been to church here within the past two
weeks know that I have an obligation to keep. I promised a three part Lenten
series on Repentance, Reformation, and Regeneration. Today is the fifth
Sunday in Lent, and we have reached the third sermon in the series:
Regeneration. So we have a little problem. I promised a sermon on
Regeneration, but I picked readings about the Sabbath.
     To tell you the truth, when I first started thinking about this sermon,
I did not intend to use readings about the Sabbath. But when it came time to
sit down and write, the passages on the Sabbath seemed to come up unbidden.
I have learned to follow such promptings, because usually it turns out that
the Lord has something in mind for the service that I may not have been
thinking about on my own. As we will see, this very experience of following
good promptings from the Lord--which we can occasionally enjoy when we get
ourselves out of the way--this experience gets to the essence of both
regeneration and the Sabbath.
     First, we must talk about this word "regeneration." "Regeneration" is
another one of those fancy words that the English language got from Latin.
As with many words from Latin, it is not the sort of word we use every day.
     "Hi, John! How's it going?"
     "I'm feeling great, Ginny! I've been regenerating all day.
     Somehow I can't picture overhearing this sort of casual conversation.
Words like repentance, reformation, and regeneration simply are not a part
of our everyday vocabulary. How about saying "I'm sorry," shaping up, and .
. . regenerating? What does "regenerating" mean? As with repentance and
reformation, we have other, more common words that we use to say the same thing.
     In scientific language, the word for regeneration is "reproduction."
When we have children, we are not simply "producing" them. That would imply
that we were building something that may have little or nothing to do with
who and what we ourselves are as people. No, we are _re_producing, because
something of ourselves is "produced again" in our children. Parts of both
our physical and our spiritual (or psychological) character is expressed in
our children--so we are re-producing ourselves in them.
     Do the words "produced again" bring to mind another, more common
phrase? Yes! "Regeneration" comes from the Latin word _regeneratio_, which
is one of several Latin words and phrases that mean, in plain English, being
"born again." We do not read about "regeneration" in the Bible. Instead, we
read about being born again. However, both are talking about the same process.
     Swedenborg gives two slightly different meanings to "regeneration," or
being born again. In a general sense, it means the whole process of
spiritual birth and growth, from the time we first make a decision to live
for the Lord to the time we reach spiritual maturity. But regeneration has a
special meaning when it goes with repentance and reformation. In this series
of three, regeneration is the final stage of spiritual rebirth and growth.
It is a stage when we gain the fruits of our labors. But I am getting ahead
of myself, and giving away the punch line!
     In the past two weeks, we have explored how we begin the overall
process of regeneration by recognizing the problems within ourselves, being
truly sorry for them, and resolving to stop acting on them. Then we looked
at some of the guideposts along our journey of leaving behind those "evil"
or damaging parts of ourselves. Being sorry and shaping up is not as easy as
falling of a log. It takes a conscious decision on our part, and it takes a
lot of inner _work_!
     This is exactly the work that our reading from Exodus refers to. The
third commandment says "six days you shall labor and do all your work." We
all know what physical labor is. Even those of us who do not make our living
at manual labor have experienced days of very literally working by the sweat
of our brows.
     In this culture we also have a well-developed idea of what mental work
is. Many of the professions that make up our economy do not primarily
involve physical labor. We have teachers and librarians, lawyers, political
leaders, business managers, counselors, real estate agents, salespeople, and
many other professions that involve mostly mental work, even if some of them
do have an element of physical labor as well. While some people sweat over a
shovel, others sweat over a contract. One is a physical tool; the other is a
tool of the mind and of commerce.
     As we move our thoughts from physical to mental work, we can also get
an idea of what emotional and spiritual work are. We have all experienced
emotional work of one kind or another. If something difficult and painful
happens in our family or among our friends or co-workers, it takes emotional
work to deal with it. This kind of work can be every bit as exhausting as
physical labor--even if it is a different _type_ of exhaustion.
     Spiritual work is similar to emotional work, and in many cases the two
are one and the same. But spiritual work always involves facing and
overcoming the difficult and painful parts of our own selves. Our spiritual
work is to face the faults, or "evils," in ourselves and overcome them
through reliance on the Lord and through following the laws, or spiritual
guidelines, that the Lord gives us.
     Metaphorically, we spend six days a week in this kind of spiritual
work. This is the work of repentance and reformation; it is the work of
regretting the hurtful parts of ourselves and reshaping ourselves so that we
are closer to the Lord's pattern for us.
     Then we come to that wonderful seventh day. We have been working by the
sweat of our spiritual brows for what often seems more like six years than
like six days, but finally we come to that sacred time of rest from our
labors. This is what Swedenborg means by the word "regeneration" when he
uses it in the special meaning as the final stage of our spiritual growth.
     Of course, we have to remember that just as Monday follows Sunday, each
"final stage" of our spiritual growth is a prelude to a new phase of growth.
Our spiritual growth is not a straight line, but a cycle--a spiral leading
gradually upwards, but bringing us around and around again through times of
spiritual work and then spiritual rest.
     What does it mean to rest spiritually? And what does this have to do
with being regenerated, or born again? In our reading from _Arcana
Coelestia_, Swedenborg makes two statements that we can especially ponder
this morning. First, he says that the Sabbath day represents the joining
together of the Lord's divine human nature with the human race. In plain
language, this means that our spiritual Sabbaths are the times when we are
very close to the Lord. They are the times that we have done the work of
putting aside the "other gods" of self and material pleasure as the focus of
our lives, and have opened ourselves up to the true God and source of our being.
     When we are focused on self and material pleasures or possessions, we
always have struggles, because these things can never truly satisfy us. How
many of us have had the experience of thinking we would be happy if we only
had that nicer car or truck, or that faster computer, or that bigger house .
. . and then when we finally did get it, after the initial pleasure, we
found that we were not much happier than before? It is all too easy to then
pin our hopes for happiness on the _next_ better thing. Part of our
spiritual work is to see that while these things may bring us pleasure, they
do not bring happiness. Happiness comes from within; happiness comes from God.
     When we let go of everything but God as the central and most important
thing in our lives, then we can have a true Sabbath of rest. Then we are no
longer struggling against the reality of the universe--which is that only
God's love brings true joy and happiness. When we seek the Lord first, then
all these other things can be added to us. Not that we will automatically
live in a fancy house and drive an expensive car. But when the Lord is at
the center, we are happier with the possessions that we do have. And
especially, we are happier in our relationships with our friends and family
members, because we are thinking of their happiness as much as our own.
     Swedenborg makes another statement to ponder in our reading from
_Arcana Coelestia_. He says that the Sabbath represents the joining together
of goodness and truth. In other words, it is when our thoughts and our
feelings are together. When we are in a phase of spiritual work, our minds
are divided. One part of us wants one thing, and another part wants
something else. Our head says one thing and our heart says another. Through
our spiritual work, we begin to resolve these differences within ourselves.
     At first, we have to force ourselves to do the right thing even when we
are longing to do something we know is wrong. But through our struggles to
"shape up" our attitudes and desires, an amazing thing happens. Before, we
felt pleasure in a habit that caused pain to others and was also
self-destructive. But the longer we work against it, the less pleasure it
gives us. Finally, we reach a stage of rest. We reach a time when our head
and our hearts say the same thing. When we not only _know_ we should not do
such and such; we have absolutely no _desire_ to do it. It becomes
distasteful to us. We no longer have to struggle against that old bad habit,
because we have been re-shaped, or re-born, in the image of God.
     This is the meaning of regeneration. It is also the meaning of the
Sabbath. Jesus teaches us this in our reading from Matthew, when he
reinterprets the Sabbath. The religious authorities of the day had gotten
stuck in a literal interpretation of the word "work." But Jesus said, in
effect, that it is not work to do what is good and right. It is only work to
_not_ do what is bad and wrong.
     When we have done _that_ work, then doing good things for others
becomes restful and peaceful for us. Then we are born again. We are born to
a new self--a self that comes not from our own desires, but from the love
and wisdom that constantly pours forth from the Lord, bringing peace and joy
with them. We can feel the joy of heaven, which is doing good things for
others because that is what we love to do.


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Thu Mar 20 03:52:42 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 22:52:42 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Light of Truth
Message-ID: <199703192252_MC2-12D7-785A@compuserve.com>

THE LIGHT OF TRUTH
by the Rev. Eric H. Carswell

        Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the
world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of
life." (John 8:12)

Did you ever wonder how young the Lord was when He first knew that His life
would not end peacefully?  How young was He when He knew that His work was
leading to a final conflict that would end in His death?  We don't really
know.  The prophecies of Old Testament foretell that it was to happen. 
>From prophecies He could have known when He was still very young what would
occur.  Jesus told His disciples over and over that He would suffer and be
put to death.  Conflict was inevitable.  Good and evil cannot dwell
together peacefully.  One or the other must dominate.  

The Pharisees could not let Jesus continue to do what He was doing.  They
hated the Lord and what He said.  They could not have peace while He lived
and taught.  His work threatened them constantly.  The Lord did not seek
the earthly power that Pharisees wanted.  He was not concerned with His
reputation as they were.  But every thing that He did brought a threat
nearer to them.  As the Lord told Nichodemus:

        And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to
the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth
comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been
done in God. (John 3:19-21)

The Lord came bringing the light of truth, but not to do harm to anyone. 
Nevertheless that light was a threat to the Pharisees.  They were
threatened even though Jesus wanted only good for them.  He hated no one. 
But they hated Him.  Hated Him enough to want Him dead.

The Pharisees knew what trouble the light would cause them.  The light of
truth threatened to destroy the dearest parts of the their lives.  It
threatened their power.  It threatened their reputations as true followers
of God.  It threatened to change their ability to do the things that they
wanted to do and they wanted none of it.  Conflict was inevitable.
     
Yes, they could have ignored one man, but as long as Jesus taught and
performed miracles anyone could know what He knew.  Anyone could get the
light of truth.  It was a threat to the Pharisees.  Jesus was specifically
a threat to the Pharisees because He was bringing that light to so many
people.  People were learning what was true and good.  They could see the
sham of the Pharisee's life.  They wanted people to think they were the
more obedient to Jewish law than anyone else, but the Lord showed that they
were hypocrites.  They followed parts of the letter of Law of Moses, but
they consistently broke its intent.  And the Lord made this perfectly
clear.
     
The Lord knew this would bring conflict and a lack of natural peace.  He
wants nothing to do with the peace that comes from ignorance of danger. 
The half-awake soldier peering out into darkness may have peace while the
enemy silently stalks him.  The Lord would not stand by to let this peace
continue.  He would bring a bright light that would expose the enemy.  He
came with the light of truth to help all who needed it.
     
Imagine someone watching over your shoulder to see how you spend your time
each day?  Someone will watch each moment of your day.  Do you feel
comfortable with your priorities?  Would the observer encourage you in what
doing maybe even remind to make time for self?  Or would you feel
threatened by the observer and what he would notice?  Would light of
objective observation defend or threaten your life?
     
The Lord said "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes
in Me should not abide in darkness." (John 12:46)  Although He wanted
nothing but good things for all people conflict was inevitable.  The
Pharisees were going to seek his death.  They wanted peace, the quiet of
ignorance, the peace of subjection.  Good and evil cannot get along
together.  They do not get along together within us.  Conflict is
inevitable.
     
The Pharisees tried to end the Lord's power by many means.  They tried to
cast doubt on ideas that He taught.  They tried to make Jesus contradict
Himself.  They questioned His life.  They pointed out that He ate with
sinners and publicans.  They pointed out that His disciples didn't strictly
follow ancient traditions of washing or that they broke the strict rules
about work on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees tried to end the Lord's power by
many means.  But the Lord could not be hurt by them.  The Pharisees could
not extinguish His light or hid from its revealing rays.

Part of each of our minds is like the Pharisees.  It is threatened by the
light of truth.  This part of our mind would like to destroy the power of
truth.  It would like to destroy the power of the Lord's Word.  But this
destruction cannot be done quietly.  To destroy it, Jesus must be
crucified.  Something living within each of our minds must be deliberately
put to death.  Oh, yes the Pharisees had their reasons, their
justifications.  But what they did was murder.  It did not fit within even
a broad interpretation of the Law of Moses by which they pretended to guide
their lives.  By their own standards, the Pharisees broke the law many
times in their arrest and trial of Jesus.  But the same day they
scrupulously avoided entering Pilate's home, the home of a non-Jew, lest
they make themselves unclean for the Passover.  The same day, Jesus was
discovered to be dead when they came to hasten His death lest anyone be on
a cross during the Sabbath celebration.  They kept the law at their own
convenience.
     
The Lord comes to each of us, in many parts of our lives.  He comes to
bring us the light of truth.  He comes to protect us from evil, to protect
us from unnecessary sadness.  But this light would reveal the ugliness of
things we want, at things that we think and that we do.  These things are
evil.  The light of truth threatens parts of our lives.
     
The Lord had quoted from the prophet Micah when He said, 

        For I have come to "set a man against his father, a daughter
against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a
man's foes will be those of his own household." (Matt. 10:35-36, cf Micah
7:6)  

The life of your mind is like an extended family.  Some of your thoughts
are related to following thoughts like a father is related to a son.  Some
of your affections are related to affections that follow from them like a
mother is to a daughter.  These thoughts and affections will not be at
peace with each other unless either the power of evil and false ideas is
destroyed in our minds or the power of good and truth is crucified.  An
angry thought can be followed and challenged by one calling for more mercy.
 A selfish desire can be followed and challenged by one that calls us to
give to others.  A commitment to do what is good and true can be challenged
by a host of related doubts and desires like a man finding his foes to be
members of his own household.  

The Lord called on people to use the light.  He said:

        A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have
the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not
know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light,
that you may become sons of light.  (John 12:35-36)

And again He said:

        Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day,
he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one
walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. (John
11:9-10)

Which part of us will respond to the light the Lord offers each of us?  The
part that can be protected by the light?  The part that someday could be
with us in our lives as angels?  Or will our response come from the part of
us that is endangered by the light.  Will evil be destroyed or will an
attempt be made to destroy the truth?

The disguise of evil is unfortunately the disguise of goodness and
righteousness like the Pharisees tried to show everyone.  Unfortunately
evil feels like us, like our kith and kin.  We are tempted to accept
self-justification.  To protect our own bad habits because they don't look
all that bad to us.  They feel rather familiar, like our very lives. 
Anyone who says getting rid of significant bad habits is easily done,
doesn't know what they are talking about.  Getting rid of significant bad
habits feels at times like we are losing our very lives.  But we know well
that the Lord said "he who loses his life for My sake will find it.  When
we lose our natural life we will actually leave behind the death of hell
and find the life of heaven.  This doesn't happen easily.
     
Conflict is inevitable in our lives.  It is inevitable in our daily
choices.  Conflict will come in our decisions about the things that we
want.  It will come in our decisions about acting patiently  or angrily. 
It will come in our decisions about choosing an easy but unhealthy course
or standing up for what is true.  Conflict is inevitable.
     
We all know that it takes effort to get to heaven, but it is also true that
no one goes to hell by accident.  The Lord was not crucified by accident. 
It was the result of choices by people.  Choices that arose from a
conflict, from a conflict that must take place.  The Lord did not come to
bring peace.  He brought the light of truth.  He brings that light to each
of us.  Let us look for it in our lives.  Yes, part of us will feel
threatened by it.  A part of us that needs to be destroyed.
     
The Lord came as a light for the people of this world.  He came that we
might have life and have it more abundantly.  Let us welcome Him into our
thoughts and actions.  AMEN.

Lessons:
        Luke 20 (portions), 22:1-6, John 11:45-53
        John 1:1-14

Arcana Caelestia 6000:2-5
That "night" denotes what is obscure, and likewise what is false, may also
be seen from the following passages in the Word. In John:-
        Jesus said, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walk
in the day, he stumbleth not. But if any one walk in the night, he
stumbleth, because the light is not in him (xi. 9, 10); "twelve hours"
denote all states of truth; "walking in the day," denotes to live in truth;
and "walking in the night," to live in falsity. [3] Again:-
        I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the
night cometh when no one can work (ix. 4);
"day" denotes truth from good; and "night," falsity from evil. It is the
first time of the church which is meant by "day," for then truth is
received, because people are in good; and it is the last time of the church
which is meant by "night," for then nothing of truth is received, because
people are not in good. For when a person is not in good, that is, when he
is not in charity toward the neighbor, then even if the clearest truths are
told him, he does not receive them, for then it is not at all perceived
what is true, because the light of truth falls into such things as are of
the body and the world, which alone are attended to, and alone are loved
and estimated as real; but not into such things as are of heaven, because
with such people these are relatively of little or no account. Thus the
light of truth is absorbed and smothered in what is densely dark, as is the
light of the sun in what is black. This is signified by "the night cometh
when no one can work." It is also such a time at this day. [4] In Matthew:-
        While the bridegroom tarried, all the virgins slumbered and slept.
But at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh (xxv.
5, 6);
"midnight" also denotes the last time of an old church, when there is
nothing of faith because nothing of charity, and also the first time of a
new church. In Luke:-
        I say unto you, In that night there shall be two upon one bed; the
one shall be accepted, and the other shall be left (xvii. 34);
here in like manner "night" denotes the last time of an old church and the
first of a new one. [5] In Matthew:-
        Jesus said to the disciples, All ye shall be scandalized against Me
in this night. And to Peter, In this night, before the cock crow, thou
shalt deny Me thrice (xxvi. 31, 34);
that it pleased the Lord to be taken at night, signified that with them at
that time Divine truth was in the obscurity of night, and that falsity from
evil was in its place. And that Peter denied the Lord thrice in that night,
also represented the last time of the church, when the truth of faith is
indeed taught, but is not believed. Such a time is "night," because the
Lord is then utterly denied in the hearts of men; for the twelve apostles,
like the twelve tribes of Israel, represented all things of faith and Peter
represented the faith of the church. Therefore it was that the Lord said
unto Peter that "in that night he should deny Him thrice;" and to the
disciples, "all ye shall be scandalized against Me in this night."
All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.  


From leewoof@tiac.net  Tue Mar 25 03:47:46 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 22:47:46 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Rejoicing and Sorrow," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199703250350.WAA09697@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                       Rejoicing and Sorrow
          A Palm Sunday Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
            Bridgewater, Massachusetts, March 23, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 51:1-11. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
          Luke 19:28-48. Jesus enters Jerusalem and weeps over it.
          _Apocalypse Explained_ #458b.5. Carrying palms shows heartfelt joy.

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "If you, even
you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now
they are hidden from your eyes." (Luke 19:41, 42)

Our topic for this Palm Sunday is "Rejoicing and Sorrow." It would be nice
if we could turn that title around, and call it "Sorrow and Rejoicing"
instead. I suppose we could. Isaiah does. But for the events of Palm Sunday,
the progres-sion is definitely from rejoicing to sorrow--not the other way
around.
	Perhaps some people would like it if every sermon focused only on _good_
things, and avoided _bad_ and bothersome things. Some come to church only to
be uplifted, not to face the rougher places on life's road. But for us as a
church to succumb to that superficially comfortable road would be to miss
half of the church's mission. There is an old saying that the mission of the
church is to comfort the afflicted . . . and to afflict the comfortable! If
we are too com-fortable on life's path, perhaps we have stopped traveling
that path, and are merely sitting in one place spiritually, making no
progress at all.
	The path that Jesus shows us through his life on earth is full of the most
sublime and joyful of high spots _and_ the most dire and depressing low
spots. We find in the Gospels no excuse for drifting lightly through life,
taking no risks and making no progress. Instead, we find a picture of our
Lord as one who lives life fully, walking the extra mile rather than taking
things slowly and cautiously.
	That quality of Jesus' life is present in an especially packed form in the
events of Palm Sunday and the week that follows it. Jesus' last week on
earth is not only the climax of his life; it is also a microcosm (or smaller
version) of it. All the joys and sorrows, the love and faithfulness--and the
hatred and betrayal--that swirled through and around his life are pressed
down and shaken together into this one week. One week is hardly enough for
us even to scratch the surface of the depth and breadth of what happened
between Palm Sunday and Easter. Perhaps that is why the Christian church has
added the forty-day period of Lent--to give us more time to digest the
events of this momentous week.
	Yet if we do make the emotional effort to comprehend some of the depth and
breadth in the events of Holy Week, we find that it is also a microcosm of
our own lives. Or more accurately, our lives are a shadow and an echo of the
inten-sity of light and darkness, warmth and cold, of that week.
	As a church, we _could_ focus only on the "good stuff." We could talk only
about peace and love, joy and good deeds. But it wouldn't be a very
realistic picture of life, would it? What about all the times we go through
that are not so good? What about the times we feel wretched and depressed;
when everything has fallen apart around us; when life seems barely worth
living? If we looked only at the good parts of spiritual living, and not at
the more difficult parts, we would get a one-dimensional picture of what
religion is all about. Plus, it would seem just a little bit
unrealistic--especially when things are not all sweetness and light for us.
	So we will stay with the topic of "Rejoicing and Sorrow" this morning, and
see if we can touch some of the realities of our lives as pictured in the
events of Palm Sunday.
	The story certainly begins on a note of rejoicing. After sending two of his
disciples to procure a colt for him, Jesus rides into Jerusalem surrounded
by a throng of people joyfully shouting out hosannas to the king who comes
in the name of the Lord. The Gospel of Luke mentions people placing their
cloaks on the colt and on the path in front of Jesus. For such a great one
even to ride over their clothing was a great honor!
	The Gospel of John adds that the people took palm branches with them when
they went to meet Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. This is where the name
"Palm Sunday" comes from. As Swedenborg mentions in our reading from
_Apocalypse Explained_, palm branches hold a meaning of heartfelt joy and
celebration. Our Procession of Palms here in church captures some of that
spirit of celebration for us.
	We, too, can feel the joy and celebration when the Lord comes into our
lives. When we realize that we are not alone; that there is a loving,
_personal_ God who cares for us very deeply; when we realize that our lives
have a meaning and purpose that we may not even be aware of, but which is
held for each of us in the Lord's heart; when we realize these things, we
can feel rejoicing and celebration in the wonderful richness of life that
the Lord offers to each one of us, whatever our outward circumstances may be.
	It is a wonderful feeling--especially when we have been through difficult
circumstances. It is wonderful to know, not just in our heads, but in our
hearts, that there is more to life than a struggle for existence. It is
wonder-ful to know that the Lord, the infinite God of the universe, cares
for us enough to enter into the life of each one of us, giving a deeper,
spiritual dimension to all of our experiences here on earth. It is wonderful
to know that our life here is leading somewhere--leading to a heavenly
community of mutual love, respect, and service to each other and to the Lord.
	Once again, it might be nice if we could keep ourselves in this aura of
celebration and rejoicing. But once again, that is not how life works. In
the events of Palm Sunday, the contrast is especially stark. As Jesus
approaches Jerusalem, with the people shouting out their praises and joy,
what is the very first thing he does? Does he add his voice to the cheers of
the crowd? No. The first thing Jesus does is weep over the city.
	Perhaps Jesus' sorrow is heightened by the great contrast with the happy
hubbub going on around him. Contrasts can be devastating--and the contrast
between rejoicing and sorrow that Jesus saw around him and before him moved
him to tears. He saw a happy crowd crying out peace and glory to the highest
heaven . . . and an entire city that could not see or experience that peace
because of the hardness of its people's hearts.
	Isn't this the difficult contrast for us as well? When we catch a glimpse
of the golden vision of life that the Lord offers us, and then see how far
away from that vision much of our life is, both as individuals and as a
culture? How can we hold such contrasts in our minds and hearts without
feeling, not only joy at the Lord's coming into our lives, but also intense
sorrow? We see the wonder-ful ideals of doing unto others what we would have
them do to us; of loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves; of
taking care of each other in our sorrows, and rejoicing with each other in
our joys.
	Yes, we do experience each of these things in the course of our lives. But
we also experience times when people's actions are full of anything but love
and concern for each other. We see all too many examples of this in the
news. If we are not too hardened to the daily stream of it, these sad
stories give us pain.
	Yet if we are honest with ourselves, we also see times when we ourselves
did not act out of love and concern for others; when turned our back on
someone who needed us; when we were unwilling to forgive someone, or said or
did some-thing that hurt another person. Yes, the contrasts between
rejoicing and sorrow are present in each of our lives as well as in the news
of our community and our world. To an often frightening degree, we are a
microcosm--a small version--of our community and our society. When we point
our finger at terrible people out there doing terrible things, all too
often, if we search deeply within our-selves, we find that the spirit of
those acts is present in our own soul too--even if we have not expressed it
the same way.
	Palm Sunday presents us with both rejoicing and sorrow. It presents us with
the joy of the Lord's renewed entry into the spiritual center of our lives.
It also presents us with the sorrow of recognizing all the wrong things that
have been at the center of our lives _instead_ of the Lord up to this point.
	In this contrast, there is also a challenge. It is the same challenge that
is presented to us in our reading from Isaiah. Now that the Lord is
approaching our spiritual Jerusalem to enter into the heart of our lives,
whom will we enthrone there? Will we stay with our old ways that eventually
bring us to sorrow? Or will we awake, and let the strength of the Lord's arm
sweep away all that does not belong to love and rejoicing, just as the
Jesus' arm swept away those who bought and sold in the Temple?
	If we are willing to let the Lord reign in our hearts, then we will indeed
turn around this morning's topic. Then, as the prophet Isaiah says, we
"shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Amen.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Tue Mar 25 22:11:31 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 17:11:31 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970325165753.576f3d42@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________

For Cinti. 03-23-97

	THE HAPPINESS OF EASTER

	A Family Festival Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart
will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you." (Jn. 16:22)

	THE STORY OF EASTER BEGINS WITH PALM SUNDAY.  Palm Sunday was the day when
the Lord rode into Jerusalem as a King.  He rode into the city on a young
donkey, and in those days that is what a king would ride on as he returned
home to his city.  And so when the people in Jerusalem saw the Lord coming
towards the city riding on this young donkey, they knew that He was coming
as their King, and so they ran out to welcome Him.  They were happy that
the Lord was coming as their King, very, very happy indeed.  And to show
just how happy they were, they cut branches off palm trees, and laid them
in the road.  And some of them held palm leaves in their hands, and waved
them as the Lord rode into the city.  These palms that they waved were a
sign of joy, joy that the Lord was now their King.
	Palm Sunday was indeed a very happy day.  But just five days later
something very sad then happened.  Even though many people in Jerusalem had
been happy when the Lord rode into the city, there were other people there
who didn't like the Lord.  The scribes and Pharisees -- people who ruled
the Jews -- hated the Lord, and they were trying to kill Him.  And so, on
Thursday night, just four days after Palm Sunday, they had the Lord
arrested, and the next day they took Him to the Roman governor, Pontius
Pilate, and asked the governor to have the Lord be put to death.  And so it
was that they executed the Lord.  They crucified Him. Then, after it seemed
as if the Lord was died, some of the Lord's followers came and took down
His body from the cross and put it in a sepulcher -- in a cave.
	Palm Sunday had been such a happy day, hadn't it?  But now, five days
later, on the Friday, it was a very, very sad day indeed.  It was sad
because there were these people who had hated the Lord so much that they
tried to kill Him by crucifying Him.
	But of course these evil people couldn't really kill the Lord.  The Lord
is God.  He is life itself.  Everything that is living gets its life from
the Lord.  And the Lord is all-powerful.  Nobody could really kill Him.
And to show everybody that He really was God, and to show everybody that
life comes from Him, the Lord came out of the sepulcher on the Sunday.  He
was crucified on the Friday, He was in the sepulcher on the Saturday, and
then, on the third day, on the Sunday, He rose again.  This was the first
Easter Sunday.  And Easter is a very happy day indeed.  It was the day when
the Lord came out of the sepulcher and showed everybody that He wasn't
really dead -- that He was God and that nobody could every really hurt Him
or kill Him.
	And all of this is the story of Easter.  It is a story which begins with
everybody being happy as the Lord rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  It
is a story which then tells about something very sad, about how evil wicked
people tried to kill the Lord.  But it is a story which ends by telling
about one of the happiest days in all of history.  It tells how the Lord
came out of the sepulcher and showed people that He was still alive, and
that He is alive for evermore.  The Lord's disciples rejoiced.  In fact,
the Lord  told  them to rejoice.  In the Gospel of Matthew, it says that
after the Lord rose from the sepulcher, the very first thing He said to His
disciples when He saw them again was "Rejoice."  "Rejoice," He told them.
Be happy!
	And this is something the Lord always wants.  He wants people to be happy.
 And the story of Easter is, above all, a story about the Lord making
people happy.  In fact, this is the very reason the Lord came down to
earth.  He came to earth by being born in the tiny town of Bethlehem.  And
during His life here, the Lord fought against the evil spirits of hell,
evil spirits who were making people wretched and  miserable.  And the Lord
also taught people.  He taught them many things.  He taught them how they
should live if they wanted to be happy.  And He also showed people how much
He loved them and how He wanted so very much to make them happy for ever
and ever.  Then, on the first Easter morning, when the Lord rose from the
sepulcher, He had finished this work.  He had done what needed to be done
so that people could be happy once again.  When He came out of the
sepulcher He showed that He was God Himself, and that He was all-powerful.
He showed that if a person believed in Him, and obeyed His commandments, He
would make that person happy for ever and ever.
	This is why, when He showed Himself to His disciples on the first Easter
morning, He told them to be happy.  He told them to rejoice.  And this is
why we also should be happy at Easter time.  Easter time is the time when
we celebrate the Lord's resurrection from the sepulcher.  It is the time
when we rejoice and say thank you to the Lord for making people happy.  And
it is a time when we remember especially that the Lord is our God, and that
if we believe in Him, and if we do what He says, He will make us happy for
ever and ever.
	_______________________________________

	Now the Lord's resurrection does, of course, involve many things.  By
rising from the sepulcher He proclaimed the truth that He is God Himself.
By conquering death, He showed that He has power over death, and that He
has the power to give us life eternal beyond the grave.  By rising again on
that first Easter morning, He also symbolized the dawning of a new era, the
Christian era.  The Lord established the Christian Church, a church which
would, for a time, bring light and love to those who had been in ignorance
for so long.  But the Lord, in rising from the sepulcher, also showed
something else.
	He showed that He has power to rise from another sepulcher as well, the
sepulcher within each individual mind.  And we all have such a sepulcher
within our minds.  We all have memories of past sins, of evils committed,
of duties left undone.  And when we are in the midst of temptation, these
memories can haunt us.  We seem to see our hope of salvation buried beneath
the debris of past evils.  What we have done in the past, we sometimes
imagine, will condemn us to a future in hell.  And so, as we struggle to
resist evil, we at times almost give up hope.  But while a person lives
here on this earth, what he has done does not have to condemn him.  There
is no need to focus forever upon past deeds.  The past is dead.  The Lord,
and His salvation, do not lie buried forever beneath the sins of earlier
years.  As the angels asked those who came to the sepulcher early in the
morning:  "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"  The Lord's
salvation is not lost in the past.  It lies in the future, if we but
persevere along the pathway to heaven.
	The Lord can rise again in our hearts.  When the night is over, morning
comes, and the Lord brings spiritual light and spiritual warmth.  We are no
longer torn by a desire to do evil.  This desire has disappeared, for the
Lord has laid it to rest.  And now the Lord no longer seems absent, for now
we have trust in His presence, and His many blessings seem so obvious, so
apparent.  Deep within us we sense peace.  Once again there is joy; there
is happiness.  The Lord has risen within us!  And now our happiness can be
eternal.
	This can happen to us.  When we feel despair in trying to live a life of
good, when our Lord seems far, so far away, let us not forget that He will
rise again and he will come to us, as He came to His disciples.  The Lord
had promised that He would come again to them and bring them joy.  And this
promise, this promise of joy and happiness, the promise of light and
warmth, the promise of salvation and peace, is the promise of Easter.  It
is a promise for all who trust in the Lord, and abide in His ways:
	 " . . . I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will
rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into
joy. . . . you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart
will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. . . . Ask, and you
will receive, that your joy may be full."
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Matt. 21:1-9
		Matt. 28:1-6
		AE 659:19


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Wed Mar 26 21:38:11 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 16:38:11 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Stone Which the Builders Rejected
Message-ID: <199703261638_MC2-1353-FF01@compuserve.com>

The Stone Which the Builders Rejected
by Rev. Eric H. Carswell

        The stone which the builders rejected 
        Has become the chief cornerstone.  
        This is the Lord's doing.  
        And it is marvelous in our eyes (Psalm 118:22,23; Mark 12:10-11).

The Lord knows what it is like to be rejected, neglected, or merely
politely tolerated.  In all that He does, He has the long-term happiness of
individual human beings in mind.  There is not one word of revealed truth
that doesn't have this goal ultimately in mind.  Each image, each law, each
rational concept that He has given to us looks to our happiness.  On the
last night of His mortal life, He told His disciples:  "These things I have
spoken to you that My joy might be yours, and that your joy may be full"
(John 15:11).  The sadness of His life is that too often His words have
been merely tolerated, neglected, or outright rejected.  The parable of the
wicked vinedressers was directly addressed to the members of the Lord's
audience who had rejected and perverted the essential truths of the Old
Testament and would soon by crying for His crucifixion.

The vineyard that the man planted represents the Lord's Church on earth. 
Its qualities describe how the Lord has provided it with everything it
needs to lead people to happier and more useful lives.  In the parable, the
goal of the vineyard was the harvested and processed crop.  The primary
thing that the Church is supposed to produce within our lives is genuine
charity in our hearts, minds, and lives.  That is what the Lord calls us
to, and all that stands in the way He warns us against.

At vintage-time, the owner sent a servant to receive some of the fruit. 
This servant represents the Lord knocking at the door of a persons's mind
calling on him or her to do what is good, merciful and just.  Many times
each day, we have opportunities placed before us to make decisions about
how we will serve others.  The Lord comes to a person of the Church with
the hope that he will choose to do what is truly good.  It is not uncommon
that this choice is not easy.  Other thoughts argue against it in our mind.
 These other thoughts, as it were, beat up on the thought sent to us by the
Lord, and the result is a refusal to do what the Lord had hoped we would
do.

In one case the Lord's parable specifically cites that they threw stones at
the servant, wounding him in the head.  These stones represent the
self-righteous justifications that an externally pious person can marshall
to support his intolerance, hatred, neglect, and cruelty.  The Lord knocks
at the door of such a person's mind, sometimes through comments made by
others, sometimes by gently introducing a thought into the person's ideas,
and rather than receiving it and yielding up the life of good that the Lord
hopes for, the person rejects it and within his own mind argues that it is
wrong, irrelevant, or misguided.  The doctrinal justification that he
musters, wounds the head of the servant, meaning he rejects the essential
call to do what is good in the present situation.  

Everyone does this at various points in their life.  No one enters adult
life making the right choices spontaneously.  No one discovers a single key
early on and from then on never makes a mistake.  The key question is, what
are the fundamental values that direct our lives.  In the Writings of the
New Church these fundamental values are sometimes called our ruling love. 
This represents the core goal of our lives.  This core goal subtly or
directly influences all of our other values and choices.  The son of the
owner of the vineyard represents the Lord coming to us, not as the infinite
and unknowable God, but rather His entrance into our lives as a loving
Divine Human.  It is the rejection of this presence that fundamentally
defines the core of our lives.  This is represented in the parable by the
son of the owner coming to receive the vintage, and instead being killed. 
The vinedressers killed him in hopes that they would own the vineyard all
to themselves.  This represents a person rejecting the fundamental presence
of the Lord.  It represents a choice of a self-centered or world-centered
and directed life.  And this choice can be made under the guise of the most
dedicated religious behavior as it was with the corrupt Pharisees.

This is why the Lord as he finished the parable then quoted from the Psalms
saying:

        The stone which the builders rejected 
        Has become the chief cornerstone.  
        This is the Lord's doing.  
        And it is marvelous in our eyes (Psalm 118:22; Mark 12:10-11)

Have you ever watched a stonemason at work?  As he works he is surrounded
by a pile of stones from which he chooses the one he will next add to the
wall he is building.  After placing one, he looks over the possible stones
and picks the one that appears to best fit his needs.  As he picks through
a pile, if he happens to lift one that he doesn't think will fit, he tosses
it away, rejecting it.  If he finds one that he doesn't think will fit
anywhere because of its coloring or extremely difficult shape, he may pitch
it to the far edge of the pile or further.

Once the wall is underway, the process of choosing a stone and putting it
in place can be rather rapid.  But if you happen to be present at the
beginning of the wall, you will notice what care is given to the placement
of the chief cornerstone.  The placement of this stone determines at least
two edges or sides of the wall, and the placement of all other stones are
influenced by their relation to its initial position.  If it is correctly
placed, then the rest of the wall can work off of its correct placement. 
It if is misplaced, the wall will necessarily be flawed.

Why does the Lord speak to us about stonemasons and of a rejected stone
becoming the chief cornerstone?  We are the builders of our lives.  The
values, ideas, beliefs that guide our lives are like stones.  The choices
we make and their implications, both short-term and long-term, are like the
stones built into a wall.  These choices determine the quality of our lives
and our influence on others.  At any point in our lives we are like a
stonemason surrounded by stones that we can choose from.

What is the stone that is rejected?  It is the fundamental truth about who
we are in relationship to the Lord.  It is all too easy to not include Him
in our thinking.  It is too easy to become focused on the here and now, on
our own needs, on our own agendas of what is important.  The Lord calls us
above everything else to a love of Him and a love of our neighbor.  This
fundamental call of the Lord doesn't appear to fit very well into our own
plans and goals.  It is easy to reject.  Part of our mind does not believe
Him nor trust what He teaches.  For many of us, it is not that we totally
reject the Lord.  We will fit Him in somewhere.  Consider the following
words that describe a qualified desire for God's presence in a person's
life:

        I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode
my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or
a snooze in the sunshine.  I don't want enough of Him to make me love a
black man or pick beets with a migrant.  I want ecstasy, not
transformation;  I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.  I want a
pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.  I would like to buy $3 worth of God,
please  (for reference, ask EHC).

We don't want to reject the Lord totally, but having Him as the chief
cornerstone of our life seems to be asking an awful lot.  The Lord looks
with compassion at us in the state of mind in which we are inclined to
think thoughts such as this.  He knows that over and over again in each
person's life it is inevitable that the chief cornerstone will be poorly
chosen.  Gradually He is working to lead us to a very different life; one
in which an many-times rejected stone becomes the central value of our
daily values, thoughts, and deeds.

The Lord would guide us, open our eyes, and help us to recognize the stone
that should be the chief cornerstone of our life.  May we do our part to
follow Him, to reflect on the choices we make, to see the flaws within our
values and ideas.  May we turn to the Lord in prayer and in life that
someday we can echo the words spoken by Him:

        The stone which the builders rejected 
        Has become the chief cornerstone.  
        This is the Lord's doing.  
        And it is marvelous in our eyes (Psalm 118:22,23; Mark 12:10-11).

       Lessons:         Mark 12:1-11

[C]orners . . . signifies . . . strength and stability. That "corners" have
this signification is because in the corners there is the greatest
resistance, and also the binding together of the whole. As a "corner"
denotes strength and stability, such as is that of Divine truth from Divine
good, therefore the Lord is called "the cornerstone" in the following
passages:-
        The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the
corner (Ps. cxviii. 22; Matt. xxi. 42).
        Out of Judah shall come forth the cornerstone, out of him the nail,
and out of him the war-bow (Zech. x. 4).
        The Lord Jehovih will lay in Zion a tried stone, a precious corner
of foundation (Isa. xxviii. 18);
where in like manner a "corner" denotes the stability of the doctrine that
is from the truth which is from good.   Arcana Caelestia 9494

Since all the truth of doctrine from the Word must be founded upon the
acknowledgment of the Lord, therefore the Lord is called:-  The stone of
Israel (Gen. xlix. 24).  Also the cornerstone which the builders rejected
(Matt. xxi. 42; Mark xii. 10,11; Luke xx. 17, 18). That the cornerstone is
the foundation stone, appears from Jeremiah (Ii. 26). The Lord also in the
Word in many places is called a "Rock," wherefore by the "Rock" He meant
Himself, when he said:-  Upon this rock I will build My church (Matt. xvi.
18, 19); And also when he said:-  Whosoever heareth My words and doeth
them, is compared to a prudent man who buildeth a house and layeth the
foundation upon a rock (Luke vi. 47, 48; Matt. vii. 24, 26). By "a rock" is
signified the Lord as to the Divine truth of the Word. That all things of
the church and of its doctrine relate to these two: that the Lord is to be
approached immediately and that man must live a life according to the
commandments of the Decalogue by shunning evils as sins, and that thus all
things of doctrine relate to love to God, and to love towards the neighbor.
 Apocalypse Revealed 915

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Thu Mar 27 04:30:48 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 23:30:48 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Veil was Torn in Two
Message-ID: <199703262330_MC2-1355-2F92@compuserve.com>

THE VEIL WAS TORN IN TWO
by the Rev. Eric H. Carswell

        Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up
His spirit.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to
bottom; (Matt. 27:50-51)

The joy of Easter is the joy of the risen Lord.  He conquered death and
hell, rising to greet the women who came to the sepulchre and later the
disciples.  Why are His life and His resurrection so important to us today?

The purpose of Jesus' life in the world is central to the doctrine of the
New Church.  His unseen battles against the power of evil and His work of
uniting His natural life with the infinite and invisible God began very
early in His childhood and continued to His final temptation on the cross.
(AC 2776:2, AE 220:5)  Jesus said, "It is finished: and He bowed His head
and gave up the spirit." (John 19:30)  With the end of this last
temptation, the veil of the temple was torn in two, revealing the most holy
inner sanctuary.  The simultaneous occurrence of this event with the end of
the Lord's final temptation represents the effect of His lifetime of work.

The veil that was torn in two in the temple of Jerusalem had the same
function as the inmost veil in the tabernacle.  In the tabernacle there
were three veiled doorways, each of which, in series, admitted to a more
interior a more sacred part of the tabernacle.  The outermost served as the
entrance to the courtyard of the tabernacle.  The second veil served as the
entrance to the interior of the tabernacle itself, giving admittance to the
Holy Place.  The inmost veil was within the tabernacle itself and separated
the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.  This inmost veil hid the most holy
object in the tabernacle, the golden ark which contained the Ten
Commandments.

The Holy of Holies was so sacred that, except under extraordinary
circumstances, it was to entered only one day a year and then only by the
high priest after elaborate preparations of ritual cleansing. (Lev. 16) 
The solitary day on which the priest entered the inmost sanctuary was the
Day of Atonement.  The detailed ritual that was performed on this day
represented an atonement for all the sins of the Children of Israel.  In
addition to the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies, the
outstanding feature of the ritual included the choosing one of a pair of
goats to serve as that year's scapegoat.  This goat had the sins of the
Israelites symbolically transferred to it and then was led off into the
wilderness to carry these sins away from the people.

The ritual of atonement represented both the process of the Lord's
glorification and the redemption of the human race. (AC 9670:5,6; 9506)  It
represented the Lord's work of removing evil loves from a person who is
doing his own work of repentance.  The ritual did not by itself remove any
evil from the Israelites.  It was an act of worship that represented an
idea that had been clearly understood by an earlier and wiser church.  In
the purity of that earlier church, called the Ancient Church, all rituals
were external forms that expressed the hearts and ideas of the people.  In
the case of the ritual of atonement, the people of the Ancient Church would
have taken part in it with a spirit of genuine repentance and a desire to
have the Lord remove the influence of evil loves from their thoughts and
acts.  Gradually this understanding was lost and the dominate concerns in
people's lives became gradually more worldly and self-centered.  

In the Lord's government, the rituals continued to be performed by people
who didn't know what their actions were really supposed to mean.  The
Lord's church with the ancient Israelites was not a genuine church led by
wisdom and love, but rather merely represented or had rituals that looked
like those of a genuine church.  The internal or spiritual life of love to
the Lord and charity to the neighbor could not exist with them.  In
everything of their worship these internal things had to be closed up or
veiled over to prevent the terrible damnation that would come to those knew
and intentionally twisted these things.  The people of that church did not
see the Lord and Divine truth clearly.  Both the true nature of the Lord
and the genuine meaning of His words were hidden in darkness for them. 
This darkness was to end with the Lord's advent.  The ritual forms of
worship that were empty of genuine love and understanding were to come to
an end at that time.

The ordering of the spiritual world accomplished by the Lord's
glorification allowed for a new revelation of truth to human beings.  The
veil that had hidden the genuine qualities of a true church was torn in two
by this revelation.  The laws and rituals that had been handed down from
the Ancient Church were unfolded to reveal the Lord's love and wisdom that
had been hidden.  Once again, a church could be established which had love
and charity as the internal life within the external acts of their worship
and daily actions.  The revelation of these qualities of a true church was
accomplished through the Lord's glorification.  We might wonder why this
revelation couldn't have been accomplished through a prophet or someone
like Moses.  Further written revelation by itself would have been as
useless to the human race as a booklet of instructions would be to someone
in a pitch dark room.  An inner light was necessary for truth to be seen by
each individual human being.

The veil that had hidden the truth from human understanding was torn in two
through the Lord's battles with the hells and ordering of the heavens. 
Light could once again shine forth from the Lord to the people of His
church.  An image of this new presence of the Lord was presented by the
veil in front of the Holy of Holies being torn in two at the end of the
Lord's final temptation on the cross. (AC 4772)

There is a second meaning to this miraculous event that accompanied the
completion of the Lord's work.  This second meaning illustrates why the
Lord needed to glorify His Human or in other words, make it completely
unified with the Infinite God.  We are told in the opening of the Gospel of
John that "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God....That was the true Light, which gives light to every man who
comes into the world."  (John 1:1,9)  "The Word" here means the Divine
truth. (AC 4687:3)  The Divine truth flowing down through heaven was the
light that had enlightened all people from the time of the Most Ancient
Church.  Before the coming of the Lord into the world, spiritual light and
life flowed from Jehovah to people and spirits through the angels of the
highest heaven. (AC 6371:2)  But at the time just prior to the advent this
spiritual light and life could no longer affect the human race, because
people had turned so far away from a love of good and a knowledge of truth.
 The people of the world had through an accumulation of evil tendencies had
removed themselves from light and cast themselves into darkness. (AC 3195)

The influx of Divine light and life flowing through the highest or
celestial angels could no longer reach people to enlighten them and thereby
preserve their spiritual freedom.  It could not accomplish this task
because it was not purely the Lord's light and life.  It was tainted by the
impurities of the angels as it descended through heaven.  In this sense,
the angels were the inner veil of the tabernacle that hid the ark or the
Lord Himself. (cf. AC 2576:2)  In its most degenerate state, the human race
could not receive spiritual light from heaven or be led by it to a sight of
the Lord. (cf. AC 2814; 1894; AC 400:14)  If this state of spiritual
darkness had become complete, all human beings would have perished.

To prevent this universal destruction, the Lord effected His coming in the
flesh.  The Gospel of John states, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us."  (John 1:14)  The Lord was born into the world, taking on a
finite human form from Mary like that of any other human being. (AC 3061) 
As to His natural body, Jesus was the son of Mary, but His soul was the God
Jehovah.  As the infant Jesus grew and developed, He had to learn the
truths of the Word in the same manner in which we do.  In this way He took
into His mind the statements of the Word that were no longer seen to
contain Divine truth by people in the world. (cf. AC 2813)  The Lord then
allowed Himself to be tempted that He might expel from Himself all that was
limited or merely human, until nothing but the Divine remained. (AC 2814,
2816)  By means of continual temptations in which His thoughts and loves
were attacked by evil spirits and by continual victories in these battles,
the Lord simultaneously subjugated the hells (returned them to their proper
place and influence) and provided a new order for the angels of heaven to
follow. (cf. AE 400:14)  By conquest in temptation the Lord rose above
limitations, revealing the flaws in each false idea or less than perfect
love as He did so.  With each victory His Human drew ever closer to a
complete correspondence with the infinite Divine itself.  This is what is
meant by the glorification.
     
The Lord by His last temptation, endured in Gethsemane upon the cross,
completed the work which He had begun in His childhood.  His Human became
one with the Divine Itself by dispersing the last of the limitations He had
taken on in the world. (AC 2576:5)  The completion of this work is also
signified by the tearing of the veil of the temple. (cf. AC 2576:5, 9670:4;
AE 220:5, 400:14)

It is absolutely essential to the purpose of the Lord's glorification or
ascension to the Divine good that He did not effect merely a temporary
parting of the veil during His ascent.  The veil was torn in two from top
to bottom.  The Lord by His life of temptation and victory opened the way
to the Divine Itself through His Divine Human.  The glorification opened
the way for the light of Divine truth to proceed to the human race and
enlighten even those who were deep spiritual darkness. (AC 3195)  The
Divine truth from the Divine Human can now flow into the mind of every
person who is in the faith of charity, providing the spiritual equilibrium
needed for salvation. (AC 2776:3)  By reestablishing this equilibrium, the
Lord redeemed all people from unavoidable damnation.  The Lord can now be
with each and every person and lead them toward heaven even by the natural
things of their minds. (ibid)  By means of the glorification the Lord
opened the way for light to flow down to all people in a manner never
possible before that time.  The veil that had hidden the light of Divine
truth from mankind was rent in twain.

There is a second reason for emphasizing the continuing effect of the
Lord's work that is signified by the tearing of the inmost veil.  The Lord
came into the world and assumed the Human not only to redeem the human
race, but also to make Himself visible. (TCR 786)  The Lord did not
disappear forever from human sight when He cast off the remaining vestiges
inherited from Mary.  He did not unite His Human to the Divine Itself only
to be as remote from us as He had been before that unition.  On Easter
morning the sepulcher was indeed empty.  All that had been received from
Mary had been put off. (AC 2288)  We are not to look to the material body
which died on the cross. (cf. L 32:8)  That was not the Lord Himself.  The
women who came to the sepulcher early Easter morning were told, "Why do you
seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen." (Luke
24:5,6)  The Lord had risen.  He had become one with the infinite Divine
good. (AC 9199)  But the veil that had hidden the true nature of the Lord
from human beings was torn in two with His ascent.  Even after His final
victory in temptation, the Lord could appear to people in human form as the
visible Lord.  While it is true that we cannot see the infinite Divine
itself, we are to worship a visible God in whom is the Divine good itself
as a soul a body. (TCR 787)  God is now visible to those who seek Him in
His Word and live according to what they learn.  With the completion of the
Lord's work in this world, the veil of the temple was torn from top to
bottom, revealing the inmost sanctuary.

There are many things about the Lord's work and His life in this world that
strains our understanding or surpasses it completely.  We need not be too
concerned over our lack of understanding of some of the particulars of
these things.  However, the universals are within everyone's grasp.  The
Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the
hells and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been
saved.  The work that accomplished our redemption took place through out
Jesus whole life.  The passion of the cross was but the final temptation in
a series that had begun early in His childhood.  When Jesus conquered in
this last temptation, His work was complete.  Jesus conquered and rose from
the sepulcher as our Savior and Redeemer, the Lord, the one God of heaven
and earth.  He is now visible to all who seek Him.  The veil of the temple
is torn in two.  His light can shine out and we can see in to behold our
Lord and God.  AMEN

Lessons:  Leviticus
                Matthew 28:1-10

This New Church is the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed
on the earth, because it is to worship one visible God in whom is the
invisible like the soul in the body. Thus, and not otherwise, is
conjunction (a close relationship of love) between God and a person
possible because each human being is natural, and therefore thinks
naturally, and conjunction must exist in his thought, and thus in his
love's affection, and this is the case when he thinks of God as a Human
Being. Conjunction with an invisible God is like a conjunction of the eye's
vision with the expanse of the universe, the limits of which are invisible;
it is also like vision in mid-ocean, which reaches out into the air and
upon the sea, and is lost. Conjunction with a visible God, on the other
hand, is like beholding a human being in the air or on the sea spreading
forth his hands and inviting to his arms. For all conjunction of God with a
person must be also a reciprocal conjunction of that person with God; and
no such reciprocation is possible except with a visible God.  True
Christian Religion 787
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Mar 29 00:42:18 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 19:42:18 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970328172103.08e75938@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
										For Rchmnd 03-30-97

	THE BREAKING OF BREAD

	An Easter Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"And He said to them, 'What kind of conversation is this that you have
with one another as you walk and are sad?'" (Lk. 24:17)

	ON THE VERY FIRST EASTER MORNING, on the day that the Lord rose from the
sepulcher, two of His followers set off on a journey from the city of
Jerusalem towards a small village called Emmaus.  It was a distance of
sixty stadia, or about seven miles.  As they walked, they spoke sadly with
one other.  They were sad because, though they had hoped that Jesus of
Nazareth would redeem Israel, He had instead been put to death on the cross.
	The two men had indeed heard the reports of the women at the sepulcher
that Jesus had risen, that He was still alive.  It is obvious, though, that
they did not really believe these reports.  They thought Jesus was dead,
which is why they talked so sadly as they walked along the road.
	Not much is known about these two followers of the Lord.  We know that
they knew the apostles.  We also know that one of them was called Cleopas.
But we don't really know just who they were; nor do we know why it was that
they were traveling towards Emmaus.  In fact, nobody even knows for certain
exactly where the village of Emmaus was located.
	These external details, though, are relatively unimportant, for in a
deeper sense each one of us is familiar with these sad men, and each one of
us can understand something of what their journey was like.  These men
represent a state that each one of us will experience, and the journey to
Emmaus is a journey which each one of us must make.  There will come a
time, inevitably, when we also set off sadly along this road to Emmaus.
	The two men were sad because they felt disillusioned.  They had trusted in
the Lord.  They had hoped that He would prove to be the long-awaited
Messiah.  Now they were disappointed, because the high hopes they had had
now seemed to have been misplaced.  Jesus of Nazareth was dead.  He had
been condemned to death and crucified, and it was now the third day since
His execution.
	Every follower of the Lord comes eventually to experience this bitter
sense of disillusionment.  We all come to a point when we feel that our
religion has, in one way or another, failed to live up to our expectations.
 There are, of course, those times when the teachings of the Word affect us
deeply, when we see so clearly the wonder and power of the Lord as He
teaches us within His Word.  But then there are other times, other states,
when religion seems so cold, so dry, so ineffective.  Life seems pointless
and without meaning, and the fact that we have a religion, the fact that we
are New Church, the fact that we believe in the Lord, does not seem to make
any difference at all.
	Intellectually we know that religion is important.  But the problem does
not really lie in what we think; it has to do with the way we feel.
Whatever we may still believe and think about the fundamental importance of
the Word and its teachings, it somehow doesn't seem to matter that much to
us anymore.  It doesn't seem to have any real effect on the way we feel
about things.  We have a problem, a very real problem, as we try in vain to
discover the cause of our disillusionment.
	Now there is, in each one of us, a deep-seated reluctance to blame
ourselves when things go wrong.  Our love of ourselves blinds us to our own
faults.  We look outside of ourselves for something else to blame.  For the
two men on the road to Emmaus, the reason they felt discouraged seemed
obvious to them.  It wasn't their fault they felt sad and discouraged.
They were sad because of what had happened in Jerusalem.  They were
discouraged because in Jerusalem the Lord had been arrested and crucified.
They didn't see that the real problem lay with themselves -- with their
closed-minded refusal to accept the wonderful news that Jesus was indeed
still alive.
	Now Jerusalem stands for the church, the church as to its doctrines.  If
religion has lost its meaning for us, if it seems dry and ineffective, if
we are disillusioned, then we also are tempted to place the blame for this
upon what has happened in Jerusalem.  Our tendency is to blame the
doctrines.  We may still believe these doctrines, but we feel that they are
somehow too abstract, too complicated, too irrelevant, to be of much use in
the course of real everyday life.
	And yet when someone feels this way, the real problem, the underlying
problem, does not really lie with the doctrines at all.  It lies, instead,
within the man himself, and in his own relationship with these doctrines.
Though he may not realize it, the problem lies in the fact that he has not
yet really seen these doctrines to be true.  He does not yet really and
truly believe them, just as the two men did not really believe the reports
about Jesus.
	A person cannot really and truly believe the doctrines of the church until
he really and truly lives according to them.  It might not seem to be this
way.  We can seem to ourselves to believe, to be fully convinced of the
truth of the Writings, even if we do not fully live what they teach.  The
Writings would ask us this, though:  Do we really believe the truth of
something if we do not live it?  When a person does not live according to
his beliefs, then, despite all appearances to the contrary, his faith is
not yet a faith in the truth.  He is placing his faith, not in the truth,
but in himself.  He believes the Writings, not because he sees the truth
within them, but because he sees himself within these teachings.
	In the Arcana Coelestia there is a remarkable description of this kind of
faith.  "Faith from self, or from what is man's own," we read, "is not
faith, for it causes him to see falsities as truths, and truths as
falsities; and if he sees truths as truths, still he does not see, because
he does not believe, for he sees himself in them, and not the Lord."
	To see oneself in the truth and not the Lord!  A man can actually believe
the truth to be true, and yet believe it for the wrong reason.  He might,
for example, see the truth as something which he himself is wise enough to
understand.  He may see the truth as true because he finds it
intellectually stimulating -- as interesting to him.  But if a man believes
only for reasons such as these, for self-centered reasons, then he has
failed to see the essential truth of the Writings.  And so his faith is
weak and he is easily disillusioned.  He may think he has faith.  He may
think he believes.  But if, at a later stage, his state happens to change,
he may well change his mind about what he believes.  He may even forsake
his faith.
	True faith, though, is different.  True faith is from the Lord, and can
only be received by a man who actually lives his religion.  True faith is
to see the Lord Himself speaking within the pages of revelation.  It is to
accept His words as the words of a King.  Think of how many people had
welcomed the Lord into Jerusalem as their King!  And indeed He is a King.
He is the King of our souls!  And because He is our King, we are to accept
and obey what He teaches us.  It is not to be merely our opinion that His
Word is true:  an opinion that may or may not be changed later on.  True
faith is not an opinion at all, but a vision, a sight of the truth -- truth
that is always true, whether or not man accepts it.  Indeed, a man's vision
or sight of the truth is not from himself at all, but is from the Lord.  It
is the Lord who gives a person to see the truth.  It is the Lord who gives
faith.  And it was to give men such a vision of the truth that the Lord
came into the world.  As He told Pilate:  "You say rightly that I am a
king.  For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the
world, that I should bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the
truth hears My voice."
	To see the Lord as the source of all truth, and to see truth in the Word
as the words of the Lord as King, is to receive from Him a constant vision
-- a vision of the truth which does not diminish.  Such a vision is given
by the Lord to those who love and who obey His truth.  On the other hand,
if a person does not live the truth, any vision He may have of this truth
is weak and vacillating.
	This is why the two men of our story lost their vision of the Lord in
Jerusalem.  It was there that the Lord was crucified and appeared to die.
We too can lose our vision of the Lord.  We have the Writings, and we may
read them and understand many wonderful things within them.  Nevertheless,
in certain states these wonderful teachings can seem dead, dry and devoid
of life.  We fail to see them as the living words of the Lord Himself.  He
seems to be absent from those very teachings which He Himself has given.
So too, it was in Jerusalem, in His very own city, that He was crucified
and appeared to die.
	But this apparent death of the Lord within Jerusalem is not permanent.  In
time the teachings of religion can once again be seen for what they are:
as meaningful, living, full of wonder.  Eventually we do come to see once
again that these teachings are the living words of the Lord Himself.  But
to regain our vision can take time.  Indeed, in a sense it takes a
lifetime.  To acquire a living faith in the Lord, we must make the journey
from Jerusalem towards Emmaus.  Jerusalem is the church, the Lord's
doctrine.  Emmaus, on the other hand, is a village, and a village stands
for more external things.  It is in the external things of life, or,
rather, in the application of what we know to the way we live, that the
Lord is to be found once again.
	And so we must walk the road to Emmaus.  We must strive, day by day, and
every day, to do what the Word teaches.  And it can seem a long journey.
To truly live our religion means that our inherent tendencies towards evil
must be subdued.  They must be fought and conquered.  This does not come
easily, and it does not come quickly.  It is one thing to focus, in church,
or while reading the Word, upon the Lord's love, and the need for charity
and patience.  But the actual practice of this in the external affairs of
everyday life poses a far greater challenge.  As the aggravations and
frustrations of daily life in a far-from-perfect world pile up in the mind,
living what we know to be true and good becomes, at times, a very difficult
thing indeed.
	Emmaus was sixty stadia, sometimes translated sixty furlongs, from
Jerusalem.  It is not coincidence that people often associate sixty with
the age of wisdom, a state of fullness of experience.  The number sixty
signifies what is full, and though a man of sixty may not necessarily be
wise, and may not necessarily be regenerate, he certainly knows and has
experienced many things.  Even though his evils might not yet be fully
conquered and subdued, he at least has had much experience in wrestling
with such evils.  He knows, from many years of reformation, the importance
of keeping what is evil in check.
	This is the goal -- to subdue our impulses to do what is wrong -- to bring
under control the natural inclinations with which we have all been born.
And it is vital that we attain this goal, for it is only then that we can
really experience a lasting sense of delight, a sense of enjoyment, in the
life of religion.  Until the evils of the natural man are actually
subjugated, states of selfishness constantly return.  This is why the road
from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the actual living of a life of good, can seem so
arduous and long -- so sad.  While we still love evil, we do not really
enjoy the doing of good.
	Nevertheless, the Lord is still with us.  He joined the two men on their
journey to Emmaus.  But they didn't recognize Him.  Their eyes, it is said,
"were restrained."  They didn't know who He was until later on.  So too,
with us, the Lord can seem absent, and His Word can seem empty.  We can
lose our sense of vision.  Yet, all the time, whilst we are trying to do
what is right, the Lord is walking beside us, even though we don't
recognize Him.  And His desire is that in time our vision will be renewed.
	This is what happened eventually to the two disciples.  As they continued
towards Emmaus, the Lord first of all began to explain to them the many
things in Scripture that spoke of Him.  So too with us.  As we continue to
walk towards Emmaus -- apply what we know to life -- we begin to see once
more the real meaning and significance of the Word.  We begin to see new
things within the teachings of Divine revelation.  As the Lord explained
His Word to the two disciples, their hearts, it is said, burned within
them.  They were deeply affected by what this man was teaching them about
the Word.
	As the day began to draw to a close, the men stopped to eat.  It had been
a long journey, and they were very hungry.  They urged this stranger to
stay with them while they rested.  And so the three of them dined together.
 And the man took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.  Then,
suddenly, they recognized who this man really was.  They were in the
presence of the Lord Himself.
	Bread is broken so that it can be shared.  To break bread and to share it
with someone else is to communicate, to share, what is good.  And to eat
the bread that is offered is to appropriate it, to make it part of oneself.
 The bread which the Lord desires to share with us is His Divine good.  He
wants to give us of Himself.  He wants to flow into our hearts with love
and charity, and He wants us to receive this love, freely and with delight.
 And the whole journey towards Emmaus -- the whole journey of life, with
its struggles and temptations -- has as its end that we might eat the bread
that He gives us, and enjoy and take delight in it.  This is why the things
of religion must be brought down to the everyday concerns of life.  However
much we may feel inspired by the teachings of the Word, and however clearly
we might see that these teachings are from the Lord Himself, this
inspiration, and this vision, will die eventually, if we do not struggle to
live, as fully as we can, the truth which the Lord has given us.
	Yes, it is a sad journey at times.  It can be sad, and hard, because there
are obstacles, evils, in the externals of our minds, evils which at times
remove all sense of delight in the doing of what is good, and make the Word
and religion itself to appear but a meaningless exercise and duty.  Our
vision of the Lord can grow dim, very dim, on the way to Emmaus.  But it is
on this very journey that we will eventually meet the Lord.  If we continue
along the road towards Emmaus, if we continue to strive to live the truth
in the external concerns of everyday life, then those very evils which
cause us to feel unhappy, gloomy and sad, will be cast aside.  We will come
to feel an ever-increasing sense of delight and happiness in living the
teachings of the Lord.  And with this sense of delight we will be given to
see, to see beyond any doubt at all, that the teachings of the Word are
true, and full of life, and that they are the words, indeed the voice, of
the living God Himself.  Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is alive.  He is
with us.  He is alive forevermore.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Lk. 19:29-38
		Lk. 24:1-32
		AC 3863:14-15
 
___________________________________________________________________

	EATING WITH THE LORD

	An Easter Talk for Children by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose
	

	Evil people had tried to kill the Lord.  They had crucified Him so that he
would die.  And these evil people thought that they had managed to kill the
Lord.  They thought that the Lord was dead.

	But of course the Lord wasn't really dead.  Nobody could ever kill the
Lord, because the Lord is all-powerful.  He is Life itself -- all life
comes from Him.  Even though the Lord's body was put in a sepulcher, the
Lord was not really dead at all.

	Very early on the first Easter morning, some of the women who had known
and loved the Lord came to the sepulcher.  But the Lord wasn't there!  Two
angels spoke to the women, and told them that the Lord had risen.  The Lord
was alive.  He had got up and had left.  He was going to meet His disciples.

	Now on that very same morning two of the Lord's disciples had left on a
journey.  They left Jerusalem, walking to a small village called Emmaus.
As they were walking, another man started walking with them, and talking
with them.  They didn't know who this man was.  They thought he was just
another traveler.  In fact they walked a very long way with this man,
talking with him, and listening to him, without realizing who he was.
Finally they stopped to eat.  And as they were eating with this man, he
took a loaf of bread and he said grace.  Then the man broke the bread and
gave some of it to the two men.  And as he did this, the men suddenly
recognized who this man was.  It was the Lord.  The man they had been
walking with and talking with, was the Lord.  And as soon as they
recognized Him, He vanished.  But their hearts were full of joy because
they had seen that the Lord was still alive.

	Now why did the Lord wait so long, wait until they ate bread before He let
the men know who He was?  It was because eating bread with them was a very
special thing.  Eating bread with someone is a sign of love.  If you have
some food and you share it with someone else, it is a way of showing him
that you like him, and that he is your friend.  When the Lord broke the
bread and gave pieces of it to the two men, it was a way of showing them
that He loved them.  And when they took this bread, it was a way of showing
the Lord that they loved Him in return.  This is why they then recognized
the Lord, because the Lord is especially close to those people who love Him.

	And this is something to remember.  The Lord is with you, just as He was
with those two disciples.  And He is looking after you.  Now the Lord isn't
actually going to sit down and have a meal with you like He did with the
two disciples.  He isn't going to break a loaf of bread and share it with
you, like he did with them.  But bread, in the Word, stands for what is
good.  And the Lord does share His good, His love, with you.  He loves you
very much indeed.  And if you take the Lord's love, and this is like taking
bread from the Lord, and if you then love Him in return, He will be very
close to you indeed.

	This is the lesson of Easter.  When the Lord rose from the sepulcher, He
showed His disciples a wonderful thing.  He showed them that He was still
alive and He was still with them.  He showed that He is especially close to
all people who believe in Him and love Him.  And so, because the Lord rose
from the sepulcher, He is with you too, right now, just as He was with His
disciples on that very first Easter morning.

	Amen.

Lessons: 	Lk. 19:29-38
		Lk. 24:1-32

___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Mar 30 23:24:03 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 18:24:03 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Christrise," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199703302328.SAA07270@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                        Christrise
        An Easter Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
        Bridgewater, Massachusetts, March 30, 1997

Readings: Luke 24:1-13. The resurrection of Jesus.
          Malachi 3:16-4:2. The sun of righteousness will rise.
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #9031. The Lord is always rising, and never
setting.

But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness will rise with
healing in its wings. (Malachi 4:2)

When was the last time you watched the sun rise? For me, it has been much
too long. There was a time when I kept earlier hours than I do now, and I
used to watch the sun rise quite often. My favorite was to watch it rise
over a lake, or better yet, over the ocean. Nothing can quite compare to
seeing the color growing on the eastern horizon, until finally that first
bright point of light appears, quickly turning into a sliver of light
spreading out on the horizon as the sun climbs higher. A sunrise has a
different feel to it than a sunset; instead of coming before the gathering
night, it heralds the coming of a new day. As the sun moves higher and
higher, the light grows until it is the bright, full, and cheerful sunshine
of the morning hours.
	It is amazing to think that every day that is not cloudy starts with a
sunrise, even if we do not see it. God paints the sky with those beautiful
colors each morning, whether or not we are there to appreciate that beauty.
The sunrise is one of the many beautiful things God has created in this
world--beautiful things that are waiting for us all the time, if we will
only open our eyes to see them. When we do open our eyes to see them, it
seems to us as if they come into existence for the first time. But that is
_our_ perspective, and it comes about because we have never noticed those
beautiful things before. From God's perspective, the beauty is always there.
	Another matter of perspective is even more strange to think about. We say
all the time that the sun rises and sets; but if we think about it, we know
that this is not true at all. It looks _to us_ as if the sun rises and sets,
but we know that in relation to the earth, the sun stays still, and the
_earth_ moves, rotating around its axis each day to give us the illusion
that the sun is rising and setting. From our perspective, the sun rises and
sets because we are living on the surface of the earth, which carries us
into and out of sight of the sun each day. But if we were to take off in a
space ship and watch the earth from a million miles away, we would see that
the earth is turning so that different parts of it face the sun at different
times.
	Having said all this, will each one of us from now on be careful to say,
"My, that was a beautiful display of colors caused by the earth rotating on
its axis so that the sun comes into our view over the earth's horizon?" Of
course not! We will continue to say, "My, that was a beautiful sunrise!" The
other way is too awkward. It is much easier to describe things from our
perspective.
	There is no problem with this as long as we realize, when we think about
it, that really the earth is moving and the sun is staying in one place in
relation to the earth. It is only when we insist that, by God, (I choose
this phrase carefully!) the sun _does_ move and the earth stands still, that
we get into trouble. Then we start doing things like forcing Galileo to
recant his heretical theories or face burning at the stake.
	Galileo was not the only person ever condemned by the religious authorities
for opposing false ideas that were held to as dogma by a mistaken church.
Jesus, in his day, was condemned for the very same reason. Jesus taught that
it is obedience to the law of love for God and for the neighbor, not
obedience to human-made laws and traditions, that gives us spiritual life.
For threatening the basis of worldly power enjoyed by the religious
authorities of his day, he was executed by crucifixion.
	That could have been the end of the story. But it was not. And the fact
that it was not--the fact that Jesus did not stay dead, but rose on the
third day--is the reason for our celebration today, on Easter Sunday.
	When Jesus rose from the dead, he also turned upside-down all of our
assumptions about life and death. One of those assumption goes something
like this: "The only things that are sure in life are death and taxes." My
apologies if I have brought up a painful subject . . . I realize that at
this particular time of year, taxes are the last thing we want to think
about. Relax! We are not going to talk about taxes. The church, thankfully,
remains exempt from most taxes. So here in church all we have to be
concerned with is death.
	What about death? To use our earlier image, from the perspective of our
physical senses, death looks like the sunset of our lives. Once the sun of
our life here on earth has set in the event we call death, life as we know
it is over. There is only the night of nonexistence and oblivion. We sleep
the eternal sleep of death.
	This is a human view of death. It creeps into many different aspects of our
lives. It even makes its way into our traditional marriage ceremonies, in
which we make vows to love and to cherish our partner "until death do us
part." The implication is that at death, our marriage and the rest of our
life ends. (I hasten to add that the marriage ceremonies in our _Book of
Worship_ do not include that phrase!)
	When the religious authorities of Jesus' day succeeded in having him put to
death, they apparently believed that was the end of things, too. They
probably figured that with that troublemaker out of the way, they could go
back to their business undisturbed by that particular heresy. But it didn't
work that way. Very soon, they found themselves facing the people of the
same movement that they thought they had smashed through the death of Jesus,
its leader. Somehow, the death that had been meant to destroy the movement
instead made it stronger.
	How? Why? The answer lies in the events we read about in the Gospel of
Luke. When the women followers of Jesus went to the tomb on that first
Easter Sunday morning, they were bringing spices to prepare Jesus' body for
burial. Clearly, they believed that the Lord's death was final. But to their
surprise, when they got to the tomb, instead of finding the Lord's dead
body, they found an empty tomb! And as they were puzzling over this strange
turn of events, two men in dazzling clothes--angels, of course--stood beside
them and brought them the good news: Jesus is not here. He has risen!
	The impact of those simple words could hardly be greater. From our
perspective--from the perspective of our physical senses--death looks like a
final ending. But from God's perspective, death is simply a new beginning.
The angels who appeared to the women were almost casual about their
announcement. They ask the women, "Why do you look for the living among the
dead?" He already told you, they said, that he would be crucified and would
rise again on the third day.
	Clearly, from the perspective of the angels, the fact of the Lord's rising
again is just as plain as it is to us, from a million miles out in space,
that it is the earth that is moving, not the sun. _Of course_ Jesus rose
again. That is how things work. Contrary to the way it seems to our earthly
way of thinking, death is simply the beginning of another phase of life.
	Once again, the image of the earth and the sun can help us to understand.
We know that when we are watching the sun set here on this part of the
earth, in another part of the earth people are watching the sun rise. Our
sunset is simply an appearance brought about by our particular position on
the face of the earth.
	The sun does not stop shining just because it is blocked by the earth. Even
on a completely overcast day, the sun is still shining just as brightly as
ever. The _tops_ of the clouds are always brightly illuminated. It is only
those of us who happen to be down below the clouds who think the sun is not
shining. In other words, from the sun's perspective, it is always daytime.
It is only from our perspective that there is darkness and night.
	It is exactly the same with death. From our perspective, there is death.
When someone we know and love dies, their body is placed in the earth, and
we no longer see them. As far as we are concerned, they are gone. But from
God's perspective, and from the angels' perspective, physical death is not
death at all. From a spiritual perspective, death is no different than
birth; it is our birth from the womb of this physical world into the reality
of eternal life in the spiritual world. To an angel, our death here on earth
looks like a new entrance into the life of heaven. It is something to be
celebrated!
	This is the perspective Jesus was speaking from when he said, "I am the
resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die,
will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" (John
11:25, 26). From a physical perspective, this is nonsense. Of course we will
die! But from a spiritual perspective, Jesus speaks the truth. Everyone who
lives spiritually by believing in the Lord and living according to his
teachings will never die.
	Is there, then, some way in which we really can die? Die spiritually? Yes.
Even though the Lord's resurrection on Easter Sunday shows us that physical
death is meaningless from a spiritual perspective, there is a type of death
that is real. It is the death that the prophet Malachi speaks of in our Old
Testament reading: "See, the day is coming, burning like an oven," says
Malachi, "when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day
that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave
them neither root nor branch."
	Like nighttime, spiritual death does not come when the Lord turns his back
on us, any more than nighttime comes when the sun turns away from the earth.
No, it is when the earth turns away from the sun that there is night. And
for us, it is when we turn away from and reject the Lord through arrogance
and evil (or destructive) ways of living that we have spiritual death. As
Swedenborg says, the Lord never turns away from us; rather, we turn away
from the Lord.
	Instead, Swedenborg tells us, the Lord as the sun is always rising, never
setting. In a literal sense, the sun of our world is always rising, too.
Somewhere in the world, the sun is rising right now--and that will be just
as true in another five or ten hours. The place where the sun is rising is
the place where the earth is turning toward the sun.
	The Lord is always rising also, even if it is sometimes spiritual sunset
for us because we are turning away from the Lord. But whenever we turn to
the Lord, then the Lord is rising in our hearts as the sun of heaven. That
sun is not flaming from the heat of blind nuclear reactions; rather, it is
flaming from the glowing warmth of love. It is a _healing_ love of mutual
caring and service toward each other.
	As Malachi says, "For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will
rise with healing in its wings." This is not simply a sunrise. No, it is
much deeper and more beautiful than that. It is a Christrise. Amen.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Apr  7 02:03:18 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 1997 21:03:18 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "King of Glory, King of Love," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199704070203.WAA16671@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                  King of Glory, King of Love
         A Post-Easter Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, Massachusetts, April 6, 1997

Readings: Psalm 24. A King of glory.
          John 18:33-38. A King of truth.
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #548. A kingdom of love.

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the
King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he
is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:9, 10)

I have a little story to tell about the title of this sermon: "King of
Glory, King of Love." I put that title up on the sign board on the front of
the church this past Thursday--which was the first day I was in after the
snow storm. As I drove home that day, I turned on the radio. To my surprise,
there was a program on about church music. Specifically, it was about
traditional vs. modernized versions of hymns and other church music.
     As the radio host explained, church music has not by any means been
immune from the movement in our culture to make the English language
inclusive of both men and women, and to "clean it up" in other ways. Those
who are not very excited about this trend call it the "political
correctness" movement. Many of the hymns in the newer hymnals of various
denominations have had their words changed so as not to offend the new
sensibilities about gender, race, physical or mental handicaps, and so on.
     Now all of this was merely interesting information until the host
mentioned that one of the words that had been expurgated from some of these
hymnals was "king." A king is a male, and we do not want to imply that God
is only male and not female also, do we? The problem is, I had just put up
for all the world to see (well . . . at least for all of _Bridgewater_ to
see) a sermon title that used the word "king" not once, but twice! I had a
moment of remorse as I considered what our good friends at the Unitarian
church down the street might think if they noticed my sermon title. But the
dirty deed was done!
     The fact is, we don't talk about kings much at all anymore. There are a
few countries left in the world who still call their real leaders "kings";
but these are mostly small, third-world countries. Several modern European
countries still have kings and queens, but they have long since lost most of
their power to democratically elected parliaments and prime ministers who
actually govern the country. We have practically no experience of the
reality of kings who govern nations. Even Europeans who live in countries
that still have royalty do not have the experience of kings who exercise
absolute power over their kingdoms. Most of the time we can safely ignore
the royalty that is left in our world--left as a vestige of the past, when
kings held sway throughout most of the civilized world.
     This was exactly the situation throughout the several millennia during
which the Bible was written. For people of Bible times the government of
nations was synonymous with kings and kingdoms. Kings with absolute power
were a daily reality throughout much of Biblical history. For the
Israelites, the experience of having a king started with the anointing of
Saul fairly early in the history of their nation. It continued more or less
unbroken right up through New Testament times.
     However, during much of their later history they were ruled, not by
their own kings, but by foreign powers. Several empires occupied Israel over
the centuries, including Babylon, Persia, and, in Gospel times, Rome.
     Yes, the Israelites knew both the positive and the negative side of
kingship. They had experienced the pride of having a king like David, who
conquered their enemies and ushered in a time of peace and prosperity for
Israel. They had also known the shame and exploitation of having a foreign
power occupy their land and treat them in arbitrary, abusive, and often
deadly ways. For the Israelites, kingship--both its good face and its bad
face--was a matter of long personal and cultural experience.
     As 20th century Westerners, we can't possibly have that personal and
cultural experience. We are too used to voting for our leaders, and voting
them out when we believe they are no longer leading us in the direction we
wish to go. It is unlikely that we will ever have the gut-level feeling of
what it is to be under a king--either a king of our own people or one from a
foreign nation. We can only learn from history some of the things that
happened when kings ruled. We can only try to imagine what it might have
been like.
     What we learn from the Bible and from history--and what we imagine
based on that learning--can help us to gain some sense of the force of our
Bible readings for today. Try to imagine some of that force of royalty and
kingship as I re-read part of Psalm 24.

     Lift up your heads, O gates!
          And be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
     Who is the King of glory?
          The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.
     Lift up your heads, O gates!
          And be lifted up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
     Who is this King of glory?
          The Lord of hosts; he is the King of glory.

Kings were very powerful in the experience of the Israelites. But this King
of glory was not just any old king. No! To use the Biblical phrase, this was
"the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (Rev. 17:14; 19:16). An earthly king
held sway over some part of the populated world. But this was the king of
the universe--the one who made the laws that governed both earthly rulers
and their subjects. The one who caused day and night, summer and winter,
life and death. This king held all of our lives in the palm of his hand,
moment by moment, bending both empires and sparrows to his will.
     We can see Swedenborg's point when he says that it is a good idea to
find out just what kind of a king this is. To use our own cultural
metaphors, we will be living under the government of the United States for
the few decades of our earthly lives. But after we die, who will we look to
instead of the President and Congress? Who will govern our lives for all
eternity? What kind of government will it be? Will we like it? Will it be
like having one of our own beloved people ruling over us? Or will we be
ruled with an iron scepter by a power foreign to our way of thinking and
feeling?
     This may seem like more of a theoretical question than a real-life
issue. After all, right now we are dealing with life in _this_ world, not
life in the next. Yet even here, the most important parts of our lives are
not governed by the President and Congress. Our national, state, and local
governments make laws about what we can buy and sell; about how we can and
can't behave in various situations; about how we can treat other people.
     But earthly governments cannot make any laws about how we will think
and feel about these things. They cannot govern our motives nor our
beliefs--as much as they may try. And though civil limits on our behavior
certainly can and do affect our lives, our experience here on earth is far
more determined by our beliefs and attitudes than it is by any external
constraints that may be put upon us.
     Let's take personal bankruptcy as an example. For one person, going
bankrupt is an occasion for suicide. For another person, it is a setback to
be weathered through--difficult, yes, but nothing that breaks that person's
spirit. What is the difference between these two people? The bankruptcy is
the same. In other words, the material event--the part of life that is
subject to earthly governments--is the same. But these two people have
different inner, or _spiritual_, governments. For one, money is central--a
ruling factor. For another, money is subordinate--certainly not the most
important thing in life. The core experiences of our lives are determined by
inner forces, not by external constraints such as kings and Congresses.
     Though we do not have the experience of living under a king or queen,
we do have the experience of living under some form of spiritual government
that has great power over our lives. If we stop to think about it, we will
realize that the way we experience life is largely determined by what we
have chosen as our inner, spiritual "king" or "queen." If we are grumpy and
resentful about life--whatever our outward circumstances might be--that is
because of the attitude we have taken toward life. If we are mostly happy
and content with our life--even if our outward circumstances may be humble
or difficult--that is also because of the attitude we have taken toward
life. The spiritual ruler we have chosen for ourselves may not always
determine the course of our material life, but it certainly determines
whether our _experience_ of life will be a good or a bad one.
     Now we can begin to appreciate some of the deeper significance of a
king, or ruler, in our lives. This was the significance that Jesus was
pointing toward in our reading from John. Pilate challenged Jesus. He asked,
"Are you a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was
born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth."
     Run that by me again? A king? Truth? What do these two have to do with
each other? Pilate was certainly perplexed by this. "What is truth?" he
replied. We can almost hear the skepticism--even cynicism--in his voice. A
king, obviously, is someone who tells others what to do--someone who rules
their lives.
     Ah hah! Isn't that exactly what truth does? Whatever we adopt as true,
_that_ tells us what to do with our lives. If we accept as true the idea
that we must look out for ourselves first because nobody else will, that
distorted "truth" will rule our lives and everything we do. If we accept as
true the idea that we must care for others, _that_ truth will rule our lives
and everything we do. And the difference in our lives could not be more
profound.
     Jesus was not content with a mere earthly kingdom. No, he knew that
earthly kingdoms and governments come and go. In a thousand years, most
kings are entirely forgotten. For others, the vast empire that they built
and gloried in has been reduced to a chapter in a history book. Our Lord was
not going to settle for something as transitory as material power. Not when
there was a much deeper and more profound type of power that was needed so
greatly both here on earth and in the spiritual world.
     That power is not only the power of truth, but the power of love.
Truth--our attitudes and beliefs--_guides_ our actions. But love _drives_
us. What we love above all else will determine what our life is like, not
only here on earth, but to all eternity. The greatest law of the universe is
the one Jesus gives us in the Gospels. It is the same one that Swedenborg
reports is the basis of all the laws that govern the universe. It is the law
that we should love the Lord above everything else, and love other people as
much as we love ourselves. That is our King of glory, personified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Will we open the gates of our spirit and let the King of
glory rule in our hearts?

     Lift up your heads, O gates!
          And be lifted up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
     Who is this King of glory?
          The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.



From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Apr  7 23:40:31 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 1997 19:40:31 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Our Daily Bread Online
Message-ID: <199704072340.TAA22215@mailrelay.tiac.net>

Hello, sermon lovers!

This is not a sermon. Instead, it is a pointer to where you can find _more_
sermons!

_Our Daily Bread_, a monthly magazine of readings, sermons, and prayers
published by the Swedenborgian Church (General Convention of the New
Jerusalem) since 1949, now has an online edition. Both the current week's
sermon and sermons from past weeks are available through the Swedenborgian
Church web page at:

http://www.swedenborg.org

To reach _Our Daily Bread_ online, follow the link to the Sermon of the Week.

If you would like to subscribe to the printed version for yourself, a family
member, or a friend, please send your check for $10 per one year
subscription to:

Our Daily Bread
PO Box 396
Bridgewater, MA 02324

In addition to the weekly sermons that appear in the online edition, the
printed edition contains daily readings and prayers for personal or family
devotions and meditation. Since the March 1997 issue, the editor has been
yours truly, the Rev. Lee Woofenden.

I hope you will enjoy _Our Daily Bread_ in its online and printed editions.
_Our Daily Bread_ and the Sermon of the Week are a ministry of the
Swedenborgian Church.

--Lee


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Apr 12 15:47:30 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 11:47:30 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970412110159.541745f8@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
										For Rchmnd 04-06-97

	THE SPIRITUAL USE OF PLANTS

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I
say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these." (Lk. 12:27)

	AFTER A LONG HARD WINTER, after all the cold, all the snow and all the
ice, the arrival of spring is something which lifts our spirits.  We
welcome the warm sunshine, the longer days, the singing of the birds, and
the greening of the earth.  All around us leaves unfold, flowers bloom, and
the miracle of life can be seen almost everywhere we turn.
	It is remarkable just how powerful an effect spring can have upon our
minds.  Spring is a time to smile.  It is a time to go out and enjoy the
sunshine.  For some people it is a time to fall in love.  And for all of us
it is a time when we can, perhaps, feel just a little closer to heaven
itself, for when we look at everything growing around us, we can see just
how close heaven really is.
	These days it has become a clich? to tell someone to take the time to
"smell the flowers."  But there is an important truth here, something that
we should not overlook.  The plants that the Lord has made -- the trees,
the flowers, and even the grass -- have been created to serve not only our
bodies, but our minds and spirits as well.  It is no coincidence that our
spirits are lifted by the blossoms and the green leaves of spring, for this
is what the Lord intended when He created this world.  One of the uses of
plants is to cheer the minds of human beings.  And when, in the Gospels,
the Lord tells us to "consider the lilies," He invites us to reflect upon
these deeper uses of the vegetable kingdom.
	In the Book of Genesis, in the story of Creation, the Lord tells the first
people, that He had created the plants to feed both them and the animals.
"And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is
on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to
you it shall be for food."  And on the natural plane, the vegetable kingdom
serves in this way to support the natural life of both animals and human
beings.  Plants purify the air, provide us materials for clothing and for
shelter, and produce the food we need in order to live.
	But plants do not just provide food for the body.  They can also provide
food for the soul.  They provide us with the opportunity to reflect upon
the Lord's kingdom in the heavens.  We are told in the Arcana that "there
is nothing in the vegetable kingdom on the earth that does not in some way
represent the Lord's kingdom."  When we look at a beautiful flower, we are,
of course, reminded in a general way of the beauty of the heavens.  If we
look at a tree, we might be reminded of the way in which a good man, a man
on the way to heaven, is likened in the 1st Psalm to a well-watered tree.
"He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water"  When we look at a
vine, we may even reflect upon the Lord Himself, who told His disciples, "I
am the vine, you are the branches."
	We might think that in this way plants provide us with illustrations of
the spiritual, with ways of thinking about the Lord and about heaven.  But
there is more to it than this.  When the Word describes the things of
heaven using examples from the vegetable kingdom, these are not simply
comparisons.  They are, we are told in the Arcana, "real correspondences."
In other words, the trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass, and so on,
do not simply remind us of heaven.  They are actually caused by heaven.
More specifically, "all the beautiful and graceful things in the vegetable
kingdom derive their origin from the Lord through heaven."  Plants are
produced by celestial and spiritual things from the Lord flowing down into
the substances of nature.  In other words, when the beauty of a flower
reminds us of heaven it should not surprise us, for a flower is the direct
result of the things of heaven acting upon the substances of the earth.
	Now of course this is a teaching that a materialist -- someone who
believes only in a physical world -- would scoff at.  He would argue that
flowers, and leaves, and so one, are merely the result of natural laws.
And he would argue that springtime on earth is merely the result of an
increase in the light and warmth of the natural sun.  After all, it is when
we receive more warmth and light from the natural sun that vegetation then
springs into life.
	All we need to do, though, is reflect on a somewhat deeper level than
this, and open our minds just a little, and we will see that there is more
than just nature involved here.  Look at the beauty of a daffodil, or of a
newly-opened leaf, or even at something as small as a blade of grass.
There is a love and a wisdom portrayed here, something much deeper than
natural heat and light alone.  Indeed, what Heaven & Hell tells us is that
"the natural heat of spring time and summer merely disposes the seeds into
their natural forms by expanding and opening them so that influx from the
spiritual world can there act as a cause."  What actually causes the
germination of seeds here in this world is not the sun of this world, but
the sun of the other world.  We might say that springtime here on earth --
natural heat and natural light -- prepare seeds to receive and to respond
to a deeper kind of sunshine, to the heat and light, or the love and
wisdom, from the sun of heaven.
	When, during springtime here on earth, we feel uplifted in our spirits, it
is because we are witnessing not simply a natural spring, but a spiritual
spring as well.  In heaven it is always springtime, and what happens at
this time of the year is that the eternal spring of heaven draws close to
us here on earth.  We look around us and we see leaves, and blossoms, and
flowers, all of which are a reflection of heaven itself.  We see the
kingdom of the Lord all around us.
	So it is that when we look at a plant, what we are seeing is something far
more wonderful than we might suppose.  A plant -- whether it be a large
tree or a small piece of grass -- is not just a natural thing.  Within the
natural materials of which it is composed, there are adjoined what Divine
Love & Wisdom calls "the most subtle substances."  These are spiritual
substances, substances from the other world, and it is these substances,
within a plant, which give it the ability to react to influx from heaven,
and so to germinate and to grow.  Through these spiritual substances the
plant can respond to the sphere of use that exists in the spiritual world.
This sphere of use is like the soul, the living and guiding principle,
within a plant.  This is why it is that plants are of use to us in so many
different ways.  Plants have been created by the Lord to give form to the
sphere of use, and within all plants there is thus an "inmost endeavor, the
endeavor to perform use to the human race."
	"Use is the plant soul."  This is what the Writings say.  And so it should
not surprise us to learn that not only does every single plant have a use,
but every plant also serves a use on more than one level.  "Every plant,"
we learn, "contains a use, a spiritual use in the spiritual world, and both
a spiritual and a natural use in the natural world."
	Plants serve a use in the spiritual world.  There are plants in the
spiritual world, for it is in that world that plants originate.  Plants in
this world are, one might say, the material embodiment of plants that
already exist in the spiritual world; they correspond to plants in the
other world.  Yet the beauty and wonder of the vegetable kingdom here on
earth is as nothing compared to the beauty and wonder that is to be seen in
the heavens.  The Arcana describes how a famous botanist discovered after
his death that there are flowers and trees in the other world as well.  He
was greatly surprised and greatly delighted.  Botany had been the delight
of his life, and so he was taken to see the beautiful paradises in the
other world -- places filled with trees and flowers.  He was, we are told,
"allowed to wander over the field, and not only to see the plants in
detail, but also to gather them and bring them close to his eye, and to
examine whether the case was really so."  He was absolutely amazed at what
he saw.  He saw flowers in heaven which are never seen here on earth,
flowers which "glow with an inconceivable brightness, because they are from
the light of heaven."  Though he didn't realize it at first, what he was
seeing was something of spiritual good and truth shining forth from each
flower.
	There are the most wonderful descriptions in the Writings of the plants of
heaven.  It is said that there are orchards with fruits which drip with
sweet-smelling and sweet-tasting oil.  There are flowers with the most
wonderful fragrance, flowers with seeds with a wonderfully sweet taste.
Even the lawns there have a most wonderful fragrance.  In the second heaven
there is fruit which actually drips with wine.  Sometimes plants even
produce fruit and seeds of precious metal -- with seeds of gold or silver
or copper.  Sometimes flowers spring up made of precious stones.  And all
these things spring up instantaneously.
	The wonderful plants of heaven serve spiritual uses.  Indeed, they serve
both external and internal spiritual uses.  Externally they serve, it is
said, for the "refreshment of minds."  In other words, they serve for the
recreation, pleasure and enjoyment of the angels.  Their internal spiritual
use, though, is to represent or portray Divine things.  In the various
colors and fragrances, the wiser angels, especially, see different
spiritual affections from the Lord.
	Here on earth, plants serve both spiritual and natural uses.  The
spiritual use of plants here on earth is said to be "for the various states
of the mind."  As is pointed out in Apocalypse Explained, the odors and
flavors of various kinds of plants can refresh, recreate and stimulate the
mind.  One of the specific reasons why plants were created by the Lord was
for the effect they can have upon the mind.  As for the natural use of
plants, they have been given to us by the Lord not only so that they might
feed and clothe and house us, but so that they might heal us as well.  As
the Writings say, "the body is healed by the various solutions, purgations,
and remedies made from plants."
	Even though it has certainly become a clich?, we indeed do well if we take
the time to "smell the flowers."  The beautiful sights, the wonderful
fragrances, have been provided for us by the Lord to refresh, to relax and
to heal our minds, and to uplift our spirits.  Springtime is most
especially a gift from the Lord, something to be enjoyed, something to be
treasured, something to rejoice in.  And it something that can remind us of
heaven itself.
	When the Lord asks us to "consider the lilies," He is speaking of His
providence.  He is speaking of there being no need to worry.  He is
speaking of trust in Him.  "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they
neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.  If then God so clothes the grass, which
today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more
will He clothe you, O you of little faith?"
	Just stop and reflect on how much love and how much wisdom is portrayed by
the Lord in the way He creates the flowers.  Just think how much, then, He
must be looking after us.  When we behold the beauty of spring, we see a
representation of heaven itself.  We see the effects of heaven upon the
substances of this earth.  Yet we see not only a picture of what heaven
must be like, but also a promise from the Lord that we can go there.  He
loves us, and He cares about us, and He watches over us, far more deeply
than He does the flowers.  And if we follow Him, and if we walk in His
paths, then He will bring us into heaven.  He will cause what is good and
true to take root, to grow and to flourish within our minds.
	This is what the Lord has promised us.  He has given us the promise and
the hope of heaven itself.  We can live happily, for ever and ever, in His
kingdom.  Could there ever be a more wonderful or more happy thought than
this?  And this promise from the Lord is, right now, represented all around
us, in the blossoms of springtime.  It is said in the Arcana Coelestia that
when we see "trees and other plants in blossom," then we can "see in the
flowers a representative of the state of man before regeneration, namely,
that man then blossoms in like manner from the good of intelligence and
wisdom, that is, is in interior gladness and beauty, because he is then in
the effort to implant in the life the goods of intelligence and wisdom,
that is, to produce fruits."  And so it is that blossoms -- the blossoms of
springtime -- are a picture of the mind of somebody who is growing into an
angel.  They are a picture of how heaven can take root and grow and
blossom, with gladness and beauty, within our spirits.
	If, at the end of a long hard winter, the Lord can cause the plants to
grow, and to spring forth, and to blossom, think, just think, of what He
can accomplish within our minds.  He can bring us into a land where it is
always spring.  He can bring us into His kingdom in the heavens.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOR EVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Gen. 1:24-31
		Lk. 12:22-34
		AE 1214:2,3


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Apr 12 15:47:37 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 11:47:37 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970412110630.28cf5382@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
									
For Cinti.     04-13-97

	GRACE

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." (Rev 22:21.)

	OUR TEXT FOR THIS MORNING is a verse with which all of us are very
familiar, for it is used as the benediction at the close of most of our
services of worship.  And indeed it is a most fitting benediction for the
New Church, for it is the final verse of the Book of Revelation, that book
which closes with the prophecy of the New Jerusalem.  In the last two
chapters of Revelation there is the wonderful description of John's vision
of "that great city, the holy, Jerusalem" said to be seen "coming down from
God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."  The many
blessings of this New Church, or New Jerusalem, are described and
represented by detailed and magnificent imagery. We are told, for example,
that in this church there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying;
that the Lord will make all things new; that God Himself will be with us,
and be our God; that in the midst will be the river of water of life; and
that we shall see the Lord's face, and His name shall be in our foreheads.
At the end of these and other blessings, we are then told the crowning
blessing of all, the blessing which will especially be with those of the
New Church.  This blessing is the blessing of the Lord's grace:  "The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."
	The whole of the New Church centers really around two things -- the coming
of the Lord, and the blessings He brings us with this coming.  So it is
that our services begin with the opening of the Word, for this is how the
Lord makes His advent, and they close with the benediction.  The priest, as
a representative of the Lord, pronounces the blessing of Divine grace upon
the people, for the Lord's grace is as it were a summary of all the many
blessings which the Lord has given for His New Church.
	To understand what is meant by the Lord's grace, we must realize, first of
all, that when Divine revelation speaks of grace, it has a very specific
meaning.  This isn't the case in everyday language.  In ordinary everyday
speech, grace can mean many different things.  It can, for example, mean
basically the same as elegance -- we talk of a graceful dancer.  Used in
another way, it can refer to the prayer of thanks bef ore a meal -- we say
grace before we eat.  Both these uses of the word are, in fact, related to
each other.  A graceful dancer has an elegance which pleases those who
watch.   On the other hand, when we say grace, we are thanking the Lord,
and telling Him that we are pleased with the kindness He has shown us.
Grace thus has to do with something which pleases us.  If we are in
somebody's good graces, then that person is pleased with us.  He is
favorable towards us; he is kind to us, and wants to please us.
	This, then, is grace.  In essence it is a feeling, an affection.  It is a
feeling of favor towards another person, a feeling which expresses itself
in being kind, and in trying to help and to please.
	Grace is of fundament importance in human relationships.  This is
something we begin to understand very early in life.  Surely most of us can
remember quite vividly certain episodes during our childhood when, for some
reason or another, our parents weren't pleased with us.  We were not in
their good graces.  Quite likely, it made us feel terrible.  It can be a
shocking experience for a little child, who depends so much on his parents,
to suddenly realize that they are displeased with him, cross with him, or,
if you will, are ungracious towards him.  For a short time -- and for a
little child a short time can seem like a very long time indeed -- it seems
as is his whole world has collapsed, because he is out of grace with his
parents.
	This need to be in somebody else's grace does not, of course, disappear
with childhood.  As adults also, we count on the favor of other people.
Employees hope that their superiors will be pleased with them, especially
if a hoped-for raise or promotion is at stake.  Salesmen count on retaining
the favor and grace of their clients, and so on.  Then, of course, there
are our friends.  When those we know, those we associate with, are
displeased and unfavorable towards us for one reason or another, it can
feel as if a black cloud can descended upon us.  Indeed, this is why
reputation is so highly valued by most people.  Upon their reputation, upon
their good name,, depends the favor, the kindness, the grace of others.  If
somebody acquires a bad reputation, he is looked upon by others with disfavor.
	Since grace is such a crucial element in human relationships, it is no
wonder that it is at the heart of that most important of all relationships
-- the relationship between the Lord and the people He has created.  If we
depend as children upon the grace and favor of our parents, and as adults
upon that of our bosses, associates, clients or friends, surely the grace
of the Lord must be of paramount importance.  More than anything else, we
surely need the Lord's favor, kindness and grace.
	But this need for the Lord's grace or favor is something we may seldom
reflect upon, for the simple reason that we can so easily take it for
granted.  Though we may fall out of favor with those around us, we need
never worry that the Lord's grace towards us will cease, for His grace is
constant and unchanging.
	Now though this is an elementary principle -- namely, that the Lord's
grace never ceases -- it is a principle which was nevertheless completely
misunderstood by those who formulated traditional Christian doctrine.  The
whole of Christian theology centered around a belief that mankind had
fallen from grace.  The belief was that because of the sin of Adam, he, and
all his descendants, fell out of favor with God.  However, if people had
faith in Jesus, then what He did, what He suffered, would count in their
favor.  They would then be in a state of grace because of Him.
	From this greatly mistaken idea -- the idea that mankind had fallen from
grace -- two fundamental errors resulted.  First of all, there arose the
idea that once people were received back into a state of grace, they would
then have no need to fear hell.  Even though they might continue to do
evil, God now favored them, and so would not hold their failings against
them.  Second, it meant also that those without faith were damned.  It is
no wonder that Christian missionaries traveled throughout the world to win
converts.  It was their belief that without the Gospel, and thus the
possibility of God's grace, those heathen they failed to convert would
inevitably go to hell.
	All these ideas were based upon the idea that the Lord's grace is not
constant, upon the idea that He doesn't always look favorably upon us.  And
yet how mistaken these people were!  The Lord's face is always smiling upon
us; He is always gracious towards us.  He does not smile at some people and
frown upon others.  He loves us all.  He doesn't have favorites.  If we
ever have some vague feeling in the back of our minds that in some sense we
are favored by the Lord more than others, perhaps because we are New
Church, or perhaps because we think that our lives are more upright than
others, then we are mistaken.  On the other hand, if we think that because
of the wrong things we have felt and thought, or said and done, the Lord no
longer favors us, then we are equally mistaken.  Grace is the Lord's
affection for us, and this grace is constant and unchanging.
	We must realize, though, that the benefits and effects of grace are
limited unless we ourselves are also gracious.  If somebody favors us, is
kindly towards us, and wants to benefit us, it does no good if we are
antagonistic towards him and refuse his benefits.  If we are ungracious
enough to reject what somebody graciously offers us, then, though he may
indeed be gracious, his generosity can have no effect upon us.  And this
is, of course, the way it is with the Lord's grace.  Though His grace is
unceasing in its efforts to help us and bestow benefits upon us, still,
whether or not we actually receive the benefits of His grace us depends
upon whether we in turn are gracious enough to accept what He offers us.
	We have all heard of people being too proud to accept help from their
friends.  Whether we regard this trait as an admirable independence, or
else as a act of stubborn stupidity, one thing is clear.  It is one thing
to want to be independent of help from our friends.  It is quite another
thing to want to be independent of help from the Lord.  If we are too proud
to turn to the Lord for help and for benefits, then we are stupid beyond
all measure.
	The Word makes it quite clear that not only do we need the Lord's help
desperately, but we in fact need His greatest mercy.  Our state is such
that the only way we can be saved is by the pure mercy of the Lord.  This
is a difficult teaching to accept.  We tend to be so proud, so independent,
so full of self-interest, that we can only, with the greatest difficulty,
accept that we are, in reality, utterly weak, utterly helpless, and utterly
lost without the Lord.  What is more, the Writings even point out that this
is a teaching we cannot really accept.  We might intellectually acknowledge
that we are in need of mercy from the Lord.  But we don't really feel this
in our hearts.
	This has not always been the case with people.  Those in the Most Ancient
Church would approach the Lord with the most profound humility, knowing
that without Him they were absolutely nothing.  They not only needed the
Lord's mercy, as we do; they also knew that they needed it.  Such people
were called celestial.  Since the fall of the Most Ancient Church, people
have not been as capable of seeing and feeling this truth about themselves.
 Such people are called spiritual, rather than celestial.  And, with those
who are spiritual, pride arising from hereditary evil has resulted in less
humility before the Lord.  Nevertheless, though spiritual people might not
be capable of feeling so intensely the need for mercy from the Lord, still
they are capable of feeling that they need His help.  Even though those
born after the fall, might not desire the Lord's mercy, they are still
capable of desiring the Lord's help, favor and grace.  This is why, in the
letter of the Word, the Lord's mercy towards those of a spiritual church is
called grace.  For example, we read of Noah, who represented the Ancient
Church -- the first spiritual church -- that he found grace in the eyes of
Jehovah.  So too, in the case of the New Church -- and the New Church also
is a spiritual church -- the Lord's blessing is said to be one of grace:
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."
	The Lord offers us His kindness, His favor.  He indeed offers us His
everlasting mercy, but we, in most states, are incapable of fully
appreciating this.  But we can surely understand that we at least need His
help, His grace.  Even though we are proud by nature, we can stop ourselves
from being so proud that we reject the Lord's help.
	This, though, is just what an evil person does.  He rejects the Lord's
gracious offers of help.  So confident is he of his own judgment, his own
understanding of things, that he doesn't listen to the Lord.  He doesn't
want help.  He is too ungracious to receive it.  And so, though the Lord is
still gracious towards him, the Lord's grace is not received, and therefore
has no effect.  Indeed, an evil man not only refuses the Lord's grace, but
actually denies that it exists.  This we might expect.  When the Lord tries
to help us, He offers us heaven.  He teaches us and shows us how we must
live in order to receive and experience love and charity.  It is the
greatest kindness He could show us.  He is truly gracious.  But for an evil
man, this kindness does not seem like kindness at all.  He loves evil, and
when he learns that the Lord teaches the shunning of evil, he regards this
gracious counsel from the Lord as a harsh unreasonable command.  He does
not receive the Lord's guidance favorably.  Indeed, he rejects it.
	And yet this need not be the case.  Of course we tend to be proud.  Of
course we tend to trust our own judgment and feel that we are in no need of
advice and help.  We don't, by our very nature, see any need to turn to the
Lord, listen to Him, and pray for to Him for strength.  But if we make the
effort to listen to the Him, listen to His Word, we can in time come to see
that we do need help, we do need saving.  If we take the trouble to learn
from the Word, and then reflect upon our evil ways -- we can then for the
first time receive the Lord's grace.
	This grace is, we are taught, nothing else that the affection of truth.
To receive the Lord's grace is to come into a state in which we are
affected, deeply affected, by His truth . . . affected to the point where
we take delight in both learning and doing the truth.  Once we reach this
state, where we listen to the Lord's truth and do what He tells us, then
every other blessing of heaven, every other blessing of the New Church, can
follow.  Without such an attitude, though, nothing but the curses of hell
can follow.  The hells are populated by countless men and women who were
convinced that their own judgment, their own understanding, was correct,
and that they needed no help from the Lord's Word.
	Let us then open our hearts up to the graciousness of the Lord.  Let us
listen to what He tells us, and then do it.  The Lord has come a second
time and opened His Word so that we can understand it, and so receive
countless blessings.  But whether or not we receive the many blessings
which result from His Second Coming depends upon us.  It is the Lord who
blesses us with His grace.  But only a humble person can receive His
blessing.  We must be humble enough to realize, in our hearts, that we do
need the Lord's help; we do need the Lord's salvation; we do indeed need
the graciousness of the Lord.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Gen. 6:1-9
		Rev.22:12-21
		AC 598



___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Apr 13 23:23:12 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 19:23:12 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Spirit in Action," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199704132323.TAA24975@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                        Spirit in Action
              A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, April 13, 1997

Readings: Psalm 143. "Let your good spirit lead me on a level path."
          Matthew 12:15-28. "I will put my spirit upon him."
          Apocalypse Revealed #875. The mind acts through the body.

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me
on a level path. (Psalm 143:10)

In the classic 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, a three person
medical team is miniaturized, along with a submarine and two other crew
members, and sent inside the body of a famous scientist to remove a blood
clot from his brain using a precision laser gun. The movie has its share of
suspense and adventure--and the obligatory beautiful young woman brought
along to be endangered and rescued. The drama unfolds against a backdrop of
scenes from the inside of the human body writ large. Amid all the
excitement, there are a few calm moments in which the characters can express
their wonder at the amazing processes of the human body . . . and
philosophize on the human condition.
     During one of these calm moments, as the submarine makes its way
through a capillary in the lungs, the crew is spellbound by the sight of
carbon dioxide and oxygen being exchanged between the blood in the capillary
and the air in the alveoli (tiny air sacs) of the lungs. Dr. Duval (Arthur
Kennedy), one of the two medical doctors on board, explains how the exchange
takes place. His explanation ends in an expression of awe and wonder: ". . .
but to actually see one of the miracles of the universe: the engineering of
the cycle of the breath!"
     Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasence) replies, "Oh, I wouldn't call it a
miracle. Just an interchange of gases. The end product of five hundred
million years of evolution."
     Dr. Duval can't believe his ears. Tearing his eyes away from the
wonders outside the submarine's big front windows, he turns to Dr. Michaels.
"You can't believe that all this is accidental--that there isn't a . . .
creative intelligence at work. . . ." Dr. Michaels attempts to reply, but he
is cut off by yet another emergency warning alarm, and the movie goes on.
     The science in Fantastic Voyage may have been warped a bit to fit the
requirements of a 1960s movie plot, but this little vignette reflects an
issue that runs through our culture today just as much as it did thirty
years ago. The movie's setting--within the human body--serves to focus the
issue where it properly belongs: in the human realm. For we humans are the
only beings on this earth who think about whether or not there is a creative
intelligence at work behind both the vast workings of the universe and the
microscopic workings within our own bodies.
     The two doctors represent two different world views. Dr. Duval sees
creative intelligence--what we would call God or spirit--behind the wonders
of the physical universe. Dr. Michaels sees only physical processes:
chemistry and evolution. In the course of the movie, we find out that Dr.
Duval, who was initially suspected of being a bad guy, is actually a good
guy who saves the famous scientist, while Dr. Michaels, who was considered
so trustworthy that he was given command of the mission, was actually a bad
guy bent on sabotaging the operation. Swedenborg himself could not have
plotted it better!
     These days we are usually a little more subtle about who the good guys
and the bad guys are, and how that relates to their particular spiritual
beliefs. Some "good guys" have gotten a bad taste in their mouth about
religion, and have good hearts despite a lack of belief in God and spirit.
Some "bad guys" do profess a belief in God and spirit--and we can't always
tell whether that belief is strongly held or merely used as a tool to
accomplish their own ends. Only in the spiritual world, where our outward
words and actions come to exactly match our inner beliefs and motives, can
we make a simple correlation between people's stated beliefs and their inner
character. Here on earth, where everyone is a mixture, the picture is much
more complicated.
     However, if we broaden our consideration from individual personalities
to universal principles, the different attitudes of the two doctors provide
us with food for thought as we "digest" this universe of ours and decide
what attitudes and beliefs about it we will make a part of our own minds and
lives. Do we think that this physical universe is all there is? If so, how
does that affect the way we live? Do we think that there is a world of
spirit and a divine being above and beyond this physical world? If so, how
does that affect the way we live?
     The answer to the first set of questions (whether there is only matter,
or whether there is also God and spirit) is a personal one that we must each
arrive at for ourselves. There is no way it can be demonstrated one way or
another--and I am certainly not going to attempt to demonstrate in this
sermon that God and spirit exist. Presumably the presence of each of you in
church this morning indicates that you are at least leaning toward the idea
that God and spirit do, indeed, exist.
     The answers to the second set of questions (how each belief affects the
way we live) are also personal for each one of us. But we can take a more
general look at these questions, and perhaps gain something helpful to us in
the here-and-now. After all, if the question of belief in God and spirit
versus belief in materialism has no practical effect on our lives, why would
we ask it at all, besides mere curiosity?
     God and spirit are not simply a matter of curiosity. They are forces .
. . no, beings that affect every instant in our experience of life. No one
can make the decision for us to believe in God and spirit. But once we make
the decision--even while we are making the decision--we can begin to
understand and feel the effects of the presence of God in our lives. If our
minds are closed to spirit, we will not feel spirit. That is why it is
impossible to get across to a confirmed materialist what it is like to
experience the spiritual level of existence. But when we open our minds to
spirit, then we can know and feel the tremendous difference it makes. Then
we know that it is actually the spirit within our bodies that moves us to do
everything that we do.
     Psalm 143 illustrates the way our body and actions depend on spirit and
God within. It begins with a cry to God to answer our prayers, and then
continues:

     For the enemy has pursued me,
          crushing my life to the ground,
          making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
     Therefore my spirit faints within me;
          my heart within me is appalled.

"My spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled." These are not
medical conditions. The "heart" mentioned here is not made of muscle; it is
made of love. Yet we know that when our spirit faints and our heart is
appalled, it has a profound effect on our body. Even when we are in perfect
health, if our spirit is fainting, our body is listless and ineffective. Our
muscles may be in fine tone; our central nervous system may be firing
perfectly. But when our heart and spirit--our love and motivation--are down,
we accomplish nothing. To turn around the old saying, "Where there's no
will, there's no way!"
     When David wrote this Psalm, he may well have been thinking of literal
enemies that sought his physical life. Fortunately, most of us here today do
not have to face this sort of enemy. But we do face enemies within. They are
the enemies that cause our spirit to faint, bringing about inner exhaustion.
They are the enemies that cause our hearts to be appalled, giving us
heartaches that hurt more profoundly than any physical illness. They are the
enemies of hopelessness and despair, and of our own inner resistance to
spiritual change and growth. One of those enemies is the very idea that
there is no spirit and there is no God--that there is no deeper meaning to
life. Yet our Psalm does not leave us without hope. It continues:

     I remember the days of old,
          I think about all your deeds,
          I meditate on the works of your hands.
     I stretch out my hands to you;
          my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.

Yes, there is hope. There is the hope of new spirit and new life from God.
There is the hope of new insight into our spiritual and emotional
predicament. The hope for new love to fill our empty heart. Stars and
planets, even earth with its plants and animals, cannot by themselves quench
this kind of inner thirst. No, it is the spirit that is behind both the
earth and our own selves that we must reach toward. Ultimately, we must
reach toward the Lord for the living water that satisfies our spiritual
thirst. That thirst can be satisfied when we pray from our heart the prayer
of David from Psalm 143:

     Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,
          for in you I put my trust.
     Teach me the way I should go,
          for to you I lift up my soul.
     Save me, O Lord, from my enemies;
          I have fled to you for refuge.
     Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
     Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.

It is not hard to see that everything we think and do comes from something
in our mind and heart--from something we think and feel. We can say, with
Swedenborg, that all human action is our mind acting. Or to use another
phrase, everything we say and do is spirit in action. Simply having this
perspective helps to weaken the hold on us of many of the physical forces
and urges that we often think of as being so strong. If we know that it is
our minds and hearts, not our bodies, that drive our lives, then we can
consider and make decisions about just what we want to be in the driver's
seat of our inner self.
     If you can forgive the pun, this is what Jesus was "driving at" in our
reading from Matthew. The spirit of God was in Jesus more directly than it
is in any of us. Yet the Pharisees attributed his healings to the ruler of
demons instead of to God. They questioned the motivating factor in Jesus'
work. Was it from God, or from evil?
     Once we have recognized that it is really our minds and spirits that
drive our lives, this becomes the question for us as well. There are
powerful forces at work in our spirits, pulling us in opposite directions.
God is powerful for good on one side, and we feel hell as powerful for evil
on the other. Through our decisions and our actions, we decide during the
course of our lives which of these will rule in us and motivate our lives.
And so we come full circle to the prayer with which we started:

     Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
     Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.

Amen.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Apr 20 23:42:30 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 19:42:30 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Living On Purpose," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199704202345.TAA17931@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                         Living On Purpose
               A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, Massachusetts, April 20, 1997

Readings: Lev. 26:14-17, 36-38. Running from the sound of a wind-driven leaf.
          John 8:31-36. Slave to sin, freed by the truth.
          _Marital Love_ #527.2. Our purposes come from our inner desire.

The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as
one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues (Lev.
26:35).

When I was in elementary school in Webster Groves, Missouri, my friends and
I had a game we liked to play out in the playground on a windy day. In one
corner of the school yard, right by the building, there was a narrow place
that was surrounded by three walls, formed by a hallway going between two
sections of the building. It was an older building with several stories;
when the wind blew, the buildings on either side formed a funnel that
directed the wind into our little peninsula of playground. When the wind hit
the hallway, it created quite an updraft. Our game was to see if we could
get a leaf or a bit of candy wrapper to float up on the wind and go right
over the hallway to the other side. Often it would swirl around this way and
that, and come back down on our side. When we managed to get one to float
right over the hallway, we let out a cheer!
     Perhaps it is because if this childhood experience that the image in
our text--the image of a leaf blowing in the wind--has always been very
vivid to me. I can still see those leaves and candy wrappers that we used to
throw up in the air by that brick wall in the schoolyard. I can see them
swirling around, getting caught in eddy currents, and sometimes floating
right up over the hallway. Most of the time they did not go where we wanted
them to. When we threw them up in the air, we had no way of knowing _which_
way they would go. It all depended on the currents. The leaf had no say in
the matter; it was simply tossed around at the whim of the wind.
     The image becomes even more vivid when we realize that it is used in
the Bible to talk, not about leaves, but about people. Usually, we find the
skittering of autumn leaves across roads and fields to be a soothing sound.
But those who do not follow the Lord's commandments, says the book of
Leviticus, will be _frightened_ by a wind-driven leaf. Imagine running in
fright from a blowing leaf! It seems improbable.
     We may be able to appreciate this kind of hair-trigger fear if we
imagine ourselves stuck in a dangerous part of the city, having to make our
way through alleys and streets to get to a safer section of town. When fear
is pulsing through our veins, every little noise becomes a potential threat.
That wind-driven leaf, in our imagination, becomes a shadowy figure slinking
up behind us. And we run from it. But it is not a leaf that we are running
from; we are running from the fear that grips our mind.
     This is exactly the kind of fear that the book of Leviticus refers to.
It is fear that comes, not primarily from our external circumstances, but
from within our own minds. We flee as one who flees from the sword, and we
fall _even though no one is pursuing us_. (Lev. 26:36) When there is a
climate of fear within our minds and hearts, we see things to fear all
around us--even when there is nothing to fear. If fear grips our mind,
everything we see will become fearful to us, because for us as human beings,
our minds are far more powerful than any external circumstance.
     How do we fall into this climate of fear? For some people, fear is a
rational reaction to actual conditions. Someone who grows up with abusive
parents, or who is stuck in an abusive relationship, has real reason to
fear, and to attempt to flee those oppressive circumstances as soon as it
seems possible. Recovery from this kind of experience takes time; it takes
time to be able to trust anyone ever again when those who should have loved
us most have instead inflicted pain on us and driven fear into our hearts.
     However, this is not the source of the fear that our reading from
Leviticus refers to. _That_ fear is said to come as a direct result of
disobeying the Lord's commandments. The book of Leviticus gives many laws
that were to be observed by the ancient Jews. Laws of sacrifice and Sabbath;
of eating, drinking, and washing; of punishments for various crimes. Most of
these laws we as Christians no longer obey in a literal fashion. In this, we
take our cue from the Lord himself, who, when asked what was the greatest
commandment in the law, replied:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind" [Deut. 6:5]. This is the first and greatest commandment. And
the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself" [Lev. 19:18]. All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matt. 22:37-40)

Jesus quoted both of these commandments from the Law of Moses; the second
one is from the book of Leviticus. So these are included in the laws that,
if we disobey them, will cause us to run from a wind-driven leaf. And as the
Lord teaches us, these are the _primary_ laws that we must obey in order to
avoid that kind of fear in our inner being.
     When we disobey _these_ laws, we are living only for ourselves, and
disregarding the wellbeing of others. If taking advantage of another person
will further our own goals, we will take advantage of another person. If
hurting someone will help us, we will hurt someone. When we live in this
way, we build up causes for fear both within us and around us. Outside of
ourselves, we come to fear revenge from those we have hurt, and we fear the
punishments of the law. We fear losing what we have gained.
     Even stronger than these rational fears are the irrational fears that
we build up inside of ourselves. When we live as a law unto ourselves, we
view the world through eyes that are warped by our own twisted attitudes. We
attribute to others all the motivations from which we act--even when others
have no such bad motives. We see enemies all around us, because what we are
seeing around us is a reflection of what is within our own minds and hearts.
If we persist in this direction, we finally reach a state when, both
literally and figuratively, we become frightened of a mere leaf blowing in
the wind.
     We also _become_ the leaf blowing in the wind.
     When we center our lives around anything but the Lord's love and
wisdom, we become a slave to whatever it is that we put at the center of our
lives. As Jesus says, everyone who sins becomes a slave to sin. In
contemporary terms, every evil thing we get into the habit of doing becomes
not just a habit, but an addiction. We become entangled more and more in its
web, until we are powerless to extract ourselves. We may think that we are
free because we have chosen to follow this particular way of life. But evil
ways of life, by their very nature, become addictive and enslaving. If we
exercise our freedom to choose evil, our freedom turns into a false and
slavish freedom.
     A prime example of this in our modern world is putting the pursuit of
money before everything else. This seems to be a road to success and power.
We often envy those who have plenty of money; who live in large, beautiful
homes with lots of lawns and woods around them; who drive expensive cars and
move in the upper circles of society. How could the pursuit of money be slavery?
     Many wealthy people are not motivated primarily by money. But for those
who are, money does become an addiction. Relationships, children, and
happiness itself are sacrificed as their lives become focused more and more
on acquiring wealth. If we step back from the allure of money and examine
such a person's life, we will find that money is like a current of wind, and
the person is like a leaf driven by it. Wherever money leads, whether good
or bad, that person will go. Superficially, it appears to be freedom; but
that person's soul is enslaved every bit as much as an alcoholic is enslaved
by alcohol.
     I would call this sort of living "living by mistake." When we make
mistaken choices, and continue in the direction those choices lead, our
whole life becomes a mistake. Our whole life becomes driven by something not
worthy of a free and rational human being--and especially not worthy of the
Lord.
     We do not want to live by mistake. We want to live on purpose. We want
to live a life that is not driven by external forces that will impose their
will upon us. Rather, we want to live a life that is motivated by the
genuine goodness that comes from God. As Jesus says, "if the Son," meaning
the Lord, "makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). Why is it
that we are slaves when we are driven by things like money and power, yet we
are free when our life is focused on the Lord? Isn't the Lord also an
external power? Don't we surrender our freedom also when we follow the Lord?
     This is how it appears to us when we are involved in things that go
contrary to the Lord's way of life. If our life is focused on money, it
seems to us that the choice the Lord offers us between serving God and money
means that we would lose our freedom and our purpose in life if we were to
forsake money as our primary goal and live for God instead.
     But God is not a force external to our being, as money is. Rather, God
is the _source_ of our being. Everything that is truly good in us _is_ good
in us because it comes from God. Everything that is truly _us_ is actually
God within us. It is impossible to be enslaved to God because in following
God, we are also following the best and highest that is within ourselves. In
following God, we find the highest form of freedom, which is the freedom to
live a good and loving life according to the inclinations and talents that
God has given to each one of us.
     This is what it means to live on purpose. When we make the choice to
follow the path the Lord is showing us rather than our own mistaken path,
then we are putting a purpose and a motivation that we can trust at the
center of our lives. It is a purpose that will lead us toward happiness and
joy, whatever hardships we may pass through on the way.
     That path will be different for each one of us. Each of us is
different; the right path for one person is the wrong path for another
person. One of the challenges of our spiritual journey is to discover the
purpose that the Lord has in mind for each of us personally--which is the
same as the highest, most fulfilling, and most joyful purpose and motivation
that we could have for our lives. For one person this purpose might be to
teach and guide children or adults into knowledge. For another it might be
to keep our neighborhoods safe to live in. For another it might be to
provide one of the many goods or services we need to live our lives: food,
clothing, housing, health care, and so on.
     As we discover and follow a good and useful purpose here on earth, we
also build up within our souls a love for the Lord and a dedication to the
wellbeing of the people around us. This love and dedication frees us from
our fears--both external and internal. For we know that whatever may happen
to our bodies, and whatever may befall us financially, the Lord holds and
protects our souls, so that no lasting harm can come to us. We can then feel
the safety and the joy of knowing that we are not living by mistake; we are
living on purpose.


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Apr 28 16:23:31 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 12:23:31 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Choose Whom You Will Serve
Message-ID: <199704281227_MC2-158C-21A3@compuserve.com>

CHOOSE WHOM YOU WILL SERVE
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
April 20, 1997

        And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for
yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your
fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord.  (Joshua 24:15)

The choice that Joshua set before the children of Israel is also set before
each of us in our lives.  The first and great commandment is: "You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37) Each person who truly loves the Lord
will wish to serve Him.  

When you reflect on the course of your daily life, how does your
acknowledgment of the Lord as your God affect your life?  We know that
reflection and spiritual goal-setting is an important part of each person's
pathway to heaven.  At times each of us can consider which among our
values, choices and deeds have their fundamental source in an
acknowledgment of the Lord as God.  And also which among these things are
in conflict with what we know to be good and true.  

In one sense, each person stands alone choosing the direction of his or her
life.  There is an basic conflict that goes on within the mind of each
person here today.  This same conflict is nearly as old as the human race
itself.  We are created so that both good and evil, truth and falsity meet
and do battle within our minds.  The conflicting desires within our minds
can be attributed, in their simplest forms, to the essential choice
presented to the children of Israel.  Would they serve the idols of their
forefathers or the gods of the Amorites, or would they follow the lead of
Joshua and serve the Lord?  For us this represents the choice between
loving the things of the world, or ourselves, or loving the Lord.

Joshua offered the Israelites a choice.  They could choose one of three
alternatives.  The first choice was whether they wanted to worship the gods
which their forefathers had served on the other side of the River.  Joshua
had earlier spoken of the Israelites' forefathers, such as Terah, Abraham's
father, as living on the other side of the River, that is, the river
Euphrates. Terah had been an idolater, worshiping a god he knew of as
Shaddai, or "the almighty."  He and others like him were ignorant of many
basic truths that the Lord had revealed to earlier men. 

While Joshua's first offered choice to the Israelites reflects the
historical context of the time, it can also have a meaning that is
applicable to every person in all ages.  Joshua offered the Israelites the
choice of worshiping the idols of their forefathers.  We know that idolatry
doesn't just mean bowing down to statues.  Idolatry can be said to exist
when there is a separation of spiritual values, such as love to the Lord
and the neighbor, from the external actions of daily life and even worship.
 For example, we are told that those who call themselves Christians and say
they worship Christ, and do 
not live according to what He teaches, are actually worshiping Him
idolatrously.  (Arcana Caelestia 3732:2)  Idolatry can also be said to
exist when someone chooses something in this world and makes the
acquisition of it to be the highest good.  Whenever a person does this, he
makes that thing to be his god.  For example, a person's desire to acquire
money can rule over him as a most ruthless overlord.  If he loves it above
all others things, it is his god, and he will serve it daily.  Money has a
valuable use.  It isn't bad in itself.  But it becomes bad if it has so
significant a role in our decision-making, that other more important things
are neglected--like honesty.  This is true of many other aspects of this
world such as food, clothing, paying attention to our health, our homes,
our cars, our vacations, the natural success of our children, even the
natural success of this congregation.  Too great a concern for all of these
things can lead us to do things that are hurtful to ourselves and others. 
Having too great a concern for these things is represented by worshiping
the gods of our forefathers.

Joshua also offered the children of Israel the possibility of serving the
gods of the Amorites, in whose land they were then living.  This
alternative images a second choice that exists for all people.  Anyone can
also choose to love himself above all other things.  The love of self means
that our own needs, wants, and desires guide our decisions more than
anything the Lord has said about what is good and true.  When love of self
above others is the ruler of someone, he is unwilling to be led by Lord, or
by anyone else, except apparently, when it serves his ends.  Such a person
then also has a fundamental contempt and hatred of everyone who does not
serve him.  The ultimate result of this love is quite clear in the
spiritual world; there those who have been ruled by the love of self seek
to make themselves gods and to rule over all others.  A person can choose
to make himself god and serve himself in all things.

Note how the two false choices which the Israelites were given had a
particular attraction for them.  One was gods their ancestors had always
worshiped, and the other was the gods worshiped in the land where they
presently lived.  Similarly, the loves of self and the world have a ready
attraction for us.  We know that each of us was born with hereditary
inclinations to these evils.  Both love of the world and love of self above
others comes quite naturally to us.  Without a conscious process of
studying the patterns of our actions, words, thoughts, and motives,
recognizing specific ways in which evil loves and false ideas are
destructively influencing what we do, and then shunning or consciously
turning away from evil thoughts and actions as sins, they will remain with
us and will be a means whereby evil spirits seek to lead us to hell.  To
avoid their path, our hereditary inclinations to love ourselves and the
world must be recognized and removed by genuine repentance.

If we were left to ourselves without any guidance from the Lord, we
wouldn't even be aware that we had a fundamental choice of values in our
lives.  In this sense,  Joshua and what he said is like the Lord's Word,
prompting us to recognize the choices that lie before us.  Joshua told the
children of Israel that they should choose this day whom they would serve,
and he added, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  The
Lord's Word not only presents us with the need to recognize and shun evil
thoughts and actions and the loves that foster them, but in its entirety it
testifies to obedience and service to the Lord.  By its teachings we can
learn how to recognize our hereditary inclinations and reject them.  As
these inclinations are rejected, we can ever more fully accept the Lord as
our God and serve Him alone.

Even though our text presents a single moment of choice for the Israelites,
we know that it does not exist as a single choice for us.  We are
confronted by this choice in every significant decision we make.  Are we
going to serve the Lord by obey His commandments, are we going to try to
love others as He has loved us, or will we place love of self and the world
above these precepts and serve those interests?  Each decision we make
strengthens us in a certain direction, but is not in itself conclusive. 
But, by the time we leave this world, we will have established the
fundamental core of our values.  We will have established a ruling love. 
We will have chosen whom we want to serve.

Although in one sense Joshua's challenge is presented to us in every
significant decision we make, we cannot usefully approach many of them on
the universal levels of love of self, the world, or the Lord.  If someone
tried to consciously hold this choice in the front of his mind in each of
his decisions, it would probably be more destructive than constructive. 
Continuous or prolonged deep introspection is time-consuming and dangerous.
 This problem is avoided by following what the Lord has taught us about the
process referred to in the Writings as "self examination."  We are told
that once or twice a year every adult should submit his the patterns of
thought and action in his life to a deep, searching examination. (True
Christian Religion 530)  What the Lord calls us to watch for is important
patterns of choices and states of mind that are contrary to what he
teaches.  Even during this examination, it is probably not advisable to
look for love of self and the world in our thoughts and deeds.  We may know
with great certainty that these loves are there.  Rather than attacking
them as single entities, thereby attempting to fight against all of their
influence at once, we should seek to recognize one or two specific forms
that these loves take in our thoughts or deeds.  If we seek to recognize
one or two specific groups of evil acts or thoughts that we incline to,
then we will be choosing a manageable fight.

A man may notice that almost every time his thoughts have time to wander,
they quickly make their way to a consideration of his financial security
and growth, while at the same time he has lost touch with his children and
his responsibilities as their father.  He will then try to put the
financial thoughts out of his mind, at least some of the time, and instead
will reflect on the developing states of his children.

A woman may notice within herself a quiet but strong tendency to manipulate
those around her to go along with what she thinks is best.  This
manipulation may have an obvious expression in nagging or it may be so
subtle that its victims are hardly aware of its presence.  The end result
is the same, the person being manipulated is pressured to act or think a
certain way.  This manipulation can have negative spiritual results for all
who are involved.  The woman who recognizes its significant presence in her
life will try to allow others greater freedom to think and choose for
themselves, certainly with appropriate discussion, but without the
manipulation that she inclines to.

A third person may notice a tendency to get highly agitated when anyone
corrects him or openly disagrees with his opinion.  If his self examination
indicated that his reaction to the situation is thoughts of hatred against
the offending individual rather than a concern for what is true, he may
decide that he needs to work on this expression of the love of self.

In each of these cases, the individuals, having recognized a certain
inclination to something evil, will work at shunning that expression of
evil during the following days and months.  Each day they will apply the
findings of their last deep self examination in a review of their
intentions, thoughts, and acts, to see if they are truly shunning the one
or two evils they had previously observed.  This is the form of daily self
examination that we should practice. (cf. Arcana Caelestia 8391; True
Christian Religion 539, The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 163)

It is useful to keep in mind that when we are examining ourselves,
apparently we cannot know for certain how far we have progressed in our
spiritual rebirth.  Evil spirits constantly try to flow into our minds and
convince us that we are nothing but evil and consequently that there is no
hope for salvation.  Or they try to convince us of the exact opposite, that
we are so good that we don't need to seek salvation.  It is also useful to
know that a person also has a difficult time knowing if he is in the good
of charity or not because the angels with him, when they recognize that he
is reflecting upon the good in himself, may at once introduce the idea that
he is not so good in order to prevent him from taking credit for this
himself, and from sensing himself to be superior to others. (Arcana
Caelestia 2380)  Self examination has the primary purpose of indicating the
evils within the examiner which should be worked on, and only secondarily
giving him some idea of his spiritual state.  There are however certain
signs that indicate whether the power of our evil heredity has been
lessened, or whether it strongly controls our thoughts and life.  We can
consider, for example, whether we at times sense a delight in helping
another person just because it is a useful thing to do. (Arcana Caelestia
9499)  Perhaps a person can gain some hope, assurance and an image of the
ideal to strive for as he thinks about some of these aspects of his life.

The primary purpose of self examination is that a person should be led to
see those evils in himself which he must try to shun as sins against the
Lord.  Day-by-day as you learn more from what the Lord has taught us and
try to live according to it, the more perfect will be your ability to
examine the patterns of your motives, thoughts, and actions.  The truth we
need to guide our lives may be gained from instruction in sermons and
classes, but particularly from individual reading.  As we read what the
Lord has revealed and approach Him in prayer, He speak to us, exhorting us
or comforting us.  Let us hear Him when He speaks through words, like those
of Joshua, saying "...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of
the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  (Joshua 24:15)  AMEN.

      Lessons:          Joshua 24:1-7, 11-18

The question then is how is one to repent?  The answer is, in deed; that is
by examining oneself, recognizing and acknowledging one's sins, praying to
the Lord, and starting a new life.  What purpose does self-examination
serve, but to enable us to recognize our sins?  Or what purpose does their
recognition serve, unless we acknowledge their presence in us?  Or what
purpose would these three actions serve, if not to enable us to confess
them before the Lord, to appeal for His help, and from this point on to
start a new life.  This is the goal.  This is real repentance.  
This is the way we need to develop and act, as every person may know, once
he has left childhood behind, and more and more as he becomes independent
and knows his own mind, if he considers his baptism, which is a kind of
washing standing for regeneration.  The same is true on considering the
Holy Supper: all are strongly encouraged that before they are fit to
approach  this act of worship they must make an effort to: repent of their
sins; turn towards God; and embark on a new life.  The same may be seen on
considering the Ten Commandments for six of the commandments are simply
instructions not to do evil deeds, and unless one puts them away by
repentance, one cannot love good the neighbor, much less love God.  Yet on
these two commandments the Law and the Prophets, that is, the Word depend,
and consequently too does one's salvation.  If real repentance is practiced
from time to time this is enough to start the process of making it real. 
Anyone at this point is on his way to heaven and begins to be born anew
under the Lord's guidance.      True Christian Religion 530

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Mon Apr 28 21:26:06 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 17:26:06 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970428163803.2faf3ca4@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.     04-27-97

                        THE POWER OF FAITH

                A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed
and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes
that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says."
(Mk. 11:23)

	THE DOCTRINES, many, many times, speak of how faith, by itself, will not
save us.  If you believe (or think you believe) your religion, and do not
live it, then this belief, this faith, will do you no good.  This is
something that the Lord teaches so very clearly in the New Testament:  "Not
everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).  To pray, to
worship, to have faith, without  doing what the Lord teaches, will not
save.  Swedenborg writes in Heaven & Hell that, "From all my experience in
what pertains to heaven and hell I can bear witness that all those who from
their doctrine have professed faith alone, and whose life has been evil,
are in hell. I have seen many thousands of them cast down to hell" (HH 482).
	And so it is that, quite rightly, we place great emphasis on the life of
religion.  As it is said in the Writings, "All religion is of life, and the
life of religion is to do that which is good" (Life 1).  But in focussing
in this way upon the life of religion, we can sometimes, unintentionally,
overlook the fact that faith is nevertheless still of fundamental
importance to our salvation.  In fact the doctrines speak many times of a
"saving faith," of a faith that will save us.  In other words, we cannot be
saved without faith.  If we focus solely upon charity, upon living a good
life, with no interest whatsoever in the teachings of religion, then we
will not go to heaven.  Just as faith without charity is not really faith,
so too, charity apart from faith is not really charity (TCR 377).
	Why is this?  Why is faith so important?  If a person is living a life of
good, why does it matter what he believes.  There are many reasons.  Let
us, though, mention just three of them.  First of all, a person's faith
teaches him how he should live.  You cannot live the Lord's teachings
unless you know these teachings.  Living a good life is not simply a matter
of doing what you think is good; it involves doing what is truly good, what
the Lord teaches us is good.  Unless you believe and have faith in His
teachings, you have no reason to live according to them.  Second, faith is
important because it helps determine the motives behind our actions.  It
is, in fact, very easy to live an apparently good life for the wrong
reasons, for selfish reasons.  People so often live upright lives simply so
that others will think well of them.  They do what is good simply because
they are concerned for their own reputations.  But to do good simply from a
selfish concern for one's own reputation is not really good.  It is simply
an expression of selfishness.  To do good that is truly good means that we
must do it because this is what the Lord has commanded.  And in this sense
good that is truly good is always an expression of a person's faith:  it is
the living of his faith.
	But there is a third reason that faith is of fundamental importance to the
life of religion.  Our faith is our vision.  It is our spiritual vision.
Through faith we can look upwards towards the Lord.  And in looking upwards
towards Him, we can look to Him for the strength we need if we are to live
a life of good.  And we need His strength, because without it will fail.
We, by ourselves, are not strong enough to do what is good.  And so it is
that if we are to be saved, if we are to go to heaven, then we have to have
faith in Him.  As it is said right near the beginning of True Christian
Religion, "The universal principle of faith on man's part is that he should
believe in the Lord; for by believing in Him there is conjunction with Him
and thereby salvation.  To believe in the Lord is to have confidence that
He saves;  . . . " (TCR 2:3).  Or, as it is put so simply in the following
passage: "God is one, in whom is a Divine trinity, and the Lord God the
Savior Jesus Christ is that one.  Saving faith is to believe in Him" (TCR 3).
	It is a wonderful thing to realize that the Lord does not simply tell us
how to live.  He offers us the help and the strength we need if we are to
obey His commandments.  And this is why we need faith.  We need to have
faith in the Lord if He is to help us, and save us, and heal us from our
evils.
	So often our attempts to live the life of religion can seem to fail, and
sometimes fail miserably.  Part of us wants to follow the Lord, but we can
be so weak.  Each one of us has a desire to do things that are wrong,
things that are evil, and at times we give in to these desires.  And as
long as we give in to what is wrong, as long as such desires hold power
over us, we have not been saved.  We need the Lord to help us fight against
what is evil.  We need Him to heal us from those sins which plague our souls.
	Now when the Lord was in the world, He showed people time and time again
that He has the power to heal.  Much of His ministry was spent healing
people.  And the Lord performed the most wonderful miracles, healing people
who seemed, from a practical viewpoint, to be beyond hope.
	Consider the case of the poor woman who had been sick with a flow of blood
for twelve years.  She had spent all her money on physicians, and none of
them had managed to heal her.  But this woman, when she learned of the
Lord, believed in Him.  She had faith in Him.  And so she made her way
through the crowds, and managed to get close enough to the Lord to touch
the hem of His garment.  She knew in her heart that if she just did this,
she would be healed.  And immediately, at that very moment she touched Him,
the bleeding stopped, and she was healed.  The Lord knew what had happened,
and He told her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you
well." (Luke 8:48).
	Or consider two blind men who followed the Lord as He left Capernaum,
crying out and asking Him to have mercy on them.  He asked them if they
believed. "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" (Mat 9:28)  Even
though they were blind, they believed that the Lord could heal them.  And
it is said that the Lord then "touched their eyes, saying, 'According to
your faith let it be to you'  And their eyes were opened" (Mat 9:29).
	So great was the healing power of the Lord that even those who had died
could be restored to life in this world.  As He walked throughout the land,
preaching the Gospel, the Lord did the most wonderful miracles of healing.
As is written in Matthew:  "The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are
cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the
gospel preached to them" (Mat 11:5).
	This power of healing, though, depended, in every case, upon faith.
People had to believe in the Lord, believe in His power, for Him to heal
them.  This is why, when the Lord went back to His own country, to
Nazareth, He was able to do only a few miracles (Matt. 13:58).  The people
there had thought of the Lord as an ordinary man while He was growing up,
and so, it is said, "were unable to add to that idea the idea of His
Divinity" (AE 815:8).  They were unable to believe that He had Divine
power, and so He was unable to heal them.
	Now the Writings explain why it was that people had to have faith in order
for the Lord to heal them.  When they believed, in some way, in the Lord's
Divinity, and in His Divine power -- when they acknowledged this -- then
they saw Him in a special way (see AE 815:5).  And because of this, He
could be with them, with His power, helping them, and healing them.  
	Faith, you see, brings the presence of the Lord.  Of course the Lord is
always with us -- He is everywhere -- but if we are to be open to His
presence, then we must believe in Him, we must acknowledge Him, and we must
have a picture of Him in our minds.  And the kind of picture we have is so
important.  It is said in Apocalypse Explained that:  "faith presents the
Lord as present in a person according to the quality of the perception of
Him" (AE 815:8).  How do we perceive the Lord?  How do we picture Him?  If
we were to think of Him as just an ordinary man, then, even though He might
be present in our thoughts, He would be present there as just a ordinary
person.  Think of the people of Nazareth.  Even though the Lord was
actually there, walking amongst them and talking with them, in another
sense He was far away, because they had no concept of who He really was.
They had no idea that His power was infinite.  To them He was just an
ordinary carpenter (Mark 6:3).
	Now one of the reasons the Lord, when He was in the world, healed so many
natural diseases, was to show that He has the power to heal the spiritual
diseases to which those natural afflictions corresponded.  No matter what
the state of our natural health might be, on a spiritual plane we are all
diseased in one way or another, and we all need healing.  We need the
Divine healing of the Lord, because without His help, we cannot be cured.
	Those people the Lord touched and healed when He walked on earth, were
people with serious problems.  Some couldn't walk; some could not see; some
had the dreaded incurable disease of leprosy, and were shunned by all their
friends and relatives.  Only the power of Jesus Christ could cure them.  He
was their only hope.
	And as we walk along the path, trying our best to live the life of
religion, we come to see, within ourselves, similar problems on the plane
of our spirits.  Think of that woman who had been ill for twelve years.  No
physician was able to help her.  And so too within ourselves we may notice
an evil, a sin, that we keep on committing time and time again, something
that we might try to fight in many different ways, but a sin which
continues to enslave us and drain us of spiritual life.  Or perhaps we
become lame.  We lose the ability to walk, to persevere, along the path of
religion.  We might be blind:  we might have lost our vision, and with it,
our hope of salvation.
	We need a healing.  We need the Lord to reach down, and to touch us, and
to make us whole.  We need faith, a faith that brings this healing presence
of the Lord, a faith that saves.
	And the Writings tell us what this saving faith is.  Saving faith is not a
faith that is separate from charity.  We cannot be saved by faith if we
live a life of evil.  The kind of faith the Writings are talking about is a
faith that is lived, a faith that goes hand in hand with the life of religion.
	When the Lord was on earth, the faith that healed so many people was what
the Writings call a miraculous faith.  People at that time saw that the
Lord did miracles, they believed in His power, believed that in some way He
was Almighty (AE 815:4).  And because they could turn to the Lord and say,
"I believe," they could be healed, healed of their natural diseases.
Because of this, some think that this is the kind of faith that saves (AE
405:53):  that if you believe in the Lord He will heal you.  But a belief
that is just in the mind, or, for that matter, a belief that is just in the
heart, will not save.  Saving faith is a faith that is lived.  It goes
forth into action.  It cannot be separated from a life of charity, and it
can be only be received when a person shuns evils as sins against the Lord
(AE 503:53, AE 790:3,6, AE 808:2, HD 115).  Faith has no power apart from
charity, and apart from the effort to live the life of religion.
	But if you are making that effort, if you are trying, but you are feeling
discouraged, then remember the power of faith.  The Lord told His disciples
that if they had faith, they could say to a mountain, "Be removed and be
cast into the sea," and it would happen.  He told them that if, when they
prayed, they believed that they would receive what they asked for, then
they would receive it.  On a natural level it sounds almost magical:  that
if you believe hard enough, it will come to pass.  And indeed, the Writings
point out that it would not be of Divine order, on the natural plane, for
someone to get what he asks for simply because he believes, or for him to
have the power to throw mountains into the sea (AE 815:10).  But, on the
spiritual plane, such wonderful things do occur.  If you have within
yourself an evil that you love, an evil that seems as large and as
immovable as a mountain, and if you are doing all that you can to fight
against it, and are doing all that you can to live a life of good, but are
not succeeding, then have faith.  Have faith in the Lord.  Ask Him to help
you, and believe that He can help you.  Remember that He came into this
world to save people.  He has the power to save.
	"Saving faith," we read in the Writings, "is to believe that the Lord is
the Savior of the world, and that He is the God of heaven and the God of
the earth, and that by His coming into the world He entered into the power
to save all who receive truths from Him through the Word, and who live
according to them" (AE 808:2).  This is our faith.  We believe and we trust
that the Lord indeed has the power to save us.  We believe that no matter
what we may have done in the past, and no matter how great our evils might
be in the present, He has the power to move mountains.  He has the power to
heal us.  We believe that if we strive to live our religion, and that if we
strive to put away what is wicked and evil and sinful, and if turn to Him
for help, then He will give us the strength we need.  He will heal us, and
He will save us.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Matt. 9:18-31
		Mark 11:20-26
		AE 815:5


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun May  4 23:29:36 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 04 May 1997 19:29:36 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Confrontation: Handle With Care," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199705042332.TAA12667@mailrelay.tiac.net>

Note: My sermon for April 27th was preached extemporaneously, so there was
no written sermon to send out for last week. I will be away from Bridgewater
next Sunday, May 11th, and just returning before Sunday, May 18th, so there
will be further interruption in the sermons for the next couple of weeks.

--Lee


             Confrontation: Handle With Care
           A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
        Bridgewater, Massachusetts, May 4, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 50:4-8. Let my adversaries confront me.
          Matthew 5:21-26. Be reconciled to your brother.
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #7042. The Divine never opposes itself to anyone.

When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your
brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar
and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your
gift. (Matthew 5:23, 24).

On Monday and Tuesday, I attended the East Coast ministerial Peer
Supervision meeting, which is held each spring at Blairhaven. This is a
chance for the ministers in our church who serve on the Atlantic seaboard to
get together, support and share friendship with each other, and talk about
issues that affect our ministries and the church. We are fortunate in this
part of the country to have a large complement of ministers--at least, large
for Convention. There were eleven of us at the East Coast Peer Supervision
this year.
     One topic that we discussed this year came from some guidelines that
Convention's Council of Ministers adopted several years ago for its
ministers to follow. Among other things, this statement puts forth the ideal
of practicing direct and caring communication. I would like to spend some
time this morning considering just what it means to practice direct and
caring communication--especially with people and in situations where we
might have a hard time communicating at all, let alone in a direct and
caring way.
     But before we look at times of conflict and confrontation, it is a good
idea to consider what communication is all about in better times, with
people that we are close to. If we cannot engage in direct and caring
communication under these circumstances, then we will certainly not be able
to do so during times of tension. On the other hand, if we do practice
direct and caring communications during better times, it may be just the
practice we need to communicate well under difficult circumstances.
     There are certainly many different factors in direct and caring
communication. We could not cover them all even if we could name them all. I
would like to focus on two that are so basic that without them, none of the
others would make any difference. Those two are _love_ for the other person
(or people) and _respect_ for the other person.
     Though love and respect are related to each other, they are not the
same. We can love someone that we may not respect, such as a close family
member who, through stubbornness and bad choices, has made a mess of his or
her life. We can also respect someone that we do not love, such as a boss
who is very competent and professional, but lacks a sense of warmth and caring.
     Love is something we do with our heart. It may be conditional or
unconditional; but the most genuine form of love is unconditional. We love
our children whether they make good or bad choices; and like a parent, God
loves us whether we make our bed in heaven or in hell, to use the Biblical
phrase.
     Respect is something we do with our head. When we recognize skill or
integrity or some other good quality in another person, it makes an
impression on our minds. Because of that, we give him or her respect.
     The best conditions for direct and caring communication are when we are
with people that we both love and respect. Our love for them gives us a
strong desire to communicate with them--to share with them our thoughts and
feelings, our ideas, aspirations, and concerns. Our respect for them prompts
us to share these things in the best way we know how. When we are with
people we respect, we put all the clarity and depth that we can into the
things we say to them--or that we communicate to them in non-verbal ways,
such as through a gesture, a touch, a hug.
     It is especially important to have open, direct, and caring
communication with the people that we share our everyday life with. The
members of our family; the people we work with each day; these
people--especially our family members--form the core of our interrelational
world. Without direct and caring communication, we do come into contact with
these people, but we do not really touch them, nor do they touch us. _With_
direct and caring communication, we share ourselves with each other; we
share both our minds and our hearts. In this way, we form a network of
mutual support and care that adds richness and depth to our lives and keeps
us going through our more difficult times.
     We may think that communication is something that happens
automatically. That is a _big_ mistake. As too many of us have found out, it
is all to easy to spend days, months, or years in the same workplace with
each other--even in the same house with each other--and still be like
strangers. We get caught up in our own work, our own hobbies, our own
concerns, and before we realize what has happened, we no longer know the
people that we share our daily lives with.
     One of the first things we need to do to have direct and caring
communications, then, is to _make time for it_. We may think that we have
too many things to do; that we couldn't possibly carve the time out of our
day just to "sit around and talk." However, this is a decision we make. Of
course we have work to do. Of course we have hobbies and other interests. It
is a question of priorities. How important are our relationships to us? Are
they as important as our work? Are they as important as our sports or hobbies?
     When we opt not to take the time to communicate with the people around
us, we are making a decision that those people are not as important to us as
all the other things we do. We may not want to recognize it, but when
something is very important to us, _we devote time to it_. Often, we devote
as much time to it as we possibly can.
     We should pay close attention to the things we devote our time to,
since they are the things we really consider important. We should also pay
attention to the things we do _not_ devote our time to. Perhaps we assure
ourselves that we care; but if we really _do_ care, we will express it by
making sure that some of our time _is_ spent with the people we say we care
for. If not, we are in danger of losing what we profess to love. All too
many divorces and breakups in other kinds of relationships come after a long
history of neglect.
     The positive side of this is that if we do care enough to make time for
sharing and communication--and for simply spending time together doing
things we enjoy, or pursuing interests we have in common--our relationships
with the people we love or work with will continue to grow stronger and
deeper. There is no end to the levels of connection and trust we can achieve
if we devote ourselves to a relationship in this way. Once we have felt the
deep rewards of sharing honesty and love with others, we will wonder how we
could ever not have taken the time to build up this wonderful kind of
relationship.
     Let's return to our consideration of love and respect. At its core,
love applies to all, and brings all together into connection and unity;
respect is a function of truth, which distinguishes between good and bad,
better and worse.
     This presents us with a problem. I said earlier that without love and
respect for the other person, we might as well forget about direct and
caring communication. But what if we have no respect for the person we are
attempting to communicate with? When we do not respect someone, we generally
do not think that person is worth the effort it takes to combine
directness--meaning honesty--with caring. In fact, there may be reasons we
do not want to be honest at all, such as a fear that the other person will
use any information we may give him or her against us or against other
people who are innocent. So the problem is, if we do not respect the other
person, how can we possibly have direct and caring communication with him or
her?
     This is where our communication skills are put to the test. But it is
more than simply communication skills that are being tested. It is our
willingness . . . our commitment to love others as we love ourselves. What
is being tested is our ability to care about and love others even when we
tend not to respect them. If we cannot find it in our hearts to love the
people that we are in a confrontation with, we will never be able to find
enough respect for them to serve as a basis for direct and caring communication.
     It may seem like too much to ask that we should love the people that we
consider to be our opponents or enemies. But this is _exactly_ what our Lord
asks us--even commands us--to do. Jesus said, "Love your enemies, do good to
them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is
kind to the ungrateful and wicked" (Luke 6:35). It is easy to love those who
love us; it is very difficult to love those who hate and abuse us . . . or
those who we _think_ hate and abuse us.
     We would be wise to keep in mind what Swedenborg says about our
perspective and the Lord's perspective when there is a conflict. When we are
in the wrong, we tend to blame the other person for any difficulties or
conflict. However, we may simply be projecting our own wrongs onto the other
person. This is one of the first steps toward developing some respect for
those we consider our enemies. If we can recognize that we also may be
mistaken, or at least partially in the wrong, and that those we are
confronting may have some valid grievances against us, then we have a
beginning that can develop into respectful communication.
     The other side of this coin--and this is what can enable us to develop
the respect needed as a basis for direct and caring communication--is that
we must actively look for the good and the right in the other person's
position, and actively work on understanding the other person's grievances.
Perhaps we are right and they are in the wrong in certain areas. But in
other areas, we may be mistaken, and they may hold the key to helping us fix
a problem that exists within ourselves and in our own actions.
     Our natural tendency is to see only the good in ourselves and only the
bad in those who oppose us. In order to engage in direct and caring
communications, we must balance that. We must also be willing to see the
wrong, or bad, in ourselves, and the right, or good, in the ones we are
confronting. If we can do this, no matter what the outcome of the
confrontation, our "opponent" will have done us a valuable service. He or
she will have given us an opportunity to overcome some of our self-centered
tendencies, and develop our capacity to love those we consider our enemies,
as our Lord commands us to do.
     Confrontation with others must always be handled with care. There may
be times to shout; there may be times to cry; there may be times to grow
angry; there may be times to yield. If, during peaceful times, we develop
the ability to express ourselves directly and honestly, yet with concern for
the other person's feelings, then perhaps during the more turbulent times we
will have had enough practice at it that we can avoid a destructive blowup,
or even worse, a cold war. Perhaps we can instead turn confrontation into a
time to develop our character while building mutual understanding, respect,
and even love.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Tue May 13 02:55:35 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 22:55:35 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970512215104.0ba76922@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Richmond 05-03-97

	ALPHA & OMEGA, FIRST & LAST

	A Family Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

{FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS}

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,' says the Lord,
'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'" (Rev. 1:8)

	IN OUR READING FROM THE WORD this morning the Lord called Himself a very
special name.  He called Himself the Alpha and the Omega.  Why did the Lord
call Himself this?  Well, first of all, you should realize that Alpha and
Omega are letters.  They aren't English letters.  They are Greek letters,
because Greek was the language that the New Testament was written in.  What
the Lord is calling Himself, then, is the name of two letters.  This is
different from the other names that He has.  The Lord has many other names.
 He is called Jesus, Christ, Lord, Heavenly Father, and many other names.
There are many words used as names of the Lord.  But then there is this
very special name, a name that is made up of  just two letters:  the Greek
letter Alpha and the Greek letter Omega.
	But why would the Lord give Himself  a name made up of two letters.  Well,
if you think about it you realize that letters are very special things.
Think of all the letters of the English alphabet.  There are only 26
letters in our alphabet.  That really isn't very many letters at all.  But,
with just 26 letters, think of all the thousands and thousands of words you
can spell.  All the words you speak, all the words you say, can be written
down using just twenty-six letters.  Every single word in English can be
written down using just these letters.
	Now it is similar in the Greek alphabet.  The Greeks also had an alphabet.
 It was a different alphabet that the one we have, though many of the
letters looked the same.  They only had 24 letters in their alphabet.  But
they used their letters the same way we do -- for writing words.   And with
their 24 letters they also could write down thousands and thousands of words.
	This is why the Lord called Himself two letters.  He called Himself Alpha
and Omega.  The two letters He chose are the very first and last letters of
the Greek alphabet.  Alpha is the first letter.  Omega is the last.  When
the Lord called Himself the Alpha and Omega, what He was saying was that He
is, in a way, like the whole alphabet.  Just as all the many, many words
come from the letters of the alphabet, so, all the many, many things in the
world come from Him.
	All the words come from the alphabet.  All good things come from the Lord.
 This, then, is why the Lord calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega --
because everything comes from Him.
	But, the Lord doesn't just make everything.  He also makes things -- some
things -- to be alive.  He makes plants and animals and people and He gives
them life.  And so it is that the Lord didn't just make you.  He also gives
you life, so that you can move and talk and do things.  And the only reason
you are alive, the only reason you can do things, is that the Lord gives
you life.  This is another meaning of this special name of the Lord, Alpha
and Omega.  It means that the Lord gives you life.
	When the Greeks were reading, and they saw an alpha, the sound they made
for an alpha was ah.  When they saw an omega, they said oh.  Ah and oh.
Both of these sounds are made by breathing out gently.  In fact they are
letters that stand for breathing.  And this is something that all living
things do.  They breathe.  If you stopped breathing, even for only a
relatively short while, you would die.
	This is why, after the Lord made Adam, the first man, it is said that He
"breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
being" (Gen 2:7).  And the reason you can breathe, and the reason you are
alive, is that the Lord Himself also breathes into you.  He breathes life
into you.  All the life you have is from Him.  This then is another reason
the Lord called Himself the Alpha and Omega -- the Ah and Oh -- the sound
of breathing, the sound of life.
	Everything good comes from the Lord.  All the things in the world are made
by Him.  You are made by Him.  And all your life comes from the Lord alone.
 He is the Alpha and the Omega.  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to
come, the Almighty." (Rev 1:8).
	NOW, AS ALPHA AND OMEGA refer to the Lord's infinite love, so Beginning
and End refer to the Lord's infinite wisdom.  We need wisdom as well as
love.  We need to be able to think and understand, as well as to feel and
to desire, if we are to be truly alive.  And thought and understanding also
come from the Lord.  They are derivations of the one true Wisdom -- the
Wisdom of the Lord Himself.  And if we did not constantly receive, in one
way or another, both the influence of His love -- His life --  and the
influence of His wisdom, we would be dead -- incapable of experiencing any
feeling at all -- incapable of thinking even a single thought.
	The Lord is also said to be the One who is, and who was, and who is to
come.  These words speak of the eternity and infinity of God, of the fact
that He is a Being who is above time, someone whose love and wisdom and
power know no limits whatsoever.  He is so far above us, so great, so
awesome, that we can only begin to imagine just how great He really is.  
	Now, when we think about the Lord in this way, think about what He is
really like, we begin to see, in a small way, the complete and utter
stupidity of imagining that we can do without Him -- of thinking that in
some imaginary way we are somehow something by ourselves.  By ourselves we
are nothing.  We are nothing at all without the Lord.  He makes us.  He
gives us life.  He gives us wisdom.  He gives us everything.  He is, as our
text tells us, the Almighty.  He is all-powerful.
	But there is one thing above all about the Lord which we should never
forget.  The Lord loves us.  If the infinity of His love, wisdom and power
begin to make us feel uncomfortable, let us remember that with all of His
love, with all of His wisdom, and with all of His power, He watches over
us, and blesses us, and does all that He can to give us happiness.
	The Lord loves us, completely and totally.  Though His infinity itself is
completely beyond our imagination, He is still our Father, and as our
Father He loves us.  Though all things are under His government, He governs
them for no other purpose than that human beings might be led towards
heavenly happiness.  This happiness comes only with freedom.  And so the
Lord loves our freedom.  He does not use His power to restrict our freedom,
but to give us freedom.
	Until we understand this, until we truly understand that the Lord loves
us, we understand nothing at all about Him.  It is because He loves us,
with the whole of His infinite heart, that we, being merely finite, can
still approach Him.  We are nothing.  He is everything.  And yet He loves
us, and He comes towards us to meet us and to embrace us.
	This is why a little later on in the same chapter as our text, the Lord
says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last" (Rev. 1:11).
He is not only the First.  He is the Last as well.  He is above all things,
but He nevertheless comes right down to last things -- right down to our
level -- in order to meet us.
	We can picture ourselves as resting in the Lord's arms.  He has two arms,
or two hands, with which He holds us.  From on high He governs all things,
rules over everything -- in order that all things might continue to exist.
>From on high He breathes life into all that is living.  But with His other
hand He holds us from beneath as well -- coming to us and inspiring us on
our own level.
	Think of the Word.  The Lord is infinitely wise, but still He talks to us
in simple stories.  Think of the Old Testament -- which speaks of a garden,
a serpent, a flood, and so on.  This is the Lord in ultimates or lasts,
coming down to us, teaching us, holding us with His hand, on our own level.
	Think of the supreme example:  the Lord's incarnation and glorification.
He formed a body for His infinite soul -- and He was born on earth.  And
during His life on earth, He gradually infilled this body more and more
completely and perfectly with His Divine love.  He is indeed above all
things, but because He loves us, He came down to meet us on our own plane,
the plane of this world, as a Man of flesh and bones.  He is not only the
First, but He is the Last as well.  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last" (Rev. 1:11).
	Today He is still with us.  He is very close.  Some might have difficulty
in really understanding the way in which the Lord is with us -- but we can
all hold on to this simple truth that even in the lowest things of life He
is right here beside us.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the origin of all
things.  But still, He is present with us.  He is with us, loving us more
than we could ever dream, guiding us with a wisdom greater than we could
ever comprehend, and drawing far closer to us than we could ever imagine.
He is the Alpha and the Omega, and He is our Heavenly Father.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Gen. 2:1-7
		Rev. 1:1-8
		AR 29 (part)
 


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Tue May 13 02:55:41 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 22:55:41 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970512215125.0c5733ca@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.     05-11-97

	A HOUSE UPON A ROCK

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will
liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matt. 7:24)

	A HOUSE, SOME PLACE IN WHICH TO LIVE, is one of the most basic necessities
of human life.  It is a physical necessity.  A person needs a house, or
some form of shelter, to protect him from the elements.  It also fulfills a
psychological need.  Home is where we return to rest after a day's work.
It is where we bring up our families.  It is the place of motherhood, of
fatherhood, of childhood.  It is the place where we can be by ourselves and
be with those we love.  It is an oasis where we can withdraw from the
pressures of life in society and enjoy privacy.
	This need for a house and home has its source deep within the human
spirit.  It originates in the fact that the human spirit has been given
freedom by the Lord.  Human beings have been given the ability to love
whatever they want to love, and from this, the ability to think whatever
they wish to think.  This is where our freedom essentially lies.
	It is true that we also have freedom to do and say what we want.  Yet here
our freedom is somewhat limited.  We cannot always do what we want.  Nor
can we always say what we want.  The circumstances of life on earth limit
us in many ways.  We are frequently prevented from doing the things we
would like to do, either because they are physically or financially
impossible, or else because we fear the possible consequences of our actions.
	It is usually evil deeds, and also evil words, which are limited in this
way.  Though a person is perfectly free to hate somebody and to want to do
him evil, fear of various penalties will usually deter him.  And though he
is free to think ill of somebody, he seldom feels free to express this
opinion in words, at least to the person's face.  So it is that even though
we are free to love and think whatsoever we want, we are seldom in perfect
freedom when it comes to words and actions.
	Now it is obvious that without some checks on what people say and do,
human society could not survive.  But at the same time it is vital to the
existence of a human being that he be free in at least some areas.  Without
freedom, a person would no longer exist as a human being.  He would be more
like a puppet or a robot than a human being.  Therefore a person is given
mental freedom by the Lord.  In his mind he is free to will and think
whatever he wishes, unchecked by the pressures and the restraints of the
world.
	It is this mental freedom which is reflected in a person's life at home.
It is when he is at home that he is at liberty to express his freedom of
will and thought in deeds and words.  To a large extent a person can say
and do whatever he wants while at home.  Certainly he can say and do things
there that he would never dream of doing in public.
	It is not surprising, then, that a house, when mentioned in the Word,
often signifies the human mind.  There are in fact many similarities
between the mind and a house.  The very structure of a house is an image of
the mind.  We read that "the ancients compared the mind of man to a house,
and those things which are within man to chambers.  The human mind is
indeed like this; for the things therein are distinct, scarcely otherwise
than as a house is divided into its rooms" (AC 7353).  The similarity
extends also to the people within a house.  We are taught that the various
thoughts and affections in the human mind are related and interconnected in
a fashion similar to the relationships between the members of a household
(see AC 2556, 3020, 3129).
	There is also this in common between the mind and a house:  both are or
should be ruled by love.  It is a person's love which orders and governs
all things in his mind, and arranges and connects all things of his
thoughts and feelings.  So too, the members of a household, and especially
the husband and wife, are, or should be, bound by love for one another (see
AC 710, 1159).  From this it is that when a house in the Word stands for
the human mind, it frequently refers specifically to the good or the love
which rules the mind.
	Both the mind and the home are areas where someone's love and thoughts are
free to express themselves.  Indeed, a person's very nature is expressed in
these mental activities, and also, to a large degree, in the way he
conducts himself at home. The connection between a man's spirit, that is,
his mind, and his house or home is thus extremely close.  It is when
somebody is at home, and especially when he is alone at home, that the true
nature of his spirit is likely to manifest itself.  Removed from the
influences and the pressures of the world at large, his thoughts are free
to turn to the things he loves the most (see DP 104, TCR 14:3).  Since at
home he is not on his guard the same way as he is when in the company of
others, he feels far more free to express his thoughts and feelings.
	The corollary to this is also true.  Not only does somebody's spirit come
out when he is at home, but he also feels at home when he is in his spirit.
 When a person dies and his spirit enters the other world, he can enter
fully into the life of his spirit.  Before long his ruling love takes over
all his words and actions, and he gravitates towards those who are like
himself.  If he is evil, he comes into the company of those in a like evil.
 If he is good, he comes into the company of those in a like good.  But
whatever type of person he is, in the spiritual world he is at home.  In
the company of his spiritual brothers and sisters he is more at home than
he could ever be while in this world.
	It is in the spiritual world, in our eternal home, that our strengths and
weaknesses come out for all to see.  In this world it is different.  In
this world our true natures are mostly hidden from the world at large.  We
worry what others will think and how others will react, and hesitate to
reveal our weaknesses and failings to others.  We keep our feelings
private, so that they are manifest only to ourselves, and, to some degree,
to those in our own household.
	This privacy is important.  In public, people are compelled and
constrained in many ways.  If they did not have privacy, they would have
little freedom at all.  It is right and proper that people should be able
to hide their secret weaknesses from the world at large.  But though these
weaknesses are hidden, they still exist.  And the sad thing is that these
weaknesses are often serious, and cause a great deal of unhappiness, both
to the individual and to the family.
	While people usually manage to present an upright and fairly cheerful
image to the world, in too many cases their minds and their home lives are
full of misery.  In public they keep up appearances; in private, their
spirits are afflicted all too often with strife and unhappiness.
	Why?  Why is it that the private lives of so many people are often so
miserable?  Why are so many minds, and so many homes, full of unhappiness?
It is because people are foolish, and they build their homes, build their
lives, on the wrong foundation.
	This is the mistake spoken of by the Lord in His Sermon on the Mount:
"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will
be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand"(Mat 7:26).
	If we find that our thoughts and feelings are always turning to and
dwelling upon evil, and if our home lives are constantly disturbed by
hatred and strife, this is the reason. It might be thought that somebody
who has accepted the Writings would have a strength that others do not
have.  The wonderful teachings of the Writings should surely be a source of
strength and support to all who accept them.  And yet all too often it
happens that New Church people are just as weak as others.  They too can
fall into evils and unhappiness.  The homes of New Church people also can
be shaken and broken by quarrels and fights and hatred.
	This can happen even to those who have the Writings if they do not do what
the Writings teach.  If they do not live what they know, then the truths of
the Writings are no real support.  If we do not try sincerely and earnestly
to live according to these truths, then we have not really accepted them.
We may think we believe in them.  All we have done, though, is to learn
them.  The Lord's truths have not actually entered our hearts.  All they
have done is entered our memories.  Now, all the memory can do is store
bits of information.  It is only the rational degree of the mind, and
especially the love within this rational, which can draw the truths of the
Word together into a coherent whole.  Therefore, if the truths of the
Writings are only in the memory, and not in the love or the heart of man,
then they remain incoherent bits and pieces of information.
	Little bits and pieces -- incoherent spiritual sand.  That's what the
truths of the Writings are to somebody who does not receive the Lord's
teachings into his heart and live them.  If this be the case, then it is no
wonder that his spiritual life and home life are weak.  Just as a house
built on sand is broken up by the rain, floods and winds, so too, he who
builds his life upon spiritual sand is open to all kinds of destructive
influences from the hells.  The rain, floods and winds are a picture of the
attacks of the hells.  If his house or mind doesn't have a firm foundation,
then his whole mind is soon engulfed by the evils and falsities of hell,
and his mental and home life descends into misery and frustration.
	And so the Lord counsels us to build our homes upon rock.  "Therefore
whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a
wise man who built his house on the rock"(Mat 7:24).  This rock is, of
course, the Lord and the truth of His Word.  This rock is available to all
of us in the Old and New Testaments and in the Writings.  The question is,
will we use this rock as the foundation of our homes?
	Everybody knows that a house needs a foundation.  Otherwise it cannot
continue to stand.  What people often don't realize is that the spirit or
mind, a person's spiritual home, also needs a foundation.  Mental things,
such as love and faith, also need a basis on which to rest.
	People sometimes think they love the Lord and believe in Him even though
they don't put this love and belief into action.  They think they have
charity in their hearts and faith in their minds, even though they do not
really live good lives.  But the Writings emphasize that unless charity and
faith are expressed in deeds, they are merely fleeting mental abstractions
with no permanent existence (see TCR 375).  Unless we make an effort to do
good, then we will not continue to love what is good for very long.
	The things of the mind must have their foundation in the deeds of the body
if they are to have permanence.  Therefore if the Word of the Lord is to be
the foundation of our minds, we must live the Word.  We must live and do
what it teaches.
	Then, and only then, will the Word be a foundation for our mental lives.
Only then will our minds have strength from the Lord.  This spiritual
strength will then give strength and peace to the lives of our homes.
	The simple fact is that only if we do what the Lord teaches can we really
love Him and His Word.  And it is only if we really love the Lord that we
will abide by His teachings, not only in public, but also in private:  both
in the privacy of our minds and in the privacy of our houses.
	It must not be thought that those who live according to the Lord's Word
will be spared the attacks of the hells.  The rain, floods and wind also
beat upon the house that was built upon a rock.  So too, the sincere New
Churchman who lives his religion will also find that the hells encourage
him to do evil, and that his home life is occasionally disturbed by the
influences of hell.
	But the hells will not be able to gain a firm foothold.  Evils will not
come gushing into his mind.  He will stand firm against evils.  He will
resist evil, not only in public, but also within his own mind and within
his own home.  He will abide by the teachings of the Lord.
	"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will
liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock"(Mat 7:24).
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Deut. 30:9-14
		Matt. 7:21-29
		Life 1, 27


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Fri May 16 16:50:00 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 12:50:00 -0400
Subject: SERMON: The Church as a Mother
Message-ID: <199705161250_MC2-16C5-D773@compuserve.com>

   The Church as a Mother
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
May 11, 1997

        Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are
standing outside, seeking to speak with You." But He answered and said to
the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?"  And He
stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother
and My brothers!"  Matthew 12:50

On this day when many of us reflect with gratitude on contributions made to
our lives by our own mother and other mothers that are near and dear to us,
Jesus's distance, at times, from His own mother can seem off-putting.  For
example, when his parents thought Him lost at age twelve and searched for
Him with great sadness for three days, His response was "Why is it that you
sought Me?  Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" 
(Luke 2:49)  The account does go on to say that Jesus then went home with
Joseph and Mary and "was subject to them," but still this distance can be
troubling from some perspectives.

The Lord told His disciples that His life was an example for them.  We can
regularly ask ourselves as we face difficult situations, "What would Jesus
have done in a situation like this?"  But how are we to take from this
particular example?  Are we also to feel little allegiance to our
biological mothers?

The explanation of the fourth commandment given in the True Christian
Religion states the following:

        Honoring your father and mother means in the natural or literal
sense honoring one's parents, obeying them, being devoted to them, and
showing gratitude for the kindnesses they do.  These include feeding and
clothing their children, and introducing them into the world, so that there
they may live civilized and respectable lives; also bringing them into
heaven by teaching them the rules of religion.   (True Christian Religion
305)

Honoring, obeying, being devoted to, and showing gratitude to the women who
gave birth to us is an essential foundation for our spiritual lives as we
grow from infancy toward adulthood.  And it is also important that as we
grow and mature that the first commandment comes more and more to be the
central guiding force in our lives.  The Lord has commanded us, "You shall
have no other gods before me" and in the New Testament the first and great
commandment is stated as, "You shall love the Lord  your God with all your
hear, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  (Matthew 22:37)   As we
grow and mature I would hope that the vast majority of us can grow in
appreciation for the ways in which our mothers served our welfare in the
upbringing they provided.  But even the best mothers are still fallible
human beings.  And with some certain flaws are conspicuous.  A person's
allegiance to the desires and principles of his mother should not supersede
that of his allegiance to following his best understanding of what the Lord
wants him to do.  Anytime our allegiance to another human being or any
motivation or principle exceeds our allegiance to follow the Lord we are
transgressing the first and great commandment to some degree.  Certainly  a
seven-year-old isn't shouldn't be in the position of questioning
fundamental issues with his mother.  Sadly enough there are some children
who at very early ages need to start forming a somewhat independent life
from their mother or their father because of fundamental flaws in these
parents.  The failure to form this independent life would be destructive to
the child's growing spiritual health.  Some children have a mother who so
regularly puts down healthy qualities in them that they have the choice but
to either reject their own lives in accepting their mother's judgment as
correct or they have to recognize that the person with the problem in this
situation is their mother.  

In the short story read as a lesson from Matthew, the Lord said, "Who is My
mother and who are My brothers?"  And He stretched out His hand toward His
disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!"  In doing this He
was not rejecting them as unworthy of any attention.  Instead He was
qualifying their importance in relationship to higher priorities.  Can you
picture it making any sense for me to interrupt my sermon at this point
because a phone call had just come from my mother who just wanted to chat? 
If you got that phone call, wouldn't you be inclined to say, "Can I give
him a message to phone you as soon as he gets a chance?"  This is true of
all relationships.  Being willing to drop all other considerations to
follow the inclination of one person can be quite spiritually unhealthy. 
This is true of parents with their children, and husbands and wives with
their spouses.

But enough of this qualification.

Mothers do wonderful things many of which can be so regular and can show
themselves in such small ways that they become nearly invisible.  Warm
smiles, supportive words, gentle nudges toward different perspectives, even
clear exhortations to better behavior are all part of the environment of
the home that mothers can help create.  As they day-to-day oversee the
natural pattern of wants and needs within a household, they create the
environment that allows for heathy growth.  For many of us the foundations
we have in very deep parts of our perspective on what it means to be loved,
to be safe, to be cared for have been provided by our mother.  In many
families the majority of the family patterns at holidays and through out
each day--all the different family rituals,--were directed and formed by
the woman or mother in the household.  Nearly all of us can look back and
recognize that our mothers did many wonderful things for which we can be
grateful.

A powerful comparison is drawn in the Writings of the New Church between
the role of a mother and that of the church.  The church as a healthy
organization of human beings dedicated to being led by the Lord in His Word
produces a powerful matrix for the birth and growth of our spiritual life. 
The connection between natural mothers and that of the church is drawn in
detail.

        In David:- But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me
trust while on My mother's breasts.  I was cast upon You from birth. From
My mother's womb You have been My God.  (Psalm  22: 9, 10). This describes
the  regeneration of the spiritual person by such things as belong to
natural birth from the mother; therefore "You are He who took Me out of the
womb" signifies that one is regenerated by  the Lord and made a member of
the church; "You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts" signifies that
one is afterwards led and spiritually educated, "the mother's breasts"
signifying spiritual nourishment in such things as belong to the church,
"mother" meaning the church;  (Apocalypse Explained 710:6)

Quoting from the Arcana Caelestia:

        The Lord's kingdom on earth is the Church, therefore "the womb"
also means the Church.  For the Church exists where the marriage of good
and truth exists.  This explains why "opening the womb" means the resulting
doctrines taught by the Churches, as well as the ability to receive the
truths and goods of the Church, while "going out of the womb" means being
born again or being regenerated, that is, becoming the Church since a
person who is born again or regenerated becomes the Church.  (Arcana
Caelestia 4918:1)

Also quoting from the True Christian Religion:

        Regeneration is effected in a manner analogous to that in which a
person is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated. In each human
being there is a perpetual correspondence between what takes place
naturally and what takes place spiritually, or between what takes place in
his body and what takes place in his spirit. This is because each person as
to his soul is born spiritual, and is clothed with what is natural, which
forms his material body. Therefore when this body is laid aside, his soul,
clothed with a spiritual body, enters a world where all things are
spiritual, and is there affiliated with its like. Since then, the spiritual
body must be formed in a material body, and is formed by means of truths
and goods which flow in from the Lord through the spiritual world, and are
inwardly received by a person in such things in him as are from the natural
world, which are called civil and moral, the way in which its formation is
effected is evident; and since, as before said, there is in each person a
constant correspondence between what takes place naturally and what takes
place spiritually, it follows that this formation is like conception,
gestation, birth and education. It is for this reason that natural births
in the Word mean spiritual births, which are births of good and truth (True
Christian Religion 583)

This quality that is the Lord's church can grow within an individual's life
and can be shared between two or more people.  Remember the Lord said,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them."  When we gather together to try to make a home for the
church on earth, whether it be a family unit, among a close and supportive
group of friends, or on the level of a congregation, this gathering to be
led by the Lord through His Word creates a powerful spiritual climate that
is good for each of us.  It is a spiritual mother.  It is a living
presentation of the truth that makes the church.  It can bring not just the
hard rocks of truth to our lives but the living bread that the Lord offers
us.  By working together with others we can see wonderful examples of what
truth in life means for the people around us.  By gathering together to
worship, and to share the ups and downs, joys and tragedies that exist
within this world a quality that is very much like a mother's role in a
family can take place within our lives.

On this Mother's Day, may we turn our thoughts in gratitude for what the
natural mothers we have know have done for good.  May we thank the Lord for
His work through them, and thank them for their willingness to do so much. 
May we also recognize the importance of the church as a spiritual mother. 
May we thank the Lord for His work through the church, and thank the people
who help make that church in our lives for their willingness to do so much
as well.  May each of us be blessed with a spiritual home that cares for
us, guides us, yes even exhorts us to be the kind of person that the Lord
is leading us to be.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Deuteronomy 5:12
                Matthew 12:46-50

        Honoring your father and mother means in the natural or literal
sense honoring one's parents, obeying them, being attached to them, and
showing gratitude for the kindnesses they do.  These include feeding and
clothing their children, and introducing them into the world, so that there
they may live civilized and respectable lives; also bringing them into
heaven by teaching them the rules of religion.  In this way they provide
for their temporal welfare as well as their eternal happiness.  They do all
this because of the love they have from the Lord, in whose place they act. 
It also means, in appropriate cases, the honoring of guardians by their
wards, if the parents are dead.
        In a wider sense this commandment means that one should honor the
leader and civil officials of one's country, since these provide all the
necessities of life in general, just as parents do in particular cases.  
        In the widest sense the commandment means that one should love
one's country since it feeds and protects one.  Honor should be shown by
parents to both one's country and its leaders, and they should implant this
idea in their children.
        In the spiritual sense honoring one's father and mother means
reverencing and loving God and the church.  In this sense father means God,
who is the Father of all, and mother means the church.  Children and angels
in the heavens know of not other father or mother.      
True Christian Religion 305-306         

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun May 18 23:18:11 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 19:18:11 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Mothering the Lord," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199705182321.TAA24256@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                      Mothering the Lord
              A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Kelowna, BC, April 11, 1997--Mother's Day

Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7. A child has been born for us.
          Mark 3:20-21, 31-35. Jesus' mother and brother and sister.
          _Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture_ #67. The meaning of mother and
father.

Jesus said, "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."
(Mark 3:35)

Catholics have a prayer that starts, "Holy Mary, mother of God." This
presents a real conundrum. Isn't it part of the very definition of God that
God has no source, but is the source of everything else? How could God, the
source of all creation, have a mother?
	As Christians we do believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord, the God of the
universe. At the same time, we know that Mary _was_ Jesus' mother. Every
Christmas we hear the familiar and beloved stories of the angels visiting
Mary, of Mary conceiving Jesus from the Holy Spirit, and of Jesus' birth in
Bethlehem. Our conundrum at Mary being the "mother of God" cannot simply be
dismissed. We need to face it and see what we can learn as we attempt to
unravel its interwoven threads.
	Though the Gospels do call Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus himself never
calls her his mother. In fact, he disavows her as his mother more than once.
Listen to this exchange from the Gospel of John:

On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was
there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
	Jesus replied, "Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not come
yet." (John 2:1-4)

I hope it wasn't Mother's Day when he said that!
	Mary was not offended. She turned to the servants and said "Do whatever he
tells you." From a Swedenborgian perspective, Jesus was not being a
rebellious son when he said, "Woman, what do I have to do with you?" Rather,
he was teaching us about his relationship with Mary. He wanted us to know
that Mary was no longer his mother as we usually understand motherhood. We
will return to this in a moment.
	Our reading from Mark is another place in the Gospels where Jesus does not
recognize Mary as his mother. The story takes place at the beginning of
Jesus' ministry, right after he had chosen his twelve disciples. When his
family heard about the crowds that were gathering around him, they thought
he was out of his mind! They went to the house where Jesus was, intending to
"restrain him." They stayed outside the house, sending someone in to call
him. When the message got to him, he said:

"Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around
him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will
is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:33, 34)

It must have been hard for Mary to accept Jesus' repudiation of her as his
mother. Yet she did accept it. She stayed with him through his ministry and
became one of his followers. When Jesus was on the cross, she was there with
the apostle John. Jesus saw the two of them standing there and said to Mary,
"Woman, here is your son." And he said to John, "Here is your mother." After
this John took her into his own house (John 19:25-27). Jesus did not
recognize her as his mother. However, he did care for her deeply, providing
for her even during his dying hours.
	Mary was one of the three women who went to Jesus' tomb to anoint his body
with spices. With Mary Magdalene and Salome, she saw the angel announce
Jesus' resurrection. Surely from this experience Mary knew who Jesus really
was: Christ the Lord. If she had not been willing to believe this, the laws
of Divine Providence would have prevented her from perceiving the angel and
hearing the angel's message.
	After the resurrection, the Gospels no longer call Mary the mother of
Jesus. They refer to her as the mother of James and Joses, two of Jesus'
brothers. Mary did belong to the early Christian community, along with some
of Jesus' brothers. Two of his brothers-- James and Jude--are the
traditional authors of letters that are now included in the New Testament.
Each one begins by acknowledging Jesus as Lord.
	Why the change? Why do the Gospels start with stories of Mary as the mother
of Jesus, and end by breaking that mother-son connection between them? A
full explanation of this could easily fill a whole book. I presume that you
would not like this service to last for several hours, so we will settle for
the nutshell version.
	Our church teaches that when Jesus was born, he had an infinite divine
nature from God, his father, and a limited human nature from Mary, his
mother. He needed that human nature from Mary so that evil could approach
him, and he could go through the same temptations and struggles as we do.
Evil cannot approach the purity and power of the divine nature any more than
a bird could approach the sun; but evil can approach our finite human nature
because we have separated ourselves from the divine.
	Jesus did face the same struggles we do--and at a far deeper level than any
of us ever has or ever will. Evil and hell reached out toward him and tried
to overcome him through the finite human nature that he had gotten from
Mary. During the course of his life, Jesus overcame every one of these
temptations. Each time he prevailed, part of the limited human nature from
Mary was replaced by the infinite, divinely human nature of God the
father--which was really Jesus' soul.
	Through his struggle on the cross, Jesus completed this process, and, in
Swedenborgian terms, "made his human fully divine." Or, in other
Swedenborgian terms, he "put off all the human from the mother," replacing
it with the deeper, divine nature. In plain language, by the time of the
resurrection, there was nothing of Mary left in Jesus; he had been
completely "glorified," or united with the divine from which he had come.
	One image in nature that helps me to comprehend how this happened is the
process of petrification of wood. As a log is in the process of being turned
into stone, the cellulose of the wood is replaced with minerals--with stone.
When the process of petrification is complete, there is nothing left of the
original cellulose; the entire log has been transformed into stone.
	A careful reading of the Gospels confirms our church's teaching that
although Jesus started out as the son of Mary, by the time of his
resurrection he was no longer her son. However, there is a way that not only
Mary, but all of us can be a mother to the Lord.
	Each year at Christmas we celebrate the Lord's birth. When Jesus was born
as a baby, he needed loving care just as every other baby does. Like other
babies, he spent nine months in his mother's womb. After he was born, Mary
nursed him, cared for him, and raised him until he was able to live on his own.
	In the same way, the Lord does not come into our lives fully grown. He
starts in us as a spiritual baby--a tender beginning of Christian faith and
life--needing to be loved, fed, and cared for. Gradually, with our care, he
grows into a powerful, loving presence, guiding us in what is good and right
every day. As we read in Isaiah:

To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on
his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)

Those of us who are mothers and fathers know the experience of having
children born and watching them grow to adulthood or, if we are still
raising them, imagining our babies and young children as adults. It is the
same way with the Lord's birth in us. Though the presence of the Lord in our
hearts and minds begins as a helpless and tender infant of spirituality,
needing our continual nurture and care for its very survival, a time comes
when the role is reversed, and it is our spiritual self--really, God within
us--that sustains _us_. The entire process is contained in that one verse in
Isaiah--and on a larger scale in the entire scope of the Bible story.
	Mother's day reminds us of another way of mothering the Lord. Our children
are born just as helpless spiritually as they are physically. They have no
knowledge of the Lord or of what it means to live a spiritual life. The
Lord's presence in their lives has to be developed both through teaching and
through example--especially by the teaching and example of their mother and
father.
	In school, children learn academic and practical subjects. Only at home and
at church do they learn about God and religion. Only at home and at church
do they get the knowledge and guidance they need to become Christians. And
though it is one of the church's special missions to teach people about God
and religion, the church by itself cannot do a proper job of it. If parents
are not actively involved in "mothering" their children spiritually, their
children will be missing one of the primary influences toward spiritual
living. Assuming that the religion of the parents is a good and loving one,
children whose parents both teach them about God and model Christian life
for them are much more likely to become active Christians themselves.
	How do we mother the Lord in our children? One way is to be open about our
own faith, and answer religious questions as they come up. Children are
curious about God, the Bible, and the spiritual world. They really want to
know! We mother the Lord in them by feeding their desire to know about him.
	My daughter Heidi has many questions about God and religion. These days,
she is struggling with conscience; she has come to Patty and me several
times to ask about it. She had questions when she was younger, too. Once,
when she was four years old, as we were eating supper she asked, "Where is
heaven?" What a good question! I had to think for a minute. I imagined her
eyes glazing over as I explained the difference between physical matter and
spiritual substance, and how they form discrete degrees of reality. . . .
That wouldn't do! Taking my cue from the Lord, I told her that heaven isn't
just a place we go after we die; it is what happens when we love and care
for the people around us. It is heaven because we all care for each other
and try to make each other happy.
	When children ask us questions, we have to _think_ about what we believe.
We have to be able to put it in our own words. If we have not thought
through what we hear in church or read in Swedenborg; if we are not able to
express our beliefs simply, and in our own words, then we have to question
whether we really understand and believe it at all, or whether we are simply
repeating what we heard in church. Our children will also question our
sincerity about religion if we are unable or unwilling to explain our
beliefs to them. Especially as they get older, they are likely to drift away
both from us and from the church if they do not see that living, growing
link between us and our religion--between us and our God.
	Sometimes children ask questions we can't answer. Of course, it is okay to
say "I don't know." But if "I don't know" is the only answer they ever get
to their religious questions, they will soon stop asking. Once again, they
will figure that if we don't know anything about religion, it must not be
all that important.
	If we want to mother the Lord in our children and grandchildren, we have to
mother the Lord in ourselves. If the Lord is still a baby in us, he needs
our care to grow to full adulthood. A mature faith expressed in our lives is
the strongest basis for mothering the Lord in others.
	How do we mother the Lord in ourselves? The first step is to learn about
him. If we are presented with spiritual questions we can't answer; if we run
up against issues in our own lives that we don't understand, it is time to
learn more about the Lord. A few minutes each day reading the Bible and
books about our church's teachings and about other religions will provide a
rich source of knowledge that can nourish the infant Lord in us. The church
is also available to provide the spiritual nourishment we need.
	But learning by itself is not enough. As we learn about the Lord, we need
to put our new spiritual knowledge into practice. Children are especially
quick to notice when our actions don't match our words. Mothers and fathers
know only too well how it feels when our children use our very own words to
point out something we have done wrong. I can still hear Heidi's voice
saying, "That's not a very nice thing to say, Papa."
	As we mother the Lord in ourselves, his presence in our lives will grow.
Spiritual issues that used to stump us will start making more sense as we
open ourselves to the Lord's teaching. Even more important, our sense of
God's love working in us and through us will grow stronger and stronger. We
may continue in the same daily routine, but our care and concern for the
people around us will grow. Whether we are caring for our children, working
at our job, or taking part in family and social activities, we will find new
happiness in serving others.
	Just as Jesus grew from Mary's son into her Lord and God, the infant Lord
we have mothered inside ourselves will grow up and become _our_ Lord and
God. The roles will be reversed: God will mother us.
	Of course, God always was our mother and our father. We just didn't realize
it. He doesn't force himself on us with overwhelming miracles. No, he comes
to us gently, like a baby. He lets us mother him in ourselves and in others
until the time comes when we can see him and relate to him as our heavenly
father and our spiritual mother.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun May 25 20:38:21 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 16:38:21 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Looking Back, Looking Forward," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199705252038.QAA12993@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                Looking Back, Looking Forward
        A Memorial Day Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, Massachusetts, May 25, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 48:3-11. Former things and new things.
          Revelation 1:1-8. The Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.
          Arcana Coelestia #2493 Concern for the past and the future.

The former things I declared long ago; they went out from my mouth and I
made them known. Then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. (Isaiah 48:3)

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us! Down on Cape Cod, where Patty and I are
still living for another few weeks, hordes of weekenders have descended, and
we have seen the first wave of summer people coming down to open up their
places. Here in town, the Bridgewater State College graduation yesterday
marked the end of the school year, the beginning of summer for the students.
. . . and an opportunity for our church to make a few dollars by renting
parking spaces in our newly finished parking lot. Everyone is gearing up for
summer, for vacations, for summer jobs, and if nothing else, for warm weather.
	But, of course, Memorial Day has another meaning besides the day that
summer officially begins on our seasonal calendar of events. It is also a
day set aside to honor those who have died in the service of their country.
And so, another ritual that many people take part in during Memorial Day
weekend is to visit the graves of family members who have passed on to the
other world--who have, in popular terms, "died."
	As we visit, either in body or in spirit, the graves of our loved ones who
have passed on, our thoughts naturally turn to former times when those in
the graves were still alive here on earth. We think of what they were like
and how we got along with them. We relive old times and tell each other
stories of the good times we had with them . . . and also of those memorable
_bad_ times we had with them. We laugh affectionately about some of their
more curious habits, and cry over lost opportunities for closeness.
	When I think of my grandparents, I often wish I had known them better. As I
was growing up, they either died when I was too young to remember them or
lived too far away for me to get to know them well. Only one of them, late
in her life, lived nearby so that I could visit her and hear her stories.
Another I knew mostly by letters. I often wonder what they were like in
person, in their younger years. My ears perk up when I hear stories about
them from people who knew them. These are stories that shaped my family,
even though most of them happened before I was born. These are the "former
things" that were declared long ago, but have now come to pass, and have
passed into family history.
	When we are younger, we are more likely to be looking to the future. There
are times when we want to forget that we even _have_ parents. Our parents
seem old-fashioned to us--a thing of the past. But most of us, as we grow
older, do look to the past of our family with a desire to know about the
people that we came from. As we begin to walk some of the same steps of
adult life that those before us walked, we wonder how others faced the same
situations we are facing now.
	We especially wonder how those whose blood runs in our veins faced these
situations. When we look to our family's past, even if we are not aware of
it, we are also looking within our own souls. Other people's families do not
hold the same vital interest for us because we do not feel the same personal
connection with other people's ancestors as we do with our own. We learn as
we go along with life--and often it comes as a shock--that many of our own
patterns of thinking and acting come from our parents and their parents and
_their_ parents before them. How many of us have sworn when young that we
would _never_ do such-and-such that our parents did, only to catch ourselves
as adults doing the exact same thing, using the exact same words, and even
the exact same tone of voice that our parents did?
	Yes, many of the things in our lives today were declared long ago. They
were declared by our parents, and before them by our grandparents, and so
on. These former things seem to repeat themselves generation after
generation. They become our family's calling cards and its character; they
are "in our blood" in a way almost as literal as the passing on of our
parents genes into our own genetic structure. They are the water that we
swim in--water that, like a fish, we often do not notice because we are so
used to it.
	Sometimes when we do notice that our lives bear striking similarities to
the lives of our parents and grandparents, it can be depressing. Oh, there
are good things about our families--and it is good to celebrate the good in
our families. But there are also those things we swore we'd never do when
_we_ grew up. There are those self-defeating and interpersonally damaging,
even disastrous, habits that we picked up automatically--habits that keep us
from living in the happy and fulfilling way that we would like to live. When
we begin to feel that nothing at all has changed, that we have not made any
progress at all beyond those who went before us, we may start feeling as if
life is simply a treadmill where we do a lot of work without getting anywhere.
	But even though the Lord "declared the former things long ago, . . . and
suddenly did them and they came to pass" (to quote our reading from Isaiah);
even though the Lord does know that we are obstinate and tend to continue
making the same mistakes our parents made; that we continue to follow the
idols and sacred cows of our family's history, when we are being called to
follow the Lord instead; even though the Lord knows all these things about
us, that is not where the Lord stops. The Lord continues on:
>From this time forward I make you hear new things, hidden things that you
have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today you have
never heard of them, so that you could not say, "I already know them." You
have never heard, you have never known; from of old your ear has not been
opened. (Isaiah 48:6-8)
If we are not content to stop where our parents stopped, then the Lord is
not content with that either. Our parents themselves, if they were good
parents, have cherished the hope that we, their children, would go beyond
what they were able to accomplish; that we would understand deeper things,
do greater things, and especially, if they were concerned for our spirits as
well as our bodies, that we would develop more and greater abilities to love
and serve each other.
	These are the new things that the Lord is declaring to us now, if we have
ears to hear them. There is no need for us to pine for the times of old,
however much we may wish to remember old times with affection. The Lord is
telling us that the best times are not behind, but _ahead_ of us! The Lord
is declaring that we have _new_ ground to break, and new progress to make
beyond what our parents and grandparents could have imagined. We are facing
issues, both personally and as a society, that our grandparents would not
have been prepared for. The Lord has allowed us to see deeper and more
difficult issues--issues that are new in our day and age. If we are to face
these issues successfully, we cannot simply repeat what those before us have
done. Instead, the Lord calls us to break new ground.
	I am convinced that one of those issues is the result of the battles that
our parents (and some of us) fought--the battles that those we remember on
Memorial Day died fighting. Many of our wars were against the tyranny of
oppressive governments, whether our own or the oppressive and conquering
governments of another country. For several generations--even several
centuries--we have fought as a human race to free ourselves from the cruelty
of oppression.
	In some parts of the world, these battles are still going on. In other
parts, the battles of blood are (we hope!) largely over, and we now wage
battles on the political and social front. This is a new phase in the life
of the human race. Most of us now enjoy enough political freedom that we can
decide for ourselves what we will do with our lives, instead of having to
look over our shoulders at what some king, emperor, or dictator of former
times might have wanted us to do.
	Now we have the challenge of determining what we _will_ do with ourselves.
It is the same challenge that we as young people face when we leave our
parents: we are no longer under the old regime, but we must build a new one
for ourselves.
	The thought I would like to leave you with this Memorial Day is that the
times we face today are not simply a rehearsal of what went on before. If we
are willing to take the challenge--to listen to the new things that the Lord
is declaring for our lives--then though we will be tested in the furnace of
this life's adversity, through that testing our lives will be refined.
Instead of walking in our parents footsteps, we will stand on their
shoulders and reach toward deeper love and higher service to our fellow
people. While we will remember the former things, the Lord will be doing new
things through our lives.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Wed May 28 23:24:37 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 19:24:37 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970528174930.29a75bf0@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.     05-25-97

	THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Again, the kingdom  of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful
pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all
that he had and bought it." (Matt. 13:45-46)

	THE LORD ESTABLISHED HIS CHURCH as a means by which people here on earth
might be prepared for life in heaven.  Through His church the Lord provides
what they need to acquire if they are to enter into the everlasting
happiness of His heavenly kingdom.  The church, then, has something
extremely valuable to offer us.  It offers us what we need in order to
become angels.  It offers us what we need if we are to be happy forever and
ever.  The Lord's church offers us the truth -- the spiritual truth of His
Word -- truth which is essential for our salvation (HD 24e).
	Let there be no doubt about the importance of this spiritual truth.  Some
imagine that because those who are outside the church can be saved without
the truth of the Word, this truth therefore cannot be that important.  In
fact quite the opposite is the case.  Because the light of truth is
essential to salvation, the Lord provides that even those outside the
church should receive this light.  The spiritual light that is with those
of the church goes forth, in a spiritual way, to enlighten those outside
the church as well.  As is said in the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture,
"the Word . . .  enlightens all nations and peoples by a spiritual
communication" (SS 110).
	The truth of the Word is, then, of the highest importance. It is the means
by which we can be saved.  Indeed, not only should we love the truth of the
Lord's Word, but we should, we are told, esteem it "above every good of the
world, because through it man has eternal life" (AE 444:10).
	The Writings are not of course saying that we are saved simply by knowing
the truth.  We must also obey this truth.  We must live what it teaches.
But knowledge of the truth is nevertheless very important.  When we take
the time and make the effort to increase our knowledge and understanding of
Divine Revelation, we are acquiring something which is of eternal
significance.  What we learn from the Word gives us understanding, and
insight, and guidance.  The teachings of the Word strengthen us in our
fight against what is evil; they comfort us and encourage us; they protect
us as we walk the path to heaven.  Those things we learn from the Word --
from the Old Testament, the New Testament and from the Writings -- have
been provided by the Lord Himself for our salvation. They are treasures far
more valuable that a worldly man could ever realize.  The Writings in fact
compare the Word to a casket filled with the most precious stones.  The
true value of what lies within this casket is not known until it is opened
(see TCR 192).
	It is interesting that there are many children's stories which have to do
with finding hidden treasure -- whether it be the pot of gold at the end of
a rainbow, or the fabulous riches hidden by pirates on some tropical
island. Such stories about discovering hidden treasure appeal to the
innocent imagination of children.
	And there is a truth within such stories -- a truth about heaven.  In
fact, in a parable, the Lord compares the kingdom of heaven to hidden
treasure:  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a
field, which a man found and hid.  For joy over it he goes and sells all
that he has and buys that field" (Matt. 13:44).  Imagine what it would be
like if this actually happened -- if you actually came across incredible
treasure hidden on a parcel of land -- and the land just happened to be up
for sale. Whatever it took to buy the land would be worth it.  The man sold
everything he had to buy that field, and he did so joyfully.
	What is wonderful is that we actually do have access to such a field.  We
are taught in Apocalypse Explained that "the treasure signifies the Divine
truth that is in the Word; and the field signifies the church and its
doctrine" (AE 840:10).  The Lord's church and its doctrines are likened,
then, to a field, a field containing that wonderful treasure chest which is
the Lord's Word.  The question is, though, whether we value this treasure
enough to give up what it takes to acquire it.
	In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew there are in fact two consecutive
parables which compare the kingdom of heaven to treasure.  First the Lord
talks about the man who found hidden treasure in a field.  The man sold all
that he had in order to acquire that treasure.  The Lord then tells the
parable of a merchant -- a dealer in pearls.  "The kingdom of heaven is
like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls."  This merchant came
across a pearl that was so valuable, so precious, that he sold everything
he had in order to buy it (Matt. 13:45-46).  In both parables, the price
was the same.  Both men had to sell everything they had in order to acquire
their treasure.  And if we are to receive the kingdom of heaven, that is,
the good and truth of heaven (AC 5886:4), within our spirits, then we also
have to pay the price.  We also, in one sense, have to give up everything
we have.
	In general, the acquisition of spiritual wealth, acquiring the good and
truth of heaven, can be compared with trading here in the world (AC 2967:9,
AE 1044:3).  A trader will acquire one commodity, not as an end in itself,
but so that he might trade it for something else.  So too with the
acquisition of spiritual things.  We learn knowledges from the Word, not as
an end in themselves, but because they are the means by which we can then
acquire a clearer understanding of the truth.  This understanding of the
truth is also a means -- the means by which we see more clearly how to live
a life of good.  And when we do what is good, the delight we then
experience can be the means by which we can be led to even great good.  And
so we read in the Arcana that "procuring and appropriating spiritually are
effected by means of good and truth.  To this corresponds the procuring and
appropriating that in the world are effected by means of silver and gold;
for in the spiritual sense silver is truth, and gold is good" (AC 5374).
Good and truth are, in effect, spiritual gold and silver, for they serve as
the means for acquiring spiritual riches.
	Such trading, though, requires effort.  Think of the merchant in the
parable.  He traded in pearls.  This was his job.  And it required time,
concentration and effort.  And there is a sense in which the kingdom of
heaven, that is, the way to heaven, involves just as much effort.  We also
seek to acquire pearls.  This is why we read and study the Lord's Word.
Pearls stand for the knowledges of good and truth (AE 1044:3).  We go to
the Word in order to receive insights and inspiration -- what we might call
pearls of Divine wisdom.  And yet this process of going to the Word is not
always an easy one.  It requires time, effort and concentration.  All too
often, though, what we learn and read just doesn't seem inspiring enough.
What we acquire just doesn't seem valuable enough to us.  And when we then
try to live what we know, there can be a similar lack of inspiration. We
try to live a life of good, a life according to the truth, but our heart
simply isn't in it.  Acquiring spiritual truth and spiritual good can seem
very hard work indeed.
	But then the merchant comes across a pearl so valuable and so wonderful
that it is worth selling all that he has in order to acquire it -- one
pearl of great price.  This is the pearl that made all his efforts
worthwhile.  And there is such a pearl to be found within the pages of the
Word, one pearl which ties everything together, an insight or perception
which brings meaning, purpose and life to all our efforts.  We see within
the Word a vision so wonderful that, in response, we are willing to give up
everything.  This one pearl of great price is the knowledge and
acknowledgment of the Lord (AR 916).
	Of course in one sense all of us already have this knowledge.  We know
about the Lord.  We know that the Lord reveals Himself within His Word.
But there is a difference between knowing about the Lord, and actually
knowing and recognizing Him within the teachings of His Word.  A person may
know about the Lord, and he may know, in theory, that the Lord is within
the truths of His Word.  But as he reads and studies the Word, it just
doesn't seem that the Lord is there.  He learns this knowledge or that
knowledge, but forgets that what he is reading is the living Word of God.
Far from feeling that he is learning from the Lord, he may even imagine
what he reads to be boring or even irritating. And when it comes to living
what he knows, once again, he forgets.  He knows that he should live what
the Word teaches, but he finds it hard and even irritating to obey what
seem to be a difficult and inconvenient set of rules. He forgets that these
are not empty and arbitrary rules, but are the commandments of a loving and
caring God, someone who cares about him very, very much.
	If the truth of the Word is to be filled with meaning, and if the life of
religion is to be filled with a sense of purpose, then, eventually, the
time must come when we gain a fuller vision of the Lord Himself.  It is not
enough simply to know about the Lord.  We need to come to know Him better
than this.
	Eventually this does happen.  The merchant, the man who traded in pearls,
eventually came across this wonderful pearl, a pearl so valuable that he
gladly gave up all that he had in order to obtain it. Eventually we also
will find this pearl, find it within the Word.  We will come to see more
and more that what we read within the Word is living.  It is full of life,
full of the presence of the Lord Himself.  We come to realize, and to
sense, that He is with us within the teachings of His Word, and with us as
we walk along the path of life.  It then becomes so much easier to give up
all that we have.
	The problem we have to begin with is that we simply do not want to pay the
price that is necessary.  To receive spiritual life we must give up our own
pride and our own willfulness, and this is something that is hard for us to
do.  We may read the Word, searching for spiritual truth, but still we are
proud enough to imagine that our own opinions must obviously always be the
correct ones.  And we may strive to live a life of good according to the
truth, but all too often we end up acting according to our own desires,
rather than obeying the will of the Lord.  It is a struggle, a hard
struggle, to live the life of religion.  It is hard because we have to
struggle against ourselves.
	But if we do struggle against our own pride and our own evil, if we try
with all our strength to do what the Lord commands, then eventually we will
be blessed with a new and deeper sense of the presence of the Lord.  We
will come to sense that He is with us, close to us, watching over us,
guiding us, and protecting us.  It is a wonderful vision -- a vision so
wonderful that it then becomes so much easier to give up all that we have.
When we know the Lord is with us, it is so much easier to do what He asks
of us.  And when we know that the Lord reveals Himself within His Word,
then all that we read there is filled with meaning and significance.  We
forget the pride we have in our own opinions as we marvel at the wonder of
the wisdom of the Lord.  In response to this wonderful vision of the Lord,
in response to this one pearl of great price, we willingly give up all of
our proprial possessions.
	Why, though, does it take so long before we discover this pearl of great
price?  Why does it take so long to come to fully acknowledge the presence
of the Lord?  It is because this knowledge is no ordinary knowledge.  It is
not simply a fact to be memorized, but a living knowledge, a knowledge
acquired through the process of living itself.  Yes, we can be taught as
children that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and God.  And as young
adults we can acknowledge the Lord's Divinity for ourselves, and make a
commitment to serve Him throughout our lives.  Such a knowledge of the Lord
gives us a sense of vision, a vision which shines in our minds, a vision
which fills us with a sense of purpose as we set off along the path of life.
	But the Lord is more than a fact, and more than a vision.  The Lord is a
Person.  The Lord is Divinely Human.  And perhaps this is why the knowledge
and acknowledgment of the Lord is represented by a precious pearl.
	A pearl is not an ordinary gem.  A pearl is formed by a living process,
within the shells of oysters and a number of other mollusks.  Not only
this, it is a living process that is a response to the irritation from some
foreign object that gets trapped between the mantle and the shell.  To
protect itself, the pearl oyster produces layers of mother-of-pearl which
successively coat the object, thus producing a pearl.
	This formation of a pearl is an image, as it were, of the way in which we
come to know the Lord.  We come to know Him, not all at once, but by
walking with Him along the path of life.  And it is not an easy path.
There are temptations to be faced, temptations which irritate us, make us
uncomfortable, and at times torment us.  But out of this is born a pearl.
We come to know and acknowledge the Lord.  We come to know Him, not in some
theoretical way, but as our Teacher, our Friend, our Leader, our Savior and
our God.  We come to know Him for what He is -- a Divine Man of infinite
love and infinite wisdom -- somebody who loves us, somebody who cares about
us, and somebody who will be with us and will bless us forever and ever.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Ps. 119:89-104
		Matt. 13:44-53
		AE 863:1
 


From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Jun  2 00:39:37 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 20:39:37 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "A Family Feast," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199706020039.UAA11330@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                      A Family Feast
    A Children's Sunday Sermonette by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, June 1, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9. The Lord's Feast.
          Luke 14:15-24. The Parable of the Great Banquet

Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. (Matthew
14:15)

Today is one of our favorite Sundays, not because church is almost over for
the year, but because we celebrate our Sunday School, our children, and our
church family. It is wonderful to have the children and parents of the
Sunday School here in church with us today. Some of us go to Sunday School,
some of us go to church, and some of us go to both. Today we are all
together as a family.
	I would like to spend a few minutes exploring with you the meaning of the
spiritual feast of our church family that we are celebrating today, and
perhaps leave you with a thought or two about extending our invitation wider
than may have occurred to us before.
	Both the Lord's feast in our reading from Isaiah and the great banquet that
the Sunday School enacted for us today are the same feast. It is the feast
of the kingdom of God that our Lord Jesus is inviting each one of us to enjoy.
	We can think of ourselves as guests invited to the feast. As Christians and
as Swedenborgians, we have a rich supper of spiritual truth laid out for us
in the Bible and in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. These teachings give
us practical help in our daily lives--such as the teaching that whatever we
would like someone else to do for us, that is just what we should be doing
for them. This simple teaching, given to us by Jesus, would completely
transform our communities and our world if everyone followed it each day.
	Our Christian and Swedenborgian teachings also satisfy our deepest longing
for understanding and meaning in life; teachings such as that God's humanity
consists of love and understanding, and that when we learn about God and
practice what we learn because we love each other, then we are at the same
time the most fully _human_ beings we can be, and also the closest to God
and to each other. Yes, a wonderful feast of spiritual food and drink is
laid out for us, and the invitation has been delivered into our hand.
	However, we shouldn't be too contented with ourselves. It was the invited
guests who made excuses! We may not be buying fields or oxen, and only a
couple of us are getting married soon, but we have other excuses that
correspond. "I can figure things out for myself, thank you. I don't need
help from the church or the Bible." "I'm much too busy to spend time
learning about God. I've got work to do!" Or we may not make any excuse at
all. We may be perfectly satisfied with the way our life is right now, and
have no intention of being challenged by religion to change ourselves for
the better.
	When we think the church is ours any time we get around to it, we forget
that the feast is happening _now_, not when we get around to it. We think we
will get around to it some day, but "some day" never quite arrives, because
our habits have been formed.
	It is when we recognize that _we ourselves_--yes, even those of us who go
to church every week--are the crippled, the blind, and the lame; when we
realize that we ourselves have bad habits that need correcting--habits by
which we unthinkingly and sometimes uncaringly hurt the people around us;
and especially when we realize that we need help from the Lord to correct
those bad habits--those "sins," in Biblical terms; then our attitude toward
the church, the Bible, and the Lord changes completely.
	When we see ourselves as spiritually crippled, blind, lame, and in need of
the Lord's healing, we will never think of making excuses to avoid
satisfying our need for spiritual nourishment. Reading the Bible, coming to
church, and learning about the Lord will no longer be something we endure
because we know we should--or a reason to make excuses. Instead, we will
_hunger_ and _thirst_ for the insight into our painful predicament that only
religion can satisfy. We will _long_ to feel the Lord's love flowing into
our lives, healing the emptiness and brokenness that we so often feel in our
hearts and souls.
	When we are ready to face that emptiness and brokenness; when we stop
trying, like the Pharisees, to put on a show of already being complete in
ourselves--spiritually, emotionally, and in our relationships with others;
when we recognize that we are broken people in need of the Lord's healing;
then we can approach the Lord's feast with joy and gratitude, and savor the
rich spiritual blessings that we find there.
	We can also recognize that the Lord's feast is a family feast. The
invitation extends to _all_ of the Lord's children--even to the Pharisees,
if they (or is that we?) will only accept the invitation. When we come to
the Lord's feast, we will find ourselves sitting down with many different
people--people that may seem to have been rounded up randomly from the
highways and byways of life. Yet we will find that we share a bond with
these people: our acceptance of the Lord's love into our lives in a very
personal way.
	I started by talking about our church family being all together, and I
would like to end with a challenge to all of us in this church family. Can
we as a church family follow the example of the one who called the great
banquet? We know that the one who calls the banquet is the Lord. When all
the "right" people--the invited guests--make excuses instead of coming to
the feast, the Lord's response is to call the "wrong" people--the people who
we may not want to rub elbows with because we might get our elbows dirty.
	Can we as a church do the same thing? Can we open up our eyes and our
hearts, and look, not for people that we think would be an asset to our
church, but for people who are in emotional and spiritual need? Can we
extend our invitation to people who may be down and perhaps even out? Can we
open our doors and our hearts to them, and help to bring them the healing
and the joy of sharing in the Lord's free gift of life and love?
	Today we celebrate our church family, children and adults together. As we
celebrate, the Lord is calling us to open our hearts wider, and to invite
people who may be overlooked or abandoned into our circle--into the Lord's
feast of friendship and love.



From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Jun  9 02:37:54 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 1997 22:37:54 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "What God Has Joined Together," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199706090238.WAA19493@mailrelay.tiac.net>

Notice to sermon service subscribers:

This Sunday, June 8th is the last regular service at the Bridgewater New
Jerusalem Church for this church year. During the summer, we will have
monthly informal services; instead of weekly sermons, you will receive a
sermonette toward the end of each month. Regular services--and the weekly
sermon service--will resume on September 7.

--Lee Woofenden


              What God Has Joined Together
            A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, June 8, 1997

Readings: Genesis 2:19-24. Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
          Matthew 19:1-6. What God has joined together.
          _Marital Love_  #61, 62. The origin of marital love.

What God has joined together, let no one separate. (Matthew 19:6)

There are several things happening that could provide our theme for today's
service. Summer is on its way; today is our last regular service of the
year; we are also celebrating the sacrament of communion this morning. But
yesterday we celebrated something more special than any of these: the
marriage of Kelly Benoit and Michael Milne.
	It was a real joy for me personally to officiate at Kelly and Mike's
wedding--the first wedding I have performed, between two wonderful young
people. Their wedding is also a major event in the life of our church. Kelly
grew up in this church, and both Kelly and Mike have served the church well
as the teachers of our youngest Sunday School class. Celebrating their
wedding here in the church is not only a joy for the two of them; it is a
joyful occasion for all of the members and friends of our church.
	This is as it should be. In our individualistic society, we tend to think
of marriages as a relationship between two people. Of course, marriage _is_
a relationship between two people. But it is so much more than that. If it
were _only_ a relationship between two people, there would be no need to
invite guests, to hold the ceremony in a church, or even to have a minister
officiate. The couple could just get together and say they love each other,
and that would be that.
	No, we hold weddings in churches or other public places, with invited
guests and a minister officiating, for definite reasons. I would like to
spend a little time this morning looking into a few of those reasons, and
what it means, not only for Kelly and Mike, but for us as a church family.
	First, let's look at why we hold weddings in churches--or even if they are
not in the church, why we have ministers officiate at weddings.
	Among the lower animals, there are no ministers or churches. When animals
mate, there certainly are social aspects to their mating, but the spiritual
level that we humans have is missing. Some people do not see any difference
between the mating of animals and the mating of human beings--they see all
the ritual and ceremony as a lot of window dressing on what, in their minds,
remains merely a process of sexual reproduction.
	But these people are missing the whole spiritual dimension of human
existence. It is our spiritual level that sets us apart from the lower
animals, and it is the spiritual side of marriage that sets our marriage
unions apart from mere mating.
	The teachings of our church have a great deal to say about the spiritual
source and meaning of marriage. In fact, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote an entire
book about marital love. It has always been a controversial book in the
church, but then again, sex and marriage have always been controversial
topics in our society! No matter what we may think of some of the social
customs discussed in Swedenborg's book on marriage, the book does give a
spiritual framework for marriage relationships that has always, and I
believe will always stand the test of time.
	Marriage, says Swedenborg, is not simply a sexual relationship between two
people. Rather, it is a reflection in human beings both of the divine nature
of God and of the universal nature of creation. The passage we read from
_Marital Love_ is one of many places where Swedenborg says that the marriage
between two people is an expression of the dual nature of God and of the
universe. In particular, the marriage of two people represents the union of
love and wisdom in God, or, what is the same, the marriage of goodness and
truth.
	Now, all of this sounds very abstract--love, wisdom, goodness, truth. So
Swedenborg gives us images in nature that we can use to grasp the meaning.
He illustrates it by comparing the love and wisdom that come from God with
the warmth and light that come from the sun. Without both warmth and light
from the sun, nothing on earth would grow. The warmth softens up the ground
and the seeds so that plants can grow; it also warms the atmosphere and the
earth so that animals can live and not freeze to death. The sun's light
provides essential nutrients to plant life through the process of
photosynthesis. For animals, the sun's light makes it possible to see in
order to carry out all the tasks of life. And the sun's warmth and light do
many other things that are essential for our survival.
	The sun's warmth, says Swedenborg, corresponds to the Lord's love. Love,
like warmth, softens up the ground of our minds and hearts so that seeds of
goodness and truth can sprout and grow within us. The sun's light
corresponds to the Lord's wisdom. Wisdom and understanding feed our minds
with the essential nutrients we need to grow as human beings. They also
allow us to see the way along our path of life. Without both love and
wisdom, we could not accomplish a single thing. In fact, we could not even
live--any more than plants and animals could live without the warmth and
light of the sun.
	Marriage, then, is not simply a ritual that we humans like to indulge in.
It is a reflection of God and of the divinely created order of the universe.
It is a natural, spiritual, and healthy part of human existence. It reaches
to the core of who we are as human beings, and touches the essence of God
and the universe. Marriage is a special thing to us because in becoming
married, we humans come as close as we can to the union of love and wisdom
that forms the very essence and core of all reality.
	So far we have been looking from marriage inward. Let's take a moment to
look from marriage outward. Yes, we have ministers officiate at weddings to
remind us that this is not simply a physical relationship, but a spiritual
one as well. Without God in the relationship, there is no real marriage.
	But weddings are also celebrated with a church full of people! A marriage
is not a solitary relationship between two people and God. It is a
relationship that involves family, friends, and the whole community. During
the wedding service, the minister reminds the assembled congregation that
their presence at the wedding is an expression of their love and support for
the couple who are being married, and that the couple need the continued
love and support of their family and friends as part of the ongoing life of
their marriage.
	This is the outward reach of marriage. Marriage is as much a community
event as a relationship between two people. When a bride and groom make
their vows in front of their assembled family and friends, they are making a
public commitment to each other. This has greater weight than just the two
of them saying to each other that they love one another. It is bringing a
whole community into the relationship. It is saying, in essence, "We want
all of you to be a part of this relationship between the two of us."
	This places a special responsibility on the community that gathers to
celebrate a wedding. We know that in any relationship, there will be
difficult times. This week, Kelly and Mike are enjoying themselves at Disney
World. But there will be times in their married life that will be anything
but a walk in the park.
	We, as their church family and friends, have an important part to play in
their relationship--and that part is never needed more than when the going
gets rough. If we are firmly in support of the relationship between the two
of them, and we express that support to them in various ways, then the
strength of our commitment to their marriage is added to their own
commitment to each other. When the relationship is a bit shaky, this kind of
support can make the difference between a broken relationship and one that
makes it past the difficulties and grows stronger and deeper as a result.
	We as a church community have an active role to play, not only in Kelly and
Mike's marriage, but in all the marriage relationships that we have
celebrated here--and in the relationships of those who were married
elsewhere. The results of our support can be deeper and more loving
relationships that last through difficulties that would break a relationship
that does not have the grounding of a supportive church community.
	Marriage, then, reaches both inward and outward. Genuine marital love is
something that God has joined together because it is a reflection of the
marriage of love and wisdom that forms the core of God. Marriage also
reaches outward into our community. With the support of the church family,
our marriages can grow always stronger, deeper, more loving, and more
fulfilling, so that, far from separating what God has put together, we will
fill our relationships with the love, wisdom, understanding, and kindness of
God.



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Jun  9 13:49:18 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 09:49:18 -0400
Subject: SERMON: POSSIBLY Incomplete Message: What Does the Lord Do for Us
Message-ID: <199706090949_MC2-181B-643C@compuserve.com>

   What Does the Lord Do for Us?
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
June 5, 1997

        Worthy is the Lamb who was slain 
        To receive power and riches and wisdom, 
        And strength and honor and glory and blessing!  
        Revelation 5:12

In chapter five of the book of Revelation, John describes a powerful scene
of rejoicing in heaven.  He saw four wondrous beasts, twenty-four elders,
and thousands of thousands of angels giving praise to the Lord.  Their
words represent an acknowledgment in heart and life that all power, all
wisdom, and that the tiniest event that happens is overseen by His Divine
Providence.  It represents a deep gratitude for what the Lord has done is
and is doing.

How different are the words of Jacob as he left the land of Canaan.  He
isn't at all sure the Lord will take care of him.  He instead is making a
bargain.  He will worship the Lord and give a tenth of his newly gained
wealth if the Lord will take care of him, and bring him back to his home in
peace.  Concerning Jacob's vow, the Arcana Caelestia makes the following
observation:

        "Making a vow" means wishing the Lord to provide.  This is because
present within vows there is a desire and affection that what is wished for
may come about, thus that the Lord may provide it.  Within them something
of a bargain is present, and at the same time on the person's part
something of a bounden duty to keep his side of it, should he obtain his
desire.  This was the case with Jacob, in that Jehovah was to be his God,
and the stone which he placed as a pillar was to be God's house, and he
would devote a tenth of everything God had given him, if Jehovah guarded
Him on the road, gave him bread to eat and clothing to wear,  and he went
back in peace to his father's house.  From this it is evident that the vows
made in those times were particular agreements, involving primarily
people's acknowledgment of God as their God if He provided them what they
desired, and involving also their repayment to Him with some gift if He did
provide it.  (Arcana Caelestia 3732:1)  

Objectively, many people would say that Jacob's life was greatly blessed. 
He had a large family.  He was tremendously wealthy.  His favorite son
provided for him and his family in Egypt during a terrible famine.  But
when Pharaoh asked him near the end of his life how old he was, his answer
doesn't seem to indicate a sense of these blessings.  He told Pharaoh:

        "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty
years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they
have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the
days of their pilgrimage."  Genesis 47:9

How could it be that all sorts of wonderful things happened to Jacob and
yet he feels like things haven't gone very well?  Why do some people feel
grateful to the Lord for all He has done for them, some people grow
increasingly bitter over how their life has turned out, blaming their
problems on God, and many feel neither gratitude or bitterness and don't
particularly think about it.  The issue of God's care or lack thereof
doesn't occur to them as being significant.

Given a choice, we would probably all prefer to feel gratitude.  All the
angels feel this gratitude.  But can very many of us say that we always or
almost always sense a deep gratefulness for the Lord's care of our lives? 
It is a state that none of us could have from the beginning of our adult
life.  The Lord has promised us that while we may enter adult life with the
factual knowledge of what the Lord has done and is doing for us, there will
be important areas of life in which we will not and indeed cannot see His
care as we begin our adult path to heaven.

Starting from our early childhood, each of us experienced many different
events and learned many different lessons from what happened in our lives. 
For some of us, the primary direction of our thoughts led toward feeling
and thinking that if there is a problem, it is up to us to solve it.  For
this group the regular pattern of thought is: "If I try harder, I can make
things work out right."  For another group of us the primary direction of
our thoughts led toward feeling and thinking that if there is a problem,
the Lord or someone else is at fault.  For this group it is easy to shrug
when a problem arises or to get impatient or angry that someone else hasn't
fixed it.  Neither of these perspectives leads to the gratitude expressed
by the angels.  Both of them, by themselves can lead to frustration and
discouragement because we cannot make life work all by ourselves, and it
will not work if we expect others, including the Lord, to do it us without
significant effort on our part.

If Jacob's words represent a person who will withhold allegiance to the
Lord until He has proved Himself, this proof will never come.  The Lord
does not have as His primary concern that the external events of our
natural lives work out the way that we naturally wish they would.  If we
are keeping score on this plane of life we may be ve


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Jun  9 23:22:48 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 19:22:48 -0400
Subject: SERMON: What Does the Lord Do for Us
Message-ID: <199706091922_MC2-1827-429B@compuserve.com>

What Does the Lord Do for Us?
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
June 5, 1997

        Worthy is the Lamb who was slain 
        To receive power and riches and wisdom, 
        And strength and honor and glory and blessing!  
        Revelation 5:12

In chapter five of the book of Revelation, John describes a powerful scene
of rejoicing in heaven.  He saw four wondrous beasts, twenty-four elders,
and thousands of thousands of angels giving praise to the Lord.  Their
words represent an acknowledgment in heart and life that all power, all
wisdom, and that the tiniest event that happens is overseen by His Divine
Providence.  It represents a deep gratitude for what the Lord has done is
and is doing.

How different are the words of Jacob as he left the land of Canaan.  He
isn't at all sure the Lord will take care of him.  He instead is making a
bargain.  He will worship the Lord and give a tenth of his newly gained
wealth if the Lord will take care of him, and bring him back to his home in
peace.  Concerning Jacob's vow, the Arcana Caelestia makes the following
observation:

        "Making a vow" means wishing the Lord to provide.  This is because
present within vows there is a desire and affection that what is wished for
may come about, thus that the Lord may provide it.  Within them something
of a bargain is present, and at the same time on the person's part
something of a bounden duty to keep his side of it, should he obtain his
desire.  This was the case with Jacob, in that Jehovah was to be his God,
and the stone which he placed as a pillar was to be God's house, and he
would devote a tenth of everything God had given him, if Jehovah guarded
Him on the road, gave him bread to eat and clothing to wear,  and he went
back in peace to his father's house.  From this it is evident that the vows
made in those times were particular agreements, involving primarily
people's acknowledgment of God as their God if He provided them what they
desired, and involving also their repayment to Him with some gift if He did
provide it.  (Arcana Caelestia 3732:1)  

Objectively, many people would say that Jacob's life was greatly blessed. 
He had a large family.  He was tremendously wealthy.  His favorite son
provided for him and his family in Egypt during a terrible famine.  But
when Pharaoh asked him near the end of his life how old he was, his answer
doesn't seem to indicate a sense of these blessings.  He told Pharaoh:

        "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty
years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they
have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the
days of their pilgrimage."  Genesis 47:9

How could it be that all sorts of wonderful things happened to Jacob and
yet he feels like things haven't gone very well?  Why do some people feel
grateful to the Lord for all He has done for them, some people grow
increasingly bitter over how their life has turned out, blaming their
problems on God, and many feel neither gratitude or bitterness and don't
particularly think about it.  The issue of God's care or lack thereof
doesn't occur to them as being significant.

Given a choice, we would probably all prefer to feel gratitude.  All the
angels feel this gratitude.  But can very many of us say that we always or
almost always sense a deep gratefulness for the Lord's care of our lives? 
It is a state that none of us could have from the beginning of our adult
life.  The Lord has promised us that while we may enter adult life with the
factual knowledge of what the Lord has done and is doing for us, there will
be important areas of life in which we will not and indeed cannot see His
care as we begin our adult path to heaven.

Starting from our early childhood, each of us experienced many different
events and learned many different lessons from what happened in our lives. 
For some of us, the primary direction of our thoughts led toward feeling
and thinking that if there is a problem, it is up to us to solve it.  For
this group the regular pattern of thought is: "If I try harder, I can make
things work out right."  For another group of us the primary direction of
our thoughts led toward feeling and thinking that if there is a problem,
the Lord or someone else is at fault.  For this group it is easy to shrug
when a problem arises or to get impatient or angry that someone else hasn't
fixed it.  Neither of these perspectives leads to the gratitude expressed
by the angels.  Both of them, by themselves can lead to frustration and
discouragement because we cannot make life work all by ourselves, and it
will not work if we expect others, including the Lord, to do it us without
significant effort on our part.

If Jacob's words represent a person who will withhold allegiance to the
Lord until He has proved Himself, this proof will never come.  The Lord
does not have as His primary concern that the external events of our
natural lives work out the way that we naturally wish they would.  If we
are keeping score on this plane of life we may be very discouraged.  

People can react remarkably differently to the events of their lives. 
Imagine a man who has participated in a New Church congregation essentially
all of his life, who daily read from the Writings, but who faced a major
health problem in his fifties.  What if this man's reaction included a deep
bitterness that the Lord had failed him.  Contrast this state of mind with
that of a woman in her sixties who had a multitude of health problems and
was in nearly constant dull pain, but who was filled with joy and
gratefulness for the blessings of her life.  Why does the first person
react negatively and the second so positively.  As the saying goes, why do
some people see the glass half full and some see it half empty?

For a person to see what the Lord has done and is doing, that person has to
come to care about the things that the Lord cares about.  If we judge the
Lord on criteria that He doesn't particularly put much stock in, it isn't
surprising that we will sense that He isn't doing enough or is being
inconsistent in His efforts.

There is a humorous story about our perspective and the Lord's that has a
man asking God, "What is a million of our years like to You."  God replied,
"Like a second of your time."  The man then said, "And what is a million of
our dollars like to You."  God replied, "It is like a penny of your money."
 The man asked, "Could You possibly give me one of your pennies?"  And God
said, "Sure, in a second."

How do we come to care about the things the Lord cares about?  There is
only one way.  That is to receive the benefits of spiritual rebirth or
regeneration.  Without this fundamental change in the values that we enter
adult life with we will never be able to see the Lord as being worthy  "To
receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and
blessing!"

If Jacob's vow represent a person's commitment to accept the Lord's
commandments and His call to the life of repentance and charity in the hope
that this acceptance will bring blessings, it will indeed be fulfilled. 
The leap of faith that every person has to take is to believe that
following the Lord will bring blessings before the person really knows what
these blessings will be.  Each person needs to be willing to do what is
good and think what is right and to shun what is evil and false, even when
part of their mind strongly questions whether this will lead to happiness
and fulfillment.  This part of our mind believes in many false definitions
about happiness, responsibility, and what is right and wrong.  This part of
our mind arises from our natural heredity to love self and the world more
than the Lord and our neighbor.  Until this natural heredity is conquered,
we will never really see the Lord and never appreciate His work.

The Lord has been very clear about what it takes to conquer our natural
heredity.  He assures us that it will take conscious effort and attention. 
It will require us to use the truth we initially learn to change
fundamental habits in our thoughts, speech, and action.  It will require
prayer.  It will require us to acknowledge to ourselves that we absolutely
cannot be happy without the Lord's help.  It will require us to acknowledge
to ourselves that unless we consciously make the effort, as though by
ourselves, to flee from evils in the Lord's name, we cannot be happy.

Forming new habits isn't easy.  Have you ever tried to show someone a new
way to do a familiar action or process.  It can be something as simple as
teaching a young person a better way to make a basketball shot or trying to
convince someone that she should work at learning to type without looking
at her fingers.   It can be as complicated as helping someone recognize
that his fundamental pattern of fathering needs to change.  At first the
new method will feel uncomfortable, foreign, and even though it will be
fundamentally more effective in the long run, it may actually be much less
effective when a person is first practicing it.  The same can be true for
our efforts to shun evils.

The Lord tells us:"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and
he with Me."  (Revelation 3:20)  Many more times than we can possibly
imagine each day, He knocks at the door of our mind trying to bring to our
attention what we need to change in our lives, what we could do, what is
evil and false, and what is good and true.  He has promised that a part of
our mind absolutely will not believe what He has to say.  It will resist
any thought of change and argue that change will cause more trouble than
good or just not make any difference.

The Lord absolutely promises heavenly happiness for those who follow what
He teaches.  He promises "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you
will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks
receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."
 (Matthew 7:7-8).  It has been observed that if it could be proven that
wearing a little blue dot on the back of your hand guaranteed a happier,
healthier, more productive life, we would all be wearing blue dots on the
back of our hand.  The Lord promises that if we are willing to humble
ourselves enough to recognize our need for His help, His wisdom, and if we
are willing to do our part to follow Him, we will experience a profound
change in our lives.  We will gradually come to see the world very
differently from how we had previously seen it.  What we care about in our
own lives and in the lives of those around us will become significantly
different and the peace of mind we experience, no matter what natural
events occur in our lives or those around us, we will feel grateful for
what the Lord has done and is doing for us.  This is a sure promise yet
many do not heed it.

We don't have to earn the Lord's care.  He constantly works to lead us to a
better life.  It is His free gift, a gift from a loving Father.  And He
knows that we need to freely receive this gift if we are ever going to
experience true happiness.  May each of us have times when we sense in
heart and mind that we are wonderfully well cared for.  And when we don't
sense this care, may we work to hold onto the thought that it is occurring
and that our conscious effort to repent and receive the blessings of
regeneration is required before we will see His care for what it truly is. 
May we more and more come to the state of mind of those who John saw
praising the Lord.  May we come to echo their words in heart, mind, and
life.  

        Worthy is the Lamb who was slain 
        To receive power and riches and wisdom, 
        And strength and honor and glory and blessing!  
        Revelation 5:12    AMEN.

       Lessons: Genesis 28:20-22
                Revelation 1:8, 3:20, 5:11-13

And blessing, signifies the acknowledgment and glorification of the Lord
and thanksgiving that every good love and true idea is from Him, and when a
person receives them, he receives heaven and eternal happiness. This is
evident from the signification of "blessing," as being the Lord, when said
of the acknowledgment, here the acknowledgment that to Him belong
omnipotence, omniscience, providence, Divine good, and Divine truth, which
are signified by "Worthy is He to receive the power, riches, wisdom, honor,
and glory," and as being also glorification on that account. Moreover,
"blessing," when said of the Lord, signifies thanksgiving that from Him is
every good thing of love and true idea of faith, and and when a person
receives them, he receives heaven and eternal happiness. Because "blessing"
here signifies acknowledgment and glorification on that account, and also
thanksgiving, blessing is mentioned in the last place, or as a conclusion
by these angels, who were glorifying the Lord. These things are signified
by "blessing," when said of the Lord, because nothing is a blessing except
what is given by the Lord, for that alone is blessed because it is Divine
and eternal, and contains in itself heaven and eternal happiness; all other
things which have not in themselves what is Divine and eternal are not
blessings, even though they may be so called.           Apocalypse
Explained 340:1

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Jun 16 21:13:18 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 17:13:18 -0400
Subject: SERMON: POSSIBLY Incomplete Message: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Message-ID: <199706161713_MC2-189B-4653@compuserve.com>

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
June 15, 1997

        The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 
        Revelation 22:21

At the end of many New Church services the minister's final words are the
benediction, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." 
Other than this you would probably hear only rare reference to the word
"grace" within the New Church.   

The terms, grace, mercy, and forgiveness are interconnected, but not the
same.  One of the appealing ideas associated with the Lord's message in the
New Testament is the concept of Divine forgiveness.  We don't have to live
a perfect life to make it to heaven, and indeed we are incapable of being
perfect.  We all fall far short of perfection.  Even the most loving and
wise angel doesn't remotely approach perfection.  We are not perfect
because our understanding is always limited and our motivations are never
completely pure.  Sometimes these qualities have only faint effects on our
actions and sometimes we, as human beings, knowingly, and with intention
choose to think, say, and do evil things.  In the words of Revelation, all
that we do is written in our book of life.  By the measure of perfect
truth, the each of our book of life would keep us from heaven.  But the
Lord isn't just perfect truth.  He is perfect love and this love lifts all
to heaven, as it were overcoming the evil loves and false ideas that we
have attached to our lives.  

        The Lord as King governs each and all things in the universe from
Divine truth; and as Priest, from Divine good. Divine truth is the very
order of His universal kingdom, all the laws of which are truths, or
eternal verities Divine good is the very essential of order, all things of
which are of mercy.  Both of these are predicated of the Lord.  If Divine
truth alone were His, no mortal could be saved, for truths condemn every
one to hell; but Divine good, which is of mercy, uplifts from hell to
heaven. (Arcana Caelestia 1728)

It is very important that each of us thinks of ourselves as being capable
of learning what is true and good and becoming better and better able to do
what is truly useful.  Sometimes a person's thoughts can so focuses on his
flaws and ignorance that he feels incapable of being useful or is
encouraged into feeling irresponsible about even trying to become a better
person.  But if we overcome these false ideas, and become better and better
at living a truly useful life, it is important for us to know and
acknowledge that we will always need the Lord's help.

        Every one believes at the present day that the evil loves and false
ideas in a person are entirely separated and abolished during regeneration,
so that when he becomes regenerate, nothing of this evil or falsity
remains, but he is clean and righteous, like one washed and purified with
water. This notion is, however, utterly false; for not a single evil love
or false idea can be so shaken off as to be abolished; but whatever has
been hereditarily derived from infancy, and acquired by act and deed,
remains; so that a person, notwithstanding his being regenerate, is nothing
but evil and falsity, as is shown in a living way to souls after death. The
truth of this may be sufficiently manifest from the consideration, that
there is nothing of good and nothing of truth in a person except from the
Lord, and that all evil and falsity are the person's from those things that
are his own; and that a person, spirit, and even angel, if left in the
least to himself, would rush of himself into hell; wherefore also it is
said in the Word that heaven is not pure. This is acknowledged by angels,
and he who does not acknowledge it cannot be among angels. It is the Lord's
mercy alone that frees them, and even draws them out of hell and keeps them
from rushing thither of themselves. That they are kept by the Lord from
rushing into hell, is clearly perceived by the angels, and even in a
measure by good spirits. Evil spirits however, like people, do not believe
this; but it has often been shown them.  (Arcana Caelestia 868:1)  

This passage states that it is the Lord's mercy that frees us.  There are
actually three distinct concepts of how the Lord's forgiveness is received
by a person.  The first is a dangerous falsity that has led people away
from following the Lord and trying to live a good life.  This is the belief
that a person is forgiven and receives the benefits of the Lord's mercy
purely by means of faith or an acknowledgment of Christ's death on the
cross.  This idea of forgiveness and mercy, together with other supporting
ideas, has led some to assert that how a person lives his life makes no
difference, as is spoken of in the following passages:

        From this one error [that truth is the essential of the church, and
so essential that truth, which people call faith, has power to save without
the good which is of charity], very many other errors have been derived,
which have infected not only doctrine, but also life; as for instance that
no matter how a person lives, provided he has faith he is saved; that even
the most wicked are received into heaven if in the hour of death they make
profession of such things as are of faith; and that every one can be
received into heaven merely from grace, whatever his life has been. In
consequence of holding this doctrine they at last do not know what charity
is, nor do they care for it; and finally they do not believe there is such
a thing, nor consequently that there is a heaven or a hell. (Arcana
Caelestia 4925:2)

        [A false principle of religion] is the doctrinal idea of a church
which acknowledges faith alone as a principle, as that a person is
justified by faith alone, that then all sins are wiped away from him, that
he may be saved by faith alone even in the last hour of his life, that
salvation is merely admission into heaven through grace, . . . These and
the like are the special things belonging to the principle of faith alone.
But if the church would acknowledge as its principle the life of faith, it
would acknowledge charity toward the neighbor and love to the Lord,
consequently the works of charity and of love, and then all these special
things would fall to pieces; and instead of justification it would
acknowledge regeneration. (Arcana Caelestia 4721)

Both of these passages mention the word "grace" and it might be concluded
from its association with a clearly  false idea, that it perhaps makes one
with a false idea of forgiveness and salvation, but this is not the case.

The Writings of the New Church distinguish a fundamental difference between
grace and mercy that has to do with the recognition a person has of his or
her need for the Lord's help.  Those people whose approach to the Lord is
more dominated by what they know and acknowledge to be true are called
spiritual.  Those people approach to the Lord is more dominated by what
they love and acknowledge to good are called are called heavenly, or
"celestial."  Those who, at the core of their life, are led by their
understanding (or I believe


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Tue Jun 17 13:33:00 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:33:00 -0400
Subject: SERMON: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Message-ID: <199706170933_MC2-18A6-D966@compuserve.com>

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
June 15, 1997

        The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 
        Revelation 22:21

At the end of many New Church services the minister's final words are the
benediction, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." 
Other than this you would probably hear only rare reference to the word
"grace" within the New Church.   

The terms, grace, mercy, and forgiveness are interconnected, but not the
same.  One of the appealing ideas associated with the Lord's message in the
New Testament is the concept of Divine forgiveness.  We don't have to live
a perfect life to make it to heaven, and indeed we are incapable of being
perfect.  We all fall far short of perfection.  Even the most loving and
wise angel doesn't remotely approach perfection.  We are not perfect
because our understanding is always limited and our motivations are never
completely pure.  Sometimes these qualities have only faint effects on our
actions and sometimes we, as human beings, knowingly, and with intention
choose to think, say, and do evil things.  In the words of Revelation, all
that we do is written in our book of life.  By the measure of perfect
truth, the each of our book of life would keep us from heaven.  But the
Lord isn't just perfect truth.  He is perfect love and this love lifts all
to heaven, as it were overcoming the evil loves and false ideas that we
have attached to our lives.  

        The Lord as King governs each and all things in the universe from
Divine truth; and as Priest, from Divine good. Divine truth is the very
order of His universal kingdom, all the laws of which are truths, or
eternal verities Divine good is the very essential of order, all things of
which are of mercy.  Both of these are predicated of the Lord.  If Divine
truth alone were His, no mortal could be saved, for truths condemn every
one to hell; but Divine good, which is of mercy, uplifts from hell to
heaven. (Arcana Caelestia 1728)

It is very important that each of us thinks of ourselves as being capable
of learning what is true and good and becoming better and better able to do
what is truly useful.  Sometimes a person's thoughts can so focuses on his
flaws and ignorance that he feels incapable of being useful or is
encouraged into feeling irresponsible about even trying to become a better
person.  But if we overcome these false ideas, and become better and better
at living a truly useful life, it is important for us to know and
acknowledge that we will always need the Lord's help.

        Every one believes at the present day that the evil loves and false
ideas in a person are entirely separated and abolished during regeneration,
so that when he becomes regenerate, nothing of this evil or falsity
remains, but he is clean and righteous, like one washed and purified with
water. This notion is, however, utterly false; for not a single evil love
or false idea can be so shaken off as to be abolished; but whatever has
been hereditarily derived from infancy, and acquired by act and deed,
remains; so that a person, notwithstanding his being regenerate, is nothing
but evil and falsity, as is shown in a living way to souls after death. The
truth of this may be sufficiently manifest from the consideration, that
there is nothing of good and nothing of truth in a person except from the
Lord, and that all evil and falsity are the person's from those things that
are his own; and that a person, spirit, and even angel, if left in the
least to himself, would rush of himself into hell; wherefore also it is
said in the Word that heaven is not pure. This is acknowledged by angels,
and he who does not acknowledge it cannot be among angels. It is the Lord's
mercy alone that frees them, and even draws them out of hell and keeps them
from rushing thither of themselves. That they are kept by the Lord from
rushing into hell, is clearly perceived by the angels, and even in a
measure by good spirits. Evil spirits however, like people, do not believe
this; but it has often been shown them.  (Arcana Caelestia 868:1)  

This passage states that it is the Lord's mercy that frees us.  There are
actually three distinct concepts of how the Lord's forgiveness is received
by a person.  The first is a dangerous falsity that has led people away
from following the Lord and trying to live a good life.  This is the belief
that a person is forgiven and receives the benefits of the Lord's mercy
purely by means of faith or an acknowledgment of Christ's death on the
cross.  This idea of forgiveness and mercy, together with other supporting
ideas, has led some to assert that how a person lives his life makes no
difference, as is spoken of in the following passages:

        From this one error [that truth is the essential of the church, and
so essential that truth, which people call faith, has power to save without
the good which is of charity], very many other errors have been derived,
which have infected not only doctrine, but also life; as for instance that
no matter how a person lives, provided he has faith he is saved; that even
the most wicked are received into heaven if in the hour of death they make
profession of such things as are of faith; and that every one can be
received into heaven merely from grace, whatever his life has been. In
consequence of holding this doctrine they at last do not know what charity
is, nor do they care for it; and finally they do not believe there is such
a thing, nor consequently that there is a heaven or a hell. (Arcana
Caelestia 4925:2)

        [A false principle of religion] is the doctrinal idea of a church
which acknowledges faith alone as a principle, as that a person is
justified by faith alone, that then all sins are wiped away from him, that
he may be saved by faith alone even in the last hour of his life, that
salvation is merely admission into heaven through grace, . . . These and
the like are the special things belonging to the principle of faith alone.
But if the church would acknowledge as its principle the life of faith, it
would acknowledge charity toward the neighbor and love to the Lord,
consequently the works of charity and of love, and then all these special
things would fall to pieces; and instead of justification it would
acknowledge regeneration. (Arcana Caelestia 4721)

Both of these passages mention the word "grace" and it might be concluded
from its association with a clearly  false idea, that it perhaps makes one
with a false idea of forgiveness and salvation, but this is not the case.

The Writings of the New Church distinguish a fundamental difference between
grace and mercy that has to do with the recognition a person has of his or
her need for the Lord's help.  Those people whose approach to the Lord is
more dominated by what they know and acknowledge to be true are called
spiritual.  Those people approach to the Lord is more dominated by what
they love and acknowledge to good are called are called heavenly, or
"celestial."  Those who, at the core of their life, are led by their
understanding (or I believe by simple obedience) acknowledge in their
thoughts that they are not perfect and that they need the Lord's help. 
They nevertheless are not so aware of their faults and flaws other than
intellectually.  Consequently their humility is affected by the fact that
they sense that they see their faults and flaws with their own intellectual
ability.  

A person can acknowledge, from his own reflection that he has trouble
telling the truth and the whole truth about a situation, can acknowledge
that this evil, feel remorse for this fault, and still have it all be
significantly a matter of thought.  Such a person may have a genuine
humility in his approach to the Lord, but it is limited.  Such a person
knows that he needs the Lord's help in fighting this evil tendency, knows
that he needs the Lord's forgiveness for the times that he has lied to
himself and others, and knows that as he fights this tendency he will
receive the Lord's help and forgiveness.  This state of mind seeks what the
Writings would call the Lord's grace.

But if a person, at the core of his life, is led by a love of what is good,
he will sense the presence of evil loves and false ideas in his life with a
horrifying and saddening clarity.  He will sense at a very deep level of
his life that he is absolutely dependent on the Lord's help.  His humility
before the Lord will be from his heart and far, far surpass that of the
person who is led more by his understanding.  Such people are the ones that
the Writings state really understand the Lord's mercy.

This distinction is indicated in the following passages:

        The mercy of the Lord involves and looks to the salvation of the
human race; and so does His grace. . . In the Word however a distinction is
made between mercy and grace, a distinction which depends in fact on the
difference in those who are their recipients.  Mercy applies to those who
are heavenly, but grace to those who are spiritual, for heavenly people
acknowledge nothing other than mercy, while spiritual people acknowledge
hardly anything other than grace.  Heavenly people do not know that grace
is, while the spiritual scarcely know what mercy is, for they make mercy
and grace to be one and the same.  The reason for the difference springs
from each one's humility.  People in whom there is humility of heart plead
for the Lord's mercy, but those in whom there is humility of mind seek His
grace.  Or if the latter do plead for mercy they do so in a state of
temptation or with the lips only and not with the heart.  Arcana Caelestia
598:2

        People governed by an affection for truth are not able to humble
themselves sufficiently so as to acknowledge from the heart that all things
are attributable to mercy; and this being so, instead of mercy they speak
of grace.  Indeed the less affection for truth is in them, the less
humility there is within their speaking of grace.  On the other hand the
more affection for good exists with someone the more humility there is
within his speaking of mercy.  Arcana Caelestia 2423

The Holy Supper is the act of worship that most clearly reflects our need
for the Lord's help.  In it we turn to the Lord, seeking to receive more of
His life within our own.  The bread represents the Lord's love that we need
within our own hearts, fundamentally changing what we care about and make
most important.  The wine represents the Lord's wisdom that we need in our
thoughts, fundamentally changing how we see ourselves, others, and the life
we are to lead. Each of us if we are to approach the Holy Supper worthily
need to be actively acknowledging that we have specific faults and flaws
that harm us, others, and the uses we seek to achieve.  We need to
acknowledge these evil loves and false ideas to ourselves and to the Lord. 
We are to pray for His help in fighting their influence and we are to be
doing the best we can to change the quality of the thoughts, words, and
deeds that have been tainted by them in the past.  

To begin with this effort will be more a matter of intellectual
acknowledgment and we will in reality be seeking the Lord's grace.  As the
miracle of regeneration occurs we will come more and more to recognize and
acknowledge on a progressively deeper level that we can not be the person
we want to be or accomplish the things we hope to without the Lord's
constant presence and help.  From an ever greater humility we will turn to
the Lord for this help.  More and more we will truly know what His mercy
is.  

We cannot instantly change who we are.  In fact, by ourselves, we cannot
change at all.  With the Lord's help we can gradually become better and
better human beings.  Where ever we are in spiritual growth, may we turn to
the Lord, acknowledging as best we can our need for His help.  May we do
our part to receive His life, His love and wisdom more and more within our
lives.  And from this we will become more and more useful human beings, all
who our lives touch will be blessed by this growing ability, and we
ourselves will grow in fulfillment and blessedness.   AMEN.

       Lessons: Revelation 22:12-21

The mercy of the Lord involves and looks to the salvation of the human
race; and so does His grace. . . In the Word however a distinction is made
between mercy and grace, a distinction which depends in fact on the
difference in those who are their recipients.  Mercy applies to those who
are heavenly, but grace to those who are spiritual, for heavenly people
acknowledge nothing other than mercy, while spiritual people acknowledge
hardly anything other than grace.  Heavenly people do not know that grace
is, while the spiritual scarcely know what mercy is, for they make mercy
and grace to be one and the same.  The reason for the difference springs
from each one's humility.  People in whom there is humility of heart plead
for the Lord's mercy, but those in whom there is humility of mind seek His
grace.  Or if the latter do plead for mercy they do so in a state of
temptation or with the lips only and not with the heart.  Arcana Caelestia
598:2

        People governed by an affection for truth are not able to humble
themselves sufficiently so as to acknowledge from the heart that all things
are attributable to mercy; and this being so, instead of mercy they speak
of grace.  Indeed the less affection for truth is in them, the less
humility there is within their speaking of grace.  On the other hand the
more affection for good exists with someone the more humility there is
within his speaking of mercy.  Arcana Caelestia 2423
                
All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Jun 28 20:35:07 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 16:35:07 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970628163112.0a676f34@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, including footnotes, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and
your preferred format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.     06-22-97

	"ALL THINGS NEW"

	A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Reuben P. Bell

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

        "Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things
new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful.'
(Rev 21:5)

	Here is the Lord, speaking to John, His "beloved Apostle," on the Isle of
Patmos, nearly two thousand years ago - but not really in that place at
all.  "Write," He commanded, not from that island in the Aegean Sea, but
from His throne, in the spiritual world, where John had been admitted -
apparently without much warning.  Having been given what was perhaps the
most magnificent mystical vision of all time, of scenes and events
indescribable, John was told to write his experience down, as any visitor
to a foreign land might do.  Now that was some assignment...  But that is
what he did, and what he wrote we call the Apocalypse, or Book of
Revelation.  And this little book has been more trouble to more people in
the Christian world than all the other books of the Word combined.  
	What are we to make of this collection of fantastic visions, of dragons,
and six-winged creatures "full of eyes in front and in back," and locusts
swarming from a bottomless pit?  What is this Apocalypse?  The power of the
letter is not to be denied, but all but the most concrete of Christian
theologians will agree that the literal sense of John's Revelation is only
the doorway into a deeper, more meaningful prophetic message within.
Disagreements on the nature of this message have led to divisions in the
Christian Church, 
over differing interpretations of significance.  But the New Church does
not speculate on this inner message.  In the Lord's Second Coming we are
given the rich internal sense of the Apocalypse, as a chronicle of the long
anticipated Last Judgment, and the advent of a New Heaven, a New Earth, and
a New Church, which is called the New Jerusalem.  Its central theme is ALL
THINGS NEW, proclaiming the Lord's Second Advent, and declaring the final
and utter vastation of the former Christian Church.
	What is this New Jerusalem?  We find visions of a restored Holy City as
early as the Psalms of David, in the Chronicles, in Lamentations, in
Ezekiel, and in the passage from Jeremiah we read today: "Behold the days
are coming," Jeremiah wrote, "when the city shall be built for the Lord
from the Tower of Hananeel to the Corner Gate."  To the Jews of
first-century Palestine, with their corrupted, degenerate Jerusalem of the
money-changers, these well-known images must have seemed remote indeed.
But in John's vision of the New Jerusalem we find far more than another
distant, future promise.  This Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, was to
be the Holy City of the Last Judgment, when the Lord would put the hells in
order, and create a new heaven and New Church forevermore.  And John was
there to see it!  This was the Lord's Second Advent, the fulfillment of the
Scriptures - the dawning of the New Christian Era.  It was the birth of the
New Church John saw, "the crown of all the Churches that have hitherto
existed on the earth." [TCR 787]

	And now, this New Church is here...  but barely so.  It began in 1757,
when the Last Judgment of John's vision was finally executed on all those
in the then crowded and corrupted world of spirits who would not agree that
Jesus Christ was Lord.  Those spirits were gathered together and put in
their place forever; no longer able to seduce us with their false heavens
and their illusions of truth.  That was a great day in the spiritual world;
what a vision it must have been for John, whose mission it was to put it
into words for you and me!
	Then, in 1770 we are told, on the 19th of June, this ordering of the new
heavens was completed, and the Lord saw fit to send out His disciples to
proclaim ,throughout the spiritual world, the message of the New Church and
to preach the Gospel that THE LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST REIGNS.  The man who
saw this vision actually taking place was Emanuel Swedenborg, "Servant of
the Lord."  His revelation of these events and the New Church they ushered
in, constitute the very medium of the Lord's Second Coming.  What a vision
it must have been for him, whose mission, just like John's, was also to put
it into words for you and me!
	But remember - this vision of John's, of the Last Judgment, and
Swedenborg's vision of the Lord sending out the disciples, and the
establishment of the New Church - these were clearly visions of events in
the spiritual world.  It says so, in both revelations.  Failure to
acknowledge this essential fact has caused Christians since John wrote his
Revelation to anxiously look forward to a catastrophic, natural-world
apocalypse - 
and to miss the boat when the real one came.  The message is clear: the
Lord's Second Coming was a spiritual event, the New Church was established
first in the heavens, and then in the world of spirits, and this was
proclaimed by the Lord's disciples, from one end of the spiritual world to
the other. 
	What is so important about this?  The New Church is only just beginning to
appear in the natural world, that's what.  It is present on earth by means
of its corresponding spiritual form, but it is only just starting to
manifest itself in use; and only in use will its natural form appear in
fullness, because forms are only containants of uses, and without them,
they fade away. [DLW 46] The establishment of the New Church on earth will
come about only through the collective efforts of us humans, as we build
the New Jerusalem in our own souls, one by one.  The New Church grows every
time a person acknowledges that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one only God
of heaven and earth, and then sets out to live a life of good, based on
spiritual truths.  That's called charity.  That process is called
regeneration, and it is the only way the New Church can descend, "coming
down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
The New Church is not an organization, and it is not being forced on the
human race by the Lord, who is eager to effect our salvation (although He
is).  The New Church is you, and me, and other individuals who do the New
Jerusalem every day, in perfect freedom.  What else could it be?

	But let's look again at The True Christian Religion n. 791, the passage in
this morning's lessons.  What did the Lord do first, when the spiritual
world had been restructured, and Divine order was finally brought to bear
on all those within it?  He sent out His twelve disciples on an
evangelization tour of the spiritual world, to announce to everyone there
that the New Jerusalem, so long predicted, had finally come to pass.  His
first act was to begin to build His New Church.  But where, you may ask, is
the individual in this?  Was it not an organization, of believers, that the
disciples set out to build?  Is not this church, to which we belong, an
organization?  Don't churches need an organization?  The answer is
wonderfully paradoxical, but just as wonderfully clear.  In Heaven and Hell
[n. 57] we read,
"What has been said of heaven may be said also of the church, for
the church is the Lord's heaven on earth.  And the like may be said of the
individual of the church in particular that is said of the church in
general, namely, that the church is in a person, and not outside of him;
and that every person is a church in whom the Lord is present in the good
of love and of faith.  Again, the same may be said of an individual that
has the church in him as of an angel that has heaven in him, namely, that
he is a church in least form, as an angel is a heaven in least form.   

So, you are a church in least form, the simplest element from which the
church can be built.  And that's the important part.  If you strive for
spiritual growth, and shun evils as sins against the Lord, then you are a
good church, and a strong contributor to the whole, just as a healthy
neuron contributes to a properly functioning brain.  Imagine what sort of
brain you might have, if its individual nerve cells were infected, or
injured, or starved for oxygen, or unable to communicate with other
neurons?  You'd have a brain that didn't work. 
	The New Church is no different.  You are a church, and knowing this, the
Lord tells you to Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father in heaven, because that builds the
Church, the fabric of the Lord's kingdom on earth. [Matthew 5:16]  And if
you don't, the New Church could become just a form, without uses, and it
could disappear.  You may need the Church, but just as importantly, the
Church needs you.  Imagine for a moment, every seat in this sanctuary empty
this morning... nobody here, the Word still closed, the organ covered up,
and the door locked tight.  "But I am a church in least form," you say,
"and I am not here, because I am at home or at work, being regenerated by
the uses I perform and by shunning evils as sins against the Lord."  And
that might be true, but where will the new ones come, to learn about the
New Church?  Where will people come, to hear the Heavenly Doctrines of the
New Jerusalem  explained, illustrated, and applied to their lives?  And
where will you come, when you badly need the spiritual renewal of worship
and fellowship that just can't be found alone?  What about the New Church
coming down, out of heaven?  What do you think brings it down?  It is all
these things, at once.  You are a church.  You are the church.  You can't
really successfully be one without the other.
	Both our individual regeneration and the building of the Church in general
are inseparable activities if we are to bring the New Jerusalem down (and
it needs to come down - have you thought really seriously lately, about the
state of our nation and our culture; of the state of our world?).  
Both love and wisdom must operate in perfect harmony and balance, if we are
to make this work.  One is internal work, the other external, and together
they make a whole: A church... the church.  It's all the same.
	"Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.'"
Note well, that the Lord did not say "I shall make all things new," or "I
might make all things new," or I can make all things new," or "someday, all
things will be new."  All the anticipation, and waiting, and confusion
concerning this Book of Revelation is over.  Since the Lord proclaimed that
marvelous fact to all the universe, on June 19, 1770, all things are new -
Now - whether you do anything about it or not.  Remember, the first rule of
the Lord's kingdom: you are free to refuse it.  But if you do, you are
going to miss some truly wonderful things:  
		I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the 		   End.  	
		I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely 		   to him who
thirsts.  
		He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will 		   be his God and
he shall be My son.
		The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell 		   with them, and
they shall be His people.
		And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; 		   there shall be no
more death, nor sorrow, nor 		   		   crying; and there shall be no more
pain, for the 		   former things have passed away.

This is the New Jerusalem that is coming down out of heaven.  It is not a
place, it is a spiritual state of mind; it is not for later, it is right
now; it is not a philosophical concept, it is simple reality.  And it is
ours if we choose to live there.
	You are a church.  You are the church of the New Jerusalem.
	You need it, and it needs you.
	Build it by living it - by making ALL THINGS NEW.        
        Amen.

	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Jeremiah 31:31-34, 38
                Revelation 21:1-8
                The True Christian Religion n. 791
                Apocalypse Revealed n. 886


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Jul  7 17:37:23 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 13:37:23 -0400
Subject: SERMON: POSSIBLY Incomplete Message: You are Not to Steal:  Taking from the Lord
Message-ID: <199707071352_MC2-1A5F-A8D1@compuserve.com>

You are not to Steal: Taking from the Lord
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
July 6, 1997

        In the heavenly sense thieves means those who strip the Lord of His
Divine power, and those who claim for themselves His merit and
righteousness.  Although these people worship God, yet it is not in Him
they trust, but in themselves; and they do not either believe in God, but
in themselves.  (True Christian Religion 319)

The Writing of the New Church encourage us to see several levels of meaning
within each of the Ten Commandments.  On the highest level, each one of
these commandments speaks of way in which our relationship with the Lord
can be damaged by transgressing against Him and His role within our lives.

The commandment not to steal in its highest sense warns us against taking
responsibility for and capability of the Lord's power in salvation.  A
person steals from the Lord when he thinks that his accumulated acts of
kindness, his accumulated prayers, reading, attendance at church entitle
him to an excellent place in heaven or at the very least guaranteed
entrance.  A person steals from the Lord when she thinks "I've done so much
good and so little wrong, I deserve to be happy and to have the good things
of life right now.  I've earned it."  A person even steals from the Lord
when he believes that his efforts to do the right things as a parent should
absolutely mold his children into the right sort of human beings.

A very important part of the relationship each of us has with the Lord
relates to our understanding of what He does for us and what we must do to
cooperate with Him.  We can believe that we have the responsibility and
capability of doing things that are properly the Lords and we can also be
irresponsible and sense ourselves as being incapable of doing things that
we absolutely must do with our own effort.  Either fault has destructive
consequences.  One person can incline toward taking on too much
responsibility in most areas of his life.  Another can incline toward being
apathetic and irresponsible in most or all areas of his life.  And many of
us would probably recognize that we are overly responsible in some areas or
at some times and relatively inactive and irresponsible in other areas or
at other times.

The history of Christianity shows examples of doctrine supporting both too
much responsibility and too little.  The medieval Christian church placed
tremendous emphasis on the benefits of church sacraments such as baptism,
Mass, and the last rites.  Staying in the good graces of the church
hierarchy was essential for getting to heaven.  They strongly encouraged a
literal interpretation of Lord's words, 

        And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  And
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:18-19)

The church officials were believed to have the power to open or shut heaven
for a person.  There was also the belief that if a person said enough
prayers, lit enough candles, gave enough money to the church, went on a
long and difficult pilgrimage, or visited some holy relic that there would
be special benefits given to them.  From this perspective, Christianity had
a very heavy emphasis on doing religious things.  

Apparently, starting early on in Christianity, people did not like the
responsibility of avoiding sin and the consequences of committed sin.  They
wanted assurance that they would get to heaven.  Apparently there was a
strong desire for some way to make up for transgressions.  Simultaneous to
this there was a desire for power on the part of the church hierarchy. 
Giving people an explanation of salvation that benefited their power was a
convenient doctrinal innovation.  The net result was that the both the
hierarchy and the individual Christian lay member stole from the Lord. 
They took on themselves and their decisions and actions the means of
salvation.

The Protestant Reformation was a strong reaction against many of the
excesses that had arisen in Christianity.  But instead of re-establishing
the proper balance between our role and the Lord's, the doctrine of
salvation by faith alone asserted that any kind of human effort toward
being a better person had nothing to do with salvation.  In its extreme
form, it asserts that God chose from the beginning of time who would go to
heaven and hell and that was that.  Much more common is the idea that the
only thing a person can do is acknowledge that Christ shed His blood for
his personal salvation and then salvation is automatically guaranteed. 
This faith by itself and nothing else gives a person entrance into heaven. 
This doctrine has encouraged tremendous apathy in spiritual matters.  It
has discouraged people from giving any thought to specific expressions of
evil in their lives.  It has suggested that attending church and saying
prayers, though worthwhile expressions of faith, actually don't do anything
significant.

The Lord has presented once again the balance of our role and His role in
the doctrines of the New Church.  It is our job to act as if from ourselves
in consciously examining our patterns of motive, thought, and action.  We
are to ask the Lord to give us the insight to recognize the evil we most
need to see, acknowledge, and fight.  We are to acknowledge this evil
specifically to ourselves and before the Lord.  We are to ask for His help
in fighting it and we are to consciously work at not giving expression to
that evil in our thought or action.  These are the steps of reformation. 
As we do our part the Lord works within our effort giving us the power to
do what we do.  We are to acknowledge this or we are stealing from Him.  As
we do our part the Lord also works the miracle of regeneration.  He
gradually brings about a change in what we care about.  He gives us a new
heart that allows us to, in freedom, turn from evil not merely as a matter
of


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Tue Jul  8 03:42:54 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 23:42:54 -0400
Subject: SERMON: You are Not to Steal:  Pt 1
Message-ID: <199707072342_MC2-1A65-DBC2@compuserve.com>

You are not to Steal: Taking from the Lord
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
July 6, 1997

        In the heavenly sense thieves means those who strip the Lord of His
Divine power, and those who claim for themselves His merit and
righteousness.  Although these people worship God, yet it is not in Him
they trust, but in themselves; and they do not either believe in God, but
in themselves.  (True Christian Religion 319)

The Writing of the New Church encourage us to see several levels of meaning
within each of the Ten Commandments.  On the highest level, each one of
these commandments speaks of way in which our relationship with the Lord
can be damaged by transgressing against Him and His role within our lives.

The commandment not to steal in its highest sense warns us against taking
responsibility for and capability of the Lord's power in salvation.  A
person steals from the Lord when he thinks that his accumulated acts of
kindness, his accumulated prayers, reading, attendance at church entitle
him to an excellent place in heaven or at the very least guaranteed
entrance.  A person steals from the Lord when she thinks "I've done so much
good and so little wrong, I deserve to be happy and to have the good things
of life right now.  I've earned it."  A person even steals from the Lord
when he believes that his efforts to do the right things as a parent should
absolutely mold his children into the right sort of human beings.

A very important part of the relationship each of us has with the Lord
relates to our understanding of what He does for us and what we must do to
cooperate with Him.  We can believe that we have the responsibility and
capability of doing things that are properly the Lords and we can also be
irresponsible and sense ourselves as being incapable of doing things that
we absolutely must do with our own effort.  Either fault has destructive
consequences.  One person can incline toward taking on too much
responsibility in most areas of his life.  Another can incline toward being
apathetic and irresponsible in most or all areas of his life.  And many of
us would probably recognize that we are overly responsible in some areas or
at some times and relatively inactive and irresponsible in other areas or
at other times.

The history of Christianity shows examples of doctrine supporting both too
much responsibility and too little.  The medieval Christian church placed
tremendous emphasis on the benefits of church sacraments such as baptism,
Mass, and the last rites.  Staying in the good graces of the church
hierarchy was essential for getting to heaven.  They strongly encouraged a
literal interpretation of Lord's words, 

        And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  And
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:18-19)

The church officials were believed to have the power to open or shut heaven
for a person.  There was also the belief that if a person said enough
prayers, lit enough candles, gave enough money to the church, went on a
long and difficult pilgrimage, or visited some holy relic that there would
be special benefits given to them.  From this perspective, Christianity had
a very heavy emphasis on doing religious things.  

Apparently, starting early on in Christianity, people did not like the
responsibility of avoiding sin and the consequences of committed sin.  They
wanted assurance that they would get to heaven.  Apparently there was a
strong desire for some way to make up for transgressions.  Simultaneous to
this there was a desire for power on the part of the church hierarchy. 
Giving people an explanation of salvation that benefited their power was a
convenient doctrinal innovation.  The net result was that the both the
hierarchy and the individual Christian lay member stole from the Lord. 
They took on themselves and their decisions and actions the means of
salvation.

The Protestant Reformation was a strong reaction against many of the
excesses that had arisen in Christianity.  But instead of re-establishing
the proper balance between our role and the Lord's, the doctrine of
salvation by faith alone asserted that any kind of human effort toward
being a better person had nothing to do with salvation.  In its extreme
form, it asserts that God chose from the beginning of time who would go to
heaven and hell and that was that.  Much more common is the idea that the
only thing a person can do is acknowledge that Christ shed His blood for
his personal salvation and then salvation is automatically guaranteed. 
This faith by itself and nothing else gives a person entrance into heaven. 
This doctrine has encouraged tremendous apathy in spiritual matters.  It
has discouraged people from giving any thought to specific expressions of
evil in their lives.  It has suggested that attending church and saying
prayers, though worthwhile expressions of faith, actually don't do anything
significant.


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Tue Jul  8 03:42:48 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 23:42:48 -0400
Subject: SERMON: You are not to Steal:  Pt 2
Message-ID: <199707072342_MC2-1A65-DBBE@compuserve.com>

You are not to Steal:  Part 2

The Lord has presented once again the balance of our role and His role in
the doctrines of the New Church.  It is our job to act as if from ourselves
in consciously examining our patterns of motive, thought, and action.  We
are to ask the Lord to give us the insight to recognize the evil we most
need to see, acknowledge, and fight.  We are to acknowledge this evil
specifically to ourselves and before the Lord.  We are to ask for His help
in fighting it and we are to consciously work at not giving expression to
that evil in our thought or action.  These are the steps of reformation. 
As we do our part the Lord works within our effort giving us the power to
do what we do.  We are to acknowledge this or we are stealing from Him.  As
we do our part the Lord also works the miracle of regeneration.  He
gradually brings about a change in what we care about.  He gives us a new
heart that allows us to, in freedom, turn from evil not merely as a matter
of conscious self-compulsion, but because we now feel a revulsion at the
evil lying before us.

We know that just because the Writings state something clearly it will not
give a perfect protection from an evil.  The Ten Commandments have been
stated as clearly and as simply as they have for thousands of years and
people who know them still transgress even their most obvious meaning. 
Because our outlook on ourselves and religion is significantly influenced
by the ideas and practices of people surrounding we are inclined to some of
their dangerous falsities and evils.  While it doesn't seem that many of us
are likely to think that we can earn heaven by acts of piety, like the
medieval Christian Church, there are strong dangers of faith alone beliefs
influencing our thought and practice.   There is a significant tendency to
believe that the progress of reformation and regeneration is so hidden that
it has little to do with daily life and decisions.  There is a tendency to
make prayer and a relationship with the Lord more a matter of formal
observance than anything of significance.  While there are some patterns
that we share as a community that are good and healthy there are also ones
that seem to make little or nothing of social evils.  Men who consider
themselves "New Church" indulge in movies and magazines that invite the
presence of evil spirits who delight in sexual lust and the exploitation of
women and/or are so appeal to a delight in violence and destruction that
their positive value is hard to justify.  People who could know better,
take little or no thought about the quality of the gossip they seek and
repeat.  And the list could go on.    

The technical theological term used to describe the idea that one can earn
salvation or heaven is that of "merit."  The Writings state that "To
attribute merit to deeds done to gain salvation is ruinous; for evils lie
hidden in this of which the doer is quite unaware."  (True Christian
Religion 439)  The rejection of salvation by faith alone in our church does
leave us open for taking on responsibilities that are properly the Lord's. 
When we do this we commit spiritual robbery.  We steal from the Lord and we
can fall prey to the evils that lie hidden in the idea of merit.  We too
can have patterns of thought and action that are an effective expression of
 "denial of God's influence and working on people, trust in one's own
powers in matters concerning salvation, faith in oneself and not in God, .
. . salvation by one's own strength, [and] the canceling of Divine grace
and mercy. (True Christian Religion 439)

The Lord has reminded us many times that happiness does not come from the
external environment.  When we feel that enough natural effort on our part
should guarantee us happiness at work, at home, even during vacation times,
we are acting from the idea that we can earn happiness.  We are
unconsciously stealing from the Lord.  He has strongly asserted the role of
individual human freedom is an essential part of creation, and when we
sense that we can, if we try hard enough ensure that someone else will be
happy or will do the right things in his or her life, we are unconsciously
stealing from the Lord.

The Lord wants us to know that what we do is very important, but without
His help and His gifts, by themselves our efforts would not accomplish the
goals we seek.  May we learn better each day to recognize our own
responsibilities and the Lord's role and work.  May we grown in commitment
to do what we should and may we grow in gratitude for the Lord's work.  May
we cooperate with Him in following Him on each of our pathways to heaven. 
AMEN.

       Lessons: Luke 19:45-47

In the heavenly [or celestial] sense thieves means those who strip the Lord
of His Divine power, and those who claim for themselves His merit and
righteousness.  Although these people worship God, yet it is not in Him
they trust, but in themselves; and they do not either believe in God, but
in themselves.  True Christian Religion 319

To attribute merit to deeds done to gain salvation is ruinous; for evils
lie hidden in this of which the doer is quite unaware.  Among these are
denial of God's influence and working on people, trust in one's own powers
in matters concerning salvation, faith in oneself and not in God,
self-justification, salvation by one's own strength, the canceling of
Divine grace and mercy, the rejection of reformation and regeneration by
Divine means; in particular they detract from the merit and righteousness
of the Lord God the Savior, since they claim these for themselves. 
Moreover they have constantly in view the reward which they regard as their
first and last aim; they drown and kill love to the Lord and love toward
the neighbor.  They are totally ignorant of and unable to feel the pleasure
of heavenly love, which is free from all idea of merit; all they feel is
self-love.  Putting the reward first and salvation second, so that
salvation is for the sake of the reward, turns the order upside down.  True
Christian Religion 439
                
All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Thu Jul 17 02:34:35 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 22:34:35 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing List
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970716222615.44977528@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    07-13-97

	"AND IT WILL MAKE YOUR STOMACH BITTER"

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it
was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach
became bitter." (Rev. 10:10)

	SOMETIMES WE FIND OURSELVES asking why it is that the New Church, the
organized New Church, is numerically so small.  And yet numbers of members
-- external numerical statistics -- are only indications or signs of the
true growth of the church.  Membership in a church body does not by itself
make a person to be New Church.  External organizations are important, but
still, it is in the mind, or spirit, that the true growth and development
of the church occurs.  It is in and through the human mind alone that
heaven can come down to earth.  Here alone can the New Jerusalem descend
from God out of heaven.
	It is therefore difficult indeed to judge the progress and growth of the
New Church.  In fact only the Lord can really know this.  We cannot see
with certainty into human minds, human spirits.  The way people in the
church talk and act can give cause for hope, and, at other times, can give
cause for disappointment.  But we can never know for certain the state of
the church within the minds of its members.
	We can, however, have greater insight when it comes to knowing the state
of the church as it exists within ourselves.  Here again, we cannot know
for certain.  Many aspects of our own spiritual state are beyond our
awareness.  But still, if we examine ourselves, we can find indications as
to how the New Church is faring within our own minds.
	When, as is our duty, we periodically take the time to reflect on how we
are living our lives, we should ask ourselves if we are receiving the
truths of the Writings with joy, and if we are really living the way these
truths teach us to live.  In other words, we should examine whether or not
we are allowing the New Church to develop and grow within ourselves.  A
sincere concern for the welfare of the church may indeed cause us to be
curious as to just how the church is faring within the spirits of others.
But our most solemn responsibility as members of the New Church is to take
care lest the church falter and die within ourselves.
	And it is when we look at the church this way that we can meet our
greatest discouragement.  It is one thing to be disheartened at the
development of the church at large.  It is much more difficult to face the
possibility that the church we love is suffering because of our own
deficiencies -- that is suffering within our very own minds.
	Yet, as we are well aware, this can indeed happen.  We know we should turn
to the Lord in His Word, learn His teachings, and apply them willingly and
cheerfully to our lives.  But we find that in practice this is not always
as easy as it might at first seem.  Enthusiasm for the doctrines can at
times wane, and we can find the teachings of the Writings hard to read and
listen to, difficult to think about, and, perhaps, dry and boring.  And
though we periodically resolve to live our religion to the fullest, we can
find ourselves slipping -- giving in, almost unconsciously, to the ways of
the world and the ways of our own propriums.
	Why?  When we recall the description, in the Book of Revelation, of the
New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, we are moved deeply by the
beauty of this vision.  We know and feel, deep down inside, that the
Writings, and the New Church based upon them, are the Lord's answer to the
spiritual problems of the human race.  And deep within our hearts we do
love our religion.  Yet for some reason this love, and this vision, at
times proves insufficient to keep us constant in our dedication.  We get
discouraged, and we wonder what the problem is.  We wonder why it is that
something so precious can at times seem so dry and uninspiring.
	States of discouragement, are, though, to be expected.  The last two
chapters of the Book of Revelation provide us with a most beautiful vision
of the New Jerusalem coming down to earth.  This vision provides us with a
goal, a purpose, towards which we can strive.  But earlier chapters in the
Book of Revelation should not be overlooked, because they describe the
enemies of the New Church.  They describe the obstacles, forces at work in
other people and also in ourselves, which must be overcome before the New
Jerusalem can be fully established upon the earth.  Though the New Church
is precious -- indeed, because it is so precious -- the forces of hell work
unceasingly to prevent its establishment in the hearts and minds of people
here on earth.
	Such resistance to the establishment of the New Church is the subject of
our text this morning.  John records how an angel was seen coming down from
heaven carrying a little book in his hand.  John was told to take the book
from the angel.  But he asked for it from the angel, the angel told him to
eat it.  As John ate the book, it was sweet in his mouth, but as soon as he
had eaten it, his stomach was bitter.
	The little book, which was in fact in the form of a scroll (AE 299:3),
represented the Word, and, in particular, the literal sense of the Word.
This literal sense is, we are told, as sweet as honey, that is, it seems
delightful.
	The literal sense is written for the natural man and contains general
truths adapted to his comprehension.  There is indeed truth in the letter
of the Word, but the truth we find there on the surface  is not expressed
in any great detail.  Because of this, the literal sense can be explained
away or twisted to suit our own preconceptions, and our own evil desires.
For this reason, the literal sense of the Word can at times appeal to even
an evil man.  Both good and evil people can find the literal sense of the
Word as sweet as honey.  The little book was therefore described by John as
being sweet in the mouth.  It had the sweetness of honey, for honey
represents natural or external delight.  And it has to be this way.  If the
Word in its letter did not at first seem pleasant, people would not be able
to receive it, but would, we are told, "be deterred at the very
threshold"(AC 5620:13).  And so the Word is specifically written so that in
its letter it can appeal even to people who far from regenerate.
	Now it is different with the internal sense, since that sense contains
truth in much greater detail and fullness.  Because of this, the truth of
the internal sense of the Word cannot so easily be explained away or
twisted in order to justify and support a man's evils.  Indeed, the truth
of the internal sense confronts a man's evils, forcing him to choose
between the truth on the one hand, and his own evil loves on the other.
	This is the reason the little book was bitter in John's stomach.  As the
mouth represents what is exterior, so the stomach, being within the body,
represents what is interior.  It is as a man comes into a more interior
understind the teachings of the Writings hard to read and
listen to, difficult to think about, and, perhaps, dry and boring.  And
though we periodically resolve to live our religion to the fullest, we can
find ourselves slipping -- giving in, almost unconsciouuth challenges and confronts the evils a person may love.  Such
truth can seem very bitter indeed.  But there is more to it than this.
This truth doesn't just seem bitter.  It actually is bitter!  In itself, of
course, the Divine truth is clean, wholesome and delightful.  But the
interior truth of the Word, as it exists within a man's understanding, is
bitter at first.  Just as clean water becomes bitter when what is foul is
mixed in with it, so too does that living water -- the interior truth of
the Word -- become bitter when it is mixed with the evils of a man's proprium.
	The origin of this bitterness is thus the man himself.  It is he who has
mixed what is evil and false with the interior truths of the Word and so
rendered them bitter.  Not that he has done this consciously.  In fact, the
interior truths of the Word are rendered bitter by a man before he is even
aware of their existence.
	It happens while his understanding of the truth is still general -- while
the truths he knows are still taken mainly from the literal sense of the
Word.  These truths, as we have said, are sweet, because they can be used
to justify and confirm his evils.  But when a man does this, when a man
uses the Word to excuse his evils, he then mixes what is evil and false
with the literal truth of the Word.  Now this truth is exterior truth, but
still, it cannot be completely separated from what is interior.  Everything
in the literal sense of the Word has interior truth within it.  Because of
this, when a man fouls or adulterates the truth of the literal sense with
evil and falsities, he at the same time adulterates the interior truths
within, even though he is as yet unaware of them.  He renders the interior
truth of the Word bitter within his own mind.  Later on, when the man comes
into a deeper understanding of the Word, this bitterness then causes him to
regard when he learns as unpleasant and as undelightful.
	Now this is one reason the truths of the Writings do not find greater
acceptance in the world around us.  The Writings, you see, are a revelation
of interior truths within the literal sense of the Word.  As such, their
message inevitably carries with it a certain bitterness for many people.
Because Christianity, throughout the centuries, falsified and twisted so
many truths of the literal sense, the interior truths hidden within that
sense were adulterated and rendered bitter.
	We too do a similar thing.  Our own understanding of the Lord's truth is
at first general.  Even though we have the Writings, it is only gradually
that we come to see and understand the interior truths they contain.  In
the meantime, it sometimes happens that we use our superficial
understanding of the truth to support and excuse the way we live.  Rather
than honestly admit that we are wrong, it at times seems easier to justify
our actions.  But to use a superficial understanding of the Writings in
this way can cause us problems later on, for by so doing this we are
adulterating and making bitter the deeper truths of the Heavenly Doctrines.
	As a result, when, later on, we come to have a deeper insight into the
truths of the Writings, we can sometimes find them unpleasant, difficult
and boring, and fail to see what meaning these truths have for our lives.
The sad fact is that previous mistakes have caused the deeper truths of the
Writings to become bitter for us, and the result is that we are then
repelled by these truths.  They are "bitter in the stomach."
	This is especially true of that most important of all the doctrines:  the
doctrine of the Lord.  Indeed, in one series in the Writings, the little
book which John ate is said to represent the Word as to the doctrine
concerning the Lord.  More specifically, it is said to represent "the
doctrinal point in the Word, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and that His Human is Divine" (AR 469).  This teaching about the Lord is
the very essential of the New Church.
	It is a truth taught openly in the letter of the New Testament.  But it is
also a truth that was overlooked and often ignored by the Christian Church.
 That church focussed instead on the truth that the Lord is our Savior.
This was much easier to accept, for this truth is sweet.  Even an evil man
is happy to think that the Lord loves him, and loved him enough to be born
on earth, and to then die for his sins.
	But the truth that the Lord's Human is Divine, and that He is the God of
heaven and earth, though it is a closely related truth, carries with it a
different emphasis.  If the Lord is God, then not only does He love us, but
we must also love Him in return.  We must obey Him.  We must place our own
desires beneath His, for if He is God, then He is to reign over us.  This
was the message of New Church Day, which we celebrated last month.  On that
day, the Lord's disciples were sent out throughout the whole spiritual
world to proclaim the truth that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns.
	The message of New Church Day is more specific than, say, the message of
Christmas.  We can warmly, and perhaps even selfishly, respond to the
message that the Lord came to save us.  Everybody, even an evil man, can be
warmed, at least externally, by the story of a little baby lying in a
manger.  But the truth that the Lord is our God makes a specific demand on
our allegiance.  In its essence, the truth that the Lord is God is the
inmost truth of the Writings.  And it is the most beautiful of all truths.
But past disobedience on our own parts can render this truth bitter, making
it at times seem dry, uninteresting, even unimportant.
	Now it may disturb us when, in certain states, we find the truths of the
New Church uninspiring.  And yet the very fact that this does disturb us is
itself cause for hope.  A purely natural man would not be disturbed.  If a
natural man finds the truth uninteresting, he turns to something else, and
does not give it a second thought.  A spiritual man, or a man who is
becoming spiritual, is different.  Within himself he loves the truth.  This
is why he is disturbed when he finds it bitter.  He wants to be instructed.
 He wants to be enlightened.  He wants to be inspired.  And the fact that
he nevertheless finds the truth undelightful causes him great anxiety,
frustration and distress.
	But if his desire for the truth causes him to feel frustration, it also
causes him to persevere.  And this is the key.  We must persevere.  Though
John found the book bitter in his stomach, he was nevertheless told,
immediately afterwards, to prophesy again.  He had to continue to teach the
truth.  And we ourselves must continue to learn.  We must remain faithful
to the truth, and persevere in learning it and living it, even though it
might seem bitter.  The bitterness we experience arises because of the evil
and falsity we have mixed with the truth of the Word in our minds.  Yet it
is only by means of this truth that the contaminating evil and falsity can
at last be judged and cast to the outskirts of our minds.  Then, and only
then, is the Lord's truth able to flow into us pure and unpolluted.

	WE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY THE LORD to receive the Heavenly Doctrines.  This
is not cause for pride.  Rather, it is something we should accept with deep
humility.  Through our minds especially, the New Jerusalem is at present to
descend upon this earth.  But this will only happen if we allow it to
happen.  We must learn the truth of the New Church, if not always with
delight, at least with perseverance.  And we must strive to live the truth
we learn, not only for our own sakes, but also for the sake of the church.
	We all want the Lord's kingdom, that is, the New Jerusalem, to flourish
and grow upon this earth.  But if we truly want the Lord's kingdom to come,
that is, if we want the New Church to prosper, then we mus in the Word, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and that His Human is Divine" (AR 469).  This teaching about the Lord is
the very essential of the New Church.
	It is a truth taught openly in the letter of the New Testament.  But it is
also r own small part, but the most important
part that we can do, in making it possible for the Lord to establish His
kingdom upon this earth, a kingdom that is going to endure forever and ever.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Rev. 10
		AC 5620:13


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Thu Jul 17 18:05:03 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 14:05:03 -0400
Subject: SERMON: RETRANSMIT SERMON MAILING
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970717133641.7eb7189c@mail.one.net>

LAST NIGHT'S SERMON MAILING HAD DATA CORRUPTION.  Since my ISP was down, I
telenetted in via Compuserve, and somewhere along the way at least two
paragraphs lost data.  This is a retransmission.

Patrick.
________________________________________________

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    07-13-97

	"AND IT WILL MAKE YOUR STOMACH BITTER"

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it
was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach
became bitter." (Rev. 10:10)

	SOMETIMES WE FIND OURSELVES asking why it is that the New Church, the
organized New Church, is numerically so small.  And yet numbers of members
-- external numerical statistics -- are only indications or signs of the
true growth of the church.  Membership in a church body does not by itself
make a person to be New Church.  External organizations are important, but
still, it is in the mind, or spirit, that the true growth and development
of the church occurs.  It is in and through the human mind alone that
heaven can come down to earth.  Here alone can the New Jerusalem descend
from God out of heaven.
	It is therefore difficult indeed to judge the progress and growth of the
New Church.  In fact only the Lord can really know this.  We cannot see
with certainty into human minds, human spirits.  The way people in the
church talk and act can give cause for hope, and, at other times, can give
cause for disappointment.  But we can never know for certain the state of
the church within the minds of its members.
	We can, however, have greater insight when it comes to knowing the state
of the church as it exists within ourselves.  Here again, we cannot know
for certain.  Many aspects of our own spiritual state are beyond our
awareness.  But still, if we examine ourselves, we can find indications as
to how the New Church is faring within our own minds.
	When, as is our duty, we periodically take the time to reflect on how we
are living our lives, we should ask ourselves if we are receiving the
truths of the Writings with joy, and if we are really living the way these
truths teach us to live.  In other words, we should examine whether or not
we are allowing the New Church to develop and grow within ourselves.  A
sincere concern for the welfare of the church may indeed cause us to be
curious as to just how the church is faring within the spirits of others.
But our most solemn responsibility as members of the New Church is to take
care lest the church falter and die within ourselves.
	And it is when we look at the church this way that we can meet our
greatest discouragement.  It is one thing to be disheartened at the
development of the church at large.  It is much more difficult to face the
possibility that the church we love is suffering because of our own
deficiencies -- that is suffering within our very own minds.
	Yet, as we are well aware, this can indeed happen.  We know we should turn
to the Lord in His Word, learn His teachings, and apply them willingly and
cheerfully to our lives.  But we find that in practice this is not always
as easy as it might at first seem.  Enthusiasm for the doctrines can at
times wane, and we can find the teachings of the Writings hard to read and
listen to, difficult to think about, and, perhaps, dry and boring.  And
though we periodically resolve to live our religion to the fullest, we can
find ourselves slipping -- giving in, almost unconsciously, to the ways of
the world and the ways of our own propriums.
	Why?  When we recall the description, in the Book of Revelation, of the
New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, we are moved deeply by the
beauty of this vision.  We know and feel, deep down inside, that the
Writings, and the New Church based upon them, are the Lord's answer to the
spiritual problems of the human race.  And deep within our hearts we do
love our religion.  Yet for some reason this love, and this vision, at
times proves insufficient to keep us constant in our dedication.  We get
discouraged, and we wonder what the problem is.  We wonder why it is that
something so precious can at times seem so dry and uninspiring.
	States of discouragement, are, though, to be expected.  The last two
chapters of the Book of Revelation provide us with a most beautiful vision
of the New Jerusalem coming down to earth.  This vision provides us with a
goal, a purpose, towards which we can strive.  But earlier chapters in the
Book of Revelation should not be overlooked, because they describe the
enemies of the New Church.  They describe the obstacles, forces at work in
other people and also in ourselves, which must be overcome before the New
Jerusalem can be fully established upon the earth.  Though the New Church
is precious -- indeed, because it is so precious -- the forces of hell work
unceasingly to prevent its establishment in the hearts and minds of people
here on earth.
	Such resistance to the establishment of the New Church is the subject of
our text this morning.  John records how an angel was seen coming down from
heaven carrying a little book in his hand.  John was told to take the book
from the angel.  But he asked for it from the angel, the angel told him to
eat it.  As John ate the book, it was sweet in his mouth, but as soon as he
had eaten it, his stomach was bitter.
	The little book, which was in fact in the form of a scroll (AE 299:3),
represented the Word, and, in particular, the literal sense of the Word.
This literal sense is, we are told, as sweet as honey, that is, it seems
delightful.
	The literal sense is written for the natural man and contains general
truths adapted to his comprehension.  There is indeed truth in the letter
of the Word, but the truth we find there on the surface  is not expressed
in any great detail.  Because of this, the literal sense can be explained
away or twisted to suit our own preconceptions, and our own evil desires.
For this reason, the literal sense of the Word can at times appeal to even
an evil man.  Both good and evil people can find the literal sense of the
Word as sweet as honey.  The little book was therefore described by John as
being sweet in the mouth.  It had the sweetness of honey, for honey
represents natural or external delight.  And it has to be this way.  If the
Word in its letter did not at first seem pleasant, people would not be able
to receive it, but would, we are told, "be deterred at the very
threshold"(AC 5620:13).  And so the Word is specifically written so that in
its letter it can appeal even to people who far from regenerate.
	Now it is different with the internal sense, since that sense contains
truth in much greater detail and fullness.  Because of this, the truth of
the internal sense of the Word cannot so easily be explained away or
twisted in order to justify and support a man's evils.  Indeed, the truth
of the internal sense confronts a man's evils, forcing him to choose
between the truth on the one hand, and his own evil loves on the other.
	This is the reason the little book was bitter in John's stomach.  As the
mouth represents what is exterior, so the stomach, being within the body,
represents what is interior.  It is as a man comes into a more interior
understanding of the truth of the Word, as the truths within the internal
sense become apparent to him, that he first senses a lack of delight -- a
bitterness -- within the Word.
	Now this bitterness or unpleasantness results from the way in which
interior truth challenges and confronts the evils a person may love.  Such
truth can seem very bitter indeed.  But there is more to it than this.
This truth doesn't just seem bitter.  It actually is bitter!  In itself, of
course, the Divine truth is clean, wholesome and delightful.  But the
interior truth of the Word, as it exists within a man's understanding, is
bitter at first.  Just as clean water becomes bitter when what is foul is
mixed in with it, so too does that living water -- the interior truth of
the Word -- become bitter when it is mixed with the evils of a man's proprium.
	The origin of this bitterness is thus the man himself.  It is he who has
mixed what is evil and false with the interior truths of the Word and so
rendered them bitter.  Not that he has done this consciously.  In fact, the
interior truths of the Word are rendered bitter by a man before he is even
aware of their existence.
	It happens while his understanding of the truth is still general -- while
the truths he knows are still taken mainly from the literal sense of the
Word.  These truths, as we have said, are sweet, because they can be used
to justify and confirm his evils.  But when a man does this, when a man
uses the Word to excuse his evils, he then mixes what is evil and false
with the literal truth of the Word.  Now this truth is exterior truth, but
still, it cannot be completely separated from what is interior.  Everything
in the literal sense of the Word has interior truth within it.  Because of
this, when a man fouls or adulterates the truth of the literal sense with
evil and falsities, he at the same time adulterates the interior truths
within, even though he is as yet unaware of them.  He renders the interior
truth of the Word bitter within his own mind.  Later on, when the man comes
into a deeper understanding of the Word, this bitterness then causes him to
regard when he learns as unpleasant and as undelightful.
	Now this is one reason the truths of the Writings do not find greater
acceptance in the world around us.  The Writings, you see, are a revelation
of interior truths within the literal sense of the Word.  As such, their
message inevitably carries with it a certain bitterness for many people.
Because Christianity, throughout the centuries, falsified and twisted so
many truths of the literal sense, the interior truths hidden within that
sense were adulterated and rendered bitter.
	We too do a similar thing.  Our own understanding of the Lord's truth is
at first general.  Even though we have the Writings, it is only gradually
that we come to see and understand the interior truths they contain.  In
the meantime, it sometimes happens that we use our superficial
understanding of the truth to support and excuse the way we live.  Rather
than honestly admit that we are wrong, it at times seems easier to justify
our actions.  But to use a superficial understanding of the Writings in
this way can cause us problems later on, for by so doing this we are
adulterating and making bitter the deeper truths of the Heavenly Doctrines.
	As a result, when, later on, we come to have a deeper insight into the
truths of the Writings, we can sometimes find them unpleasant, difficult
and boring, and fail to see what meaning these truths have for our lives.
The sad fact is that previous mistakes have caused the deeper truths of the
Writings to become bitter for us, and the result is that we are then
repelled by these truths.  They are "bitter in the stomach."
	This is especially true of that most important of all the doctrines:  the
doctrine of the Lord.  Indeed, in one series in the Writings, the little
book which John ate is said to represent the Word as to the doctrine
concerning the Lord.  More specifically, it is said to represent "the
doctrinal point in the Word, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and that His Human is Divine" (AR 469).  This teaching about the Lord is
the very essential of the New Church.
	It is a truth taught openly in the letter of the New Testament.  But it is
also a truth that was overlooked and often ignored by the Christian Church.
 That church focussed instead on the truth that the Lord is our Savior.
This was much easier to accept, for this truth is sweet.  Even an evil man
is happy to think that the Lord loves him, and loved him enough to be born
on earth, and to then die for his sins.
	But the truth that the Lord's Human is Divine, and that He is the God of
heaven and earth, though it is a closely related truth, carries with it a
different emphasis.  If the Lord is God, then not only does He love us, but
we must also love Him in return.  We must obey Him.  We must place our own
desires beneath His, for if He is God, then He is to reign over us.  This
was the message of New Church Day, which we celebrated last month.  On that
day, the Lord's disciples were sent out throughout the whole spiritual
world to proclaim the truth that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns.
	The message of New Church Day is more specific than, say, the message of
Christmas.  We can warmly, and perhaps even selfishly, respond to the
message that the Lord came to save us.  Everybody, even an evil man, can be
warmed, at least externally, by the story of a little baby lying in a
manger.  But the truth that the Lord is our God makes a specific demand on
our allegiance.  In its essence, the truth that the Lord is God is the
inmost truth of the Writings.  And it is the most beautiful of all truths.
But past disobedience on our own parts can render this truth bitter, making
it at times seem dry, uninteresting, even unimportant.
	Now it may disturb us when, in certain states, we find the truths of the
New Church uninspiring.  And yet the very fact that this does disturb us is
itself cause for hope.  A purely natural man would not be disturbed.  If a
natural man finds the truth uninteresting, he turns to something else, and
does not give it a second thought.  A spiritual man, or a man who is
becoming spiritual, is different.  Within himself he loves the truth.  This
is why he is disturbed when he finds it bitter.  He wants to be instructed.
 He wants to be enlightened.  He wants to be inspired.  And the fact that
he nevertheless finds the truth undelightful causes him great anxiety,
frustration and distress.
	But if his desire for the truth causes him to feel frustration, it also
causes him to persevere.  And this is the key.  We must persevere.  Though
John found the book bitter in his stomach, he was nevertheless told,
immediately afterwards, to prophesy again.  He had to continue to teach the
truth.  And we ourselves must continue to learn.  We must remain faithful
to the truth, and persevere in learning it and living it, even though it
might seem bitter.  The bitterness we experience arises because of the evil
and falsity we have mixed with the truth of the Word in our minds.  Yet it
is only by means of this truth that the contaminating evil and falsity can
at last be judged and cast to the outskirts of our minds.  Then, and only
then, is the Lord's truth able to flow into us pure and unpolluted.

	WE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY THE LORD to receive the Heavenly Doctrines.  This
is not cause for pride.  Rather, it is something we should accept with deep
humility.  Through our minds especially, the New Jerusalem is at present to
descend upon this earth.  But this will only happen if we allow it to
happen.  We must learn the truth of the New Church, if not always with
delight, at least with perseverance.  And we must strive to live the truth
we learn, not only for our own sakes, but also for the sake of the church.
	We all want the Lord's kingdom, that is, the New Jerusalem, to flourish
and grow upon this earth.  But if we truly want the Lord's kingdom to come,
that is, if we want the New Church to prosper, then we must learn truth
from the Writings more and more, and we must allow this truth to guide us
so that we might do, not our own will, but the Lord's.
	As we make it possible for the Lord's truth to reign in our own minds, and
in our own lives, we have done our own small part, but the most important
part that we can do, in making it possible for the Lord to establish His
kingdom upon this earth, a kingdom that is going to endure forever and ever.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Rev. 10
		AC 5620:13


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Aug  2 21:13:00 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Sat, 02 Aug 1997 17:13:00 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19970802171236.099788f0@mail.one.net>

This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    07-27-97

	THE BARREN FIG TREE

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.
And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He
would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but
leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it,
'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.'  And His disciples heard it."
(Mk. 11:12-14)

	OUR TEXT FOR THIS MORNING describes an incident which occurred during the
week preceding the Lord's resurrection.  After the Lord had ridden into
Jerusalem on the colt of an ass -- a day generally referred to as Palm
Sunday -- He and His twelve disciples had retired for the night to Bethany,
a small village a couple of miles outside the city.  The next day they
returned once again to Jerusalem.  Just after leaving Bethany, though, the
Lord saw a fig tree.  He was hungry, and so He walked over to the tree to
see if there were any figs to eat.  But though the tree had leaves, there
was no fruit on it at all.  In response, the Lord cursed the fig tree.
"Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  The next day, when once again
they passed by the fig tree, it had withered away.  In another Gospel, in
Matthew, the effect of the Lord's words on the tree is described with even
greater drama.  It is said that "immediately the fig tree withered away"
(Matt. 21:19).  As soon as the Lord had cursed the tree, it withered away
right before the disciples' eyes (Matt. 21:20).
	It seems a strange incident.  It sounds as if the Lord was indignant at
the tree because He had found nothing to eat (AE 386:29, 403:21), and so
had used His power to destroy it.  It might seem as if the Lord was
allowing Himself to be angry at a tree.  And yet this obviously could not
be the case:  there had to be another reason, a deeper reason, for the
Lord's actions.
	We are told in the Gospel that the Lord went over to the fig tree because
He was hungry.  The Lord may well have been hungry for physical food at the
time.  But the real hunger the Lord was experiencing was far deeper than a
need for natural food.  The love that was in the Lord, the love that was
the Lord's very soul and His very life, was hungering.  We are told that
"from His Divine love He willed and desired the salvation of the human
race" (AE 386:28).  He wanted to save people.  He wanted to draw them close
to Himself.  This is what He hungered for.  And this is why He went over to
the fig tree.
	The fig tree was a symbol.  Time and time again throughout the Scriptures,
the fig tree is used as a symbol of the Lord's church here on earth.
Specifically it represents "the church in relation to natural good" (AE
386:29).  To the Lord, the church was of the greatest importance. In the
church His Word was present with people here on earth.  Amongst the people
of His church, the Word could be received, and be understood, and could be
lived.  And through the Word, and by means of His Church, all people, both
those inside and those outside the Church, were able to receive something
of spiritual light, and so could be saved.
	This is why the Lord cared, cared deeply, about His church.  And yet His
church was dying.  At that time, the Lord's Church was the Jewish Church.
And the fig tree that the Lord went over to, represented this church.  We
are told that the people of that church knew "some truths from the sense of
the letter of the Word" (AE 386:29).  This is why the tree had leaves on
it:  leaves stand for truths, and those of the Jewish church knew some
truths.  But they were also "in dense falsities and evil loves" (ibid.).
They had no real conception of spiritual truth.  And many of them,
especially those amongst their leaders, loved what was evil.  The
corruption was so deep, and so widespread, that we are told there was not
even any natural good left in that church (AC 4314:4, AE 386:29, AE 403:4).
 This is why the tree had no figs on it.
	By that time of year, in Jerusalem, most fig trees would have developed a
large number of immature figs -- small, but already edible.  Many of these
tiny figs would fall off before fully ripening, but some would be left.
The tree the Lord approached, though, did not have any fruit at all.  It
was completely barren.  It was a picture -- a symbol -- of the complete
failure of the Jewish Church at that time to lead its people towards what
was good.
	The Lord's curse upon the fig tree was not made from anger. It was done
with sadness and from love.  He hungered for people's salvation, but the
church was not providing for the genuine spiritual welfare of its people.
The leaders were, in general, interested only in their own prestige and
their own profit.  Indeed, we read in Mark that after He cursed the fig
tree, then, as soon as He entered the city, He went into the temple and
overturned the tables of the money-changers, telling them that from a house
of prayer they had turned the temple into a den of thieves (Mk. 11:15-17).
	The Lord was zealous:  zealous for His church, and zealous for the people
whom the church was failing to serve.  And part of the Lord's mission on
earth, part of His work of redemption, was the establishment of another
church -- the Christian Church -- a church which would in time reach out
not only to Jews, but to Gentiles as well -- a church which would, at least
to begin with, teach people the truth and lead them towards what was
genuinely good.
	But this church had not yet been established.  It had not yet begun (AE
386:29).  And this is what is meant when it is said in our text, that the
Lord found no fruit on the tree because "it was not the season for figs."
There was not quite yet a church which would lead people towards natural good.
	Natural good, which is represented by figs, is of fundamental importance.
The Jewish Church was vastated -- it withered away -- because no natural
good remained. Without natural good, a church is no longer really a church.
 When there is not even natural good, the church no longer provides a
pathway to heaven.
	Now it is important to understand what is meant here by natural good,
because the term is used in a number of different ways in the Writings.
Sometimes it refers to the good into which a person is born -- the good
which is present in the natural degree of the mind from birth (AC 3469:3).
In our text, though, the term "natural good" is used to refer to that good
which descends into the natural from the spiritual (AC 3408).  It is
sometimes referred to as "spiritual-natural good" (AE 403:21; other terms
used are "spiritual good in natural" [AC 3408], and "natural good from
spiritual" [AC 403:16]).  And spiritual-natural good, which a church must
produce, is very different from the merely natural good into which many
people are born.
	It often happens that some children inherit from their parents a tendency
to appear gentle and kind.  They might inherit a natural, likeable charm.
Sometimes, when the parents are genuinely good, the children indeed inherit
a tendency to receive what is genuinely good (AC 3469:3).  But it often
happens that within inherited natural good there lies hidden a great deal
of selfishness, a great deal of pride, conceit, contempt, and so on (cf. AC
3408).  Underneath their kind exterior, people in inherited natural good
may well have inherited also a tendency to be extremely manipulative,
extremely vengeful, or even extremely adulterous (AC 3469:4).
	This is certainly not the kind of good the Lord was looking for in His
church.  There was no shortage of such hypocritical good amongst the
Pharisees at that time.  On the surface, many of them appeared good men.
But such a pretense of good was merely natural.  It was not
spiritual-natural good.
	There is, in the Book of Jeremiah, a condemnation of merely natural
hypocritical good.  In our first lesson we read about two baskets of figs.
"One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the
other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad
" (Jer 24:2).  The bad figs represented natural good which really isn't
good at all.  The good figs, though, represented natural good which has
something genuinely spiritual within.
	If the Lord's church is to survive, if it is to be established within the
hearts and minds of individual men and women, then it must bear good fruit
within them.  It must bear fruit in their lives.  What is spiritual must
descend into the natural, and cause a person to do what is genuinely good
on the natural plane of everyday worldly life.  The Arcana refers to this
as "real natural human good." (AC 3408).
	And such genuine natural human good is called good for two different
reasons.  When we do what is good in our everyday lives, then what we do is
good, is of service, to others. But it is also good for us as well.
Genuine natural good is not only good for others, but is also delightful
and pleasurable to the person who does it.  As we read in the Arcana,
"natural good is all the delight and pleasure that come from having as an
end the being of service to what is spiritual, thus to the neighbor, still
more to the public welfare, and still more to the Lord's kingdom, and above
all to the Lord" (AC 3167:2).
	A hypocrite can be of service to others.  Externally he can appear
extremely good.  And he can accomplish many things that are of use to
others.  But because he does all this for selfish reasons, the good that he
does is not delightful for him.  He does not and cannot take delight simply
in being of service.
	But a good man does take delight in the doing of what is good. He even
feels this good, this delight, in his very body. "The good of the natural,"
we read, "is the delight which is perceived from charity, or from the
friendship which is of charity; from which delight there comes forth a
pleasure which is properly of the body" (AC 2184e).  He knows that by being
of service to others, he is, in the final analysis, serving the Lord
Himself.  And there is a delight in this which can actually be felt.  When
a person does what he knows is right, then this is something, you might
say, that he feels in his very bones, that he feels in his heart, that he
feels in all his actions.  It feels good to do what is right.  It feels
good to live according to spiritual principles, according to the truths of
the Lord's Word (cf. AC 4231:1).
	And this is why natural good is represented by the fig.  A fig is sweet
(cf. Jud. 9:11), a sweetness which represents the delight, the sweetness,
of natural good.  "Everything sweet in the natural world," we read,
"corresponds to what is delightful and pleasant in the spiritual world" (AC
5620:1).  And it was important, if the Lord's church was to be
re-established upon earth, that people be given to experience once again
the delight, the sweetness, of spiritual-natural good.
	When the multitudes gathered around the Lord to listen to His teachings,
not everybody enjoyed what He had to say. Many of the leaders of the Jewish
Church came to despise the Lord for the way in which He so openly condemned
their hypocrisy.  But for most people, the Lord's teachings were a source
of wonder and delight.  They enjoyed listening to the Lord. And time and
time again, the Lord told them not just to listen to Him, but to do what He
said -- to bear fruit -- for until a person actually bears fruit, the
Lord's church cannot be established within him (AC 4231:1).  It is not
enough just to know the truth, represented by bearing leaves:  the truth
must also be lived in a life of good.  It is said in the Arcana that "good
is man's chief thing, even as the fruit is the chief thing of a tree" (AC
9337:1).  And so the Lord told them to do what He taught them.  He wanted
them to experience the delight of spiritual-natural good, of living
according to what the truth teaches.
	Now to begin with, the Lord's followers received His teachings in a very
simple way.  Their understanding was, for the most part, external and
natural.  But still, within the Lord's teachings there was spiritual truth.
 And by receiving these teachings in simplicity, and by living according to
what they received, they experienced delight -- the delight of living
according to the truth of the Word (cf. AC 5620:13).
	We all know that to live according to the truth is easier said than done.
We all know that to enter fully into a life of good requires that we fight
against evils within ourselves.  As our understanding of the truth
develops, and as we seek to apply the truth to ourselves, we will
inevitably end up doing battle with ourselves.  We will undergo states of
temptations, states that are far from pleasant.
	But still, the path to heaven is not as hard as we might imagine.  Natural
good can sustain us.  There is a sweetness, a satisfaction, to be found in
doing what we know to be true.  We may have to fight within ourselves
against selfishness, conceit, anger, lust -- all kinds of hidden evils.  We
have to face the hells within ourselves.  But in our struggles we can be
strengthened and nourished by the delight of natural good.  It is one of
the ways the Lord sustains us.
	We may have far to go along the road to heaven.  We may have many
struggles ahead of us.  But even now we can have a taste of the sweetness
of heaven.  When we do what we know to be right, and when we serve the Lord
by being of use to our fellow human beings, then we can experience
pleasure. It feels good to do what is right.  It can remind us that good is
something that is meant to be enjoyed.
	There are other fruits mentioned in the Word besides the fig.  Olives and
grapes, in particular, signify celestial and spiritual good, good that is
deeper and more interior than the external good represented by figs (AE
638:3).  But when the Lord made His last visit to Jerusalem, it was a fig
tree which He approached.  The Lord hungered for our salvation, and our
salvation depends upon the doing of spiritual-natural good.  We may,
eventually, be introduced into the deeper goods of heaven itself.  But this
can only happen if we are spiritually fruitful in our natural lives. We
have to take what spiritual truth we know from the Word, and live according
to it in our very ordinary but very important everyday lives.
	Though this may be difficult at times, and though there may be times when
we would prefer to act otherwise, there is, nevertheless a delight and a
sweetness to be found in simply doing what we know to be right, in simply
doing what the Lord tells us to do.
	It feels good to obey the Lord.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Jer. 24
		Mk. 11:11-21
		AC 9337



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Aug 25 18:54:39 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 14:54:39 -0400
Subject: SERMON: The Healing Power of Faith
Message-ID: <199708251454_MC2-1E1E-5FE3@compuserve.com>

The Healing Power of Faith
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
August 24, 1997

        Jesus said to him, "If you can!  All things are possible to him who
believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with
tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"  Mark 9:23-24

Many times in the stories of the Gospels the Lord healed people of
sicknesses, physical disabilities, spirit possession, and even raised
people from the dead.  All of these natural problems reflect different
spiritual problems that we can and often do face in our lives.  Destructive
patterns of concern, thought or action can hurt us, those around us, and
the goals we seek to achieve.  In the Gospel accounts a person's faith was
usually a key element in the healing that took place.  Our reception of the
Lord's help with our spiritual problems also depends on the key element of
the quality of our faith.

Can you picture with your mind's eye the scene described in the Gospel of
Mark.  A man brought his son to the disciples and he told them to cast out
the spirit.  They were unable to help in any perceivable way.  Perhaps the
father would have brought his spirit-infested son immediately to the Jesus,
but He was unavailable for several days while He, Peter, James, and John
were away on at the time Jesus was transfigured before them.  We could
imagine that the man may have been so desperate that he was willing to try
anything to help his son, so he first turned to the disciples.  The
disciples had been successful in the past in similar situations.  Earlier
Jesus had sent them out to preach two by two giving them power over unclean
spirits.  (Mark 6:7) But this time their efforts could not bring a healing.
 Their failed attempts had apparently attracted quite a crowd including
some harping scribes.  When they noticed Jesus approaching the whole crowd,
disciples, father, and observers quickly flocked to meet him.  I picture
the scribes standing there with their arms crossed and a look of smug and
righteous superiority on their faces.  Jesus first question was to ask the
scribes, "What are you discussing with them?"   They never respond. 
Instead the father of the possessed boy explained the situation.  Finally
the father said, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help
us."  

Various translators have  interpreted the Lord's response to this statement
differently.  Many have seen the Greek conveying something like the Lord
saying to the father, "You say, ?If You can'!" or another has put it "If
there is anything I can do!"  The man was placing the problem on the Lord. 
The Lord clearly and squarely put it back on the man with the statement,
"All things are possible to him who believes." Perhaps you can imagine the
anguish welling up in the father when he recognizes that the Lord is saying
that its his own lack of faith that is standing in the way of the healing
he so desperately wants for his son.  And so "the father of the child cried
out and said with tears, ?Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!'"

Many of us can identify with the father's sorrow and cry for help.  We know
much about the Lord and the life He wants us to lead.  We know that there
are qualities in our lives that are destructive, out of control, and are
bringing us and others great sadness.  Yet we time after time seem to be
unable to change the pattern of this behavior.  We are stuck.

Picture a man who has noticed that he regularly makes demeaning comments to
his fellow workers.  He doesn't really intend to put them down, but over
and over again he will find himself saying something that directly or
indirectly conveys the idea "You'd have to be really stupid to be doing
something like that" or "Anyone should have known that wouldn't work."  He
has seen the hurt or irritated expression on the faces of his co-workers
when these comments have come out of his mouth.  He may have noticed the
same pattern with his wife and children.  Too often this man finds himself
demeaning the capability of those around him.  He knows this is
destructive.  He knows that it is tinged with a sense of personal
superiority.  He has recognized that it produces harmful results.  But
still words conveying these sentiments keep coming out of his mouth.  

Or picture the young woman who too often finds herself caving in on an
issue because a person in front of her at that moment seems emotionally
charged about it.  Perhaps it means that she regularly allows her
boyfriends wants and needs dictate what they do and don't do together. 
Maybe she gets run ragged by her mother's expectations.  It could be that
she finds herself staying late to meet a deadline at work far more than
anyone else in the office.  When she reflects on her life she knows that it
is out of balance.  She knows that she is often letting lower issues
override higher ones.  She can see that it is very hard for her to
disappoint someone or for her to be willing to evoke anything close to an
angry response. It is hurting her life and usefulness and she knows that it
encourages unhealthy patterns in the people around her.   And yet she keeps
doing it over and over again.

In both of these cases there are falsities and evil loves harnessing
potentially useful qualities to achieve destructive ends.  In the Gospel
story the evil spirit that possessed the man's son took control of his
physical body in useless and destructive ways.  So too, evil spirits within
our lives work to twist and control us to keep us doing useless and
destructive things.  And above all, they want us to feel stuck, driven,
incapable of effecting any kind of change.

Like the father in the story, we can cry to the Lord for help.  We can pray
to Him asking if He can do anything to bring about a change in the pattern
of life we know is incompatible with usefulness, happiness, and peace of
mind.  And the Lord replies that the issue isn't whether there is anything
He can do.  He reminds us that  "All things are possible to him who
believes."  He calls us to true faith.

What does it mean to have faith in the Lord?  Real faith is an internal
acknowledgment of the Lord's power and from this an intuition of the
importance and value of turning to Him for help. (see Apocalypse Explained
815:5)  There certainly are many ways that people can use the word "faith"
that don't relate to what the Lord means by it.  The Lord does not want us
to perfect assurance that no matter what kind of thing we ask for or need
we will receive it.

        [The Lord] said to the disciples, that "If they had faith as a
grain of mustard seed they would be able to pluck up a mountain or a
mulberry tree from its place, and cast it into the sea;" also that "all
things whatever they asked they should receive;" and yet it is not
according to Divine order for a person to receive what he asks if he only
have faith, or for the disciples to pluck up a mountain or a tree from its
place and cast it into the sea.  But "faith" here means faith from the
Lord, consequently it is called "the faith of God," and he who is in faith
from the Lord asks for nothing but what contributes to the Lord's kingdom
and to himself for salvation; other things he does not wish, saying in his
heart, Why should I ask for something that does not contribute to this use?
Therefore if he were to ask for anything except what it is granted him from
the Lord to ask he would have no faith of God, that is, no faith from the
Lord.  It is impossible for angels of heaven to wish and so to ask for
anything else, and if they were to do so they could have no faith that they
would receive it.  (Apocalypse Explained 815:10)

But if the man and woman in the two examples given above recognize that
there are evil loves and false ideas hurting them and others, they can and
should ask for the Lord's help in recognizing and fighting their influence.
 The Lord promises that these evil loves and false ideas will not lead
these people further and further away from a heavenly life if His help is
sought and wisely used.  He promises that if they are sincere in their
efforts, the effect of these evil loves and false ideas will gradually
decrease.  

We know that true faith in the Lord doesn't mean a blind and passive trust
that the Lord will fix everything no matter what we do.  We know that He
needs our cooperation.  He calls us to grow in faith.  He calls us to grow
in obedience.  He calls us to grow in love for Him and for our neighbors. 
We can hear this call.  We can be working to grow in faith, obedience, and
love.  And we too can echo the father's words, "Lord, I believe; help my
unbelief!"  Not only are we to pray for help on problems such as lying,
anger, adulterous lust, and covetousness, but we also can pray for the
strength to turn to the Lord more and more each day.  The Word calls us to
this faith.  Consider the trust conveyed by the words of Psalm 121:

     I will lift up my eyes to the hills; From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.
The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in 
From this time forth, and even forevermore. (Psalm 121:1-8)

Real faith is an internal acknowledgment of the Lord's power and from this
an intuition of the importance and value of turning to Him for help.  May
we pray for a growth our faith in the Lord.  May we more and more often
turn our hearts and minds to Him for wisdom, strength, and comfort.  May we
do our part to learn and live according to what He has taught.  May we come
to trust more and more that, "All things are possible to him who believes."
 AMEN.

       Lessons: Mark 9:14-27

There were three reasons why faith in the Lord healed [the sick, blind,
dumb and many others when He was in the world].  First, because those
people acknowledged His Divine omnipotence, and that He was God. Secondly,
because faith is acknowledgment, and from acknowledgment intuition [or
internal perception of Him].  All intuition from acknowledgment makes
another to be present; this is a common thing in the spiritual world.  So
now, when a new church was to be established by the Lord, it was this
intuition from an acknowledgment of the Lord's omnipotence by which they
were first to look to the Lord; and from this it is clear what is here
meant by faith.  The third reason was, that all the diseases healed by the
Lord represented and thus signified spiritual diseases that correspond [or
relate on a higher level] to these natural diseases. Spiritual diseases can
be healed only by the Lord, and in fact only by looking to His Divine
omnipotence and by repentance of life.  This is why He sometimes said,
"Your sins are forgiven; go and sin no more." This faith also was
represented and signified by their miraculous faith; but the faith by which
spiritual diseases are healed by the Lord can be given only through truths
from the Word and a life according to them; the truths themselves and the
life itself according to them make the quality of the faith.    Apocalypse
Explained 815:5

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Sep  7 18:32:04 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 1997 14:32:04 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "We Would Be Building," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199709071834.OAA17435@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                 We Would Be Building
          A Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
     Bridgewater, Massachusetts, September 7, 1997

Readings: Micah 7:7-15. A day for building your walls.
          John 2:13-21. The temple of his body.
          _Apocalypse Explained_ #220a. The meaning of "temple."

The day for building your walls will come; the day for extending your
boundaries. (Micah 7:11)

Hello again, everyone! It is so nice to be starting another church year! I
don't know about you, but after all the activity of the summer, I'll be
happy to have things settle back into some kind of pattern again.

As we begin the second year of my pastorate here, I am thinking back to my
first sermon as your pastor, almost exactly one year ago. Its title was "The
Tabernacle of God." It was about the foundation and the mission of this
church as we started our pastoral relationship together. Today we will
revisit the same theme as a way of setting the tone for this new Church
year. This will also be another in our occasional series on the spiritual
aspects of being a church that welcomes people and serves their spiritual needs.

My topic this time is "We Would Be Building." This comes from one of my
all-time favorite hymns, sung to the theme of Finlandia--which I asked Patty
to play for our prelude music. We will also sing it as our closing hymn, but
I would like to read the words for you now:

     We would be building; temples still undone
     O'er crumbling walls their crosses scarcely lift;
     Waiting till love can raise the broken stone
     And hearts creative bridge the human rift;
     We would be building; Master, let thy plan
     Reveal the life that God would give to man.

     Teach us to build; upon the solid rock
     We set the dream that hardens into deed
     Ribbed with the steel that time and change doth mock,
     Th'unfailing purpose of our noblest creed;
     Teach us to build; O Master, lend us sight
     To see the towers gleaming in the light.

     Oh, keep us building, Master; may our hands
     Ne'er falter when the dream is in our hearts,
     When to our ears there come divine commands
     And all the pride of sinful will departs;
     We build with thee; oh, grant enduring worth
     Until the heavenly Kingdom comes on earth.

For me, this hymn sums up very powerfully what we are doing here on earth .
. . what we as a _church_ are doing here on earth. As a church, whatever the
obstacles may be, _we would be building_. Yes we would be building this
physical structure that we are now sitting in; we would be working on the
landscaping, the parking lot, and perhaps putting up a new steeple. We would
be making other improvements to this building of ours.

But as I mentioned in my sermon a year ago, we did not rebuild this
building--nor do we continue working on it--simply to have a building. We as
a church have a deeper purpose for all the time, energy, and money that we
put into our physical plant. That purpose is spiritual, not physical--and
this physical plant is an _expression_ of that spiritual purpose. Emanuel
Swedenborg puts it very will in _True Christian Religion_ #336:

     In terms of _time_, the first thing in building a church
     is laying the foundations, building the walls, putting the
     roof on, and then putting an altar inside and constructing
     a pulpit. But in terms of our _intentions_, the first thing
     is worshipping God in the church--which is the reason why
     we do the other things.

This church does have a foundation. In fact, it has several foundations. The
primary foundation--really, the _only_ foundation, as the hymn says--is
Jesus Christ our Lord. In fact, as our reading from John suggests, Jesus
_is_ the church. When the Jews of his day demanded a sign to prove his
authority, Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in
three days." Of course, he did not mean the stone temple that had taken
forty-six years to build. He was speaking of the temple of his body. And to
the extent that we are genuinely Christian, the church on earth and in
heaven _is_ Christ's body.

But that is a Divine perspective. From a more human perspective, our
particular church is a human institution that has its own foundations--which
we do our best to build according to a divine model. The foundations our
church is built upon are summed up in our mission statement, which reads:

     Our mission is to nurture spiritual growth by: worshipping
     the one God, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, studying
     his Word, and living a life of kindness and service.

That goes by very quickly, so I would like to read it for you one more time.
 
These three things form the solid rock upon which we build our church; they
are the steel that mock time and change; they are the unfailing purpose of
our noblest creed. They are the purpose for this building that surrounds us.
All the building that we do must be on this foundation, or we will have
accomplished nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible, and a life of
kindness and service--these are foundations that will never be moved.

Yet in themselves, as a mission for our church, these are only a foundation.
For them to mean anything, we need to build upon them the superstructure of
the life of our church. This brings me to our text from Micah: "The day for
building your walls will come; the day for extending your boundaries."
(Micah 7:11)

I would like this text to serve as our theme as we begin this church year.
We have laid a solid foundation by basing our church on the Lord and the
Bible. Our church life and programs--especially our Sunday School and our
Sunday worship service--are centered around the worship of the Lord and the
study of his Word. This is something we reaffirm every year.

Now, as you and I begin our second year together, I believe that our task
for the year is to build our walls on that foundation, and to extend our
boundaries. In more current terms, I believe it is time for us to reach out
into the community with our message, and to work consciously and effectively
toward growth in our church.

When I say "growth," I mean not only growth in numbers; I also mean growth
in the spiritual life of our church. I mean growth in the programs we offer
to serve people's spiritual needs. I mean growth in how each of us as
individuals serves our neighbors. I mean growth in the way all of us
together as a church serve our community. Perhaps we _could_ grow in numbers
without growing in those other ways, but it wouldn't be easy. And we would
have to question what that growth meant if it were merely membership numbers
and not spiritual growth among those members--spiritual growth that prompts
us to reach out and serve our community. This is the primary growth that we
as a church must be seeking. To put it in the Lord's own words, "Seek first
God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to
you as well." (Matt. 6:33, Luke 12:31)

Sometimes it may feel that we are too few, and the obstacles too great for
us to make any real progress. Perhaps this is why I am always moved by the
opening lines of the hymn: "We would be building; temples still undone /
O'er crumbling walls their crosses scarcely lift." Sometimes it does seem as
if we are barely able to raise the cross of our church's presence above the
crumbling walls of a Christianity that society has forsaken for pursuits
that look more exciting than the church.

But when we feel this way, we need to continue on to the next lines of the
hymn: "Waiting till love can raise the broken stone, / And hearts creative
bridge the human rift." There _is_ a human rift between the church and the
many people who are unchurched--or even inactive members of the church.
Sometimes there are personal rifts: people in the church who have been
unable to get along with each other, so that, to use the old saying, there
is not enough room for both of them in the church. Can a renewed commitment
to God's love on our part bridge some of those rifts?

Most of the time, the rift does in some way have to do with the human limits
in our ability to love others, whether as individuals or as a group such as
our church. We are all imperfect humans; we all have our limits--our
boundaries. But the Lord is telling us through the prophet Micah that it is
time to extend our boundaries; it is time to expand and broaden our limits
to include more within the walls that we inevitably build to distinguish
ourselves--or even separate ourselves--from others.

I would like to start this church year with a challenge. We have
accomplished some wonderful things over the past year--just as this church
has accomplished many good things over its entire history. But everything we
have done can be seen as a foundation for greater things to come. Here,
then, is the challenge: Are we ready for _new_ growth, both as individuals
and as a church? Are we ready to extend our boundaries in new ways as we
work to bring the heavenly kingdom here on earth?


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Tue Sep  9 02:58:30 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 22:58:30 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Using the Lord's Creation
Message-ID: <199709082258_MC2-1FAF-EB32@compuserve.com>

Using the Lord's Creation
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
September 7, 1997

        The earth is the Lord's . . . Psalm 24:1

All things that the Lord created have a good purpose.  All things that
exist, even those that are disorderly, have a use or purpose.  All that we
see around us has a reason for existing. We live in the natural universe
with its qualities of fixed time and place, with all of its wonders, its
every day elements, and its qualities that can fill us with sadness or
horror.  This world has many of its qualities because the purpose of our
natural lives is that we are making choices.  Day in and day out we are
choosing all sorts of things.  What to do and not do, what to say and not
say.  We are even sometimes choosing to let external circumstances
determine what we do.  What we think, say, or do is important because each
of these is an expression of some value or desire that we have.  We can
choose to love and obey the Lord and we can choose a life that
fundamentally denies Him and the order He has created.  We can choose to
live a life that cares for the people around us or we can be crudely
self-centered or materialistic.  On both of these contrasting positions we
often find ourselves with mixed motives or feeling somewhere in the middle
between what is good and what is evil. 

The Lord created this world as a place of choice.  His hope is that we will
freely choose to turn to Him, to love what He loves, and to live according
to the order that leads to usefulness and happiness. More than anything
else though He ensures that we are to be free to choose what values we will
hold and seek to embody in our daily choices.

This world is created with the necessity of choice being forced on us. 
There are finite limits to everything in our experience.  Limits of time,
distance, energy, and resources.  We know we can't do everything.  We know
we are called to choose good and not evil, but even here there are so many
good and useful things we could do each day we have to choose some.  A
person who was bed-ridden might decide that the most useful thing he could
do was spend a part of his day in quiet prayer reflecting on the needs and
hopes of others.  As he turns his mind to the community of people he knows
and especially if he includes the people and events he hears about in the
news he could find that he hardly has the waking time to accomplish his
task.  Each of us has to focus on what we can do that best serves the goals
that we seek to accomplish.  

We also face limits on a larger scale than just our own personal lives. 
This natural universe and the earth that we live on is the Lord's.  This
earth is created for human beings.  It has served them as home in the past,
does so for billions today, and is to serve for billions of billions in the
future.  We are stewards of this world.  What we as a human race do today
will affect the quality of the world that future generations have to live
in.  

This world is an amazing creation.  If we have open eyes and a willing
heart we can see the hand of a loving heavenly Father in so many of its
qualities.   It is remarkably durable in some ways and very delicate in
others.   During this century we have been learning in so many ways how the
Lord has created it as a complex inter-connected system which maintains a
dynamic balance.  The power and complexity of its ecological systems has
many times humbled us.  Over and over again, human beings have affected
some change that thought would be all for the better only to discover that
there were ramifications of their choices far beyond what they ever
considered.  For example, there have been times when a pest or predator
species has been drastically reduced or eliminated in an area and only
years later the importance and use of that species has become evident.

Happily the Lord has made this world with remarkable self-correcting and
self-cleaning qualities.   But we also know that there are limits to the
earth's ability to maintain its balance.  The earth is not that much
different than our natural bodies in this regard.  The Lord has created our
bodies such that they adapt to wide variations in eating, sleeping, and
exercise.  Our bodies can take limited amounts of potentially harmful food
or conditions and not suffer lasting damage.  It is remarkably resilient
but when it gets out of balance there can be catastrophic results.  

For example, our natural bodies require us to consume and retain a certain
amount of water on a regular basis.  We can get this water in part through
the food we eat, through many liquids we can drink.  Usually it is not
something we pay any attention to.  But in Third World countries one of the
highest causes of infant mortality is severe dehydration brought on by an
intestinal bug from drinking unhealthy water.  Because the intestinal bug
keeps these little ones from being able to adequately absorb the water they
drink they can rapidly die.  

Another example is our bodies ability to adapt to extremes of heat and
cold.  While we may not like these extremes, for most of us with a little
care whether it is above 90  or below 0  we can continue to function and
remain healthy.  But in those same conditions people also die from
overheating or becoming severely cold.   

Our bodies can adapt only so far.  This is part of the finite quality the
Lord intended in this natural world.  When a person's body does reach the
limit of its ability to adapt and becomes seriously out of balance it can
have serious even deadly consequences.   Our bodies can work and work to
cope with a problem, sometimes giving us little indication of stress being
produced, until the problem overwhelms the system's ability to adapt.  At
times the result is major and sudden systemic failure.

We know this is true of the world we live in.  The earth is the Lord's.  He
has created it as temporary home for human beings as they are choosing the
qualities that will define their eternal lives.  This world adapts to a
remarkable number of things but there are also limits to this ability to
adapt and self-clean.  We need not envision an ultimate catastrophe to be
concerned about this issue.  We can simply want to hand over to future
generations an earth that has so many of the blessings we love and benefit
from. 

We can be concerned for the welfare of this earth for many reasons.  We can
be concerned on a civil basis because we believe in obedience to the laws
of our country.  We can be concerned on a moral basis because we care about
the world we all share now and what we will pass on to our descendants. 
And we can care on a spiritual basis because we recognize the Lord's
presence and purpose in qualities and features.

All things that the Lord created He created for a purpose.   The usefulness
of anything including each of us depends on how well we serve to cooperate
with His purposes.  Our cooperation determines not only our usefulness but
also our happiness and the fundamental quality of our lives.  The Lord has
told us that, "the happiness of the angels consists in use, from use, and
according to use"  (Arcana Caelestia 454) and that "life is imparted by the
Lord from use, by way of use, and according to use." (Arcana Caelestia 503)
 In the book, Conjugial Love, it is stated:

        . . . the whole of heaven is viewed by the Lord as a world of
useful service, and each angel is an angel according to the service he
renders.  The pleasure in being useful carries him along, like a boat in a
favoring current, bringing him into a state of eternal peace and the rest
that comes with peace.  (Conjugial Love 207:7)

What constitutes a misuse or waste of this world's resources.  What would
be a waste of energy or materials?  What would be the benefits and the
consequences of specific choices.  The reason the Lord created this world
is that He wants us to freely choose the life that leads to heaven.  Any
choice that contributes to that goal is truly useful.  Any choice that
doesn't and even leads us away from heaven is destructive and evil.  The
material things that surround us aren't in themselves intrinsically good or
evil.  It is how we use them and even more so WHY we use them the way we
do.  

The Lord has given us remarkable latitude in how we live our lives. 
Perhaps you are familiar with the with what the Lord has said in the book,
Heaven and Hell, about how it can be perfectly allowable to enjoy so many
qualities of this world.

        . . . a person may acquire riches and accumulate wealth as far as
opportunity is given, if it is not done by devious or deceitful means; that
he may enjoy delicious food and drink if he does live for these things;
that he may maintain as large a home as he can reasonably afford, have
conversation with others similar to himself, frequent places of amusement,
talk about the affairs of the world, and need not go about like a devotee
with a sad and sorrowful countenance and drooping head, but may be joyful
and cheerful; nor need he give his goods to the poor except so far as
affection leads him; in a word, he may live outwardly precisely like a
worldly person; and all this will be no obstacle to his entering heaven,
provided that inwardly in himself he thinks about God as he ought, and acts
sincerely and justly in respect to his neighbor.  (Heaven and Hell 358)

The Lord wants us to have a happy life.  But fundamental happiness will
come from the way we wisely use the time, energy, and resources around us. 
It won't come from or be absolutely prevented by what we own or don't own,
by whether we have certain options to do this or that particular thing. 
All of us in this congregation have discretionary time and resources that
far exceeds what most people in this world experience.  Looking over our
shoulder's much of the world's population would see us as incredibly
wealthy and powerful.  But we know all too well that this perspective
doesn't necessarily add to contentment or happiness.   Some of the richest
people are among the most unhappy.

The earth is the Lord's.  Everything that He has created can be useful
often in many different ways.  As you go about living your life today may
you reflect on the wonder of creation.  May you see something of its
incredibly complex system of useful parts, inter-related, and serving each
other.  All of them working together to provide a world in which you and I
can live, that new human beings can be born in and make their essential
choices that lead to a dwelling place in heaven or in hell.   The earth is
the Lord's.  May we pray for the understanding and the desire to care for
it wisely. AMEN.

       Lessons: Genesis 1:1-5
                Psalm 24:1-2 

The universe, with all things in general and in particular within it, was
created from the Divine Love by means of the Divine Wisdom. . . . This idea
can be confirmed from all things in the world that may be examined by the
eye. Take any object in particular and examine it with some degree of
intelligence, and you will be convinced. Take a tree, or its seed, its
fruit, its flower or its leaf, and, summoning what wisdom you have, view it
with a powerful microscope, and you will see wonderful things; yet there
are more interior things, which you do not see, still more wonderful.
Observe the order, step by step, in which the tree grows from the seed till
it produces new seed; and consider whether there is not in every step a
continuous effort to reproduce itself; for the goal which it tends toward
is seed, in which its fruitfulness is renewed. Then if you will but reflect
upon this spiritually also, and this you can do if you please, will you not
see wisdom displayed?  Moreover, if you will reflect deeply enough from the
spiritual point of view, you will see that this fruitfulness is not from
the seed, nor from the sun of this world which is pure fire, but that it is
in the seed from God the Creator, to whom belongs infinite Wisdom. You will
see that it is present not only at creation but also continuously
afterwards . . . Examine also any other object on the earth, such as a
silk-worm, a bee, or any other tiny creature, and view it first naturally,
afterwards rationally, and finally spiritually. Then if you can raise your
thoughts to a high level, you will be astonished at all you perceive; and
if you permit wisdom to speak in you, you will say in astonishment, "Who
does not see the Divine in these things? They are all the work of Divine
Wisdom." Still more will this be the case if you observe the uses of all
the things which have been created, noting how they proceed in their own
order right up to human beings, and from human beings to the Creator from
whom they are; and that from the conjunction of the Creator with the human
race the connection of all things depends, and, if you will acknowledge it,
the preservation of all things. Divine Providence 3
        
All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings." We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.  
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Sep 15 01:26:31 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 21:26:31 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Jesus Saves," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199709150126.VAA05807@mailrelay.tiac.net>

                     "Jesus Saves"
              By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
     Bridgewater, Massachusetts, September 14, 1997

Readings: Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14. The Song of Moses (in part).
          Matthew 1:18-21. "He will save his people from their sins."
          _The Heavenly City_ #293, 294. The Lord came to save the human race.

"You are to call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
(Matt. 1:21)

Jesus saves! How many times have we heard and seen this? It pops up on
billboards and bumper stickers. It is regular fare on televangelists'
programs. And I suspect most of us could fill a good sized basket with the
tracts that have come our way proclaiming the message that Jesus saves.

In our church, we tend to shy away from this kind of language. It is usually
associated with a type of Christian belief that runs against the grain for
us. It goes with a brand of Christianity which teaches that only those who
believe in the name of Jesus Christ in a very literal way are saved . . .
and that those who do _not_ so believe are damned to an equally literal
hellfire. As followers of a renewed Christianity, we cannot accept teachings
that exclude other flocks and nations from the saving power of the Lord. We
see God's mercy over all people, whether or not they are Christian. We see
God working in many ways, through many religions, to reach out to people of
all different cultures.

Still, the slogan "Jesus saves" did not come from nowhere. Our reading from
Matthew says that the reason Mary's baby was to be given the name "Jesus"
was that he would save his people from their sins. The name "Jesus" in the
Greek of the New Testament comes from the Hebrew name "Joshua." Both mean
"salvation." And there are passages in the New Testament say quite clearly
that those who believe in Jesus are saved, while those who do not are
condemned. We usually think of the Gospel of John as the most philosophical
and spiritual of the Gospels. Yet in John 3:18, we find words that sound
anything but philosophical and spiritual:

     Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not
     believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in
     the name of the only Son of God.

Doesn't that clinch the argument for the "Jesus saves" people? I think not.
For we must read this in its context. John goes on to say,

     And this is the judgment: that the light has come into the
     world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their
     deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not
     come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But
     those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be
     clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. (John
     3:19-21)

This certainly _is_ in the philosophical spirit of John's Gospel--and we
need to read the previous verse in the same spirit. John's main concern is
not whether people literally believe in Jesus or not. His concern is with
those who reject the light of truth that Jesus brought to us. He points out
that those who wish to live in an evil way will reject that light of truth
because it shows that their actions are wrong.

When it comes to Christians (as compared to people of other religions),
Swedenborg agrees with John quite literally. He says in _True Christian
Religion_ #107: "From this time onward, no one from Christianity can come
into heaven without believing in the Lord God the Savior, and approaching
him alone." This should not be too difficult to swallow. After all, why
would people call themselves Christian if they did not believe in Christ as
Lord and savior? For a Christian to reject Christ would be to reject their
religion. If this is a move toward joining another religion, Swedenborg's
statement no longer applies, since that person is no longer Christian. But
if the rejection of Christ means that that person does not want religion
interfering with wrong ways of living, then the person has indeed become
condemned--not by God, but by him- or herself.

When it comes to non-Christians, though, Swedenborg has this to say, in the
same number from _True Christian Religion_:

     But people who do not know anything about the Lord [Jesus
     Christ], . . . if they believe in one God, and live in
     accordance with the commandments of their own religion, are
     saved by their faith and their life. Sin is charged to people
     who _know_, not to people who are unaware. (_True Christian
     Religion_ #107)

This is also in the spirit of John's statements. For people who are not
Christians, believing or not believing in Christ has little to do with
accepting or rejecting the light of truth. People of other faiths see the
light of truth in their own religions--and in our church we believe the Lord
has provided that the religion of every culture has the basic truths people
need in order to be saved. If people of other faiths accept and live
according to the truth as they find it in their faith, how can they be
accused of hating the light because they do not want their evil deeds exposed?

We would have to reject the rest of what John says in order to keep to a
literal interpretation of his earlier statement that people must believe in
the Son of God in order to be saved. That would mean pitting one part of the
Bible against another. However, there is no contradiction if we read John
from a more spiritual perspective. If we read him as saying that those who
believe in the _message_ of Jesus are saved, while those who reject it are
condemned, then everything he says fits together beautifully.

Jesus stated the essence of his message very clearly. When a religious
lawyer asked him, "Which commandment in the Law is greatest?" Jesus replied,

     "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
     all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and
     first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your
     neighbor as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets depend on
     these two commandments.." (Matt. 22:37-40)

The religion of every culture teaches these two principles in one way or
another. Every major religion places God at the center of the universe, and
teaches that God should be at the center of our lives. All of them teach
that we should love and care for other people. Anyone of any religion who
believes and lives by these commandments is believing in the name of Jesus,
because he or she is believing in the spiritual teachings that the name of
Jesus represents. But anyone of any religion who rejects these commandments
is rejecting religion and spiritual life, and causing his or her own
spiritual destruction.

We will return to the question of how Jesus saves us personally. But I would
like to briefly mention one way in which Jesus _did_ personally save the
entire human race from spiritual destruction. This teaching, I believe, is
unique to our church. It was the subject of our reading from Swedenborg, and
I would like to repeat part of that reading:

     The Lord came into the world to save the human race, which
     otherwise would have died a death that lasts forever. He saved
     us by getting hell under control, since hell was attacking every
     person who came into and left the world. At the same time, by
     doing this he made his human side divine. So now he can keep
     hell under control forever. (_The Heavenly City_ #293)

Swedenborg tells us that at the time of the Lord's coming, the world was at
its lowest ebb spiritually. So many people had turned their backs on God and
religion that the spiritual world was getting clogged with evil spirits who
were blocking out the flow of God's warmth and love to people on earth.
Basically, the evil spirits were polluting the spiritual atmosphere in very
much the same way the early coal-burning factories and fireplaces produced a
thick black smoke that darkened city skies on still winter days.

Throughout his life on earth, Jesus struggled against those evil spirits on
a spiritual level at the same time he outwardly struggled with the religious
authorities of his day who were blocking the light of truth from reaching
the common people. By continually winning those struggles, he cleared away
the spiritual pollution that had built up, so that the light of his love and
truth could once again shine on us unhindered. We all now have access to
that love and light if we will make the choice to look toward it and follow it.

Now, all of this has been just a little bit philosophical and theoretical.
But the way we as human beings feel the saving power of Jesus Christ is
anything but theoretical. The words of the Gospel have power, not because of
any logical sense they may make if interpreted in the "correct" manner; they
have power because they speak of spiritual realities that can and do reach
out to us and save us from very real and personal hells. They speak of our
Lord Jesus loving us and caring for us enough to come and pull us out of
pits of depression, despair, and destructive living that would otherwise
overwhelm us.

Yesterday as I was driving down the highway, I flipped on the radio to catch
up on the news. At that moment, a man was giving a tribute to Mother
Theresa. He was a doctor who treated many patients in the same kinds of
desperate conditions as the people that Mother Theresa and her Sisters of
Charity cared for every day. The man spoke movingly of how he would see
Mother Theresa among these poor, destitute, and diseased people, and she
would have a look of joy on her face. He envied her and the Sisters the deep
and abiding faith that could keep joy in their hearts as they cared for
these broken human beings day after day, week after week, year after
year--while doctors and nurses who lack that kind of faith burn out on such
seemingly hopeless work in a much shorter time.

This is the saving power of Jesus on a very personal and human level. It is
a power that does not exist in any merely human endeavor such as science or
medicine--no matter how much good they may do on their own level. It is the
power to take the broken _insides_ of a human being--our broken spirits--and
turn that brokenness into joy and peace. Millions of people have felt the
power of Jesus Christ saving them in that spiritual and emotional way. I am
sure many of us here in this church today have stories we could tell of how
the Lord lifted us up out of situations that would have otherwise been too
much for us to bear, and how the Lord continues to sustain us through trials
and struggles that would otherwise have long since overwhelmed us.

Yes, Jesus does save. But the salvation of Jesus is not simply a verbal
thing. It is not simply a matter of saying, "I believe," and being saved
from all of our sins. It is a matter of believing, not just with our head,
but with our heart and with our gut. It is a matter of allowing the Lord to
flow into our lives--to take over our lives--with the saving power of his
passionate love for us, and of his brilliant, guiding wisdom. It is a matter
of turning our entire lives over to that love and wisdom; turning over both
our best and our worst parts; turning over our greatest joys and our deepest
sorrows.

To adapt words from the Song of Moses:

     The Lord sustains us in a desert land,
          In a howling wilderness waste;
     He shields us, cares for us,
           Guards us as the apple of his eye.
     As an eagle stirs up its nest,
          And hovers over its young;
     As it spreads its wings, takes them up,
          And bears them aloft on its pinions,
     The Lord alone guides us.



From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Sep 22 02:33:41 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 22:33:41 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Becoming Like Children" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199709220233.WAA04548@mailrelay.tiac.net>

              Becoming Like Children
             By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
     Bridgewater, Massachusetts, September 21, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 66:12-14. "As a mother comforts her child, so will I
comfort you."
          Matthew 18:1-6, 10-14. Becoming like children
          Arcana Coelestia #3417.2, 430. Becoming least; the meaning of "child."

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3)

Last Sunday Patty, the kids, and I all went down to Yarmouthport for the
open house that included our church there and two historic houses nearby.
Patty, Heidi, and Caleb went over to the Winslow Crocker house, while I took
Chris with me into the church to talk to the people there. We had arrived
toward the end of the afternoon, so Chris and I caught the very end of the
organ concert that had been going on all afternoon.

Just as we were about to leave, two elderly women hurried into the
church--the last of over three hundred people who had come through during
the open house. (A record breaker!) They wanted to get at least a quick look
at the church. They were parked over by the Winslow Crocker house, where
Chris and I needed to meet the rest of the family. So we accompanied the two
women down the sidewalk. As Chris trotted along, one of the women cheerfully
commented, "We old ladies walk the same way the little ones do: kind of
funny and bow-legged, being careful not to trip and fall over."

I replied, "Didn't somebody famous say we have to become like little
children to enter the kingdom of heaven?"

The women laughed and said, "We do seem to go out the same way we come in!
Maybe that's the way God intended it." And the conversation went on.

It was a delightful conversation. I'm sure those women would have been glad
to be more nimble on their feet. But what I felt from them was a cheerful
acceptance of their situation--and a sense of humor about it. Later, as I
reflected on that conversation, I realized that walking "kind of funny and
bow-legged" was not the only way these women had become like little
children. They had a little child's acceptance of life as it is dealt to us,
and a child's sense of wonder and joy at simple things in life. There was a
sense of playfulness about them, as if, whatever they must have been through
in their long lives, they were going to enjoy their lives right now, in this
very moment.

Little children are not known for an acceptance of delayed gratification. If
Mommy or Daddy says, "We'll go to the playground tomorrow," for them it
might as well be ten years away. Sometimes they are right! It is so easy for
us adults to say, "We'll do that tomorrow," meaning, "Maybe some day we'll
do it." But a little child knows--or at least feels--that the joy that
counts most is the joy we have right this moment.

Of course, this is not the only valid perspective. There is something to be
said for our adult sense that we must work now so that we can enjoy
ourselves later. For all their joy of life, children are not very good at
making sure there is food on the table and a roof over their heads. There
_are_ practicalities that we need to attend to; if we don't, we will be too
cold and hungry to enjoy life very much. As children grow up, they have to
learn to think and act more like adults so that they can make their way in
the world.

Unfortunately, too many of us get stuck in that "adult" way of thinking. We
see that there is work to be done: there are bills to be paid; lawns to be
mowed, garage doors to be fixed, meals to be made. Whether we like it or
not, we spend most of our waking hours "taking care of business," and
putting off the enjoyment of life for later.

One of the advantages of growing older in our society--an advantage that the
women I met down on Cape Cod seemed to be enjoying--is that there comes a
time when we can retire from our regular employment, and not have to spend
so much of our time just making ends meet. Not that there are no more
worries left--we always seem to have some of those. But there is a time
when, if we will allow ourselves, we can relax a bit and perhaps move back
toward enjoying some of the simple pleasures in life as we did when we were
children. Perhaps by that time we have learned to have more of a child's
simple faith that our needs will be taken care of in one way or another.

However, in between our toddler stage and our time of retirement there are
many years when being like little children is far from our minds. As
teenagers, one of our main goals is _not_ to be like little kids anymore. We
want to be out on our own, away from the oversight and control of our
parents. We want to feel independent and self-directed, to run our lives as
we see fit. For a teenager, little kids are often cute and fun, but most
teenagers would not want to go back to being one! The position of having to
rely on "big people" for all of our needs is just what we want to get away from.

As young adults, we are usually either focused on supporting ourselves and
establishing our careers, or we are moving toward having children
ourselves--or both. We like to think of ourselves as mature and capable
adults . . . as people who run the show, not people who are taken care of by
others. Often we _are_ in the position of running the show. If we have
children, we are responsible for them. We have to take care of their
physical and emotional needs, and direct them away from bad behavior and
toward good behavior. If we have a paid job, we have to be responsible for
our particular duties.

Our responsibilities tend to grow as we move toward middle age. Our kids get
older and we need to help them through more complicated life issues--as well
as footing higher bills for their clothing, transportation, education, and
so on. We may have moved to a management or leadership position at work, and
have greater responsibility on our shoulders in that way as well.

All of the practical and societal pressures are away from being like little
children, and toward taking more and more personal responsibility for our
own lives and for the lives of others. How, then, can we become like
children? And if we have to became like children to enter the kingdom of
heaven, how can we ever make it into heaven?

What we have here are two different values in life that, in our experience,
are often in conflict with each other. One is the "adult" value of being
responsible and reliable and taking care of things and people that need to
be taken care of. The other is the "child" value of being happy and joyful
and spontaneous in the moment, and trusting that we will be taken care of.

How can we reconcile these two? We certainly can't all quit our jobs and
spend our days running around in the fields and playing ball! Anyway, I
don't think that is what Jesus meant when he said that we must change and
become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. On the
contrary, Swedenborg says the angels in heaven all have jobs. Angels do not
loll around all day playing harps; they have important work to do!

But there is a difference in their motivation for working, and in their
attitude about their livelihood. For one thing, unlike here on earth, in
heaven the Lord provides us all the necessities of life as a free gift.
Angels do not _have_ to work in order to have food, clothing, and a house to
live in. Rather, angels work because they _love_ their jobs. Every angel has
a job that perfectly fulfills his or her greatest talents and interests.
There is no need for the discipline of monthly bills coming due to keep
angels at their jobs. If they were prevented from working for any great
length of time, they would really miss it!

Now, it may seem that it would be impossible for us here on earth to have
quite the same attitude about work, since we _do_ have to worry about the
monthly bills coming due. Still, our attitude toward our work makes an even
bigger difference. Jesus said, "Seek first God's kingdom and its
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matt.
6:33) Yes, we do have to be concerned about where the money will come from.
But that doesn't have to be our primary concern. We can shift our thinking
away from simply working for money and toward working in order to be useful
and serve the needs of others in a way that we enjoy.

Here is where one of our readings from Swedenborg comes in:

     Heavenly joy is not the joy that comes from being great and
     having power over other people; it is the joy that comes from
     being humble and loving to serve others. So it is not wishing to
     be the greatest, but to be the least. (_Arcana Coelestia_
     #3417.2)

Even if we don't have ambitions of being great and having power over others,
we often do have ambitions of having more money and more influence in the
lives of the people around us. Swedenborg is telling us that, whatever joy
may come from pursuing these goals, it is not the joy of heaven. Rather, the
joy of heaven comes from being humble and loving to serve the needs of
others. So one way we can become more like little children--and in that way
prepare ourselves for heaven--is to do our work, not just for what we can
get out of it, but for the joy of giving something to other people.

Children have this joy. Oh, they do sometimes get momentary pleasure out of
one-upping their brothers or sisters or friends. But there is nothing like
the sunny look of joy on Heidi's face when she gives someone she loves a
picture she has drawn for them. Children take joy in the doing and the
giving, not just in the getting that comes from doing and giving.

This leads us to another way that we can become like children. As Swedenborg
says in our other reading:

     In the Bible, "a little one" (a little child) means
     innocence--and also kindness, since there is no real innocence
     without kindness. (_Arcana Coelestia_ #430)

When Heidi gives something she has made to someone, part of her joy is in
her innocence. It is an innocence that trusts that the person she is giving
her creation to will love it and be touched by it. It is the innocence of
knowing that someone is there that she can trust her feelings and thoughts
to. It is the innocence of knowing that she does not always have to run the
show, but can relax, knowing that she will be taken care of.

This is another way that we can change and become like little children. In
the midst of all our striving to provide for ourselves and our families, we
can pause and realize that we do _not_ have to provide everything for
ourselves. We can realize that the Lord is always looking over us and taking
care of our needs at a much deeper level than we will ever be aware of. We
can realize that, in the Lord's sight, and from a spiritual perspective, we
are all like little children who cannot possibly take care of our own needs,
but need to trust and have faith in the infinite wisdom and goodness of God.

If we take that kind of innocent trust and faith in the Lord into our daily
lives--whether we are in our active, working years or in our retirement--we
can gain a different perspective on the responsibilities that fall on our
shoulders. We can realize that the world rests on God's shoulders, not on
ours. And we can do our daily work, not from a sense of necessity, but from
a joy in serving people's needs. Then we will find that, indeed, we have
become like trusting children, and indeed, all our other needs are taken
care of. And indeed, we will have a little bit of heaven in our lives, right
here and now, in the deep joy that we feel when we trust our lives to the
Lord's care.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Oct 12 20:53:09 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 16:53:09 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "The New World . . . Of Spirit," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199710122054.QAA17612@mailrelay.tiac.net>


                   The New World . . . Of Spirit
          A Columbus Day Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
            Bridgewater, Massachusetts, October 12, 1997

Readings: Deuteronomy 2:31-36. Conquering the land of Sihon
          John 14:15-21. I will give you another counselor: the Spirit of truth
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #1408.3. The Lord never is angry, punishes, or
kills

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with
you forever: the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it
neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and
will be in you." (John 14:16, 17)

Last week I put together the November issue of _Our Daily Bread_, on the
topic "Divine Providence." One of the quotes from Swedenborg that I used was
this one from _Arcana Coelestia_, taken from a conversation between
Swedenborg and some angels:

     The angels confirmed the idea that there is no such thing as
     chance. What seems to happen by chance or fortune is providence
     at work on the lowest level of the universal order, in which all
     things are relatively inconstant. (_Arcana Coelestia_ #6493)

This leads me to believe that God has a strange sense of humor. Today we
welcome to our church Adam Seward, a student at the Swedenborg School of
Religion who will be doing a Field Education placement with us this year.
Adam's heritage includes Native American ancestry. He has brought to the
church a Native American perspective on our Swedenborgian teachings.
     Where God's strange sense of humor comes in is that this weekend is
also Columbus Day weekend. Columbus Day is a holiday for many Americans; but
many Native Americans see it as a day of mourning. For people of European
ancestry, Columbus Day is a celebration of our arrival in the New World. For
Native Americans, it has a very different meaning, since the arrival of the
Europeans brought with it the destruction of much of their way of life, and
the deaths of many of their people. So it is highly ironic that of all days,
this should be the first that Adam comes to our church.
     However, I do suspect that God's providential reason for events to
unfold this way has more to it than a strange sense of humor. I suspect that
sometimes God wants us to confront some of the dichotomies and
contradictions in our culture so that we do not get too comfortable . . .
too complacent with our lives and with our society.
     We prefer to focus on the great advances Western culture has made. But
we cannot forget that many of those advances had a high cost in human tears
and human blood. More and more we value peace and mutual friendship, but we
are not far from a time when war and hostility were more the rule than the
exception--and as a culture, we continue to fall back into those dark ways
of war more often than we would like to admit, in our civilized view of
ourselves.
     These human dichotomies are reflected in our two Bible readings this
morning. First from Deuteronomy: "The Lord said to me, "See, I have begun to
deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess
his land." These words could easily have served (and probably _did_ serve)
as a battle cry for the European settlers on this continent who believed
they had a "Manifest Destiny" to possess _this_ land from ocean to ocean.
God himself is telling us to conquer this land!
     The Israelites were very thorough in obeying this command that they
believed they had directly from God. They completely destroyed Sihon's
towns, killing men, women, and children. They left no survivors. After all,
this was to be the _Israelites'_ land. This kind of passage, with a
bloodthirsty God commanding wholesale slaughter, is what gives the
Bible--especially the Old Testament--such a bad name in many people's minds.
     Then from the Gospel of John we read:

     If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the
     Father, and he will give you another Counselor [or Comforter] to
     be with you forever: the Spirit of truth. The world cannot
     accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you
     know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not
     leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:15-18)

What do these words about a Counselor, the Spirit of truth, who will not
leave us as orphans, have to do with that bloodthirsty God of the Old
Testament who commanded the merciless deaths of so many people?
     The dichotomy is in _us_. We as a culture and as individuals have
something of a multiple personality disorder when it comes to our attitudes
and actions toward our fellow human beings. On the one hand, we do hold to
some very admirable spiritual beliefs and principles that tell us to love
not only our neighbors, but also our enemies. On the other hand, we as a
nation continue to get involved in wars, and we continue to treat many of
our own people in less than humane ways. And we as individuals often cheer
on actions that, from the spiritual perspective of John's Gospel, have more
to do with the blindness of worldly thought than with the Spirit of truth
that comes from the Lord.
     This is exactly why the Bible is written the way it is. We humans are
not all love and light. Every one of us has our dark spots. Perhaps we have
an overly quick temper when someone gets in the way of our plans or ideas;
perhaps we have a tendency to look down on other people whom we do not
consider as good as we are; perhaps we tend to assume bad motives in others,
and speak badly of them as a result. Our own dark spots may not involve the
literal slaughter of men, women, and children--but they come from the same
source: the idea that we are _right_, or we are _better_, and therefore
entitled to look down on others and not to treat them as well as we believe
they should treat us.
     At the same time, each one of us has areas of light, where we humbly
and lovingly serve the needs of others out of a genuine desire to make them
happy.
     When Europeans came to this continent, they also had a mixture of
motives. The darker motives, such as greed for gold and desire to conquer
new territory, left a trail of tears and blood among those whose land and
possessions were plundered in the pursuit of those goals. The more spiritual
motives, such as a desire for religious freedom and a desire to live in
peace, free from despotic governments, led other Europeans to value those
who already lived on this continent, and to pursue friendly relations with
them. 
     These two attitudes toward the New World (new to Europeans anyway)
illustrate the dichotomy that our two Bible readings represent. Some
believed they had a God-given right to take over this land and to dispossess
those who currently lived there, including killing them when it seemed
expedient. Others were fleeing similar oppression and dispossession at the
hands of the authorities in their homes across the sea. Each could point to
the Bible and claim Divine sanction for their actions.
     This is where Swedenborg steps into the fray. "The Lord," he says, "is
never angry, nor does he punish, still less curse and kill people." When the
Bible attributes such things to the Lord, this is due to the way its literal
meaning is written: according to the illusions of our physical senses. The
deeper meaning is just the opposite.
     We humans _want_ the Lord to support the lifestyle we are engaged in,
even if it is far from the divine pattern. And we will remake the Lord in
our own image so that we can feel we have divine sanction for our actions.
The Lord allows this, says Swedenborg, so that we will at least have _some_
belief in God--which can be a lever in God's hand moving us toward a less
destructive, more loving way of life. The Lord allows us to make God in our
own image so that through that image, God can reach out to us and gradually
fill our beliefs and our lives with a deeper and truer image of God. To
paraphrase John, the "world" of our faulty materialistic and often
self-centered attitudes cannot see nor know the Lord; still, if we do love
the Lord in the midst of all our wrongs and shortcomings, we _can_ know him,
because he lives with us and can be _in_ us if we allow him to be.
     Once again, we have a dichotomy within ourselves. When a new world
opens before us, we can look at it from a perspective that primarily values
what we can gain for ourselves, in a material way. If we cling to this
attitude, we will never know the Lord, nor will we know true human
friendship and community. We will slaughter other people's feelings and
perspectives in our disregard for them as human beings equal to ourselves.
     But there is a different kind of new world that we can discover--one
that is always ripe for exploration _without_ exploitation. There is the new
world of spirit. It is a new world that we explore when we love the Lord and
do what he commands. Not killing men, women, and children--those are
commands that _we_ put in the Lord's mouth. No, the Lord's commands are
summed up for us very simply: to love the Lord above all else and to love
our neighbors--from individuals to nations--as much as we love ourselves.
     If we are willing to obey _these_ commands, then the Lord _will_ send
us another Counselor to be with us: the Spirit of truth. And as we follow
that Spirit of truth, we will find that there are whole new worlds of human
friendship, love, and mutual service just waiting for us to explore--and to
make new spiritual homes there.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Oct 20 03:00:44 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 23:00:44 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Light from Heaven," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199710200302.XAA02617@mailrelay.tiac.net>


                       Light from Heaven
                   By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, Massachusetts, October 19, 1997

Readings: Genesis 28:10-17. A stairway from earth to heaven
          Matthew 5:13-16. You are the light of the world
          _Heaven and Hell_ #430. The two gates within everyone

"Jacob had a dream, and behold: a stairway resting on the earth, with its
top reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending
on it." (Gen. 28:12)

An angel from our church has just ascended that stairway leading to heaven.
If anyone had any doubts that angels come from human beings, Frances Boyle
would be a good example to help remove those doubts. Her life of quiet
usefulness, practical learning, and heartfelt care for others was an
embodiment of her deep and abiding faith. She herself would be the first to
point out her imperfections as well, but any one of us could be very happy
with our life if we left this earth having reached her level of spiritual
maturity.
     With Frances's death fresh in our minds and our hearts, perhaps this is
a good time to revisit some of the new light from heaven that our church
provides about the afterlife and our preparation for it here on earth.
     Emanuel Swedenborg's book _Heaven and Hell_ has always been his biggest
seller. In fact, over the nearly two and a half centuries since it was first
published, very few religious books have sold as many copies as _Heaven and
Hell_. This shouldn't be surprising. Few religious topics are as fascinating
to us as what happens to us after death. It is so popular with the teens
that it has been the topic of our last two retreats, and it is a recurring
favorite for the teen class at Fryeburg Assembly.
     Up to the time of Swedenborg, the afterlife was largely a mystery, with
little bits of light slipping through to us out of passages gleaned from the
Bible and the occasional story told by people who briefly experienced the
spiritual world during some traumatic passage in their lives. With
Swedenborg, for the first time not just a crack but a large gate was opened
to heaven, through which light from heaven streams through. We no longer
have to grope in the dark for knowledge of what happens to us after we die.
     The afterlife that Swedenborg describes is amazing and familiar at the
same time. From one perspective, it is an entirely different order of
existence, where we only have to think of someone we love and they are
instantly present with us . . . _and_ where we only have to grow angry at
someone and immediately our skies cloud over and a thunderstorm crashes
around us. It is a place where we can share thoughts directly with each
other without having to speak them out loud. A place where, if we open
ourselves up to the Lord, we may wear garments of gleaming light, experience
the warmth of the sun as love flowing into us, and level entire mountains
with a single glance--if those mountains are made of evil and falsity
instead of goodness and truth.
     From another perspective, the spiritual world is a place where we would
feel right at home. It is also a place where we go to sleep in the evening
and wake up in the morning, work at a job that we enjoy, and have time for
recreation, pleasure, and visiting with each other. It is a place where we
can play games or go to a concert, take a walk in the woods or go horseback
riding. All of the scenery and activities that we enjoy here are present in
the spiritual world as well. Even the scenes we don't enjoy--such as squalid
slums or parched desert land--are present in the spiritual world for those
whose tastes run in the opposite direction.
     We speak of heaven as a place; but Jesus reminds us that it is not a
place at all:

     Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God
     would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come
     with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it
     is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within
     you." (Luke 17:20, 21)

"The kingdom of God" is another way of saying "the kingdom of heaven." Both
refer, not to a physical place, but a spiritual state of being. Heaven is no
a place that we get into by going through a literal gate. The gates of
heaven are symbolic, and Swedenborg explains their symbolism to us in the
passage that we read from _Heaven and Hell_:

     There are two gates within every one of us. One gate leads to
     hell, and is open to the evil and false things that come from
     hell. The other gate leads toward heaven and is open to the good
     and true things that come from heaven. The gate of hell is open
     when we are involved in evil and false things. Only through
     cracks overhead does some light from heaven flow in, which
     enables us to think, draw conclusions, and talk. But the gate of
     heaven is open when we are involved in good and true things.

In other words, the gate of heaven is goodness and truth from the Lord,
while the gate of hell is evil and falsity from hell. This makes it clear
that heaven and hell are not places, but states of mind. They are _within_
us. Heaven is within us when we are involved in the goodness of love and
kindness for each other, and when we dwell in the truth of mutual
understanding and respect. Hell is within us when we are involved in the
evil of self-centeredness, greed, jealousy, and a struggle for control over
each other, and when we are caught up in the falsity of our own illusions of
power and superiority.
     The only change brought about by our death is that whereas here our
inner heaven or hell may be hidden from others, in the spiritual world it
soon not only appears to everyone around us, but even determines what sort
of environment we will be living in. If we have opened ourselves up to the
kingdom of heaven within us, then in the spiritual world our inner
heaven--which always comes from God--will manifest itself in beautiful
surroundings and loving human community. But if we have shut ourselves off
from that heaven within--put a bushel basket over the candle, to use the
Biblical image--then the darkness within us will manifest itself in dingy
and squalid surroundings, and a community of mutual hatred and distrust. (In
the illusions of our own self-deception, though, the squalor may look like a
splendid palace to us--as long as light from heaven doesn't leak through the
cracks in our basket and show what our life is really like.)
     While we are here on earth, our main task is to decide which of these
paths, or gates, we will choose. Jesus speaks of these two gates in the
Gospel of Matthew:

     Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is
     the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
     But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life,
     and only a few find it. (Matt. 7:13, 14)

Unfortunately, the time that Jesus was on earth was a low spiritual ebb for
humankind. I'm afraid there may well have been few people at that time who
sought and found the gate that leads to heavenly life. Perhaps the very
smallness of the number of people who were seeking that gate led to the
smallness of the gate and the narrowness of the road leading to life. Routes
that do not get used often tend to remain narrow byways, while heavily
traveled routes are broadened into four-lane highways. We have some reason
for hope that perhaps more people these days are seeking the gate that leads
to life. Perhaps the road has been widened!
     However, we do not have to simply _hope_ this will happen. We can do
our own part to widen that gate and broaden that road. We can not only make
the choice to seek out and go through that gate ourselves. We can devote our
lives to leading others toward that gate using the gifts and talents that
the Lord has given us.
     When we make the choice not to hide our candle under a bushel basket,
we still are only halfway there. If we leave the candle down on the floor,
or off in some obscure nook of the house, it may not be under a bushel
basket, but it might as well be for all the good it does! No, says Jesus,
the right thing to do with a candle is to put it in a candlestick and place
it where it can give light to everyone in the room. Or to use a more
expansive image, if we have in mind an entire city of enlightenment (and I
believe that we do have such a "city" in the teachings of our church) we
ought to be building that city on a hill where everyone can see it, not down
in some inconspicuous valley.
     As a church family, we are working to put our candle in a candlestick,
and to build our city on a hill. People like Frances Boyle remind us that we
each need to be doing this as individuals, too. These are not separate
issues. We as a church are made up of the individuals who are a part of the
life of our church. And we as a church can only build our heavenly city on a
hill if each of us as individual people puts our candle in a candlestick and
lets our light shine before people so that they may see our good deeds and
praise our Father who is in heaven. To put it plainly, Jesus is not simply
calling us to believe in him, but to share our beliefs with others through
kind and thoughtful actions toward them and, when it is appropriate, through
telling them about the faith that leads us to live in the way that we do.
_This_ is putting our candle in a candlestick to give light to everyone.
     When our life comes to a close and we climb the symbolic stairway that
Jacob saw in his dream, the Lord who dwells above that stairway will not ask
what we have accomplished; rather, the Lord will ask whether our
accomplishments helped to lead ourselves and others toward the gate of
goodness and truth that opens to heavenly life.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Fri Oct 24 03:18:35 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 23:18:35 -0400
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19971023231001.0997329c@mail.one.net>


This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    10-12-97

	LEPROSY

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	" Furthermore the LORD said to him, 'Now put your hand in your bosom.'
And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand
was leprous, like snow." (Exod. 4:6)

	LEPROSY WAS A DREADFUL DISEASE.  Its progress was slow, but devastating.
Those areas of the body that were affected --  usually the forearms or
lower parts of the leg, but often the face as well -- would gradually lose
sensation.  Minor injuries would tend to go unnoticed, and large ulcers
would begin to eat away at the tissue -- so that the victim would often
lose fingers and toes.  Paralysis of various parts of the body would set
in, leaving the hands and feet grotesquely deformed.  The disease was not
normally fatal -- but would bring, instead, increasing disability and
disfigurement.  It was not highly infectious, but could, nevertheless, be
transmitted from one person to another.  The leper, therefore, was ejected
from society.  The instructions given to the Israelites in the Book of
Leviticus regarding lepers were harsh:  "Now the leper on whom the sore is,
his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his
mustache, and cry, ?Unclean! Unclean!'  He shall be unclean.  All the days
he has the sore he shall be unclean.  He is unclean, and he shall dwell
alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp" (Lev. 13:45-46).  To dwell
alone, cut off from society, left to suffer the crippling effects of a
terrible disease -- the very idea of leprosy struck horror into the minds
of the Israelites.
	Today, with the proper treatment, the progress of the disease can be
halted and it can be rendered noninfectious.  In ancient times, though, all
they could do was watch the progression of the disease.  Occasionally a
victim would recover -- and upon examination by the priest, would then
undergo ritual purification and be pronounced clean.  More often than not,
though, the disease continued its slow but terribly destructive course.
	There is a lot said, in the Old Testament, about leprosy -- about the
various forms of the disease, about how the leper was to be treated, and so
on.  The term leprosy seems to have been applied, not only to leprosy
itself, but also to a wide range of skin diseases.  Indeed, even inanimate
objects, such as clothing and houses, were sometimes said to have leprosy
-- in this case the "leprosy" was probably some kind of mold.  Leprosy is
spoken of so often on account of its representation.  Leprosy represented
profanation, and specifically, the profanation of truth (AC 6963).
	Leprosy was common amongst the ancient Israelites.  The disease posed a
very real threat.  So too did profanation.  More than any other people at
that time, they were in danger of profaning the truth, because, unlike
those around them, they had the Word.  As much as was possible, they were
withheld by the Lord from an interior understanding of the truth.  There
was, though, this constant danger that they might understand the truth, and
then profane it (AC 6963).  They were in danger by virtue of the fact that
they were God's chosen people -- they had the written Word, and had been
selected as the representative of the Lord's church upon this earth.
	This is why the subject of leprosy -- or, rather, the profanation it
represents -- has importance for us today.  Whenever people have and
acknowledge the truth of the Lord's Word, there exists the possibility --
the danger -- of their profaning this truth.
	Profanation -- serious profanation -- can be committed only by those who
profess a belief in God, and in His Word.  These people, because they have
within them what is holy, can profane holy things within their hearts.  And
holy things -- goods and truths from the Lord's Word -- are profaned when
they are mixed up with things that are evil and false.  This mixing occurs
when a man in truth turns to falsity, and when a man in good turns back to
what is evil.
	The effect of such a mixing can be completely devastating to the spirit of
man.  The worst case of all occurs when a man, after coming into a
regenerate love of good, later lapses back into what is evil.  Good and
evil are then so completed mixed up within the man's spirit that they
cannot be separated after death.  Because of his evil, he cannot enter
heaven, but because of his good, neither can he enter hell.  Such a
profaner, in the other life, has to be set completely apart -- separate not
only from the angels of heaven, but separate even from the devils of hell.
He, like the leper, must dwell alone.  And, as leprosy consumed the body of
its victim, so profanation, in its deepest degree, eats away at the very
spirit.  The profaner has so mixed up good and evil that he cannot even
tell them apart, cannot even really think.  Any vestige of rationality -- a
vestige even devils retain -- is completely destroyed.  Profaners therefore
appear, in the other world, to be no longer human.  They look like bones
covered with skin (DP 227:5).
	That there are such people who end up this way is, without doubt, the most
horrifying of all the teachings of the Writings.  Yet it is an important
teaching.  It is a key to understanding much of what is taught about Divine
permission.  Why does the Lord allow evil?  One reason is that it is far
better to allow those in evil to remain in their evil than that they be
brought into a state of good which cannot be sustained.  It is far better
for a person to remain in evil than to come into what is good, and to
return later to evil.  It is far better that somebody go to hell than that
he end up as a profaner -- a spiritual leper -- with his good eating away
at his evil, and his evil eating away at his good.
	It is of the mercy of the Lord that most cases of profanation are by no
means this extreme.  As far as is possible, the Lord steers somebody away
from this most terrible of fates -- by keeping him in ignorance, and by
allowing him to remain in evil, when He sees that the person would be
unable to remain faithful to what is good and true.  The most severe form
of profanation is, therefore, very rare.
	What we must not forget, though, is that there are other, less severe, and
more common, kinds of profanation.  Even these milder forms of profanation
can be devastating to our spirits.  There are many kinds of leprosy
described in the Old Testament.  And there are many kinds of profanation.
The leprosy of the Old Testament generally represents the profanation of
truth -- that kind of profanation which occurs when a man at first knows
and acknowledges the truth, but then rejects it -- and refuses to live
according to it.  This is the real danger -- an ever-present danger --
faced by those who belong to the Lord's Church.
	The Lord had appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and told him that he
was to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.  Moses was not eager to undertake
this task.  He objected.  He told the Lord that the people might not
believe what he told them.  They might not believe that Jehovah had
appeared to him.  And so it was that Moses was shown two signs.  First he
cast down his rod and it became a serpent.  He then caught the serpent by
its tail and it became once more a rod.  Second, he was told to put his
hand into his bosom.  He put his hand in, and when he took it out it was
covered with leprosy.  He put it in once again, and it returned to normal.
He was then told that if the Israelites did not believe these two signs, he
was then to take water out of the river and pour it on the dry ground, and
it would become blood.
	The Lord was sending Moses, not simply to free the Israelites, but to
bring them out of Egypt so that they could become a church.  Through Moses,
the Lord would give the Israelites the Ten Commandments, and establish His
covenant with them.  Now when the Lord reveals the truth and establishes a
church, it is absolutely essential that those of His church hold fast to
their faith in His revelation.  If they do not, then, first of all, their
minds become closed to the light of heaven -- and they begin to think on a
merely sensual plane.  This is the meaning of the snake.  If they continue
to turn away from the Lord's teachings, they then profane these truths
within themselves -- represented by the leprous hand.  Finally all truth is
completely falsified -- the water becomes blood.
	Profanation is therefore one of the consequences of rejecting the truth of
the Lord's Word.  Indeed, it is through the profanation of the truth that
closing the mind to the light of heaven leads, eventually, to a complete
destruction of truth within a man's mind.
	The profanation represented by the leprosy on Moses' hand is a fairly
serious form of profanation.  It is the profanation which results when the
truth of the Word is first confirmed within oneself, and then, later, is
rejected.  If a person, as an adult, has accepted the truths of the church
for himself, then, if he should later reject the truth, something very
serious happens within his mind.  It is said that "if he then afterward
recedes, and denies in himself what he had before believed, especially if
he lives contrary to the truth which he had confirmed in himself, and
either explains it in his own favor, or altogether rejects it, he profanes
the truth; and this because he commingles and conjoins together within
himself truth and falsity" (AC 6959).
	To take the truth to oneself -- to put it to one's bosom -- and to then
reject it, is a serious form of profanation.  In its worst form, this
profanation of the truth would involve the complete rejection of Divine
revelation.  If, having really seen the truth of the Writings, we were to
later reject them completely, so that we could live the way we wanted to
live -- this would have the most serious consequences after death.  This is
not, though, something most are likely to do.  What, though, if we reject
just some of the truths of the Writings?  If a person has a favorite evil,
and if the Writings teach that this evil is wrong, then it is quite likely
that, within his own mind, he will search for excuses -- and find reasons
to explain the truth away.  What happens when he does this?  He renders
this truth ineffective.  A truth that he had at one time seen clearly has
now been mixed with the falsities of his imagination.  This is not
profanation in its most serious sense.  But it is, nevertheless, a form of
profanation.
	What are the consequences?  Think of leprosy.  Leprosy eats away at a man.
 And when we do away with the truth in this way, it begins to destroy,
slowly but surely, our sense of what is right and wrong.  Leprosy destroys
the nerves -- destroys sensation.  Profanation destroys spiritual sensation
-- until, eventually, the man is incapable of seeing the truth.  This is
why, profanation, like leprosy, is difficult to cure.  A man who loses any
sense of what is wrong has very little incentive to repent.
	This is why we need to be careful.  We need to remember, and remind
ourselves, just how serious is the responsibility which comes from seeing
the truth.  Those who see the truth can sin in a far more serious way than
can those who are in ignorance.  As the Lord taught in John:  "Jesus said
to them, ?If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, "We
see."  Therefore your sin remains'" (Jn. 9:41).
	Now we will not always live up to what we believe.  There will be times
when we sin.  But, having sinned, we must not then do away with the truth
so as to justify our actions -- for if we do, then we profane the truth.
Truth is a powerful thing -- far more powerful than we might imagine.
Divine truth can save us.  But if we seek to pervert this truth, then we
destroy ourselves in the process.
	We need to be careful -- for profanation, in some ways, is easier to
commit than we might imagine.  This is why there is this warning of the
leprous hand.  If we take the truth to heart -- put our hand into our bosom
-- and then are not faithful to the truth, our hand will become white with
leprosy.  If, though, we are faithful to the truth -- which is represented
by Moses putting his hand to his bosom a second time -- then our hand will
be made whole.  The truth will save us.
	It is a sobering thought.  If we profane the truth when we explain it
away, then it seems quite likely that in some way, and to some degree, we
have all profaned.  We have mixed up some of the truth that we have --
mixed it up with falsity.  And, to the degree that we have done this, we
have made it difficult for the Lord to save us.  Truths teach that evils
are wrong.  When we reject or twist a particular truth, we make it very
difficult for the Lord to cleanse us of a particular evil.  We have
deadened ourselves to the healing power of Divine truth.  Within ourselves
there is a part of us which is being eaten away by those very evils for
which we have made up excuses.
	In one sense or another, then, it could be said that we are all spiritual
lepers.  And this would be a depressing thought indeed -- if it were not
for one thing.  Leprosy could be cured.  And profanation, if it is not too
severe, need not be spiritually fatal.
	In the Book of Leviticus a ritual is described, a ritual for purifying a
leper.  There  were  times when a man recovered from leprosy.  If all signs
of leprosy disappeared -- or, in the case of profanation, if a man should
genuinely and earnestly desire healing from the Lord -- then he was to be
brought before the priest -- representing the Divine love.  The ritual that
followed was fairly complicated.  Two birds were to be taken.  One bird was
to be killed over running water.  Then the other bird was to be taken, and,
together with some cedar wood, a scarlet thread, and some hyssop, it was to
then be dipped into the blood of the dead bird.  The blood was then
sprinkled on the healed leper.  After this, the living bird was then set
free in an open field (Lev. 14:1-7).
	It was a complicated ritual for the reason that profanation is not easily
cured.  But nevertheless it can be cured -- by the power of the Lord's
Word.  Through the teachings of the Word we must turn back once again to
view our evils for what they are, and this time, we must reject them.  Over
the running water of Divine truth, part of us, one of the birds, must die.
Evil must be rejected.  Then, we must remember the Word.  The scarlet
thread was an ancient symbol of remembrance -- for the color scarlet stands
for the goods and truths of the Word that are in a man's memory (AC 9468).
And with this scarlet thread, together with cedar wood, representing good,
and hyssop, representing the cleansing power of truth, the leper was
healed.  When we repent of our evils, then, even if we may have profaned
the truth, the Lord will then use what is in us from His Word to heal us --
heal us even from spiritual leprosy.  The second bird could then be set
free -- to fly over the field, up towards heaven.
	Profanation is a terrible thing.  It was represented in Old Testament
times by a dreadful disease.  But the power of the Lord, and the power of
His Word, can heal the sinner, can even heal a man from deadly profanation
-- if he earnestly desires to be cured -- if he earnestly repents.  And,
through the mercy of the Lord, the horrible picture of a helpless lonely
leper is then replaced by another representation -- the beautiful picture
of a bird flying free, over an open field, over the harvest.  Our minds are
set free.  We are healed, and our thoughts can rise once again to the Lord
to receive from Him the blessings of heaven (cf. WE 6451).
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Ex. 4:1-9
		Jn. 9:35-41
		AC 6959:2

___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Oct 27 04:24:43 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 23:24:43 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Healing of Naaman's Leprosy
Message-ID: <199710262324_MC2-253E-874C@compuserve.com>


   Healing of Naaman's Leprosy
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
October 26, 1997

        Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be
restored to you, and you shall be clean. II Kings 5:10

The description of the healing of Naaman seems to have as its primary focus
the value of overcoming destructive pride. Naaman is clearly not a bad
person.  He was a renowned commander of the powerful Syrian army.  He is
called "a mighty man of valor."  It specifically states that by means of
his ability the Lord had given victory to Syria. But his life was
significantly crippled by leprosy.  The term leprosy in the Old and New
Testaments apparently was used to describe a wide variety of skin diseases,
ranging from psoriasis to the horrifying disease we more commonly associate
with the term.  Naaman obviously was allowed to mingle freely with other
people.  People with the disease now called, "Hanson's Disease" were
banished from human society.    But whatever the disease was, it clearly
was a cause of significant trouble and concern.  Naaman's desire to be
healed and the importance he placed on it is shown both by his willingness
to travel a great distance and also by the rich gifts which he brought with
him as a symbol of gratitude for that healing.

Naaman apparently had very clear expectations of being treated with great
respect.  He arrived at Elisha's front door riding his chariot, the luxury
vehicle of ancient times.  He was accompanied by a retinue of servants. 
The story specifically states that as he turned in anger from Elisha's
messenger he thought to himself, "He will surely come out to me, and stand
and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place,
and heal the leprosy."   Can you picture him stomping off muttering to
himself about what a stupid thing it was to wash in the Jordan River and
that if he had to wash in a river, he could think of much better ones in
Syria than those that could be found in Israel.  

Naaman fortunately had some wise, compassionate, and brave servants.  They
approached him, and said with great respect, "My father, if the prophet had
told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more
then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?"  Naaman was willing to
hear their council and went and washed and his skin become renewed like
that of a little child.  He returned with a deeply grateful heart and
proclaimed, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth
except in Israel."  He asked for permission to take two mule load of earth
from Israel home that he might properly be able worship the God of this
land, and he begged forgiveness if he ever needed to accompany his master
the king of Syria to bow down in the temple of another god.

The story ends with a healed and grateful Naaman returning home.  If his
anger and pride had gotten the better of him, then the miracle of healing
would never have happened.

This story can also be seen as a parable with a deeper level of meaning. 
Naaman's leprosy represents a spiritual problem that we all fall prey to. 
It represents a person who is running his or her life based on seriously
false beliefs and assumptions.  The Writings of the New Church describe
Naaman's leprosy as representing false assumptions and beliefs about what
is true and about what is good.  These aren't issues of fact such as
whether the world is round or flat or matters of opinion such as whether
Chicago is a better city to live in than Los Angles.  Naaman's leprosy
represents potentially true ideas that the Lord would like us to know, but
which have been twisted, over-stated, or misapplied.  It is very important
that we recognize that knowing the truth about some way of acting, some
event, some person, or ourselves is not a simple matter.  The Writings of
the New Church refer to "the falsification of truth and good."  An idea
which in itself is true or some value or way of acting which in itself is
good, are made false when their useful implications and it useful meaning
are not recognized and instead they become twisted, over-stated, or
misapplied in a person's life.  We can believe that we have gained some
truth or recognized some good from the Lord through His Word, but really
what we have in our mind is "falsified truth and good."  This falsified
truth and good can cause many problems, some very subtle and others huge.
The consequences of these problems hurts our lives, the lives of people
around us, and the uses we seek to support.

Leprosy refers to a disease of the skin.  When our skin is serving us well
it is one of the key means of providing us with feedback about our
environment.  If a person cannot feel pain, heat, cold, rough, smooth or
even just how much pressure he is using to accomplish something it is hard
for him to take care of himself or respond as usefully to what is happening
around him.  The lack of sensitivity in his skin causes troubles of many
kinds.  Likewise, when a person has incorporated a twisted, overstated, or
misapplied truth and good into his approach to life it can lead him to be
insensitive to important realities.  He doesn't recognize his own
motivations, thoughts and behavior very clearly.  He is mis-perceives
others.  He has a hard time seeing what the Lord would recognize as the
greater uses to be served in any setting.  

What are some examples of falsified truth and good?  We know that it is
important that we care about and try to provide that good things happen and
that bad things are avoided.  The Lord has told us that evil and false
things are to be shunned or fled from.  We would want to foster a
commitment to shunning evils and false ideas in ourselves and in our
children.  But picture a kindergartner who finds it nearly impossible to
accept anything less than perfection in his younger siblings.  If the teams
for a game at school seem unfair, he shuns the game, the teacher, the whole
setting--that is he is so upset at the unfairness it is impossible for him
to participate.  He may argue with the teacher.  He may have a temper
tantrum.  Part of the basis for these responses can be his belief that it
is very important that the right thing be done at all times.  While a
teacher or parent might appreciate aspects of the little child's zeal for
justice and fairness, it can often produce messy and destructive responses
in the child's life.  The person, young or old, who cannot tolerate it when
what he or she perceives to be the right thing isn't being done will hurt
himself, his relationships with people around him, and many of the uses he
believes in. Sometimes this form of falsifed truth and good takes the form
of extreme perfectionism.  Such a person's desire to have things exactly
correct can run himself ragged, be demoralizing because he can never
achieve it, and he can be a very difficult person to work with or even be
around.

Another example of falsified truth and good includes a man who insists that
everything be sensible and practical.  In the New Testament story, when the
woman anointed the Lord with an extremely expensive oil, some of the
disciples thought it was a waste of resources that could have been better
used to care for the poor.  There is an element to many gifts of love that
aren't sensible. It would be like a husband saying to his wife, "I would
buy you flowers but they would just die within a few days and so it seems
like a waste of money."

Another example of falsified truth is a woman who operates from a very
external and short term definition of being nice.  Her discipline of her
children is almost exclusively gentle reminders and when these don't work,
she gives in or allows the child what he wants.  She seeks, at almost cost,
to avoid confrontations with her husband.  She would rather listen to a
telephone marketing person for five minutes in the middle of key supper
preparations for her hungry children, than cut the person off with a firm,
"No, thank you." and hanging up on them.  Her desire to be nice isn't bad
in itself and it can be very good, but it depends on what she is willing to
sacrifice to get it.  Jesus certainly didn't appear to be acting very
nicely when he went into the temple in Jerusalem wrecked the stalls of
immoral merchants, and drove them out with a whip.

One more example of falsified truth is the person who feels to strongly
drawn to "fix" any sadness, discouragement, or other negative state in
others as soon as possible.  Such a person can unintentionally leave a
widow who is grieving the absence of her husband the message, "You
shouldn't be sad."  Such a person can unintentionally force a resolution to
a problem when the resolution may be pre-mature or even destructive.

We cannot possibly avoid misunderstanding what is really true and good as
we walk our spiritual pathways toward heaven.  The Writings of the New
Church state that even in heaven angels still misunderstand what is really
true and good.  Swedenborg relates the following words of an angel:

        In this world we are instructed and taught what is good and true,
also what is just and right, the same as in the natural world.  Moreover,
we learn these things not directly from God but indirectly through others. 
Every angel, too, like every man, thinks truth and does good as though of
himself, and this is not pure but mixed in character, depending on the
angel's state.  In addition, among angels also, some are simple and some
wise, and the wise have to make judgments when the simple ones among them,
owing to their simpleness or ignorance, are uncertain about what is just or
deviate from it. (Conjugial Love 207:4)

We all have the problem of Naaman's leprosy.  The means by which we can be
healed of this is very simple, like washing in the Jordan River seven
times.  There are basic true ideas and good actions which the Lord would
lead us to.  These are taught over and over again in the Word.  Some of
these basic ideas are the powerful means that the Lord can use to lead us
away from the falsified truth and good that crippling us.  We have to be
willing to admit that there are problems in the way we approach life at
present and we have to be willing to follow the simple call to wash
ourselves not once, but seven times, which represents a continuing
process--one that can continue to eternity.  

Our part in the continuing process of spiritual washing isn't heroic. 
Imagine telling a friend, "I resisted the impulse to speak and act from a
feeling of impatience three times yesterday."  A good friend might smile
and say, "Good for you" but he probably wouldn't be deeply awed by your
accomplishment.  

The Lord calls us to recognize that aspects of our lives could be better. 
We could better serve ourselves, those around us, and ultimately the Lord
Himself if we can be cleansed of the twisted, over-stated, or misapplied
concepts about what is true and good to which we are inclined.  Spiritual
leprosy is dangerous.  To be healed the Lord calls us to a simple, daily
task which is absolutely essential if we want to grow spiritually, if we
want to serve others better, if we want to live our lives more wisely.  May
we pray that the miracle that occurred for Naaman also occur in many areas
of our own lives.  "So Naaman went down and dipped seven times in the
Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was
restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."  (II Kings
5:14)   AMEN.

       Lessons: II Kings 5:1-14
                Matthew 6:38-48, 

In the Old and New Testaments "washing" are a sign of a person being
purified from false ideas  and evil loves.  This is the case with the
miracle performed on Naaman the leper by command of Elisha, which is thus
described in the second book of Kings. "Naaman a leper of Syria"
represented and signified people who have formed a false concept concerning
the true ideas and good loves taught in the Word.  "Leprosy" signifies that
they have become false, and "Syria" the knowledge of truth and good. "The
waters of Jordan" signified the true ideas that introduce a person into the
church, which are the many ideas about what is true and good from the Word.
This the case because the river Jordan was the first boundary across which
the land of Canaan was entered, and "the land of Canaan" signified the
church.   Consequently "the waters of Jordan" signified introductory
truths, which are the first ideas about what is true and good from the Word
that a person learns. Because of this signification of "the waters of
Jordan," Naaman was commanded to wash himself in them seven times, which
signified being purified from false concepts of the truth.  "Seven times"
signifies completely, and is relates to holy things.  For example, truths
from the Lord are holy.  Because "seven times" has this meaning, it states
that "his flesh became like the flesh of a little child."  The renewing of
his flesh signifies the quality of a person's spiritual life who has been
regenerated or spiritual reborn through Divine truths.  Apocalypse
Explained 475:17-18

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.  
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@tiac.net  Mon Oct 27 13:32:09 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 09:32:09 -0400
Subject: SERMON: "Angels, Spirits, and Devils," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199710271333.IAA10574@mailrelay.tiac.net>


                    Angels, Spirits, and Devils
          A Halloween sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, October 26, 1997

Readings: 1 Samuel 16:14-23. David drives the evil spirit out of Saul with music
          Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus tempted by the Devil
          _Apocalypse Explained_ #323c.12. "Harp" means affirmation of truth

"Whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp
and play it with his hand. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel
better, and the evil spirit would leave him." (1 Samuel 16:23)

Fortunately, unlike King Saul, we did not have any evil spirits present at
our Halloween party last night. In fact, we were in very _good_
spirits--even though we did have a few strange and scary characters lurking
around....
     At Halloween, our thoughts turn to supernatural, nocturnal, and
generally unearthly beings and powers. It is hard to see all the costumes of
ghosts and angels without thinking at least a little about other realms of
existence besides the physical. The costumes are expressions of our
spirits--of our imaginations. Most of the time these particular areas of our
imagination are confined to story books. But on Halloween our
imaginings--both the noble and the terrifying--appear in full dress.
     In our culture, Halloween has become a children's festival. It is a far
cry from the genuinely scary All Hallow's Eve of earlier centuries, when
real witches and evil spirits were believed to be out and about, and people
shut themselves indoors for fear. We live in a less superstitious time.
Science and the intellectual revolution have banished the fear of spirits
from most people's minds. Many deny their existence altogether, and look
upon those who do believe in of angels and spirits as irrational and
backward. They see belief in spiritual entities--including God--to be an
unnecessary vestige of our past.
     For several decades, it looked as though this materialistic view might
prevail in our culture. But the recent resurgence of interest in angels,
spirits, near death experiences, and other manifestations of the spiritual
world is evidence that the human mind does not stop at material things, but
has a deep-seated need to reach beyond the physical to the spiritual. For
many, the materialistic world view has been tried and found wanting. While
pure science apart from spirit has brought us many material comforts and
advances, it has failed to address the deepest questions and needs of the
human spirit.
     Throughout our societal flirtation with materialism Halloween has, if
anything, become even more popular. Despite the inevitable
commercialization, it remains a regular reminder, ingrained in our culture,
of the reality of the world that lies beyond and within the physical world.
I suspect its popularity is a result of our need for spiritual balance in an
age that has been far too unbalanced in the direction of non-spiritual pursuits.
     Even some of the parts of Halloween that many of us find objectionable
may serve a use. When I see some of the ghoulish and sometimes sickening
faces that appear at this time of year on the TV screen and in various store
displays and advertisements, I want to turn away to avoid having such images
imprinted on my mind. Yet this is one of the few times when our culture
explicitly recognizes the reality of evil. Our reaction to ghoulish
Halloween masks is the same as our reaction to the ghoulish face of evil: we
want to avoid it, both as individuals and as a culture.
     Usually, avoiding evil is a good idea. In fact, Swedenborg sums up our
spiritual rebirth as a process of avoiding evils as sins and doing good
things because they come from the Lord. So there is a sense in which we
_should_ avoid evil and its trappings.
     The problem is that we cannot always avoid evil because evil is not
only around us ... it is also within us. If we "avoid evil" by refusing to
face up to the wrong and evil parts of ourselves, then we are not avoiding
evil at all. We are doing just the opposite: we are allowing it to continue
working unopposed in our lives.
     As a culture, we have not only flirted with materialism; we have also
flirted with denying evil's existence. A popular social theory of our day
holds that nothing and nobody is evil; murderers, thieves, rapists, and
other criminals are merely responding to a faulty environment--poor social
conditions, lack of proper care as children, poverty, malnutrition, and so
on. There is some truth to this. It is true that even people who are
basically good-hearted will often fall into damaging and destructive ways of
living if this is all (or practically all) that they have seen as they have
grown up. We do need to address social issues of poverty, injustice, and all
the evils that follow in their wake.
     The flaw with social theories that deny the existence of evil in human
motives and actions is that they fail to account for how poverty and
injustice began. If there were no evil in the human mind and spirit, where
did it all start? Where did the first wars come from? Where did the
longstanding gap between rich and poor come from? Where did theft, murder,
and lying come from? If there were no human evil, how could children ever be
exposed to unloving and harmful environments in the first place?
     Evil is making a comeback in our society. I don't mean that our society
is committing more evil acts; I mean that social theories and religions that
deny the existence of evil have been tried and found wanting. There is
renewed acceptance of the idea that evil is very real, and is working in the
human mind and heart.
     One danger in this new acceptance is that we might descend back into
superstitious fear of evil and be no better off than when we cringed behind
locked doors on Halloween for fear that witches would cast evil spells on
us. However, I believe that for the most part, that kind of fear of demonic
spirits has been too thoroughly exorcized from our consciousness to pose a
real threat.
     A greater threat is that we might descend back into a black and white
view of the world, in which some people are good and others are evil--and
we, of course, are the good ones, while "they" are the evil ones. In some
quarters, along with a rising recognition of evil there is a rising tide of
intolerance and bigotry that must be countered if we are to move forward
rather than backward in our return to a belief in the reality of spiritual
good and evil.
     The teachings of our church about the spiritual world form a very good
counterbalance to that kind of unthinking return to a black and white world
of good and evil people. It is not that we don't see black and white in
spiritual matters. Rather, it is that our position here on earth happens to
be in the gray area between black and white.
     Let me explain. Swedenborg says that the spiritual world is made up of
three regions: heaven, hell, and a in-between region called the World of
Spirits. Heaven is the closest we human beings come to pure goodness. People
who go to heaven and become angels have set aside their evil desires and
accepted goodness and truth from God as the focus of their lives. They are
not perfect--and sometimes they do experience the downward tug of pride and
selfishness. But their lives are devoted to loving God and loving their
neighbor.
     Hell is just the opposite: it is the closest we human beings come to
pure evil. People who become devils or satans in hell have put aside any
good motives or pangs of conscience in favor of an existence exclusively
devoted to their own pleasure at the expense of others. Even evil spirits do
not manage to be purely evil; if they did, they would annihilate themselves.
The only reason they can continue to live is that, closed off and protected
in the deepest levels of their souls, there is the infant existence of an
angel of light. It has never had the chance to mature, but that deeply
buried presence of goodness is what keeps evil spirits alive despite all
their destructive motives and actions.
     So far, we could make a good case for a black and white universe--good
on one side and evil on the other. But we would have to ignore the third
region of the spiritual world: the World of Spirits. This region between
heaven and hell is where good and evil meet ... and blend into countless
shades of gray. This is also where our earth with its human population has
its primary contact with the spiritual world. As long as we are here on
earth, not a single one of us is entirely an angel of light nor entirely a
devil of darkness. We are all shades of gray, moving either toward the light
or toward the darkness.
     Whatever measures we as a society may need to take to restrain
criminals from harming others, there is no excuse for making the spiritual
judgment that _any_ person is irredeemably evil. As long as people are still
alive here on earth, there is hope that they may choose a heavenly path, no
matter what their past has been. Our job is not to condemn--and thus use the
force of our minds to push people closer to hell--but to reach out to them
in an attempt to separate them from the evil they may be involved in. We may
have to put them in prison, but our motive for doing so should be to protect
the innocent and to make it more likely that criminals will reconsider the
course of their lives. Our motive should _not_ be to pay them back for what
they did. Our intentions should always be for the good of everyone
involved--even if we may sometimes have to express those intentions in
seemingly harsh ways with some people and in some situations.
     So far, we have been talking mostly about the negative side of
spiritual reality--about evil and hellish spirits and their influence on us
here on earth. But even though ghosts and ghouls are very popular at
Halloween, so are angels, princesses, Indian chiefs, and other characters
who represent what is good and heavenly in the human spirit.
     In our readings from Samuel, evil spirits assail King Saul. In Matthew,
it is Jesus that they attack. We have all had our struggles with evil and
depressing thoughts and desires. We will continue to have them as long as we
are living and growing spiritually here on earth. But the Lord does not
leave us hopeless. He sends his angels--and good spirits of the earthly
human variety--to help us in our struggles with evil.
     I was particularly touched by the reading about King Saul and David
because of a recent experience Patty and I have had with little Caleb. We
read in Samuel, "Whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David
would take his harp and play it with his hand. Then relief would come to
Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him." In
_Apocalypse Revealed_ #276, Swedenborg tells us that a harp corresponds to
affirmation of the Lord, which evil spirits cannot endure--and this is why
David caused the evil spirit to depart from Saul by playing his harp.
     Caleb has had a cold lately. Like most babies, when he feels sick and
has a hard time breathing through his nose, he doesn't sleep well. None of
our usual ways of getting him to sleep had been working. We finally
discovered (once again) that if we _sing_ to him when he is tired and
crying, he will often settle down and go to sleep. I like to think that,
just as with Saul when David played music for him, when the evil spirits
that hover around and contribute to Caleb's misery in the midst of his cold
hear the singing and feel our love for him, they can't stand it, so they go
away and leave the baby in peace.
     This is the kind of peace that we can all have if we affirm our belief
in the Lord by turning to the Lord in prayer when we are being assailed by
evil spirits who push us toward depression and despair, or toward doing and
saying things that we know are wrong and hurtful. If, in the words of Jesus,
we "worship the Lord our God, and serve him only," then after our time of
trial the devil will depart from us, and angels will come and lovingly
attend to us.


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Fri Oct 31 22:46:40 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 17:46:40 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19971031144351.3f5f4fe6@mail.one.net>


This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    10-26-97

	JUDGMENT OF OTHERS

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you
will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to
you." (Matt. 7:1,2)

	ONE OF THE MOST BASIC PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION is this:  that we should love
other people.  Time and time again the Lord commands, in His Word, that we
"love one another" (Jn. 15:12).  It is a commandment not limited simply to
those who love us.  We are commanded to love not only our friends, but our
enemies as well.  "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who
curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully
use you and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44).  Then He adds this:  "For if you
love those who love you, what reward have you?  Do not even the tax
collectors do the same?" (Matt. 5:46).
	It takes but little reflection to realize that here is a commandment which
seriously challenges members of the church.  Sometimes, it is very easy to
love.  When people are nice to us, when they think and act the way we do,
then, almost instinctively, we love them in return.  At other times,
though, it is not so easy.  Sometimes people think and believe things which
we ourselves believe to be terribly wrong.  Sometimes they live and act in
ways we realize to be both disorderly and wicked.  Then there are, of
course, those times when others are, quite simply, mean to us.  They
"spitefully use" us.
	In instances such as these, love, and charity, become a more difficult
thing.  Indeed, sometimes the almost overwhelming urge may be to act with
coldness, unfriendliness, and even hatred.  If we reflect upon it, though,
we realize that it is in precisely these kinds of situations that charity
is most especially to be practiced.  Such situations are, you might say,
the acid test of charity.  Even the uncharitable are capable of loving
those who love them and agree with them.  The real test of our charity
comes when we are confronted, not by friendliness and agreement, but by
differences of opinion, and even outright hostility.  Here it is that we
find out whether our supposed charity is genuine or not.  Indeed, such
situations provide the means to test and reflect upon not only the state of
our charity, but of our very relationship to the Lord Himself.
	Love towards the neighbor cannot be separated from love of the Lord.  This
is a basic truth, but one so easily overlooked.  At times the overwhelming
appearance can be that we indeed love the Lord, even though there are some
people that we dislike and even hate, and this for the simple reason that
it seems so much easier to love the Lord than it does to love those we
dislike.
	It indeed does seem easier to love the Lord.  In one sense, our
relationship with Him is one of the easiest imaginable.  He is our Friend.
He loves us unceasingly, and works continually for our everlasting
happiness.  Even if we should, for a time, turn away from Him, we can still
return to Him, knowing full well that He will still be there, waiting for
us, forgiving us, welcoming us.  When seen this way, who could fail to love
Him?  Surely even an evil man could scarcely fail to love the Lord?
	There is, though, more than one way of loving the Lord.  If by love is
meant some kind of external affection or sentiment, then to love the Lord
is something that even an evil man is capable of.  We are taught in the
work Divine Wisdom that:  " . . . both an evil man as well as a good man
can love the Lord as to the person, . . . " (Wis.  XI).  This is a
remarkable thought, isn't it?  An evil person loving the Lord!  To love the
Lord only as to person, though, is not real love.  It is, rather, an
external attraction or sentiment based on a dismal misunderstanding of what
the Lord is really like.  If evil men believe that the Lord makes no
demands upon the way they live, then they can quite easily feel a love for
Him.  Indeed, they will not only love Him, but use His name to justify all
kinds of evil actions.  Human history testifies, time and time again, to
the fact that evil men will do what they do -- kill, torture, make war --
in the name of religion and the name of God.
	This, though, is not to love the Lord, for it is to overlook His very
essence.  It is to forget that He is the very source of all that is loving,
all that is kind, and all that is charitable.  The Lord, in His Divine
Human, is said to be nothing else that Love Itself in Human form.  To love
the Lord, and yet to live contrary to the laws of charity is, then, a
blatant contradiction.  It is to love only His person, whilst rejecting His
very Essence.
	So it is that we read further in the work Divine Wisdom that:  "to love
the Lord is to love that which is from Him, which in itself is Divine, in
which the Lord is" (Wis.  XI).  In other words, if we really love the Lord,
we will love Him as the source of all that is good and true, and will
receive of His love and His truth into ourselves as we do good to others.
On the other hand, if we love Him, and yet ignore what is of love and
charity, we have, in effect, reduced Him within our minds to a hollow
shell; we have separated the Person of our Lord from His Soul and Essence,
and from all those things that flow forth from Him as a result of that
Essence.
	This is a sobering thought.  We might imagine, at first, that it is easy
to love the Lord, but difficult sometimes to love other people.  Yet these
two loves cannot be separated.  To despise or hate another human being is,
whether we realize it or not, to despise or hate the Lord Himself.
	It cannot be otherwise.  If we despise another person, what are we really
saying about the Lord?  We tend to forget that, whatever we may feel about
somebody, there is and can be no doubt as to what the Lord feels.  He loves
that other person.  He loves him with the whole of His infinite love.  With
all His power and with all His strength, He is leading that other person to
Himself in heaven.  That other person we may have taken it upon ourselves
to dislike, despise or hate, is one of the Lord's children, a child He
loves with all His heart.
	Who are we that we should judge another person as meriting our dislike and
our disapproval, when that other person is somebody that the Lord Himself
loves?  This though is something that all of us, by nature, tend to do.
Not only do people have a tendency to react angrily and with hatred when
they feel that they have been directly wronged by another, but they also
take it upon themselves to despise those whose conduct or beliefs do not
meet with their approval.  Beyond this, what is really terrifying is the
ease with which people can not only despise and hate one another, but even
go so far as to consider others to be so evil that they are not worthy of
salvation.
	The history of religion (or what has purported to be religion) is filled
with instances of one group of men with a particular faith considering
others outside of that faith to be damned.  And, even within the boundaries
of the same faith, similar condemnation is common.  Those who consider
themselves to be faithful look down upon others in the same church, upon
those they consider sinners, judging them to be unlikely to receive
salvation after death.
	To do this, to consider others to be unworthy of salvation, is completely
wrong.  It is evil, and it was absolutely forbidden by the Lord when He
said, "Judge not, that you be not judged."  To do so, to make a judgment
concerning the spiritual destiny of somebody else, involves two fundamental
evils.  First of all, it is an act of supreme arrogance.  No one but the
Lord Himself is able to look so deeply into the mind of another so as to
see his spiritual state.  We can hear what people say and see what they do.
 From this we can gain a good idea of at least some of their thoughts and
feelings.  As to their deepest loves, though, we can never really know.
This is something only the Lord Himself can know.  To imagine that, in some
way, we have the ability to see what only the Lord can see, is to act as if
we ourselves were gods.  And this is blasphemous.  It is also hateful.
What purpose or need is there for us to make such a judgment of another
human being?  None at all.  In fact, the only reason for considering
another person to be likely to go to hell, the only reason for jumping to
such a rash conclusion, is because we hate him, we despise him, and cannot
bear the thought that he should end up in heaven.
	If we allow such hatred to dominate us, a hatred that casually assigns
others to hell, what we have done is condemn ourselves.  We have denied the
power of the Lord's love and wisdom to save all who are willing to be
saved.  We have rejected the very Essence of the Lord Himself, and when we
do this, we put ourselves into a state of hell.
	When a person imagines that the faults of another will condemn that person
to hell, what he forgets is that he is, by this very judgment, committing a
grave sin himself.  This is what is meant by the Lord when He talks of a
beam or plank of wood in the eye.  To think of someone else as damned, of
worthy of hell, is a falsity of the understanding -- an obstruction in the
eye of the spirit.  It is not, though, a simple, honest, mistaken idea.
This falsity, or plank, is made of wood.  Wood generally signifies what is
good, but in this case it signifies the opposite of good.  It is evil.  To
think that someone else should go to hell is called by the Writings a "huge
evil of falsity" (AC 9051:3).  The irony is that if we think that somebody
else deserves to go to hell because of his evils, we ourselves, in thinking
this, are committing a far worse evil.  That other person's actions may be
due to nothing more than a mistaken understanding of things . . . a mere
mote or speck in the eye. "And why do you look at the speck in your
brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?" (Matt. 7:3).
	So it is that we are warned: "For with what judgment you judge, you will
be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you"
(Matt. 7:2).  The condemner is himself condemned by the hatred of his own
heart.  It is important, nay vital, for our salvation, that we shun, with
all our might, such hatred towards others.  Now it must be realized that,
inevitably, our ability to love others is. and always will be, finite.  At
the beginning, of course, we do not have unselfish love.  It is something
we must gradually receive.  And so it is that, to begin with, all we can
do, and what we must do, is avoid acting in a hateful way.  To begin with,
our love for others is inevitably shallow and self-centered -- not a real
love at all.  But, even though a genuine spiritual love is missing at
first, we are still capable of avoiding hate and hateful actions.  If we do
this, if we shun what is evil, the Lord Himself will then gradually inspire
us with love and charity.  But even then our love will be limited.  The
Divine love itself is universal, going out with  infinite fulness to all.
Nobody, not even a regenerate man, has such a love.  He will, inevitably,
feel closer to some people than he is to others.  He will not love
everybody equally.  Indeed, in the heavens themselves, those angels who are
similar dwell together, and when an angel goes outside of his own society,
and comes into the presence of other angels unlike himself, he will feel
less comfortable with them than he does when he is with his companions.
Even then, though, even with people far different than himself, he bears no
ill-will.  Even though he may prefer not to live with those who are
different, he has good will towards them.  He wishes them well.  Such good
will is charity.  It is an image, albeit a finite image, of the universal
love of the Lord.
	It is  important that we realize this limitation -- realize that we are
finite.  The person who constantly gives of himself, to the point of
exhausting himself physically, mentally and financially -- the person who
considers all the problems of the world to be his own -- is a fool.  The
love of self, in its place, is said to be a good love.  A person have to
look after himself in order that he might be of use to others.  We cannot
always be giving of ourselves.
	Another consequence of our finite nature is our fallibility.  We make
mistakes.  There is a need to realize that we must go ahead and do what we
can, knowing full well that the way in which we do things will, sometimes,
prove later to be mistaken.  If we are to be of service to our fellow human
beings, then we must use judgment, judgment of others, and judgment of
human situations.  We are forbidden to judge concerning the souls of
others.  We are not, from hatred or arrogance, to imagine that we know the
eternal destiny of others.  Once, though, we have made a sincere effort to
shun what is hateful, and once we have realized our own limitations, we
must then use whatever judgment we have, finite and fallible though it be,
for the use of society and for the betterment of our fellow human beings.
	Some imagine that since we are all children of the Lord, each one is
equally the neighbor, and so nobody has any business judging the character
of another.  Sometimes this is put another way.  Since all are evil in one
way or another, which of us, it is asked, can cast the first stone?  As far
as spiritual judgments are concerned, this is indeed most true.  It is, as
we have said, wrong and evil to judge the spirits of others.  This does
not, though, eliminate the necessity of external judgments on the natural
plane.  Civil society would completely disintegrate if nobody ever judged
another (CL 523).  Indeed, though spiritual judgments -- judgments upon the
inmost soul of another -- are forbidden -- other kinds of judgments are, in
fact, commanded.  In John the Lord says:  "Do not judge according to
appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (Jn. 7:24).
	You see a stranger hanging around a neighbor's house.  Do you refuse to
make any judgment on the stranger's actions, and refuse to call the police?
 You are talking to someone you are considering hiring as a regular
baby-sitter, and there is something about the person that makes you uneasy
and suspicious.  Do you fail to make any judgments at all about the person
(C 46)?  What about the judge, or the person on jury duty?  He or she has
to make a judgment, for the sake of society.  What of social life?  Would
you invite a suspected thief to a party at your house?  And what of the
conduct of friends?  Suppose somebody you know does something you feel to
be very wrong indeed.  Do you make no judgment upon his action, and act as
if nothing were amiss, giving him the impression that you consider what he
has done to be perfectly acceptable?  And if so, would pretending to
overlook things really be the most helpful way of acting towards that
person.  Probably not.
	As we all know, the judgments we are forced to make concerning others are
rarely easy.  Our tendency is to avoid making them.  Certainly a charitable
person does not go out looking for opportunities to judge and to condemn.
There are many occasions, though, when we are forced to judge others in one
way or another, and when we do so, it will be on the basis of finite,
limited and often mistaken human judgment.  We will make mistakes.  We will
make decisions which, in hindsight, will prove to have been too harsh, or
else too trusting and na?ve.  All we can do is do our best, and accept the
fact that we are fallible and will make mistakes.
	One thing, though, which we can determine, is that we will not act from
ill will in our dealings with others.  Even if we find it difficult to like
someone, we must still act from a concern for what is good -- good for him
and good for others.  This is and must be our leading principle.  We must
look to what is good.
	In our own finite way, our charity is to be an image of the universal
Divine love of the Lord.  We have a tendency to love the Lord only
superficially.  We tend to love Him as to Person, but not as to His
Essence.  We can forget that His love goes out towards everybody.  And so
our love towards the Lord can be superficial and external.
	A similar superficiality is common in relationships between people here on
earth.  People tend to condemn on another merely on the basis of external
words and deeds, overlooking the fact that there is always a lot more to a
person than what appears on the surface.  A similar superficiality can be
involved when they are nice to others.  People will often consider only the
external welfare of others.  They are good and kind in superficial matters,
but do very little to encourage spiritual development.  They do little to
encourage what is good and to discourage what is evil.  They rarely take a
stand for good, and rarely show disapproval of evil.  They do what they do
with little thought of what is truly good, and of what will benefit other
people, not only externally, but spiritually al well.
	The Writings speak against such good-will, against charity which is
indiscriminate, a charity which treats everybody the same way, with no
awareness or even interest in what is right and what is wrong.  Indeed, the
Writings point out that it is from just this attitude that the evil gain
their greatest strength and support in the doing of evil (C 53).
	It is not easy to be charitable in a truly wise way.  We must never judge
harshly.  Neither, though, can we fail to judge.  What we do in the various
situations of life requires our very best thought and reflection.  We must
strive for the wisdom to learn what will help and what will hinder the
salvation of our fellow human beings.  We must learn not only to
distinguish between right and wrong, but also to learn the differences that
do exist between goods and goods and evils and evils.  Not all evils are
equally severe (CL 444b), nor are all goods or uses equally important.
Then there are of course differences which exist between people themselves.
 Since all people are different, with infinite variety, we can never be
guided solely by rigid criteria in our dealings with others.  We must
strive to attain the wisdom and the insight to know what will be most
helpful and what will only be harmful in our dealings with the great
variety of people we come into contact with.
	We will never be infallible.  We will always make at least some mistakes.
But if we strive after a wisdom founded solidly upon the Divine principles
of the Lord's Word, and if we endeavor in all things to act from good will,
from charity, then the Lord Himself will bless our efforts, so that, in
some small way, we will become instruments of love in His hands, and
instruments of peace towards everybody we meet.  Heaven will have come a
little closer to this earth.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Gen. 4:1-15
		Matt. 7:1-5
		C 51-54


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Nov  2 18:29:43 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 13:29:43 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Swedenborg 101," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199711021813.NAA18951@mx1.tiac.net>


                        Swedenborg 101
                  By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 2, 1997

Readings: Psalm 33. The word of the Lord is right and true
          John 1:1-14. The Word became flesh
          _Divine Providence_ #259.3. The three essentials of the church

I couldn't decide whether to use a verse from John or a verse from Psalm 33
as my text this morning, so I decided to use both. First from John:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the only child who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth" (John 1:14)

And from Psalm 33:

"The Word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The
Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing
love. (Psalm 33:4, 5)

While we worship here in the church, the teens are still at their retreat at
Blairhaven (in South Duxbury, Mass.). By their own request, the retreat
theme is the basic teachings of the Swedenborgian Church. The topic is
"Swedenborg 101," and this morning I would like to cover that theme here in
church, too.
     I was pleasantly surprised when the teens asked for a retreat on the
basic teachings of our church. We usually think of teens as wanting more
"exciting" topics (and I emphasize the quotes). But according to the Rev.
Eric Allison's newsletter _What's Happening Now_, this is part of a trend.
One of the most frequently requested subjects for both teens and adults of
all denominations is the beliefs of their own church.
     This is an especially hopeful sign for our church, since we are a
church that draws a great deal of our distinctiveness from our teachings. As
a denomination, we have spent several decades doing a lot of soul-searching
about who we are and where we are going. There have been many different-and
often conflicting-views about this over the years. In previous decades, the
"liberal/conservative" split in our denomination was a deep rift that
divided our church into feuding camps. I am happy to say that while there
are still echoes of that split, the current attitude and atmosphere in the
church is that these differences are not irreconcilable, but rather are
complementary viewpoints that can work together to add richness and depth to
our church.
     In addition to this interpersonal healing, our soul-searching has led
to a generally accepted resolution about who we are as a denomination-where
the center is around which we as individual people and as churches are
arranged. That center is seen more and more clearly by people from all
different viewpoints within the church. That center is the basic
teachings-the essentials-of our church, and our living out of those teachings.
     This morning I would like to condense into a single sermon what the
teens have been covering during the whole weekend, giving you a bird's-eye
view of the basic teachings of our church. We will start, though, with the
source of those teachings.
     We often call ourselves the "Swedenborgian Church," but that name has
been controversial in the church. Some feel that giving Emanuel Swedenborg's
name to our church gives a mere man too prominent a place-a place that
should be reserved for the Lord. Others take a more pragmatic view: we are
best known and best differentiated from other churches by the teachings
found in Swedenborg's writings; therefore calling ourselves the
"Swedenborgian Church" best identifies us to people outside the church.
     There is virtue in both viewpoints. What is undeniable is that Emanuel
Swedenborg-both as a person and as an instrument of the Lord-holds a key
place in the rise and progress of our church. So we will take a brief detour
on the way to the basic teachings of our church, and start in the same place
the retreat started: with Swedenborg's life.
     Emanuel Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, Sweden on January 29, 1668,
and died in London, England on March 29, 1772. His eighty-four years were
filled with an amazing variety of activities and accomplishments. Although
his father, Jesper Swedberg, was a Lutheran bishop and hoped that Emanuel
would devote his life to the church, Swedenborg instead studied science and
engineering. He eventually gained a position on the Swedish Board of Mines,
which oversaw the largest industry in Sweden. As he fulfilled his duties of
his post, he also studied every branch of science, and wrote groundbreaking
books on many of them, including chemistry, crystallography, metallurgy,
cosmology, anatomy, and psychology. In later years, he also took a seat in
the Swedish House of Nobles when his family was ennobled by the Queen of
Sweden. He continued to take an active part in the Sweden's political life
right up to the closing years of his life.
     However, Swedenborg was not content with the areas of human learning
that he studied. He was on a quest to find the human soul. Yet no matter how
deeply he pressed his investigations into the human brain and body, his
search was unsuccessful. Then, in 1743, at the age of fifty-five, a dramatic
change of direction began in Swedenborg's life. Though he as a human being
was unable to penetrate to the human soul, the Lord began to open his
spiritual eyes while he was still living on earth so that he could not only
investigate the realm of the soul, but could bring back news of the
spiritual world. His new mission from the Lord was to carry to the world
teachings intended to renew a Christianity that had seriously fallen by the
wayside in its beliefs and its life.
     Swedenborg spent the last thirty years of his life on this new mission.
The results of his labors were over thirty volumes of theological writings,
which led to the founding of the Church of the New Jerusalem (or
Swedenborgian Church) after his death.
     What are these teachings that Swedenborg was commissioned by the Lord
to bring to a world that was sorely in need of new vision and enlightenment?
Our reading from _Divine Providence_ puts them in a nutshell:

     There are three essentials of Christianity: accepting the Lord's
     divinity, accepting the holiness of the Bible, and living a life
     of kindness. Our faith always exists according to our life of
     kindness; we have a rational perception of what our life should
     be from the Bible; and we are reformed and saved by the Lord.
     (_D.P._ #259)

These three essentials are also the basis for the Bridgewater New Jerusalem
Church's mission statement, which reads:

     Our mission is to nurture spiritual growth by: worshipping the
     one God, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, studying his Word,
     and living a life of kindness and service.

Let's take a brief look at each of these essentials of our church. We will
see them more clearly if we understand the spiritual context into which they
arrived.
     In Swedenborg's day, the Christian Church had fallen very far away from
the original vision that Christ gave to the church. At that time,
Catholicism was more concerned with worldly power than with leading people
to God. Protestantism, meanwhile, had adopted some very non-Christian and
non-Biblical teachings. The most troublesome of these teachings was the idea
that God was not a single person, but three distinct persons. Whereas Jesus
said "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), Protestant dogma held that the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were each distinct persons of God, but were
somehow united so that they had a single will.
     This contradictory and confusing idea of God led to one of the most
damaging teachings ever preached in the name of Christ: the Vicarious
Atonement. According to Vicarious Atonement theology, we humans are all born
sinners because of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Since God
the Father is perfect, his justice must be perfect-which was interpreted as
an inability to tolerate sin and imperfection in human beings. This "perfect
justice" demands the penalty of death for our sins. However, God the Son was
willing to come to earth as Jesus and die instead of us, thus satisfying the
justice of God the Father. All we have to do to be "saved" is to accept that
Jesus Christ died for us; then God the Holy Spirit will bring redemption and
salvation to us.
     Swedenborg utterly rejected this dogma because it not only divides one
God into three, but attributes contradictory and even blasphemous
characteristics to God, saying that God is both loving and condemnatory at
the same time, and that God arbitrarily saves only those who profess one
particular faith-whether or not they actually live by it.
     Our church's view of the Lord is very different. (And I believe
mainline Christianity is moving in our direction.) We do not divide God into
three. We do not see Jesus as a separate "person" of God. Rather, we see our
Lord Jesus Christ as one with God the Father, just as we are taught in the
Gospels. We believe that Jesus was and is God coming personally into our
world to save us from our own evil by struggling against it himself, and by
teaching us what genuine religion is. The miracle of Jesus' birth is that
the infinite God bent the heavens and came down to us as a human being just
like ourselves-but with the soul of God within.
     This teaching is the most profound _and the most challenging_ one in
our faith. In many ways, it goes beyond belief that God could be born as a
human being. Yet it is the very humanity of Jesus that makes it possible for
us to have a _personal_ relationship with our Lord. Christianity is a
_personal_ religion. Our religion is one of love and understanding for each
other based on the Lord's infinite, _human_ love and understanding of us.
     We do not have the Lord physically present among us today. However, the
Lord did leave us a physical reminder of his presence, in case we should
forget. That reminder is the Bible-the Word of God. We place God's Word
centrally on our altar because, more than the writings of Swedenborg, it is
the inspiration for our religious life. Swedenborg helps us to understand
the Bible, but the Bible itself is where we are most strongly challenged-in
vivid and memorable stories and teachings-to live a Christ-like life.
     The beauty of our church's view of the Bible is that it opens the
deeper meanings within. Instead of having to glean words of wisdom from
various teachings that shine out from a matrix of history and prophecy that
often seems strange and outdated, the entire Bible shines forth with
spiritual meanings that are a light to our spiritual path. Through
"correspondences"-a living symbolism relating physical objects and events to
spiritual realities and processes-we can see our own spiritual growth
reflected in the flow of the Bible story, and gain insight and inspiration
to lead us on every step of our journey.
     That insight and inspiration always leads in the same direction: toward
applying the Lord's teachings to our everyday life. Our religion is
spiritual, but it is also supremely _practical_. As Swedenborg points out in
our reading from _Divine Providence_ and in many other places, any person of
any belief who makes a real effort to live a life of kindness based on what
he or she believes will be saved. It is our _motives_ and our _actions_, not
just our beliefs, that bring about the spiritual transformation of our lives
that we know in Christian terms as "salvation."
     This is our "Swedenborg 101" class. All of the thousand pages of the
Bible and all of the thirty plus volumes of Swedenborg boil down to a very
simple message-one that is both spiritual and practical at the same time: We
are to love the Lord God Jesus Christ above all things; we are to study the
Word of God and search out its deeper, spiritual meaning for us; and we are
to take that meaning-that message from the Lord-and practice it in our lives
through kindness and service toward our fellow human beings.
     What could be simpler? Yet we need an entire lifetime to put it into
practice.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Nov  9 20:35:30 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 09 Nov 1997 15:35:30 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "War and Peace," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199711092039.PAA32471@mx1.tiac.net>


                        War and Peace
        A Veteran's Day Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 9, 1997

Readings: Exodus 15:1-18. The Lord is a man of war
          Matthew 10:34-39. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword
          _Arcana Coelestia_ #8273. The meaning of "The Lord is a man of war"

"The Lord is a man of war." (Exodus 15:3)

I must apologize to Leo Tolstoi for stealing his title, "War and Peace." I
doubt I can approach his eloquence with words . . . and I have no intention
of approaching the number of pages he used to explore these issues. However,
as Veterans Day approaches, it seems fitting to consider the event that
causes us to _have_ veterans--namely, war.
     As with my Columbus Day sermon, the readings today were intentionally
provocative. In today's climate, the words of our text could be considered
some of the most troublesome in the Bible: "The Lord is a man of war." These
days, most people would not consider this a compliment to the Lord. Many
people altogether reject any God who would condone war--and also reject
large parts of the Old Testament, and some parts of the New, because they
portray a warlike God.
     Military people themselves often dislike and even speak out against
war, as General Douglas MacArthur did in an address to Congress on April 19,
1951. He said, "I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing
to me is more revolting.  I have long advocated its complete abolition, as
its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a
method of settling international disputes."
     However, the war question is not all one sided. While few people, when
really pressed, would say that war is a _good_ thing, we still do fight
wars, and we still have veterans of those wars. And neither the Bible nor
the teachings of our church lend themselves to a blanket anti-war stance.
     Swedenborg actually discusses how military commanders, officers, and
soldiers must think and act in order to live charitably and find their way
to heaven. He does _not_ say they must stop being military commanders,
officers, and soldiers, as the pacifists among us would have wished.
Instead, he presents a "just war" theory along classical lines: that the
only just war is a defensive war, and then it is justified only to the
extent needed in order to protect one's country. This is stated most clearly
in his discussion of  kindness (or "charity") in military commanders:

     If an army commander looks to the Lord, avoids evils as sins,
     and acts sincerely, justly, and faithfully in the affairs of his
     generalship and command, he is doing good and useful things,
     which are the good things of kindness. Since he constantly
     thinks about them, applies himself to them, and does them, he
     _becomes_ kindness. . . . He does not love war, but peace. Even
     in war he always loves peace. He does not go to war except for
     the protection of his country, and therefore is not an
     aggressor, but a defender.
         However, once a war has begun, if aggression is needed for
     defense he becomes an aggressor as well. In battle he is brave
     and courageous (if he was not born with a different
     personality); after battle he is mild and merciful. In battle he
     wishes to be a lion, but after battle, a lamb. In his inner self
     he does not glory in the defeat of his enemy and the honor of
     victory, but in the deliverance of his country and his people
     from the invasion of an enemy and the destruction and ruin they
     would inflict. (_The Doctrine of Charity_ #164)

Simply put, in the mind of a good army commander, officer, or soldier, war
is not something to be desired or gloried in, but rather is a necessary evil
when one's country is under attack. And once the battle is over, a good
military person looks on former opponents, not as enemies to be hated, but
as neighbors according to their good qualities. There is no reprisal or
revenge; only a desire to end hostilities and work toward friendly relations.
     Clearly, if all people--both military and non-military--had this
attitude, there would be no wars. If everyone believed that war is only for
defense, there would be nobody to defend against because nobody would be
attacking. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way. And _none_ of us is
entirely free from the _roots_ of war.
     Why do we have wars at all? Where does war come from?
     My grandfather, the late Rev. Louis A. Dole, sheds light on this in a
classic sermon that I printed in the March, 1997 issue of _Our Daily Bread:_

     War has been a conspicuous part of human history, particularly
     in the history of so-called Christian nations. The wars
     mentioned in the Bible describe the battles of right against
     wrong, of good against evil, which have to be fought in the
     human heart and mind. Men have always easily been led to fight
     against other men, but we should recognize that it is the
     unwillingness to fight against evils in our own hearts which is
     the real cause of these wars in the outward world. Wars must
     take place within or without, and if men refuse to fight against
     and overcome pride, ambition, the love of power, the love of
     conquest, and the desire to rule over rather than to serve the
     neighbor, these loves will continue to break out in open
     hostilities and wars. (_Our Daily Bread_, March 1997, p. 10)

Now this is a fascinating thought: "Wars must take place within or without."
If we refuse to fight the inner war--the war against pride, ambition, love
of power and conquest, and the desire to rule over others--then our pride
and our desire for power over others will break out into outward wars,
complete with soldiers and guns, death and destruction.
     This is why, beyond all the constructive and necessary peace
initiatives that Christians and people of other faiths engage in, the church
has an essential role to play in ending war and bringing about peace. For it
is the church that tells us where the roots of war lie. The roots of war are
not in the manufacture and sale of guns and bombs, but in the pride and
greed that prompts us to use such weapons to threaten and kill those who get
in the way of our selfish purposes.
     The real battlefield is within. And this is where "the Lord is a man of
war" in a _good_ sense. Swedenborg tells us that the Lord never desires
human beings to hate or kill one another, despite statements in the Bible
that give that impression. Those statements, says Swedenborg, are only true
of the Lord if we consider the enemy to be, not other human beings, but the
evil motives and false ideas within our own minds and hearts. This is the
true enemy. Unless we fight against and conquer this enemy, we will be
conquered by it, and our lives will be devoted to harming instead of loving
our neighbors.
     In this sense, the Lord did indeed come, not to bring peace, but a
sword. If we were left to ourselves, we would probably not trouble ourselves
with those pesky flaws in our personalities that cause us to be hard to get
along with, and even downright ornery and hurtful at times. We would prefer
to call a truce with these inner enemies, and keep drifting along as we
always have, with a false sense of peace.
     But the Lord has other plans for us. The Lord is not willing to
maintain peace with inner enemies that are attacking the "country" of our
soul in order to destroy everything good within us. When we have inner
enemies to overcome--and all of us _do_ have inner enemies to overcome--the
Lord does not bring peace to our lives, but a sword of discomfort with
ourselves and conflict in our minds and hearts. That conflict is over the
course that we will take with our lives--whether we will allow our inner
enemies of pride or greed or laziness or depression to overcome us, or
whether we will, through the Lord's power, struggle to overcome these
destructive forces and replace them with love, compassion, understanding,
and a desire to serve our fellow human beings.
     Yes, when we follow the Lord, the Lord does bring a sword into our
lives. Being Christian is not meant to be comfortable. It is meant to be a
continual challenge; a challenge to change and grow, to always be learning
more, always be understanding more, always be loving more. Our faith
continually challenges us to put out the effort and engage in the struggle
to break past the inner and outer barriers that keep us from living fully in
the model of Christ's love.
     If we will make that effort and engage in that struggle, we will indeed
have our wars and our battles, and sometimes we will emerge from them
wounded and in need of healing. The healing will come. The Lord has arranged
that we will not always be struggling. When the battle is over and we have
prevailed over some wrong desire or attitude through the strength that the
Lord gives us, we will experience the peace that follows war, the calm that
follows the storm. When we have engaged in our six days of work, the Lord
provides that we will have the seventh day of rest--a time of peace and
unity in our mind and heart, and in our relationships with each other. These
times give us a little taste of heaven, and give us the rest we need in
order to face our next battle . . . and win it.
     "O Lord, in your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode." (Exodus 15:13)


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Sun Nov 16 18:53:07 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 13:53:07 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Thankfulness & A Prophet in His Own Country
Message-ID: <199711161353_MC2-286B-765C@compuserve.com>


    A Prophet in His Own Country
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
November 16, 1997

        But Jesus said to [the people of Nazareth], "A prophet is not
without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in
his own house."  Now Jesus could do no mighty work there, except that He
laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.  And He marveled
because of their unbelief.  Mark 6:4-6

In less than two weeks we will be celebrating Thanksgiving.  For some
people this day will bring about a hollow feeling.  They will look at their
lives and wonder, "What is there here to be particularly thankful for?"  It
would seem that when God was handing out His bounty that they were standing
in the wrong line.  It is not unusual to have this state of mind
accompanied by the reflection, "What kind of loving God is the Lord if He
is withholding His blessings from me?  What did I do to deserve this lack
of blessings?"

For another group of people Thanksgiving Day will come and they will feel a
sense of gratitude, but will not really be grateful to the Lord.  They will
look at all they sense they and others have earned and worked for and feel
justified in be thankful that their life is better than so many others.  A
person in an affluent suburb, like the one we live in can be grateful for
house, car, and lifestyle he can enjoy.  He can reflect on the life many
people have in the poverty stricken, crime-ridden parts of many big cities
and feel grateful that his life is largely insulated from what people
living there must experience on a daily basis.  A person could recognize
the benefits of his life and be truly thankful to the Lord or he could be
like the man in the Lord's parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

        He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself, ?God, I thank You that I am not like other men;
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast
twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'  And the tax collector,
standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat
his breast, saying, ?God, be merciful to me a sinner!'   I tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted."  (Luke 18:9-14)

The Pharisee wasn't really grateful to the Lord.  As he spoke, although his
words were addressed to the Lord, he was really looking at himself in his
imagination, appreciating his superior accomplishments in fasting and
tithing, and taking full credit for them.

All of us enter adult life with a strong tendency to take credit for what
goes well and its converse to allocate blame when things go wrong.  Some
people easily heap the blame on themselves.  Others take the smallest share
of it possible and spread the rest to others.  The natural perspective
lives from the illusion that all life and much of the force that brings
anything about comes directly from each human being.  It is not surprising
that we naturally tend to think this way.  The Lord has created this world
and our minds such that we sense that life is our own, that we think by
ourselves and decide things within our own minds.   Certainly external
circumstances influence us.  Some people have their lives almost completely
driven by external influences.  At the other extreme are people who are so
stubbornly independent and contrary that they resist almost any external
influence that tries to shape them.  This latter group can actually be just
as driven by external influences as the former--the latter is driven to
rebel, the former to comply.  

The Lord has intentionally created our minds and the world we live in such
that His influence on us and the events around us isn't necessarily
recognizable and can be completely invisible.  So much of what the Lord
does happens moment by moment and on a regular basis that we can easily
take it for granted.  The Lord can be present in our lives with His
infinite love, wisdom, and power, but we don't even see this.

When Jesus returned to Nazareth after He had started His public ministry,
the people were not ready to see Him as being different from just another
human being who had grown up among them.  The gospel of Matthew records
their reaction to Him as being:

        "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?  Is
this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His
brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas.  And His sisters, are they not all
with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?"  So they were
offended at Him.  (Matthew 13:54-56)

In many towns and cities after Jesus had visited them, there were many
grateful people.  People who were grateful that they or a loved one had
been healed.  People who were grateful at the wise teachings and sense of
hope and possibility for a better life that He had conveyed to them.  But
in Nazareth, there was not gratitude when He left.  As recorded in the
gospel of Luke instead there was a murderous rage at Him.  And, indeed,
there was little He was able to do for them.  Their state of mind meant
that He  could do no mighty works in their midst.

When Jesus rose to read in the Nazareth synagogue on the Sabbath, He chose
a prophecy from Isaiah.  It is a prophecy promising wonderful things.  This
is what He read:

        The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, 
        Because He has anointed Me 
        To preach the gospel to the poor; 
        He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 
        To proclaim liberty to the captives 
        And recovery of sight to the blind, 
        To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
        To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  (Luke 4:18-19, taken
from Isaiah 61-1-2)

The prophecy speaks of preaching good news, of healing, and bringing
freedom.  Yet it isn't hard for  people to hear these words and not be
pleased.  Imagine you're doing a job that you feel perfectly capable of
doing, perhaps even particularly good at.  As you are working group of
people who you think of as being no different from yourself arrives and
say, "We came to help you, help that we bet you really, really need."   Few
among us would be able to hear this and not feel at least a twinge of
irritation.

Now imagine a different situation.  You have beloved family home near a
river that is flooding.  You have been working for hours as fast as you can
to build a sandbag barrier to keep the flooding away from your house.  You
can see that you aren't working fast enough.  It won't be long before your
barrier will be breached by the water.  And at this moment a group of
people arrive and say, "We came to help you, help that we bet you really,
really need."  Can you imagine yourself feeling anything but tremendous
relief and gratitude for their offer?

Some people have seen the meaning of this and many other stories of the
Word as being the nonsensical thought, "We should all feel terribly
incapable and inadequate, and then the Lord will bless us with happiness." 
I don't know anyone who likes the feeling of being incapable and
inadequate, nor who associates it by itself  with feeling blessed.

Jesus spoke to the people of Nazareth and told that He had come to serve
people in wonderful ways.  Their response was to be offended.  They were
not inclined to think He had any reason to be making such a wonderful
offer.  They didn't think they needed His help.  Their state of mind was
"If you're so great, prove it and we will believe."   This is what the Lord
meant when He referenced the proverb, "Physician, heal yourself."  In
ancient times one way to measure the skill of a doctor without risking your
own health and well-being was to see if he could cure himself of problem. 
First he had to prove himself capable.  This attitude of the people of
Nazareth meant that He could not do many miracles for them and could teach
them little.

One of the principles contained in the Writings of the New Church describes
the real core of what leads to gratitude to the Lord.  It is: "Influx is
according to efflux."  These words are a pure abstraction by themselves. 
What they mean is that influx or inflowing life and blessings from the Lord
is received  in the same measure that there is an efflux or an outgoing
effort by us to obey the Lord and serve our neighbors.  The following is
the passage in which these abstract words appear in context.  

        It is a universal law that influx adjusts itself according to
efflux, and if efflux is checked influx is checked.  Through the internal
man there is an influx of good and truth from the Lord, and through the
external there must be an efflux, namely into the life, that is, in the
exercise of charity. When there is this efflux then there is continual
influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; whereas if there
is no efflux, but resistance in the external or natural man (that is, evil
and falsity which tear to pieces and extinguish the inflowing good), it
follows from the universal law just mentioned that the influx adjusts
itself to the efflux, consequently that the influx of good draws back, and
thereby the internal through which is the influx is closed; and through
this closing there comes stupidity in spiritual things, even until the man
who is such neither knows nor is willing to know anything about eternal
life, and at last becomes insane, so that he opposes falsities against
truths, calling them truths and the truths falsities, and evils against
goods, making them goods and the goods evil. Thus he tears good completely
to pieces. (Arcana Caelestia 5828:2)

Another passage that speaks in more direct terms about this relationship
between the Lord and ourselves is the following:

        The presence of the Lord is predicated according to the state of
love toward the neighbor and of faith in which the man is.  In love toward
the neighbor the Lord is present, because He is in all good; but not so
much in faith, so called, without love.  Faith without love and charity is
a separated or disjoined thing. Wherever there is conjunction there must be
a conjoining medium, which is nothing else than love and charity, as must
be evident to all from the fact that the Lord is merciful to every one, and
loves every one, and wills to make every one happy to eternity.  He
therefore who is not in such love that he is merciful to others, loves
them, and wills to make them happy, cannot be conjoined with the Lord,
because he is unlike Him and not at all in His image.  To look to the Lord
by faith, as they say, and at the same time to hate the neighbor, is not
only to stand afar off, but is also to have the abyss of hell between
themselves and the Lord, into which they would fall if they should approach
nearer, for hatred to the neighbor is that infernal abyss which is between.
 (Arcana Caelestia 904:2)

In the United States there is only a small minority of people who plainly
state that they don't believe in God.  Most people celebrate Thanksgiving
in some form or another.  But only those who are trying to live a good life
and who realize the help they need from God to do this will be truly
thankful to Him for His blessings.

May we dedicate ourselves to living the life the Lord calls us to.  May we
consciously work at having open eyes to see the gifts in our lives that the
Lord gives us each day.  May this effort build a heart-felt sense of
gratitude and thanksgiving within our lives that blesses us each day of the
year.  AMEN.

       Lessons:  Luke 4:16-30

The Ancient Church distinguished the neighbor who was to be helped by doing
good things into many separate groups.  Some were called the poor, the
blind and the lame, and others strangers, orphans, and widows.  It
performed different charitable works, whichever were appropriate to the
character each group possessed.  The teachings of that Church showed them
what those works were, for that Church had no other teachings than these. 
Therefore whenever those living in those times either taught or wrote, they
did so in agreement with these teachings, so that, for example, when they
spoke of ?widows' they meant none but the kind of persons among whom truth
existed without good but who nevertheless had a desire to be led to good .
. . From this it is also evident that the teachings of the Ancient Church
were ones that had to do with charity and the neighbor, and that all its
religious knowledge and factual knowledge existed to enable people to know
what was meant spiritually by external things . . . But those teachings and
factual knowledge have become at the present day completely wiped out, so
completely indeed that there is no knowledge of their having existed.  For
their place has been taken by teachings to do with faith which, if widowed
and separated from those to do with charity, have virtually nothing to
teach.  For teachings to do with charity show what good is, but those to do
with faith show what truth is.  Teaching what truth is without what good is
amounts to walking like someone blind, it being good that is the teacher
and leader, truth the one that is taught and led.  Between the two kinds of
teaching there is a vast difference, as great as that between light and
darkness.  If the darkness is no lightened by means of the light, that is,
if truth is not lighted by good, or faith by charity, it is nothing but
darkness.  For this reason no one know intuitively, nor consequently by
perception, whether truth is the truth; he knows it only from what he was
taught and what he absorbed in childhood and substantiated in adult years. 
This also explains why Churches are so much at variance with one another,
one giving the name truth to that which another calls falsity, and are
never in agreement.
        Arcana Caelestia 4844:3-4

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Nov 16 20:55:53 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 15:55:53 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Speaking from the Heart," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199711162059.PAA12604@mail-out-1.tiac.net>


                    Speaking from the Heart
                   By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 16, 1997


Readings:


Psalm 15. Who may dwell in the Lord's sanctuary?

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
   Who may live on your holy hill?

Those who walk blamelessly,
   And do what is right,
Who speak the truth from their heart;
   And do not slander with their tongue,
Who do their friends no wrong,
   And cast no slur on their neighbor;
In whose eyes the wicked are despised,
   But who honor those who fear the Lord;
Who keep their oath
   Even when it hurts;
Who do not lend money for interest,
   And do not take a bribe against the innocent.

Those who do these things will never be shaken.


Matthew 12:33-37. The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart

Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its
fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood if vipers! How can
you say anything good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaks. A good person brings good things out of the good
stored up within him, and an evil person brings evil things out of the evil
stored up within him. But I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have
to give an account for every careless word you have spoken. For by your
words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.


_Arcana Coelestia_ #9113, 9114. Speaking and acting from the heart.

If we are religious, our conscience is formed from the true things in the
faith that we get from the Bible, or from spiritual teachings drawn from the
Bible-as much as we accept them in our heart. When we know the true things
that constitute faith, and understand them in our own particular way, and
then are motivated by them and act on them, conscience takes shape in us.
Accepting something in our heart means accepting it in our motivation, since
our motivation is what is called our heart.
     Because of this, if we have a conscience, when we speak, we speak from
the heart; and when we act, we act from the heart. We also have an undivided
mind, since we act in accordance with what we believe to be true and good.


Sermon:


     "Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
        Who may live on your holy hill?
     Those who walk blamelessly,
        And do what is right,
     Who speak the truth from their heart."
                            (Psalm 15:1, 2)

There is a passage in the Bible that didn't say much to me when I was a
teenager, but has grown on me over time. It is found in the Gospel of Matthew:

     Let your communication be "Yes, Yes, No, No"; for anything more
     than this comes from evil. (Matthew 5:37)

Makes for a rather short conversation, doesn't it?
     Looking back on my reaction to that passage as a teenager, I now think
there is a very specific reason that it didn't speak to me--and even annoyed
me. I loved to argue! I loved to argue about whether things were true or
false, right or wrong, good or bad. And I especially liked to argue that
what _I_ believed was _right_. Most people didn't have a lot of patience for
such arguments, but when I found someone _else_ who liked to argue . . .
well, let's just say that there were a lot more words exchanged than "Yes,
Yes, No, No."
     That was the problem. Letting my communication be "Yes, Yes, No, No"
didn't allow for arguments! It allowed for the "Yes," and the "No," but not
for the "Maybe so." And the idea that the "Maybe so" was from evil just
didn't sit right with me.
     However, as I moved through my teenage years and into my twenties,
arguing lost its appeal. I realized more and more that it only erected
barriers between me and the people around me. And I realized that it was
very unbalanced toward the "head" side of things, and away from the "heart"
side of things. The arguments were all up in my head.
     That brings us to our subject for this morning: "Speaking from the
Heart." Jesus focuses on this topic in our reading from Matthew:

     Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good
     person brings good things out of the good stored up within him,
     and an evil person brings evil things out of the evil stored up
     within him. (Matthew 12:34, 35)

The Lord tells us that the things we say come from our heart. If our heart
is good, the things we say are good; if our heart is evil, the things we say
are evil.
     What about lying and hypocrisy? Don't evil people say good things
sometimes? And don't good people sometimes make mistakes and say bad things?
Jesus was certainly aware of this. Some of his most powerful speeches railed
against the hypocrisy of those who put on airs of being highly religious,
but were inwardly selfish and bent on evil.

     Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth
     of your spices--mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected
     the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy, and
     faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without
     neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat
     but swallow a camel. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees,
     hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but
     inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind
     Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then
     the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, Scribes and
     Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which
     look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead
     men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the
     outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you
     are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:23-28)

The Lord was well aware that there are hypocrites in the world--people who
say one thing and believe another; whose hearts are evil, but who try to
appear good outwardly.
     The teachings of our church have something surprising to say about
this. Yes, the good things done by a person who is evil at heart are often
helpful to other people. But as far as the evil person is concerned, even if
something he or she says appears good and true outwardly, it is really evil
and false because it is being used for selfish purposes.
     An example might help. We have all been through the checkout line at
grocery stores, hardware stores, and so on. Checkout clerks are trained to
smile at the customers, be polite to them, to say "hello," and "have a nice
day." Some clerks really mean it. They are happy to serve you, and really do
hope you will have a nice day. Other's don't really mean it, but they know
it is part of their job, so they put on a friendly face anyway. And some
don't make much of an effort to put on a friendly face...
     However, let's consider those who do give us the impression that they
are happy to serve us. We experience it as a pleasant interaction, and it
does contribute to our having a nice day. (Unless we have made other plans.)
Now look at it from the checkout person's perspective. If that person
actually does enjoy serving people, the friendly face will not only be a
requirement of the job; it will be a real expression of what is going on
inside of him or her. When that person says "have a nice day," it is
heartfelt; so for him or her it is "the truth."
     What if a checkout person doesn't really care whether you have a nice
day or a lousy day? What if the checkout person only cares about the
paycheck, and considers the job a lot of boring drudgery? When _that_
checkout person says "have a nice day," it may have the same effect on _us_
as we go through the line, but for him or her, it amounts to a lie. If that
person said what was really in his or her heart, it might go something like
this: "Here's your lousy groceries. Now get lost!" For that person, "have a
nice day" simply isn't true--it isn't a genuine expression of what is inside.
     This is not to say that it would be preferable for checkout people to
speak from their hearts even if it means being rude to the customers. Social
pressure to act in kind and decent ways does have its uses!
     The problem is that if we don't at some point have a change of heart so
that we can be nice to people because we really care about them, we are
destroying ourselves from within no matter how nice we may appear outwardly.
Sooner or later, we will no longer be able to keep up the pretense of being
a good person. Perhaps in most circumstances we will be able to put on a
civil exterior, but when some serious interpersonal challenge or conflict
comes up, we will tend to revert back to what is really in our heart, and
lash out against those with whom we are in conflict. Sometimes this happens
in a sensational way, as we sometimes hear about in the news when some
person who has always seemed perfectly stable and ordinary all of a sudden
commits a terrible crime. Other times it is less spectacular; we simply lose
our temper and start yelling at someone, or even take a swing at them.
     If something like this happens, it doesn't necessarily mean we are a
bad person. But it _does_ mean that we have some work to do on ourselves.
Even if that sudden outburst doesn't express our _whole_ self, it does
express a part of ourselves that is in there, and that is selfish--or to use
a stronger phrase, that is evil. Part of the way we have been speaking and
acting toward the people around us has been false, because we have been
pretending that we care for them when we don't always.
     One solution to this problem would be to stop pretending that we care
for people. I don't recommend this solution! If we simply throw off all our
social decency and act grumpy and mean when we feel grumpy and mean, we have
allowed the evil that is in our heart to take over our whole self.
     There is a much better solution. That solution is to change what is in
our heart. This takes a lot more effort in the short run than simply giving
in to our self-centered urges. But in the long run it leads to much more
happiness, both within ourselves and in our relationships with other people.
     Whichever course we take, we end out speaking from the heart. But when
we speak from a selfish and evil heart, our words and actions lead to pain,
anger, and broken relationships. On the other hand, if we speak from a good
heart, even though we will still have to bear pain and anger from time to
time, our words and actions will lead through the pain and anger to stronger
and more loving relationships with each other.
     How do we change what is in our heart? We'd better not get into that
right now, or we'll be here all day! Perhaps we can delve into it at another
time. Meanwhile, I think most of us have some idea of where to start on
ourselves--and where we need to keep on working. After all, we've been
living with ourselves for quite a while now.
     As we do work on ourselves, we build up a conscience, which tells us
when we are about to say or do something that is wrong, and what we should
say or do instead. Our conscience may at times seem to be an annoyance, but
it is really our heart speaking. And it is not only our heart--it is God
speaking through our heart. When we listen to what God is telling us in our
hearts, and speak and act accordingly, then we are truly speaking from the
heart.

     Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
        Who may live on your holy hill?

     Those who walk blamelessly,
        And do what is right,
     Who speak the truth from their heart;
        And do not slander with their tongue,
     Who do their friends no wrong,
        And cast no slur on their neighbor;
     In whose eyes the wicked are despised,
        but who honor those who fear the Lord;
     Who keep their oath
        Even when it hurts;
     Who do not lend money for interest,
        And do not take a bribe against the innocent.

     Those who do these things will never be shaken.

                                           (Psalm 15)


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Mon Nov 17 22:13:28 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 17:13:28 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19971117171258.76e74908@mail.one.net>


This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    11-09-97

	LITTLE BY LITTLE

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land
become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you.
Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have
increased, and you inherit the land." (Exod. 23:29-30)
	Religion is really very simple.  It consists of turning to the Lord,
fleeing from evil, and receiving from the Lord a love for what is good.
Why, then, does it so often seem so difficult and so long and drawn-out?
Of course it seems easy at times.  We tell ourselves that from now on we
are going to turn over a new leaf.  From now on we are going to utterly
abstain from evil deeds and words, and from evil thoughts and feelings.
But then we find, to our dismay, that it just isn't that easy.  Even when
we manage to refrain from one evil, another one seems to crop up in its
place.  The testimony of experience would seem to be that it is a very,
very difficult thing indeed for someone to change his life --  to turn from
evil toward what is good.  Of course we know that strictly speaking nobody
really changes his life.  Though we have to cooperate, still, it is the
Lord alone who has the power to really change us.  But then, we ask
ourselves, why does the Lord take so long to change us?  Why do we linger
so long in evil states?  Is it because we really aren't trying?  Is it
because we really love evil?  And if this be so, is there really any chance
for us to become angels after we die?
	Despair at our spiritual progress can of course take many forms, and can
have various causes.  We should however realize that sometimes the despair
we feel arises not from the fact that spiritual progress is nonexistent,
but because such progress is so slow.  It is so gradual that we hardly
notice it.  And we feel frustrated -- frustrated that we can't simply
change overnight, and, putting away our many and various evils, start
living a life of happy obedience to the Lord's will.
	We are frustrated because we feel that spiritual progress should be a lot
quicker than it is.  We feel that our spirits should change a lot quicker
than they actually do.  This feeling arises partly from the fact that
things around us can often be changed rapidly.  On the spur of the moment
we can decide to reorganize the furniture in the living room, and do so.
We can decide to change the way we dress, and, if we have the money, we can
go out and buy new clothes, and start wearing a completely new outfit that
very day.  And even when some changes take time, we can often do certain
things to speed them up.  We can put all our efforts into spring-cleaning
our house, or some such project, and, by working hard and by not being too
particular, we can finish the job quite rapidly.  Many things around us can
be changed fairly quickly if we are impatient for results.  But then, there
are other areas of life where impatience gets us nowhere, and we must learn
to be patient.
	This is especially the case where living things are concerned.  Change and
growth in a living organism can occur only gradually.  A gardener or a
farmer knows full well that though he can provide conditions which
encourage the growth of plants, the actual growth is not in his hands at
all.  It is similar with the growth of the human being.  A mother knows
well that it normally takes nine months for an embryo to develop to the
point where it can become a healthy baby.  And though she might well wish
it were a shorter time, she knows that the growth of a fetus is something
beyond her control.  So too with babies and children -- their growth, both
physical and mental, takes time, lots of time.
	The growth of something living can only occur gradually.  Some things, of
course, grow much faster than others.  Also, to some degree a proper
environment can encourage growth.  A farmer knows well the value of proper
fertilization, crop-rotation and irrigation.  But growth itself is not in
man's hands at all, for it is an incredibly complex process which only the
Lord can bring about.
	This is why spiritual progress occurs only gradually, for it is in fact a
matter of growth -- the growth of something living.  Indeed, it is
represented in the Word both by the growth of a plant, and by the growth of
an embryo and then a baby.  As we read in Mark:  "The kingdom of God is as
if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and
rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know
how" (Mk. 4:26, 27).  And as we read in True Christian Religion:
"Regeneration is effected in a manner analogous to that in which man is
conceived, carried in the womb, born and educated" (TCR 583).
	We are all aware of the extreme complexity of living things, both in the
case of plants, and still more in the case of the human body.  What we
sometimes fail to reflect upon is that the human mind itself is living, and
even more complex that the human body.  On the surface a feeling or a
thought may seem to be a fairly simple thing -- something we take for
granted.  But the reality is that a thought, and the feelings within it are
extremely complex.  Take, for example, one seemingly simple evil thought:
perhaps a contemptuous thought for someone we know.  It seems a very simple
thing, so simple that we may believe that all we need to do is resist it
once, and it will be cast from our minds for ever.  But it isn't simple.
As we read in the Arcana:  "every evil that is rooted in with its falsities
has a connection with all evils and their falsities and such evils and
falsities are innumerable, and their connection is so complex that it
cannot be comprehended, not even by the angels, but only by the Lord" (AC
9336).
	The truth of the matter is that we are only vaguely aware of what is
contained in and what occurs within our minds.  All we are conscious of are
a relatively few surface thoughts and feeling.  The rest is beneath or
above our consciousness, and is governed to some degree by angels, devils
and spirits, but mostly by the Lord alone.
	Because of this, we do not realize the incredible amount of evils and
falsities lurking within our minds.  If we did, we would be horrified.
Only occasionally, for example during a war, do we catch a glimpse of the
horrifying black depths within the human spirit.  Who could have believed
that human beings could be capable of the atrocities committed during the
last world war, for example?  And who among us can easily accept that
similar evils lurk within ourselves?  But it is so.
	This is 'why the path to heaven takes so long.  One of the major ways in
which the Word of the Old Testament portrays progress toward heaven is by
the journey toward and conquest of the land of Canaan.  The Promised Land,
the land flowing with milk and honey, is of course heaven.  And we, like
the Israelites, must leave the bondage of Egypt, the bondage of sin, and
travel toward and finally inhabit the promised land of heaven.  But to
inhabit this land in peace meant conquering the host of evil peoples who
inhabited the land.  Until this happened, until their enemies were subdued,
the Israelites were always going to be disturbed by conflicts.
	The appearance was that it was the children of Israel who had to fight and
conquer.  It was their task.  Yet it is evident from many things in the Old
Testament that it was really the Lord who fought for them.  When they
disobeyed Him, and He was not with them, they suffered horrible defeats.
When they turned again to Him, they won victories against their enemies,
even when sometimes they were heavily outnumbered.
	That victory was from the Lord alone was made clear to them even before
they entered the land.  In the book of Exodus they are told by the Lord:
"I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the
people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to
you" (Exod. 23:27).
	It is the same with us.  It is the Lord who conquers our enemies, our
evils, as we fight against them.  It we disregard the Lord, disregard His
Word, and disobey Him, we will never have peace from evil loves.  But if we
turn to Him in His Word and follow Him, shunning evils and doing good, then
gradually He will lay to rest those evil loves within our minds, evil loves
from which spring evil thoughts, words and deeds.
	This the Lord will do . . . this He has promised to do.  But we should
realize that the Lord has promised to do this gradually -- not all at once.
 "And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the
Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.  I will not drive them out from
before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the
field become too numerous for you.  Little by little I will drive them out
from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land" (Exod.
23:28-30).  Here is the reason why spiritual progress is so allow.  The
Lord's truth has tremendous power to remove evils.  But it works in such a
way as not to hurt a person.  The Lord loves us:  He wants to save us, not
destroy us.  Think of the consequences of suddenly exterminating all the
enemy peoples in the land of Canaan.  These peoples were evil in many ways,
but still they performed a use.  They kept the land inhabitable.  They kept
the fields ploughed.  They kept wild animals at bay.  They could therefore
be destroyed only to the extent that the Israelites were ready to carry on
these tasks.  It is the same with our evils.  The fact is that we love many
evil things.  We take delight in them.  Our mental life is wrapped up in
them.  We may not like the fact that, to a large degree, our mind is filled
with selfish and worldly loves.  But if these loves were suddenly removed,
our whole mental life would be destroyed.  There would be nothing to take
the place of these evil loves and motives.  And without things that it
loves, the human mind is dead.  Neither can heavenly loves be immediately
instilled into the mind to suddenly replace these selfish loves.  To do so
would be to destroy a person (cf. AC 9336).  To suddenly give somebody
heavenly love in all fullness would be to destroy human freedom.  It would
actually kill him.  So it is that a person must gradually and gently be led
to love the things of heaven.  This love must gradually grow within his
mind and bear fruit.  Only so far as this happens can active evil love be
finally laid to rest.  "Little by little I will drive them out from before
you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land."  A person can
indeed have a vision of heaven.  He can turn to the Lord.  He can reform
his life, shunning evils as they appear.  Then gradually he can be given a
new love, a love for what is good, and an aversion for what is evil and
corrupt.  But he must be patient.  Though he wants to go to heaven, many
selfish things remain deep within his mind.  And this can cause him to be
troubled.  He shuns evil and does good.  And so he must.  He must obey the
Lord if the Lord is to lead him into heaven.  But for a long time he
nevertheless loves evil and finds little delight in what is good.  This is
the case even though he intends to be led by the Lord, and even though he
wants to be rid of evil loves.  First of all this intention, this desire,
must grow.  It is a living thing, a highly complex thing.  Only slowly can
his intention and desire for the things of heaven grow into a full love, a
love which rules his mind and which endures and grows forever.
	In no way does this justify laziness in the life of religion.  We must do
our part, and do it faithfully.  We must not harbor and encourage evils
within our mind, nor in our words and actions.  We must fight.  But when
progress is slow, as it will be at times, and when we find ourselves
repeatedly confronted with selfish and evil thoughts, let us not grow too
impatient or lose hope.  If we are making an effort, a sincere effort, and
if we look to the Lord, then there will be something growing within us.  A
love for the things of heaven is taking form, growing, and gaining new
life.  We don't notice a child growing.  It happens so slowly that we are
hardly aware of it.  But he grows nevertheless.  And before we know it, a
little baby is full-grown.  So too with a love for the things of heaven.
It is seemingly slow.  It takes a lifetime to learn to really love the Lord
more than ourselves.  It takes years to really love other people as much as
we love ourselves.  But what is a lifetime when we are considering a love
which will grow forever?   Once this love has borne fruit, our evil loves
are then laid aside.  But this love for good will keep on developing
forever.  In the meantime, we must be obedient, we must be faithful, and we
must be patient.  As we read in Divine Providence:  "Who may not comprehend
if he will that it is impossible for that which is being perfected to
eternity to be made perfect in an instant" (DP 338e).
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Gen. 1:1-5
		Mk. 4:26-34
		DP 338:8-10


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Nov 23 18:34:40 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 13:34:40 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Thanks for Everything!" by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199711231838.NAA27839@mail-out-1.tiac.net>


                     Thanks for Everything!
         A Thanksgiving Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 23, 1997

Readings: Psalm 8. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
          Luke 17:11-19. Giving thanks for the Lord's healing power
          _Apocalypse Explained_ #288. Giving thanks spiritually

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
     The moon and the stars that you have established,
What are human beings, that you are mindful of them?
     Mortals, that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
     And have crowned them with glory and honor.
                                         (Psalm 8:3-5)

It _is_ amazing, when we think about it.
     I have been following a six-part series of TV programs called "Stephen
Hawking's Universe" that has been running on PBS in recent weeks. Astronomy
and cosmology are great interests of mine, so when I heard that this series
would be running, I set my VCR to record it, just to make sure I wouldn't
miss any of the segments.
     For those of you who may not know, Stephen Hawking is one of the
foremost astrophysicists of our day. Hawking himself is an amazing story: he
has not allowed nearly complete paralysis due to Motor Neuron Disease (also
known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) to prevent him from pursuing his career.
Despite being confined to a motorized wheelchair, and dependent on a
computerized voice synthesizer to be able to speak, he is the Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University--a chair once held by Isaac
Newton. And people flock to hear him. His book _A Brief History of Time_ is
one of the most popular scientific books of all time.
     Stephen Hawking contemplates the same things the psalmist David did
hundreds of centuries earlier: the glory of the heavens--or, to put it in
more modern terminology, the wonders of the skies. And our current picture
of those skies is vastly larger than the universe of David's conception. For
people in David's era, the objects in the sky were not all that far
away--probably not much farther than the upper atmosphere. Even in the
Middle Ages, when our view of the universe started to expand, most people
who studied such things didn't think of the universe as much bigger than the
orbit of our moon--perhaps about five hundred thousand miles in diameter.
     Today, the distances have become so vast that we have long since given
up measuring them in miles. We now measure them in light years: the distance
light travels in one year. Considering that light travels approximately
186,000 miles in a single second, a light _year_ is an unimaginably large
distance. And when we consider that distances to the depths of space are
measured in _millions_ of light years . . . well, we have all the more
reason to get caught up in the same wonderment that David felt so many
centuries ago: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars" (and the galaxies and quasars) "that you have
established, what are human beings, that you are mindful of them? Mortals,
that you care for them?" Even the centuries since the time of David are
practically nothing in comparison to the billions of years that we now use
to count the age of the universe.
     When we consider the unfathomable vastness and age of the universe, and
realize how tiny we are in comparison, isn't it a foolish conceit to think
that we human beings amount to anything more than the grass of the field,
which is here today and gone tomorrow? What is a life of sixty or eighty, or
even a hundred years compared to the ten or fifteen billion year span of the
universe?
     "Yet," David continues, "you [the Lord] have made us a little lower
than God, and have crowned us with glory and honor." It is truly amazing,
when we think about it. That tiny beings such as ourselves could be God's
purpose in creating all this vast array of galaxies and nebulas, stars and
planets.
     However, the more we study the workings of the stars and planets, the
more we realize--if we are looking for a divine plan in the physical
universe--that all of these vast workings contribute to the creation of
earthly environments that can support human life. The heavier elements that
are needed for our life and for our use are forged in the crucibles of
exploding stars known as supernovas. Gas giant planets such as Jupiter and
Saturn are huge chemical laboratories forming the complex molecules that are
needed for complex life forms such as ourselves to exist, and seeding the
smaller, rockier planets closer to the sun with these building blocks of
life. The more we study the universe, the more we realize that it is
precisely calibrated--in some cases to as much as fifteen decimal points of
precision--to make it possible for galaxies, stars, and life-supporting
planets to exist. Some scientists have chosen to regard this all as a great
cosmic good fortune. I find it much more sensible to regard this complex
fine-tuning of our universe as the work of an intelligent--and loving--God
who gives us the gift of everything there is.
     And that is what our Thanksgiving holiday is all about. Sometimes, when
someone has given us a lot of help, as a way to express our gratitude we
toss off the phrase, "Thanks for everything!" Of course, it is not literally
true. That person has not done _everything_ for us.
     But God has. God has done, and continues to do, _everything_ for us.
Everything in the universe; everything in our world; everything in our lives
is done especially for each one of us. The Lord does not think only of one
person or another in doing anything. As hard as it may be for us to grasp,
the Lord's love is infinite, and infinity cannot be divided. When the Lord
creates a universe, that entire vast creation is done especially for you; it
is done especially for me; it is done especially for each and every person
in China or India, Europe or Africa, Australia or South America.
     This God who does everything for us is the same being as our Lord
Jesus, who healed the ten men who had a dreaded skin disease, sometimes
called "leprosy." When the men called out to him for help, he took pity on
them, and used his divine healing power to overcome their physical disease.
     The Lord does not always heal our physical diseases--although it is
becoming more and more accepted that praying to the Lord for healing _does_
help us to recover from our sicknesses. However, there is a way that the
Lord always does help us to overcome our sicknesses: the Lord will always
help us overcome our _spiritual_ sicknesses if we will ask for the Lord's
help. The Lord's vast, divine power is not primarily concerned with what
happens to our physical bodies, since our bodies are only temporary
dwellings for our spirits. But God _is_ deeply concerned about our spiritual
health and sickness.
     In the story of the ten lepers, all ten _were_ healed. When only one
came back, the Lord did _not_ say that the others would become lepers again
because they hadn't come back and given thanks! But he _did_ say something
to that one grateful man that he had not said to the others. He said, "Your
faith has made you well."
     That one man was healed in a way that the others were not. He was
healed in his mind and spirit. He received new life in his thoughts and
feelings, his beliefs and actions. He became a new person, healthy to love
and understand and serve his fellow human beings. The others may have had
their physical disease healed, but this man had something far greater to be
thankful for. His own eternal soul had been healed, and he was on his way to
a joy in spiritual life that the others would miss unless they, too, turned
and recognized the source of their healing: the divine power of God's love.
It is similar to Stephen Hawking's story: Hawking's body has not been
healed; but he has the far greater blessing of the use of his mind to
contemplate the incredible workings of the universe.
     We have things both vast and personal to be thankful for during this
season, and throughout our lives. We have the incredible realization that
the Lord created the huge array of the physical universe so that each one of
us could live and breathe and pursue our interests and our loves. And we
have the equally incredible realization that the same tremendous power that
created a universe so large that we cannot fully grasp it, is also available
to each one of us to heal the broken parts of ourselves, and the broken
parts of our relationships with each other. That vast, universal love is
also an intensely personal and human love, which comes from a human God--our
Lord Jesus Christ--who wishes to have a relationship of mutual love and
understanding with each one of us.
     When we say "Thanks for everything" to God, it is not just a nice turn
of phrase. If we really mean it in our hearts; if we recognize that
everything comes from God--the vast array of the physical creation as well
as the even more amazing creation of goodness, truth, understanding, love,
and happiness that we can experience in our lives; if we recognize and
appreciate these wonderful gifts from God, then our thanksgiving celebration
will be a joyful and profound expression of our gratitude to the Lord for
all the wonders of creation, and for all the wonders of the Lord's deeply
healing love for each one of us. 


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Nov 24 18:06:19 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 13:06:19 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Guilt and Thankfulness
Message-ID: <199711241306_MC2-2974-8A2D@compuserve.com>


Guilt and Thankfulness
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
November 23, 1997

        Have mercy upon me, O God, 
        According to Your lovingkindness; 
        According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, 
        Blot out my transgressions.
        Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 
        And cleanse me from my sin.   Psalm 51:1-2

Which do you think is the clearest opposite to gratitude and thankfulness:
a person feeling like his life is relatively empty of blessings, or a
person feeling a heavy load of guilt for evils intentions, hateful,
destructive, or self-centered thoughts, and for actual evils committed?  If
we are thankful when we recognize that we have received something good in
our lives then perhaps worse than having nothing is feeling weighed down
with guilt.

A sense of guilt can cripple a person.  A woman can be so conscious of
something she did when she was seventeen that it haunts the rest of her
life.  She can have the recurring thought that all of the troubles she
faces in her life are a form of retribution that she justly deserves
because of what she did.  She can be desperately afraid that people will
somehow recognize how she has been tainted by what she has done.  She
tenses up and feels frantic if a subject of conversation comes up that
might be related to her teenage choice.  Perhaps she doesn't believe that
her husband could ever really love her if he knew, so there is a wall or
uncrossable boundary that tends to divide them from a real trust and
confidence in each other.

Counselors, psychologists, even friends have sometimes become aware of the
impact that guilt can have on a person like this woman.  They can have a
sense that it ruins lives.  At times the response of people has been to try
to convince the woman that the problem would disappear if she just viewed
her seventeen year-old behavior as inevitable and caused by circumstances. 
At times, in the name of helping, there can be a tendency to view concepts
of good and evil as antiquated, to assert that we are always doing the best
we can given out background, and that any sense of guilt is wrong.

But is a sense of guilt also something that we can be grateful for?   
Psalm 51 speaks both of a clear sense of guilt and a need to be cleansed
and it also of the Lord "restoring the joy of . . . salvation" and  of the
writer singing aloud the Lord's righteousness and his mouth showing forth
His praise.  Does this Psalm sound like it speaks of a beaten down state of
mind?  It conveys a powerful trust in the Lord and confidence in His help. 
It speaks of the power of the Lord to bring about change and to cleanse a
person of his iniquity.  It is powerfully hopeful and yet it also conveys a
clear sense of guilt.

Recognition of evil within oneself doesn't have to be crippling.  It can be
a powerful stimulant to change.  Consider the man who recognizes that his
patterns of action and speech at work have had a destructive effect on the
morale of the people he works with.  Perhaps he has been quick to find
fault in others work, always pointing out the flaws and incompleteness of
their efforts.  At a staff meeting when the group has come up with
desirable solution, he cannot seem to resist pointing out that they really
should have been able to recognize this solution and implement months
earlier than they did. Always his eyes and comments go to what he sees
could of and should have been done better.  Perhaps  a blow-up during a
meeting and a stern reprimand by a supervisor opens his eyes to the
destructive effect his communication has had on the creativity and sense of
delight of his work team.  He may suddenly put together the recollected
comments of his co-workers that has him realize that they have dreaded
coming to work and especially meetings in which they would come under his
critical scrutiny.  How does he respond to this recognition.  Does he
justify his past behavior and try to convince others that he was right in
the first place?  Does he feel so incompetent and incapable that he
seriously considers quitting, and in extreme cases, even taking his own
life?  Or does he recognize that he wants to become a different person, one
whose words and actions don't have the same effect on his co-workers?  If
he recognizes how important their sense of capability and their sense of
accomplishment is, he can be strongly motivated to change.  He can
acknowledge to the Lord that he has been guilty of destructive behavior and
can pray for the daily strength and commitment to change.  In a very
profound sense he can end up being deeply grateful for the blow-up at the
meeting and the stern words of his supervisor.  He can be thankful to see
that he needs to and wants to change.

A recognition of evil within oneself can be a powerful stimulant to change,
like adrenalin within the human body that helps us focus, to react more
quickly, and with greater effect.  A recognition of evil within oneself can
also be deeply crippling, bringing spiritual darkness, and a strong sense
of deserving terrible punishment.  Why can it evoke such opposite
responses?

We cannot understand the nature of our minds unless we know and acknowledge
that our thoughts and intentions are formed by the influence of two
competing forces.  The Writings of the New Church describe it with these
words:

        With every person there are spirits from hell and angels from
heaven.  It is by means of hell that a person is in his own evil, while it
is by means of angels from heaven that a person is in good from the Lord;
from this he is in a spiritual equilibrium, that is, in freedom.  (Heaven
and Hell 599)

Each experience that we have, both those that happen to us from events and
people who touch our lives, and the inner mental experiences that occur in
our conscious thought, can be given very different sets of meaning. 
Consider the event in the Lord's life when the people of a Samaritan
village refused to host Him and His disciples.  What did this mean?  The
disciples, James and John, responded to this rejection with a clear sense
of judgment that the people of that village were terribly evil and deserved
punishment.  They asked, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down
from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" (Luke 9:54) They viewed
this situation as a clear matter of right and wrong.  They had a powerful
sense that Jesus was so important and His cause so valuable that this
slight should not go unavenged.  They concluded that perhaps the whole
village, man, woman, and child should be obliterated into a smoking ruin as
a warning to others.

I would not have wanted to be in their sandals when Jesus responded to
their righteous judgment.  "He turned and rebuked them, and said ?You do
not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come
to destroy men's lives but to save them.'" (Luke 9:55-56)  It is recorded
simply that they went to another village.  Both Jesus and the disciples
knew that they had been refused by the Samaritan village.  One response to
this event was evoked in James and John, "Destroy them!" and a very
different one was evoked in Jesus, "Let's try the next village."  

Jesus sternly reprimanded James and John for their suggestion.  Their call
for punishment evoked in Him the response of "You do not know what manner
of spirit you are of."  We have all experienced the quality of this spirit.
 We have experienced when we have been righteously indignant at someone
else's behavior and we have experienced it if we have ever felt terribly
guilty and deserving of punishment for something we have done.  The quality
of this spirit is the quality of hell.  The Lord and the angels never
desire any punishment for anyone.  It is a quality of hell that evil
spirits love to both inspire, entice, lead us to desire, think, and choose
evil and destructive things but also to accuse us of having broken Divine
law, to condemn us, and to delight in inflicting punishment.  James and
John had accepted this second spirit of hell in their call for the fiery
destruction of the Samaritan village and so were strongly rebuked by Jesus.

The adult mind is capable of being a spiritual battlefield between forces
of good and evil.  Many people apparently do not experience this battle. 
For some it because they are so superficial in their thoughts and concerns.
 Their lives are so dominated by worldly and self-centered motives that the
only battles they face are between their desire for short-term
gratification of their inclinations and a fear of the consequences that may
come if they're caught.

For those who are consciously trying with a part of their mind to follow
the Lord and to live a good and useful life, a very different level of
battle can occur.  These battles are the battles of spiritual temptation. 
They are a battle between good and evil within our thoughts and
motivations.  The Lord has told us:

        There are evil spirits who in times of temptations call up a
person's false ideas and evil loves, and in fact call forth from his memory
whatever he has thought and done from early childhood.  Evil spirits do
this with a skill and malignity so great as to be indescribable.  But the
angels with the person draw out his good loves and true ideas, and thus
defend him.  This combat is what is felt and perceived by the person,
causing the pain and remorse of conscience.  (Arcana Caelestia 751)

Unhealthy guilt arises when the evil spirits with us work to undermine any
sense of hope we might have in salvation and the possibility of spiritual
progress in our own lives.  They would love to point out all of our
failures, our backsliding, and our imperfections.  They would love to so
bog us down with a consciousness of sin that we feel hopeless and helpless.
 They want us to give up.  They want us to conclude that the Lord has
rejected us and views us with stern condemnation.  They want to attribute
all that goes wrong in our lives to the Lord, all punishment, all sadness. 
If they can succeed in their efforts we will be deeply troubled by
unhealthy guilt and will be terribly distanced from the Lord.
  
Another tactic that the evil spirits can use is to get us to feel like
we've done all we need to do when we merely recognize and acknowledge
faults and evils within our selves, but do little or nothing to change.  A
person can almost rejoice in a sense of guilt even though it goes no
further than an acknowledgment that one isn't perfect.  This also can
induce spiritual apathy in a person's life.  Consider the implication of
the following passage from the Writings of the New Church:

        Cannot anyone understand, from the reason given him, that the mere
lip-confession of being a sinner is not repentance, or the recounting of
various particulars in regard to it, as a hypocrite can do?  For what is
easier for a person when he is in trouble and agony, than to utter sighs
and groans from his lungs and lips, and also to beat his breast and make
himself guilty of all sins, and still not be conscious of any sin in
himself? Do the diabolical horde who then occupy his loves, depart along
with his sighs? Do they not rather hiss at those things, and remain in him
as before, as in their own house? From this it is clear that such
repentance is not what is meant in the Word; but repentance from evil
works. (True Christian Religion 529)

The Lord want us to recognize that there are parts of our lives that need
to be changed.  There are motivations that we sense, thoughts in our minds,
and words and actions that we do that are destructive to the welfare of
others, to the goals we seek, and to ourselves.  He wants us to recognize
them, acknowledge them, and know with a strong sense of hope and trust that
He can bring about a change in us if we cooperate with Him.  A person who
wants to follow the Lord can be grateful for seeing a significant fault or
flaw that previously he had been unconscious of.  He need not be crippled
by guilt over this.  He need not listen to the spirits who like James and
John righteously call for a fiery punishment for his evil.  Instead he can
be strengthened to the turn to the Lord, to seek His help, and to work
toward living a better life in the future.  For him a recognition of evil
and sin helps him lead a better life.  May we pray for this spirit within
our own lives.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Psalms 51:1-14
                Luke 9:51-56    

Arcana Caelestia 751 
Few if any know the nature of temptations, because there are few today who
undergo such temptations, and those who do undergo them know not but that
it is something inherent in themselves which suffers. There are evil
spirits who as before said in times of temptation call up a person's false
ideas and evil loves, and in fact call forth from his memory whatever he
has thought and done from early childhood. Evil spirits do this with a
skill and a malignity so great as to be indescribable. But the angels with
the person draw out his good loves and true ideas, and thus defend him.
This combat is what is felt and perceived by the person, causing the pain
and remorse of conscience.

Arcana Caelestia 6324
If a person would believe as things really are, which is that everything
good and true comes from the Lord, and everything evil and false is from
hell, he then could not become guilty of any fault, nor could evil be
ascribed to him. But because he believes that it begins in himself he
accepts evil has his own, for his belief causes this to happen.  Thus evil
clings and cannot be separated from him.  Indeed human nature is such that
a person would be indignant if any one told him that his thoughts and
desires came from others and did not begin in himself.          Arcana
Caelestia 6324

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Nov 29 17:39:19 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 12:39:19 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Mime-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19971129123906.63e769e0@mail.one.net>


This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  This and other sermons
may be found with fuller formatting on our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    11-23-97

	THE HEAVENLY JOSEPH

	A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"And his brothers said to him, 'Shall you indeed reign over us?  Or shall
you indeed have dominion over us?'  So they hated him even more for his
dreams and for his words." (Gen. 37:8)

	WE ARE GOING TO ASK YOU THIS MORNING to reflect on the relative importance
we give to different things.  When you think about it, you realize that
your life in this world is, in essence, a series of decisions.  When you do
something, say something, think something or want something, it is,
generally speaking the result of a decision.  Let's take a very simple
everyday example.  Suppose you sit down and read the newspaper.  Whether we
are aware of it or not this action involves a decision.  We have decided to
read the newspaper rather than, say, write a letter to a friend.  What is
more, this decision involves a judgment of the relative importance of these
two courses of action.  We have decided that at that moment, for whatever
reasons, it is more important to us to read the paper than to write a letter.
	Such an example concerns a relatively insignificant matter.  But the same
principle applies when it comes to more serious things.  A person's
relationship to the church, and to the things of religion is also expressed
in a series of decisions -- decisions influenced to a large degree by what
he considers important.  The members of this congregation, as is the case
with any congregation, make decisions about the things of the church just
as they do with all other aspects of life.  Take for example, reading the
Word.  Different people within the church will read the Word with varying
regularity.  Some will read it every day.  Some will not.  Some will read
only a little.  Some will study the Word in detail.  There will also be
variation within a church as to the way in which the members live their
religion.  Some will be true, very true, to what the Lord commands.  Others
will be more willing to ignore these commandments from time to time.
	Now it is evident that when it comes to matters of the church and of
religion, a person's eternal welfare is at stake.  His happiness in the
world to come will depend to a large extent upon the decisions he makes in
the area of religion, and these decisions in turn will depend, to a great
extent on, the importance he attaches to such matters.
	It is thus vital that we consider within ourselves how important the
things of the church, its teachings, and its way of life, really are?  How
important is it to go to church?  How important is it to pray daily?  How
important is it to read from the Word?  And, in the area of everyday life,
how important is it that we always obey the Ten Commandments?  Can we allow
ourselves certain failings?
	There is a lot involved and a lot at stake in such questions.  In general,
though, we might make four observations.  First of all, the natural
tendency of man is to underestimate the importance of these things.  For
example, there are occasionally good reasons which make it impossible for
people to support the public uses of the church, and, to a lesser extent,
there are occasions when even private devotions must give way to temporary
urgent situations.  But all too often merely natural tendencies are at the
root of the problem.
	A second observation relates to the nature of man.  Human beings are
created to be free.  Even though this means a person may make the most
stupid decisions, even to the point of bringing upon himself eternal harm,
still he always remains free.  And so it is that just because something is
important does not mean that a person will choose to do it.
	Thirdly, it should be noted that it is not enough to see the importance of
something.  Its importance relative to others things must also be seen.
For example, it is not enough to know that it is important to read the
Word.  A person simply cannot, nor should he, spend all his time reading.
There are other things that are important as well, such as a life of use.
To a large degree the question is not so much whether or not we should read
the Word, but for how long -- and a person cannot really answer such a
question satisfactorily without some understanding of how important each of
these things is.
	Fourthly, it should be observed that it is not even enough to know the
relative importance of such things.  Also significant is the knowledge of
why they are important.   For example, one person may lead a moral life
because it is vitally important to him that others respect him.  Another
may lead a moral life because the happiness of others is important to him.
The lives led by these two men might appear similar on the surface, but
internally there is a great difference -- the difference between being
selfish and being unselfish.
	Now if a person is concerned about questions like this -- is concerned
that he give religion its proper place in life and place his various
responsibilities in true perspective -- he can come closer to proper
answers by beginning with a very simple question.  He can begin by asking,
"What is the most important thing of religion?"  The answer to this
question can begin to bring other things into their true perspective, for
if we know the most important thing of all, then we can begin to come to
see the relative significance and use of everything else.
	One of the places this question is dealt with in the Word is in the story
of Joseph.  In the literal sense this story deals, to a large extent, with
the subject of importance and supremacy . . . specifically the importance
and supremacy of Joseph.  Though Joseph was the second to youngest of
Jacob's twelve sons, his father loved him more than any of the others.
Joseph was the son of his old age, and the first son of the woman Jacob
loved the most -- Rachel -- who for very many years been barren.  Jacob
expressed this love for Joseph by giving him a tunic of various colors.  In
Jacob's eyes, then, Joseph was the most important of his children.
Joseph's dreams underlined this.  The implication in both his dreams was
that his brethren would come to do obeisance to him, and the second dream
implied that even Jacob and Leah would do so as well.  The special coat,
the dreams Joseph related, and also the fact that Joseph was specially
close to Jacob and told him everything, did not endear him to his older
brothers, and their envy and even hatred of him increased.
	It would be easy to see this story as a commentary on the perils of
favoritism.  The fact is, though, that in the internal sense Joseph really
is supreme, and this is confirmed by fact that later he becomes a ruler in
Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh, and his brothers do in fact end up
bowing down to him.  Joseph himself, Joseph as a person, was not, of
course, that important.  But what he represents in a spiritual or heavenly
sense, what is called in the Writings "the Heavenly Joseph" (AC 4667, 4766)
is indeed supreme.
	The Heavenly Joseph is the Divine truth, and primarily the truth that the
Lord's Human is Divine (cf.  AC 4687).  This is the supreme, that is, the
most important, truth of all.  The Lord's Human is Divine.  And, once we
realize this, once we remember this, then we realize that this question,
the question of what is the most important thing about religion, must be
rephrased.  The question should really  be, "Who is the most important
person of all?"  The answer is, of course, the Lord.  The Lord in His
Divine Human is more important that anybody or anything else.  If we ever
forget this, whether in our relationship to the church, or in the conduct
of our everyday lives, we will inevitably see things out of perspective.
	Joseph represents the Lord.  This is why he is so important.  The Heavenly
Joseph is, essentially, the Lord Himself.  We must be aware, though, that
it is not enough simply to say that the Lord is supreme.  It is a phrase
which comes easily to the lips, but it can be an empty one if we do not
consider what it means.  There are many people who say the Lord is
important, but do not treat Him as important.  They might even consider
within themselves that they love Him, yet they do not really love Him, nor
honor Him.
	Now Joseph's brothers together stand for the church.  It is so easy for
the people of a church to say that they worship the Lord, and yet, when all
is said and done, treat Him as relatively unimportant -- somebody they
consider on an occasional basis, in a casual way, but only if other things
-- things they consider more important -- don't interfere.  But to treat
the Lord, the Heavenly Joseph, in this way, is to cast Him into a pit.
	It is very important, in the internal sense, that Joseph became so
powerful, even to the point of becoming a ruler in Egypt.  Other men
represented the Lord.  Abraham represented the Lord.  So did Isaac.  And so
did Jacob.  But none of these achieved the power which Joseph did.  Why?
It is because Joseph represents not only the Lord, but, more specifically,
the Divine spiritual of the rational (AC 4675).
	Before we consider what this phrase means, consider this:  the Lord comes
to us in many ways.  He can come as mere words, words which go in one ear
and out the other during a church service.  He can come as a series of
facts -- various things we have heard about Him yet not really thought
about.  But if the Lord comes in this way, He hasn't really come.  If the
Lord, and the things of religion, are just one other aspect of life,
alongside many others, then He is merely human to us.  To us His Human is
not really Divine.
	There is, in the Arcana, a most remarkable description and definition of
the Lord's Coming.  Every coming of the Lord is, we read, "whenever truth
from the Word flows into the thought" (AC 4712).  The Lord comes to us when
the truth of His Word flows into our thoughts.
	It is only when we think about the Lord, think about what He says in the
Word, that He can enter that part of our minds which governs our lives,
namely, the rational.  This is what Joseph stands for -- the Divine
spiritual of the rational -- that is, the Divine truth from the Lord
shining within the rational or internal degree of the mind (AC 4675).
	We spoke earlier of decisions.  How do we make decisions?  What governs
our lives?  We are governed from within.  Our deeper thoughts and feelings
determine how we live.  There are many things which influence us, but, when
all is said and done, it is the way we think and feel deep within ourselves
-- what we think and feel is important -- that leads us to live the way we do.
	People, in the end, do what they really think and believe, not what they
are told.  For example, people can be told they should go to church -- but
it doesn't necessarily mean they will.  They can be told they should shun
evils as sins -- but they may well neglect to do so.  We do what we really
think -- and this for the reason that our deepest thoughts are a
manifestation of what we really love.  Do not think that the rational is
concerned primarily with a consideration of learned truths.  The rational
is more than this.  The rational is us -- it is our deeper selves, our
deeper thoughts and feelings.
	This is why it is so important to learn about the Lord and to think and
reflect upon what is said His Word.  What you read and what you are taught
can enter the memory.  But our memories do not rule our lives.  To have
heard about the Lord, even if you have heard about Him many times, does not
make Him your ruler.  Memories fade.  They can be very vague indeed.  And
even when what is in our memory is fresh and clear, we are never really
governed by what we know, but by what we think.  And deep down inside
ourselves, we think whatever we love to think.
	The real use of the church does not lie in teaching by itself.  Teaching,
after all, is useless unless learning follows.  Learning is what is
important.  The teachings of the Lord's Word have been given to us so that
we can learn:  and to learn not simply facts or concepts, but to learn to
think about things for ourselves and come to really see and believe for
ourselves.
	This type of learning -- learning about the Lord and about what the Lord
has to say -- is not measured primarily by amount -- but by regularity -- a
regularity arising from a desire to learn.  And it cannot occur apart from
the effort to live a good life.  The rational level of the mind governs the
way we live, and unless we endeavor to live what we learn, then, however
much we may have learnt, and however learned we may appear, what we have
learnt is not really in the rational -- and if something is not in the
rational, it really isn't yet a part of us.
	This is why the Heavenly Joseph, which is the truth that the Lord's Human
is Divine, is also said to be the truth that "charity is the essential of
the church" (AC 4766).  Faith in the Lord's Divinity cannot be separated
from the good of life.  You see, if all you do is think about the Lord,
then He stands outside your thought -- He hasn't actually entered your
thought.  He is just somebody you think about, not somebody you think from.
 The Lord can enter your thought only so far as you see from Him what you
must do . . .and how you must live.  As for the life of charity -- charity
isn't simply doing things that other people will admire.  Charity is to
will well -- and essentially it is a will to do the Lord's command, And
this cannot be separated from a desire to learn the Lord's will.
	People can lead their lives in many ways.  Different things are important
to different people.  But if your life is to be governed by what is truly
right, then within everything there must be an acknowledgment that the Lord
and the things which are from Him, are not merely important, but supreme
-- the most important things of all.  This is something each person must
see in his own mind, and, even more important, in his own heart.  This is
not something that will come simply by hearing or reading without learning.
 Nor will it come by making some vague misguided effort to "be good,"
whilst ignoring the teachings of the church.  It will come only as you
approach the Lord in His Word, and let His truth enter your thoughts and
thus your life.
	There can be much discussion about how important the various duties of
religion are in relation to each other.  But there can be no progress made
towards a proper conclusion until a person is convinced, within himself,
that the Lord is supremely important, and that so also are those things
which come from Him.
	Regular worship is important.  To partake of the most holy act of worship,
the Holy Supper is important.  Regular reading and prayer are important.
Doctrinal instruction is important, and so is the role of an ordained
priesthood in this instruction.  And it is also important, nay vital, that
these Divine uses -- and in essence they are Divine -- bear fruit in a life
of repentance and use.
	All these things are very important indeed, and they are important because
the Lord Himself, from whom these things are, is of supreme importance.
Once His sovereignty is seen and felt in the mind and heart, then all these
other things begin to fall into their proper place -- not as things to be
avoided, not as things to excuse oneself from, but as important things to
be done first from conviction, and then later from love.
	There will still be limits on what a person can do.  But the limits will
be fewer.  The natural man limits his own spiritual development in many
ways.  He has many excuses, and in so many of these excuses there is
implicit the assumption that other things are more pressing, other things
are more important, than the Lord.
	And yet there is nothing more important than the Lord.  Without Him there
can be no real church.  There can be groups of people who call themselves a
church -- who go through the motions and who gather for social conversation
-- but this isn't really a church -- not if the Lord is missing from all of
this.  Neither can there be a life of charity without Him.  People can lead
nice lives, lives of natural good, and may impress others, and impress
themselves, but this is not charity, not without the Lord.
	Now there are many details in the story of Joseph -- and many wonderful
things to be seen and learnt.  This morning we have dealt with the story in
only a general way.  But let us conclude with two details, details which
stand in sharp contrast with each other.
	Consider the words of Joseph's brethren when he told them the dream about
the sheaves:  "Shall you indeed reign over us?  Or shall you indeed have
dominion over us?" (Gen. 37:8).  They were indignant.  And there is indeed
a feeling of indignation in the natural man when the importance of the
things of religion is emphasized.  Other things are just as important to
him, if not more important, as the things of religion.  But then consider
the action of Jacob when he was led to believe that his son Joseph had been
killed.  "Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and
mourned for his son many days.  And all his sons and all his daughters
arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, 'For I
shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.'  Thus his father wept
for him" (Gen. 37:34-35).  His father is here the church -- and the church
is lost without the Heavenly Joseph, lost without the Lord.  Cheerful
statements, comforting statements are empty in such a case, for without the
Lord, and without those things which are from Him, there would be no
church, and no hope for the church.  Neither would there be any salvation.
	But there was hope.  As we know, Joseph was still alive.  Indeed, his
actions were later to save not only the Egyptians, but also his own family,
from starving during a famine.  For us also there is hope.  However little
importance a person in the church has given to spiritual things in the
past, the Lord is still there, waiting to come into His mind and into his
life.  The Lord is waiting to rule over that person, and to become His
Savior, his King and His Lord.
	The Lord is more important than anything else.  The Lord is our God.
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Gen. 9:8-17
		Gen. 37
		AC 4766 (parts)


___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From info@newchurch-cincy.org  Sat Nov 29 17:44:02 1997
From: info@newchurch-cincy.org (New Church Cincinnati)
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 12:44:02 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Sermon Mailing
Message-ID: <3.0.16.19971129124332.63e758d6@mail.one.net>


This is roughly formatted for ASCII transmission.  The Hebrew fonts had to
be replaced.  This and other sermons may be found with fuller formatting on
our web site:  
        http://www.newchurch-cincy.org
If you would like this sermon as a fully formatted WP 5.1 or WP 6.0
document, email me, giving the name of the sermon, and your preferred
format, at <info@newchurch-cincy.org>.
___________________________________________________________________
For Cinti.    11-27-97

	THANKSGIVING FROM LOVE

	A Thanksgiving Family Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

	IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT.  AMEN.

	"And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, 'Now I will praise the
LORD.'  Therefore she called his name Judah.  Then she stopped bearing."
(Gen. 29:35)

	THERE ONCE WAS A WOMAN called Leah.  She was married to a man called
Jacob.  Now in those days people were sometimes allowed to marry more than
one person, and so Jacob was also married to Leah's younger sister, Rachel.
 Leah was unhappy.  She was unhappy because Jacob loved Rachel more than he
loved her.  And so the Lord did something for Leah.  He made it so that
Leah would be the first one to have babies.  And the Lord gave Leah a baby
boy.  And when she had had her baby, she named him Reuben.  Then the Lord
gave her another baby.  And she called this baby Simeon.  And then she had
a third baby, also a boy, and this baby's name was Levi.  The Lord then
gave her a fourth baby boy, and for a time after that she stopped having
babies.  Now the Lord had been very good to Leah.  He had given her not one
or two or three but four baby boys.  She was so happy, so thankful to the
Lord.  And because of this, she gave this fourth baby a very special name.
She called him Yehutha.  And in English we would pronounce this name as Judah.
	Now the name Judah is a very interesting name indeed.  It comes from a
Hebrew word Yathah which means praise, to confess, and to say thank you.
And this is why Leah chose this name for her fourth son.  She was very,
very thankful indeed to the Lord for giving her four children.
	But there is something else very interesting about this word Yehutha or
Yathah.  Yathah does not just mean to say thank you.  It also means to
throw something.  It is the word that would be used sometimes when an
Israelite spoke about throwing a stone (see Lam. 3:53).
	Now what does throwing something have to do with saying thank you.  Well,
what happens when you throw something?  What happens to your arm?  It ends
up pointing outwards, doesn't it?  It ends up pointing in the direction of
where you are throwing the stone.  And that is why thanking and throwing
something are similar.  That is why the Israelites used the same word, h,
for both of them.  You see, when they said thank you for something, they
had to know, they had to be able to point to, who it was who had given it
to them.
	And when the Israelites thanked the Lord, when they worshiped Him to show
that they were grateful, they would often point their arms towards the
Lord.  Now of course the Lord is everywhere, so how can you really point to
Him?  But what they would do is point towards the Lord's tabernacle, where
they worshiped Him, or point upwards, towards the sky.  And by pointing
that way, what they were doing was saying that the good things that they
had, the good things they had been given, were not from themselves -- they
would not point to themselves -- but from the Lord.
	This is what Leah knew.  When she had had these four baby boys, she knew
that they were a gift, a present.  Jacob had not made these babies.  She
had not made these babies.  These four baby boys had been made by the Lord,
and given to her.  And because she knew and believed this, she praised and
thanked the Lord.  She might have even pointed her arm upwards, towards the
Lord.  And she named that fourth baby boy Judah, a name which meant thank you.
	Now today we also are saying thank you.  We have come into this church to
say thank you to the Lord for all that He gives us.  And to do this you
brought fruit into the church, fruit as a present for the Lord.  Now when
you bring fruit into church like this, when you bring it up to the front of
the church at the beginning of the service, what you are doing is almost a
way of pointing towards the Lord.  It is a way of showing the Lord that you
know who made this fruit.  After all, who was it who made this fruit?  Was
it the farmer?  No.  He just looked after the trees and plants.  Was it the
people who worked in the store?  No.  Stores just buy the food that is
grown on farms.  Did you make this fruit that you brought to the Lord?  No.
 It is only the Lord who can make an apple or an orange.  And this is why
we thank the Lord.  We thank Him because there are so many things He does
that only He can do.  And if He didn't do these things for us all the time,
if He didn't make food for us, make our bodies to be alive, give us a world
to live in, and so on, we would not be alive.  We would not be able to
live.  Without the Lord we wouldn't even exist.
	And so today we have a day specially set aside for thanking Him.  We thank
Him for giving us our lives.  We thank Him for giving us a world to live
in.  We thank for looking after us.  We thank Him for giving us His Word.
And we thank Him for leading us towards heaven, so that we can go there
after we leave this world.  These and countless other things the Lord does
for us, things we could never do for ourselves, and things which we can
never ever really repay.
	
	NOW IN THEIR RELATIONSHIPS with others, a lot of people do not like to
feel indebted.  If someone does them a favor, they like to pay him back.
To some degree this is simply a matter of good manners, a matter of
returning the goodwill of others.  But often there is another element
involved.  A lot of people do not like to feel dependent on others.  They
are proud, and like to feel a sense of independence.  They don't want to be
indebted to others.  When it comes to the Lord, though, we have to get used
to this idea of being dependent upon someone else, for we are totally and
completely dependent on Him.  We cannot repay the Lord.  We can never repay
Him.
	There is, of course, the appearance that there are things we can do for
the Lord in return.  We can give to the church.  We can serve others.  We
can promise to read His Word and to obey His commandments.  And in
accordance with this appearance, there were, in the Israelitish church,
sacrifices to Jehovah that were intended as a repayment to Him.  The
Writings call them votive sacrifices (AC 3880:9).  In the Old Testament,
such sacrifices are said to be a paying of vows to the Lord.  In the
Psalms, for example, we read, "I will pay my vows to the LORD now in the
presence of all His people"(Ps. 116:18).  The reality, though, is that
nothing we can ever do would ever be sufficient repayment for what the Lord
has given us, and continually gives us.  In fact, when we do things for the
Lord, when, for example, we read the Word, or serve others, these are
simply occasions for the Lord Himself to give us even greater blessings.
And so, in the Old Testament, there was another kind of sacrifice.  It was
called the sacrifice of thanksgiving or eucharistic sacrifice (Lev. 7:13;
cf. AC 3880:8).  This sacrifice was also offered to the Lord as a way of
thanking Him, but it did not imply repayment.  To put it another way, it
did not, in the literal sense, imply any effort to make restitution to the
Lord for His gifts.  It was, really, more an expression of gratitude, an
expression from the heart, from love.
	We can see this when we consider the things that made up the sacrifice.
As we read in the Arcana, "All the things here mentioned-the 'unleavened
cakes mingled with oil,' the 'unleavened wafers anointed with oil,' the
'fine flour boiled,' and the 'leavened cakes of bread,' signify the
celestial things of love and faith, and confessions therefrom, and that
those who made the offerings must be in humiliation" (AC 3880:8).  In other
words, to give thanks to the Lord is, in essence, something celestial,
something that comes from the heart.  And this does not simply mean that we
should thank the Lord from our hearts.  It means also that this, really,
when it comes right down to it, is the only way we can really thank Him.
What we have to offer to the Lord, all we have to offer Him, is our love.
And this is what the Lord wants of us.  He wants us to give our hearts to
Him, freely.
	Now Judah, the fourth son of Leah, and the fourth son of Jacob,
represented confession or thanksgiving.  And Judah, both as an individual,
and then later as a tribe, represented the celestial kingdom of the Lord,
the highest heaven, the heaven of angels who, more than any others, love
the Lord with all their hearts.  They know and confess, for they see it so
clearly, that everything they have is from Him alone.  And so they love
Him, they love Him with all their strength.
	It is unlikely, of course, than any of us have reached the level of a
celestial angel.  But still, even for us, there is a lesson we can learn
from this.  We need to give ourselves to the Lord, in whatever way we can
and as much as we can.  We need to realize that no matter how proud we
might be in our dealings with others, we are completely dependent upon the
Lord.  He is our Father, and He loves us and He gives us all that is good.
He loves us so very, very much.  All we can really do is love Him back,
love Him in our hearts, love Him with our minds and with our thoughts, love
Him in all that we do and say, loving Him with all our strength.  "So we,
Your people and sheep of Your pasture, will give You thanks forever" (Ps.
79:13).
	Amen.
	AND NOW TO THE ONE ONLY GOD, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, BE GLORY AND DOMINION
FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

Lessons:	Lev. 7:11-17
		Psalm 92
		Lk. 10:25-28
		AC 3880:7,8

___________________________
New Church Cincinnati
Pastor: Rev. Patrick A. Rose
info@newchurch-cincy.org
<http://www.newchurch-cincy.org>



From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Sun Nov 30 18:58:30 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 1997 13:58:30 -0500
Subject: SERMON: The Word Made Flesh
Message-ID: <199711301358_MC2-2A28-C8B7@compuserve.com>


The Word Made Flesh
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
November 30, 1997

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. 
(John 1:14)

The Lord loves each of us and wants us to be as happy as we can be to
eternity.  He loves us.  He has loved every human being who has lived in
the past.  He loves all the people who have yet to be born.  Love that is
genuine has three qualities.  We read in the Writings of the New Church:
"It is the essence of Love to love others outside of one self, to desire to
be one with them, and to render them blessed from oneself."  (True
Christian Religion 43)

God has this love in perfection at the very core of who He is.  He loves us
so much that we're told that no matter what we have done, He cannot even
look at us with a stern countenance. (True Christian Religion 56e)  There
is a part of human nature that cannot possibly believe that this is the
case.  Since it isn't the way we react to people when they've been
destructive or just frustrating, it doesn't make sense to us that the Lord
would have such a different reaction.  The only way we can easily imagine
this perspective, before we've grown spiritually to feel something of it
ourselves, is to picture God as being like a foolishly doting parent who
will overlook or not recognize any fault, forgive any transgression, and
give in eventually to any request.  Such a parent is viewed by a child as a
pushover and the child will hold him or her in very low respect.  A child
who is unfortunate to grow up with parenting like this will face a huge
number of unnecessary problems as he or she gets older.  The child will
tend to become adept at being manipulative.  He or she will tend to have
trouble recognizing that one's own needs and wants need to be balanced or
tempered by those of people around oneself.  If the child runs into an
adult who does present obstacles or boundaries to the child's wishes, that
child can be furious or hurt by this intrusion.  To the extent that the
child continues to believe that the foolish parent's responses are the ways
things are supposed to be he or she will be a danger to self and others.

The Lord loves us perfectly and this love is expressed through perfect
wisdom.  Wisdom is what gives form to love.  A woman can have a deep desire
to bake a delicious meal for a friend, but if she is too ignorant, too
inexperienced in the kitchen she may instead produce food that is nearly
inedible.  Desire or love by itself is blind.  The woman needs to know how
to cook and what to cook if she wants to achieve her goal of a delicious
meal for a friend.  When she succeeds, at the core of her efforts will be
her love, and this will be guided each step of the way by an understanding
of how to reach the goal she seeks.

The opening sentences of the Gospel of John describe the relationship of
love and wisdom within the Lord, the infinite God from eternity, the
creator and sustainer of all life.  These sentences use the term "the
Word."  It is a translation of the original Greek, logos.  It means the
word by which inner thought is expressed or the inner thought and reason
itself.  The Logos spoken of in the Gospel of John is the infinite wisdom
that gives form to the Divine Love.  It is both one with this love and can
be thought of as a separate quality.  All of creation, whose goal is an
expression of Divine love was  guided by this Logos or perfect wisdom.  So
we read in the opening of this gospel:

        In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made
through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
 
The goal of creation was and is the fulfillment of the Divine love.  The
first quality of which is that  true love must have another or others
outside of self to love.  Concerning this quality of the Lord we  are told:

        The first essential, which is to love others outside of one's self,
is recognized in God's love for the whole human race; and for its sake God
loves all things that He has created because they are means; for when the
end is loved the means also are loved. All human beings and things in the
universe are outside of God, because they are finite and God is infinite.
The love of God goes forth and extends not only to good people and good
things, but also to evil people and evil things; consequently not only to
the people and things in heaven but also in hell, thus not only to Michael
and Gabriel but also to the devil and satan; for God is everywhere, and is
from eternity to eternity the same. He says also:
                That He makes the sun to rise on the good and on the evil,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).
        But the reason why evil people continue to be evil, and evil things
continue to be evil, lies in the subjects and objects themselves, in that
they do not receive the love of God as it is, and as it is inmostly in
them, but as they themselves are; in the same way as thorns and thistles
receive the heat of the sun and the rain of heaven. (True Christian
Religion 43)

Each of us is a focus of the Lord's love.  He has created us with the goal
and intention of serving us and bringing us joy.  When we think of the
billions of human beings alive today in this world, it is almost impossible
to envision that the Lord views each of us as individuals.  We look at a
forest of trees and can say I love every one of the leaves in this forest,
but we are speaking abstractly.  But the Lord is very different.  He is our
loving heavenly Father.  Just as an attentive parent sees each of his
children as wonderfully unique individuals, beloved each in their own
right, needing a special kind of parenting and guidance, experiencing his
or her own joys and challenges, so the Lord loves each of us as
individuals.  In fact, He knows infinitely more about each of us than the
most attentive parent could ever know about a child.  It is His joy to
share in our lives.

But just having created "others" in existence isn't enough to fulfill true
Love.  The second quality of this love is described with these words: 

        The second essential of the love of God, which is a desire to be
one with others, is recognized in His conjunction with the angelic heaven,
with the church on earth, with every one there, and with every thing good
and true that enters into and constitutes each person and the church.
Moreover, love viewed in itself is nothing but an endeavor towards
conjunction; therefore that this aim of the essence of love might be
realized each and every human being was created by God into His own image
and likeness, with which a conjunction is possible. That the Divine love
continually seeks conjunction is evident from the Lord's own words:
                That He wishes them to be one, He in them and they in Him,
and that the love of God might be in them (John 17:21-23, 26).  (True
Christian Religion 43)

"Love viewed in itself is nothing but an endeavor towards conjunction." 
What do these words mean?  Specifically, what does "conjunction" mean?  It
is a desire to share in common goals and common understandings.  It is a
desire for a deep relationship of trust and mutual goodwill.  Conjunction
or a deep relationship of love is impossible without freedom to choose that
relationship.  Imagine the child of very wealthy parents who feels lonely
and is told, "Don't worry, we'll pay someone to be  your friend."   Or
consider the boss who suspects that the only reason an employee is so
solicitous of his ideas and welfare is the fear of being fired if she
expressed her real opinion.  What kind of relationships would these be? 
Would they be anything more than very superficial?  Would there be anything
more than a temporary "oneness of purpose" so long as there was payment or
continuing fear of consequences for not going along.  There could be no
real love or real conjunction in these cases.  So likewise, it is essential
to the Lord that we be free to choose to love what He loves, to accept His
wisdom, or to reject them both.  We can choose to be with Him or choose to
distance ourselves from His life.

But for us to choose a relationship of love with the Lord we have to know
of Him, His goals, and His thoughts.  Otherwise we would not know what we
were choosing and not choosing.  For this reason, the Lord has made sure
that everyone has the essential knowledge of His qualities.  Concerning
this we read the following from the book the Divine Providence:

        Everyone acknowledges God and is conjoined to Him according to the
good of his life. All can have a knowledge of God who know anything from
religion.. . .The general principles of all religions by which everyone can
be saved are: To acknowledge God; and to refrain from doing evil because it
is against God.  These are the two things which make religion to be
religion. If one of them is wanting it cannot be called religion, since to
acknowledge God and to do evil is a contradiction; so also is to do good
and yet not acknowledge God, for one is not possible without the other. It
has been provided by the Lord that almost everywhere there should be some
form of religion, and that in every religion there should be these two
principles; and it has also been provided by the Lord that everyone who
acknowledges God and refrains from doing evil because it is against God
should have a place in heaven.  (Divine Providence 326:6,9)

The Lord has worked to make sure that the essential knowledge for salvation
has been available to all people.  But He also wants more than just the
essential.  He has provided that there be specific revelation to form a
church of human beings that could know Him more clearly and worship Him as
He truly is.  For this reason the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the
Writings of the New Church have been revealed.  By itself written
revelation describing what we are to do would not have been enough.  It was
essential that the Lord, the infinite God and Creator, be born into this
world and make His essential Humanity visible and knowable to us.  Mere
words would not have done it.  And so we read in the Gospel of John: "And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.  (John
1:14)  The advent of the otherwise invisible and unknowable Infinite
Creator into this world is the event that we will celebrate on December
25th.  Christmas is the celebration of the Lord's birth into this world as
a human being who we can see in our mind's eye.  We can read of how He
taught, healed, lived, allowed Himself to be put to death, and rose as our
Savior and Redeemer.  Without this clear example we would not be able to
freely follow Him and freely love Him.  He would be too distant and
unknowable to us.

The final fulfillment of true love is shown in its third quality.

        The third essential of the love of God, which is to render others
blessed from Himself, is recognized in eternal life, which Is the endless
blessedness, happiness, and joy that God gives to those who receive into
themselves His love. For as God is love itself, so is He blessedness
itself; for all love breathes forth delight from itself, and the Divine
love breathes forth blessedness itself, happiness, and joy to eternity.
Thus God from Himself renders the angels blessed, and people after death;
and this He does by conjunction with them.   (True Christian Religion 43)

If we are to receive these blessings of happiness and peace, we must be
joined in a deep relationship of love with the Lord.  We must freely choose
to turn to His Word, learn what it teaches, and consciously compel
ourselves to think, speak, and live better than we naturally incline to. 
We must turn to the Lord in prayer asking for His help and guidance. 
Gradually He will help us to recognize His love and His order more and more
clearly.  Gradually He will help us to think and will more and more as He
does.  Gradually He will bring us into a oneness with Him.  If we cooperate
with the Lord He will conjoin us in heart, mind, and life with Him and from
this conjunction comes true happiness for us and for Him.  This is the most
wonderful gift anyone could ever receive.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Isaiah 40:9-11
                John 1:1-5, 14, 13:15

True Christian Religion 339:1-2
        The reason we must believe in God the Savior Jesus Christ, that is
have faith in Him, is that it is faith in a visible God, in whom there is
an invisible God; and faith in a visible God, who is Human and at the same
time God, enters into a person.  For faith is in its essence spiritual, but
its form is natural.  With a person therefore faith becomes
spiritual-natural, for everything spiritual must be accepted in the
natural, in order to be of any value to a person.  The bare spiritual does
in fact enter into a person, but it is not accepted.  It is like some
invisible nothing that flows in and out again without producing any effect.
 Before  an effect can be produced, it must be perceived and so accepted,
both of these being processes in the human mind, and this cannot happen in
a person except at the natural level.
        On the other hand a purely natural faith, that is one devoid of
spiritual essence, is no faith, merely a firm conviction or knowledge.  A
firm conviction mimics faith externally, but, lacking any inward
spirituality, cannot therefore contribute anything to salvation.  Such is
the quality of faith with all who deny the divinity of the Lord's Human.
        In brief, faith in a invisible God is in fact blind faith, since
the human mind cannot see its God; and the light of this faith, not being
spiritual-natural, is a false light. This light resembles the light seen at
night on marshes or that from rotting wood.  Nothing can come of such light
but pure imagination, which make appearances seem real when they are not. 
Faith in an invisible God sheds only this kind of light; especially so,
when a person thinks that God is a spirit, and views a spirit as an
invisible nothing.  What result can this have except to make a person look
on God as he does such unseen nothingness. So he looks for God in the
universe, and not finding Him there, believes that Nature is God.
        It is however different with faith in the Lord God the Savior. 
Since He is God and Human, and can be approached and seen in the mind's
eye, this faith is not without a goal, but has a goal from which it
proceeds and to which it is directed; and once accepted, it remains.    

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments. 
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Nov 30 22:43:12 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 1997 17:43:12 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Clean the House! The Lord is Coming!" by the Rev. Lee
  Woofenden
Message-ID: <199711302248.RAA05515@mail-out-1.tiac.net>


              Clean the House! The Lord is Coming!
 A Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 30, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 40:1-11. In the desert prepare a way for the Lord.
          Mark 1:1-8. Prepare the way of the Lord
          _Apocalypse Explained_ #724b.7. Preparing the way of the Lord.

A voice of one calling in the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord; make
straight paths for him." (Mark 1:3, from Isaiah 40:3)

Our theme this morning is housecleaning. 'Tis the season, isn't it?
Thanksgiving is a _big_ housecleaning holiday. All those guests coming for
dinner, and the house has to look nice for them! Now that Thanksgiving is
over, the house cleaners among us can relax a bit . . . but not for long.
Christmas is coming! That means _more_ guests, and _more_ housecleaning.
     One practical reason to clean the house before Christmas is that there
will be a lot of presents under the tree, and those presents have to go
somewhere. So it is a good time to clear out some of that old stuff that we
are not using anymore. That chipped vase that _used_ to look nice . . .
those old puzzles or board games that have too many pieces missing. . . .
Perhaps we'll even get rid of an old chair or table that's gotten a bit
rickety. We wouldn't want our holiday guests to have any unpleasant
surprises. Come to think of it, there is probably not going to be much of a
housecleaning vacation after all. . . . 
     Now, all of this is commonplace enough, but what does it have to do
with the first Sunday in Advent? Aren't we in church to think about
something _besides_ all the busyness of the holidays? Who wants to think
about cleaning house right in the middle of Sunday morning worship?
     To begin to answer these questions, here is a literal translation of
_Swedenborg's_ translation of our text, as it is found in Isaiah: "The voice
of one crying in the wilderness, 'Sweep the way of Jehovah; make straight in
the desert a highway for our God' " (Isaiah 40:3). Sweep the way of Jehovah!
If we wanted to put it in everyday terms, we could say, "Sweep out the
house! The Lord is coming!"
     However, in the Isaiah passage it is not a house that is being swept,
but a highway in the desert. The word for "prepare" or "sweep" literally
means to prepare something such as a house or a road by clearing away the
clutter and confusion that clog it up. In Biblical times, it was a custom to
send crews of people out to clear and level the roads to make them passable
when a king was planning to travel that way. This could be referred to as
the "royal treatment." It still is customary to clear the way and straighten
things out when some important person is going to be coming through our
towns and cities. We want to put on our best face for the VIPs. (Now if I
could only convince President Clinton to travel down Pearl Street in
Middleboro, maybe we could get that rough, patched up section repaved!) 
     When Isaiah proclaims, "In the desert prepare a way for the Lord; make
straight in the wilderness a highway for our God," he is urging us to
prepare ourselves for someone greater than any VIP who might come through.
To put it in terms that are closer to home, he is calling for us to pause
amongst our housecleaning and preparations for friends and family, and be
sure to prepare for the most important Christmas visitor we will ever have:
the Lord Jesus. After all, it is the Lord's coming that we are celebrating
at Christmas.
     How do we prepare for the Lord's coming? It is plain enough how to
clean a house. We've all handled a broom from time to time . . . some of us
more than others. . . . But we may not be so sure how to go about cleaning
our _spiritual_ house in preparation for a visit from our Lord. We probably
don't know what kind of broom to use; and even if we _do_ come up with a
spiritual broom, what is the spiritual clutter that we are supposed to be
sweeping out of our mental and emotional houses? What is the rubble that we
need to clear to make the highway straight in our spiritual desert? And what
_is_ a spiritual desert, anyway?
     We get some help from John the Baptist in our New Testament reading.
After quoting our text from Isaiah, Mark goes on to say, "And so John came,
baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins."
     Now we are onto something. Historically John the Baptist prepared the
way for the Lord's coming by preaching a baptism of repentance.
     Baptism is washing. We could say that John the Baptist made a
profession of giving people baths--something that wasn't as common in his
day as it is in ours. Most people didn't have bathtubs in those days, so
even if John's charisma and spiritual power didn't draw a particular person
to the Jordan, there was something appealing about a nice, fresh dip in the
river to get the accumulated grime cleaned off one's body.
     Most of us probably aren't as physically dirty when we take a bath as a
lot of the people John baptized would have been. But there is a more
important way that we all need to be cleaned--swept out--in preparation for
the Lord's coming. Our reading from Swedenborg explains it this way:

     John the Baptist was sent beforehand to prepare people to
     receive the Lord through baptism because baptism symbolizes
     purification from evil and false things, and also rebirth from
     the Lord through the Bible. Unless this symbol had come first,
     the Lord could not have manifested himself. (_Apocalypse
     Explained_ #724b.7)

When John gave people baths, he did more than get them in the water so that
the grime could be washed off their bodies. He preached to them that they
must repent from their sins--or, in more modern terms, must stop wanting,
thinking, and doing things that are wrong and hurtful to others and to
ourselves. If we do not prepare ourselves for the Lord in this way, the Lord
cannot manifest himself in our lives at all, because our spiritual highway
is too clogged with rubble for the Lord to make it through.
     The desert that needs to have a roadway cleared through it is our own
resistance to the Lord's ways of love and concern for our fellow human
beings. When we are more focused on our own comfort and pleasure than with
the feelings and the wellbeing of those around us, then we are truly living
in a dry desert, cut off from the living streams of human understanding and
concern for other people. It is a _dry_ life, because when we think of
ourselves first, we cannot have close and loving relationships with others.
We leave no room for other people or for the Lord, because we are too full
of ourselves.
     Returning to the theme of housecleaning, Swedenborg says the same thing
in another way in _Arcana Coelestia_ #3142--but with an added dimension:
when we do sweep ourselves out, we are filled with good things from the
Lord. He writes:

     The reason why "sweeping" means preparing and being filled is
     that nothing else is asked of us except to "sweep our
     house"--that is, to reject evil desires and the false
     persuasions we get from them. If we do this, we are filled with
     all types of goodness, since goodness is continually flowing in
     from the Lord. It flows into "the house"--that is, into _us_
     when we have been cleansed of the things that block what would
     otherwise flow in. . . . "Sweeping the house" means cleansing
     ourselves of evil things, and in this way preparing ourselves
     for good things to enter.

Many of us would rather put our energy into doing _good_ things than focus
on _not_ doing _bad_ things. But when it comes to our spirits, not doing bad
things is precisely our job. In fact, Swedenborg says that nothing else is
asked of us except to "sweep our house" by rejecting evil desires and the
false ideas we get from them. Our job is to clear away these obstacles--to
clear away our wrong ways of feeling, thinking, and acting. This makes it
possible for the Lord to do the _Lord's_ job, which is to fill us with good
desires and true ideas that will lead to good and useful actions.
     What, specifically, are the evil desires and false ideas that we must
sweep away in preparation for the Lord's coming? That's a question I can't
answer! Why? Because our specific thoughts and desires are as individual as
each one of us.
     However, let me make a suggestion. Some of our holiday preparations do
not require much mental concentration. There is a lot of unexciting
work--like cleaning house and fixing things--that has to be done. How about
using some of that mental idle time to do a bit of _inner_ housecleaning? As
we are wielding the broom or the hammer, how about poking into some of those
dusty corners of our lives, or looking at that broken emotional furniture
that we usually prefer not to face? If we do, we will certainly find a few
wrong thoughts and desires to clear out of our lives in preparation for the
Lord's coming.
     Our spiritual housecleaning may be a bit of a grind, too. But one of
the nice things about _holiday_ housecleaning is that we can anticipate the
pleasure of family and friends gathering together in our houses to celebrate
with us. When we do our _mental_ housecleaning, we can anticipate an even
greater guest: our Lord Jesus. And he will come with the spiritual gifts of
love, joy, and peace with one another that Christmas is all about.
     Clean the house! The Lord is coming! 


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Dec  7 20:01:05 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 15:01:05 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Angels Among Us, by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199712072001.PAA12091@mail-out-1.tiac.net>


                           Angels Among Us
  A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
             Bridgewater, Massachusetts, December 7, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 63:7-9. The angel of his presence saved them.
          Luke 1:26-38. Gabriel announces the Lord's birth.
          _Apocalypse Revealed_ #548.2. The meaning of "Gabriel."

In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence
saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and
carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9)

This has been an exciting week for our church. Not only did the Bridgewater
Historic District Commission vote unanimously to approve the plan to rebuild
our steeple, but we had a very successful public workshop on angels. We
exceeded even perennial optimist Eric Allison's expectations by attracting
thirty-eight people--including the three presenters _and_ a fifteen month
old baby!
     The people who attended were a good mix of members of the Bridgewater
and Elmwood churches, friends, and visitors for whom this was the first
contact with our church. We will be following up on those who gave us their
addresses by sending them invitations to our special angels theme Christmas
Eve service, to a small group on angels we plan to start in January, and to
future workshops and events hosted by our church.
     Our good attendance was certainly helped by the sustained popularity of
angels in recent years. There are many books and articles on the subject, as
well as TV and radio programs, and even stores devoted to angels. Although
none of us knew how many would actually show up, with angels as the topic it
would be hard to miss these days unless we did no advertising at all.
     Why are people so fascinated with angels, near death experiences, and
other spiritual phenomena? Personally, I believe the resurgence of interest
in things spiritual springs from an inherent human yearning for God and
spirit--a yearning that has been suppressed in recent decades by the now
crumbling reign of materialistic science. I believe we are going through a
change of consciousness as a culture.
     These events in our current spiritual history have deep roots. Let me
explain. When Emanuel Swedenborg came upon the spiritual scene in the mid
1700's, he found a vast wasteland in Christian theology. God was portrayed
as an angry, petty, and arbitrary being who would condemn all human beings
to death for an infraction perpetrated by their most distant ancestors: Adam
and Eve. Many irrational and downright cruel things were taught in the name
of religion. And the people had had just about enough of it.
     At that time, Christianity was still the reigning philosophy. But
Swedenborg saw that it was crumbling, both in its teachings and in its life;
he foresaw its downfall as the major worldview of Western culture. As
Christianity fragmented from a unified Catholicism into a bewildering number
of competing sects, the Christian church also lost its political power and
its absolute hold over both the popular mind and the scholarly world. What
took its place, gradually, over the two centuries since Swedenborg's time,
was materialistic reason and science.
     By the mid-twentieth century, science's triumph seemed complete. Few
people in leading roles who wished to maintain their reputation as
reasonable people would publicly admit to believing in spiritual phenomena
such as angels and spirits--or even God.
     This left a tremendous spiritual vacuum in our culture. Yes, the
traditional Christian churches continued to function, but they were in
retreat. People with a spiritual bent often dabbled in eastern religions,
and some stayed with them. But many found these religions did not entirely
satisfy their spiritual yearning either--though they may have provided some
needed spiritual inspiration. Fundamentalist churches sprang up, appealing
to people's need to feel that they _have_ the truth. But the spiritual
yearning continued.
     This was the situation when Raymond Moody published his book _Life
After Life_ in 1975, describing amazing experiences that many people
described as having taken place when they had a close brush with
death--experiences that are remarkably similar to what Swedenborg described
over two hundred years earlier in his book _Heaven and Hell_. Moody's book,
and the others that followed it, began a sustained resurgence of interest in
angels and spirits that has continued to grow right up to the present.
     Although many "hard" scientists continue to distance themselves from
any kind of spiritual phenomena, there is no longer such a great social
stigma attached to a belief in angels and spirits. Most people who incline
toward a belief in God and the spiritual world now feel free no express
their beliefs openly.
     This has had a great freeing effect on our church especially, since we
have held a strong belief in angels and spirits from the beginning of our
existence as a denomination. This is due to Swedenborg's still unique,
long-term experience in the spiritual world. Many Swedenborgians formerly
soft-peddled Swedenborg's claim of having had his spiritual eyes opened
while still living in the material world. Now that popular belief has caught
up with us--and in some ways surpassed us--we are scrambling to let the
world know that Swedenborg described these things way back in the eighteenth
century--and that his books still constitute the most extensive and detailed
source of information about the spiritual world. In a word, where we used to
be shy, now we are inclined to brag!
     Yet, despite claims by skeptics that those who tell angel stories are
merely grandstanding, neither shyness nor bragging has much to do with the
current resurgence of interest in angels. It is the presence of the angels
themselves that still draws our attention like a magnet, just as it drew the
attention of Biblical people such as the virgin Mary.
     Unfortunately, we have heard the Biblical stories of angels so often
that for many of us, they have lost their compelling power. Contemporary
angel stories rekindle that sense of awe and wonder at the presence of these
powerful, otherworldly beings. They help us to approach the Biblical stories
with a new sense of wonder and appreciation.
     In his book _Angels in Action_, the Rev. Bob Kirven recounts some of
his own experiences with angelic presences. One is particularly appropriate
to our topic this morning. Speaking of events in which angels communicate
with humans on earth, he says:

     One such event . . . occurred during the late years of the
     European phase of World War II. In retrospect, it is clear that
     Allied victory was growing near; but to my depressed mind,
     American defeat seemed a frighteningly real possibility. . . .
     Then one night I dreamed I was standing in an open field. There
     was no person or building in sight, just me, standing before a
     massive tangle of coiled barbed wire that  stretched to the
     horizon on my left and on my right, fencing me in. As I stood
     there, an angel, appearing as a light too bright to look at,
     came over the hill ahead of me, leaving a paved highway in its
     wake. It approached me, passing through the barbed wire, which
     it vaporized before it, and then passed by and moved on out of
     sight behind me. Realizing I was free, I walked forward on the
     road in the direction from which the angel came. I woke. My
     obsession with the war, and my general depression, was lifted
     from that time on. The angel had saved me from the irrational
     fear that had held me captive. . . . My experiential certainty
     that angels can do such things has helped me break  free from
     other fears as well. (p. 13)

This angel story comes in contemporary images that we can understand. War.
Barbed wire. Highways paved by a blinding light that vaporizes any obstacles
in its path. . . . Well, _most_ of the images come from our contemporary
experience! It is the angel who introduces a new and surprising element into
our everyday experience. Where before there was a sense of depression at
being trapped, now there is a new way out of the apparent dead end. There is
new life, brought to us from the spiritual world--and ultimately from God.
     Doesn't this sound similar to our readings from the Bible? Let's hear
our reading from Isaiah again:

     I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which
     he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for
     us--yes, the many good things he has done for the house of
     Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He
     said, "Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to
     me"; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too
     was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his
     love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried
     them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:7-9)

Yes, the angel experiences we have today bring about the same liberating
effects as did the appearances of angels in Biblical times. The angels of
the Lord's presence can still lift us up from our distress and carry us as
they did in the days of old. Angels represent to us the eternal presence of
God and spirit in our lives. Materialism may satisfy for a moment, but the
only way we can have lasting joy is to have our lives filled with the spirit
of God, of the kind that angels can communicate to us.
     As we approach Christmas, there is a special event that the angels
announced to Mary, and to all of us, too. The angel Gabriel was the
messenger of the gladdest tidings ever brought to a weary and depressed
world: the news, not merely of the coming of an angel of light, but of the
coming of the _source_ of that light. For the angel Gabriel announced the
coming of the infinite God into our small and dark world.
     The spiritual situation at the Lord's advent was similar to what we as
a culture have been so recently experiencing. The religion of the time had
become corrupt, and had lost its spiritual power as the guiding force of the
people. It had been largely replaced by the urgings of human desire for
material knowledge, comfort, wealth, and power. Yet as with the
materialistic science of our day, these had been tried and found wanting.
There was a tremendous spiritual vacuum.
     At that very moment in human history, when people were most ripe for
it, angels came to vaporize the obstacles in the path of the Lord's coming.
They came to announce to those who would listen that the salvation of human
beings from their dreary slavery to worldly living was on its way. And then,
that salvation came: our Lord Jesus was born, destined to break the power of
selfishness and materialism wherever human hearts made room for the divine
presence.
     For the power of the angels in our lives is really the Lord's power. As
Swedenborg says, "Angels were sent to people, and they also spoke through
the prophets. But the things they said did not originate in those angels; it
came _through_ them" (_Arcana Coelestia_ #1925). The things that come
_through_ the angels come _from_ the Lord.
     The Lord's angels wish to speak to us, too. They may not always do it
in a living voice--and many of us will not feel an angelic hand on our
shoulder in this earthly life. But if, at this season of Advent, we open
ourselves up to the Lord's divine presence in our lives, we can all feel the
angels' presence deep within us, lifting us up from the distress,
disappointment, and pain of this world into a higher level of our existence.
We can feel the Lord's presence coming to us through the angels, reassuring
us that God _loves_ us and wants to be born anew in our hearts, minds, and
lives. We can feel the angels within us and among us, giving us a message of
new hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Dec 14 20:22:35 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 15:22:35 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "Infinitely Human," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <199712142023.PAA24209@mail-out-1.tiac.net>


                            Infinitely Human
    A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
              Bridgewater, Massachusetts, December 14, 1997

Readings: Hosea 11:1-4. I led them with cords of human kindness.
          John 1:1-18. The Word became flesh and lived among us.
          Arcana Coelestia #1414. The Lord is the perfect and _only_ human.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

By now most of us have gotten used to this Christmas business. There are
lights and trees and presents and Jesus being born and shopping and baking
and going to church and getting ready for family visits and . . . and the
list goes on. We're used to it by now. We're used to the Christmas routine,
both religious and non-religious.
     Perhaps we are a little _too_ used to it.
     Because Christmas is based on an absolutely outrageous claim. Most of
the time, we don't concern ourselves too much with the outrageous claim that
Christmas is built around. We are simply too busy to take the time to stop
and think. Fortunately, those of us who are able and willing to come to
church have something precious that most of our non-churchgoing brothers and
sisters have to work a lot harder to achieve: we have a peaceful hour in
which we can set aside all those other concerns and focus on matters of
deeper meaning--on matters of God and spiritual life.
     This morning, I would like to use some of that peaceful hour to stop
and look at the outrageous claim that Christmas is based on--a claim that
our church brings to the limit of outrageousness.
     That is the claim that God became a flesh and blood human being--and
that God became a flesh and blood human being not just in some theoretical,
idealized way, but in the very specific and sometimes very inconvenient and
even _irreligious_ life of Jesus Christ. It is hard enough to grasp and
accept the idea that an infinite, eternal, all-powerful being--the creator
of the entire universe--could be squeezed into a tiny, limited organism like
a human body and live in it for thirty years or so. It becomes even more
difficult when we actually _read_ the Gospels and find out that this human
life was full of iconoclastic, confusing, and sometimes downright _strange_
statements and actions. Cursing a fig tree so that it withers and dies (Mark
11:12-14, 20, 21). Making a whip out of cords and chasing people out of the
temple (John 2:15). Disowning his mother at a wedding reception (John 2:4).
Comparing a foreigner--a Canaanite woman--to a dog (Matt. 15:26). Breaking
religious laws right and left.
     The skeptics who claim that the whole Jesus story was made up have a
serious problem with their position: If someone had wanted to make up a
great religious figure to found a religion upon, they certainly would not
have come up with such a quirky, _human_ Messiah figure. The committee that
put together the Gospels would have done a much better editing job, and
smoothed over all those inconvenient and confusing passages that to this day
cause many people to shake their heads in disbelief.
     But the figure named Jesus remains a stubbornly _human_ figure. Oh, in
our church we like to explain away the difficult passages. The reason Jesus
cursed the fig tree, we say, has to do with correspondences. This
corresponds to that, and this corresponds to that, and therefore we don't
have to worry about the inconvenient _literal_ significance of the story:
Jesus was hungry, came to an out-of-season fig tree which, _being_ out of
season, had no figs on it, and then cursed the fig tree so that it withered
and died.
     We can also interpret the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman
through correspondences, and explain away what certainly looks like a story
of a man showing prejudice against foreigners--referring to them as
dogs--and then having that prejudice overcome as the foreign woman responds,
not with anger at the insult, but by continuing the dialog without offense,
building on Jesus' own words to continue her request for healing.
     Somehow, I have a feeling we are not meant to explain away all the
difficult passages in the Gospels through the use of correspondences. Yes,
it is true that we can gain great insight through looking beyond the literal
meaning to the deeper meanings within scripture. But the literal
meaning--the stories themselves, the memorable personalities and
challenging, hard-to-understand statements and actions--the literal story is
where our own humanity is most strongly challenged.
     This Jesus is a person that we can both relate to and not relate to at
the same time. When he becomes angry or sad or joyful, our own hearts
respond--because we, too, have felt those emotions. We know what it is like
to have someone betray us. We know what it is like to lose someone we love.
We also know what it is like to have a great breakthrough in a relationship
with someone we love. These experiences are all part of the human
condition--and Jesus shares these human, heart-driven moments with us.
     Yet Jesus also goes beyond our experience. No matter how mad we get at
a tree that doesn't have any fruit on it just when we've got our heart set
on a nice, juicy apple, that tree is _not_ going to wither away. If we walk
by it the next morning, there it will be . . . and it _still_ won't have any
fruit on it! And then there are those strange, cryptic speeches that the
Gospel of John is especially full of. What do we make of them? The Lord's
teachings are often wonderfully practical--such as the rule that we should
do to others what we would like them to do to us. But almost as often, the
Lord's teachings go beyond our grasp . . . and the words seem to go in one
ear and out the other.
     The life of Jesus is a life both common and uncommon; a life we can
understand and not understand, empathize with and shake our heads at with
bewilderment . . . all at the same time. Yet in all this, there is no
denying that it is an intensely _human_ life, filled with all the ups and
downs, the triumphs and disappointments, of human life on earth.
     And the outrageous claim of Christianity--and of our church
especially--is that this life is not simply the life of a great, inspired
human being; rather, it is the life that the infinite God chose to live as
the _only_ child of the divine being. In the words of our text, "The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
     How could this be? How could the infinite God live in a human body? And
how could it turn out to be _this_ particular life on _this_ particular
earth? These are questions we can ponder for our entire lifetime--and I make
no pretensions of answering them in one short sermon. But if we wish to
celebrate the _spirit_ of Christmas and not just observe the outer
trappings--if we wish our Christmas to be a _spiritual_ event, and not
simply our culture's biggest festival of the year--then we _must_ grapple,
both in our minds and in our hearts, with this amazing, outrageous claim of
Christianity: that in Jesus Christ, God became a human being and lived among
us. Even though we will never fully succeed, we must make the effort to wrap
our minds and hearts around the idea, as Swedenborg expresses it, that the
Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, became and now
_is_ the perfect human being, and the _only_ truly and fully human being.
     This is the heart of our religion. And I emphasize the word "heart,"
because if we merely try to wrap our _minds_ around this amazing, outrageous
claim, we will never grasp it to the fullest extent and depth that we are
capable of. For it is precisely the strength of human emotion in the life of
Jesus that reaches out to us, that pushes beyond the intellectual skepticism
that our minds can engage in, and reaches out to our emotional centers where
the true essence and source of human life lies.
     When God reached out to us as a human being--when God was born as Jesus
Christ--there was no need to impress us with a logical and oratorical
tour-de-force that would overcome our every doubt and answer our every
question. For God knew that it is not our minds that make us tick; it is our
hearts. And when God chose to come to earth and be with us, the goal was to
reach to the _human_ essence within us--to our loves and hates, our
pleasures and our pain, our sorrows and our joys.
     We are human, yes. But we are only _partial_ humans. We do not live up
to our full potential as human beings. We always seem to stop short of fully
expressing the _spiritual_ heart that beats within us. But God is infinitely
human. God has no limits, no boundaries. God is able to take a single,
fragile human life, and pour all the infinity and eternity of the divine
into that life. God is able to come to us as a baby, to grow up as Jesus the
Christ, reaching into our finite world--and into the finite hearts and minds
of each one of us--from the infinitely human center of love and wisdom that
is the being of God.
     This is what we celebrate at Christmas. The trees and lights, the
candles and Christmas feasts, our gifts for each other, both physical and
emotional . . . all these bits of warmth and light that we surround
ourselves with at Christmas are reflections of the infinitely _human_ warmth
and light of God coming to us and living among us--living in our hearts and
minds, and in our lives with each other--as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Dec 21 20:40:50 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 15:40:50 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "The Advent: Humanity's Zero Hour," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971221154050.0094a320@pop.tiac.net>


                 The Advent: Humanity's Zero Hour
        A Christmas Sunday Sermon by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
           Bridgewater, Massachusetts, December 21, 1997

Readings:  Matthew 2:1-12: The Birth of Jesus
           Isaiah 35: They will see the glory of the Lord
           _True Christian Religion_ #538.2: God himself came into the world

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice
and blossom. . . . They will see the glory of the Lord--the splendor of our
God. (Isaiah 35:1, 2)

Good morning, everyone! It is so nice to see all of you here this Christmas
Sunday! There is special joy in our church this Advent season as we look
forward to the rebuilding of our steeple, and as we begin to reach out into
our community in new ways through our recent Angels workshop, our special
Christmas Eve service, and the small group on Angels that we will be
starting in January. This is a season of new births!
     Of course, the most special and joyous of those births is the birth of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. No matter how commercialized Christmas
gets, still, at the heart of our celebrations, there is this unique
spiritual event. Our Lord's birth remains the center of Christmas, and its
genuine focus. It is a birth that those of us who call ourselves Christians
celebrate with great love and joy in our biggest festival of the year.
     However, there was little joy in the world on that first Christmas,
when Jesus was born. It was a dark time for our world, and for the culture
through which our Lord chose to enter the world in human form. The Jewish
nation was a conquered and subjugated people, subject to the iron scepter
of armed Roman occupation. Jewish leaders such as Herod ruled either as
figureheads or as puppets of Rome.
     As dark as the political situation was for the Jews, the _spiritual_
situation was even darker. As the Old Testament story attests, the ancient
Jewish people were often rebellious against their God--just as we rebel all
too often against what we know is right. From their splendor under King
David, through disobedience and backsliding, the Jewish people had
experienced war and exile, captivity and, for many, assimilation into other
cultures. The few who remained loyal to their ancestral and religious roots
had lost much of the spiritual power of their religion; they were mired in
a shadow its former greatness--one that emphasized pious formalities and
ritualized observances over the spiritual substance of human love and
kindness. Their religious leaders had lost touch with the living source of
spirit and life, and were leading the people astray.
     We have all experienced this in our own way. We have all had times in
our lives when we have lost our direction--when we are lost and confused,
lonely and depressed.
     Personally, if I look back fifteen or twenty years to my late teens
and early twenties, I was in exactly this frame of mind. When I left home
for college, I had my life all mapped out. I knew I was going into the
ministry, and I knew exactly what course I would take toward it.
     Before my first two years of college were over, that clear vision had
crumbled around me. I was left adrift in my mind and heart--in other words,
in my spirit. I was just as much adrift as the ancient Jews were in those
four dark centuries before Christ came, when the prophecies stopped, and
the sacred text was put on hold.
     I recall vividly a Swedenborgian retreat for young adults held at
Fryeburg New Church Assembly in Maine. As each of us that was present at
the retreat considered our life and its meaning, I realized that _my_ life
had lost its meaning. I felt hemmed in and controlled by outside forces,
just as the Jews were hemmed in and controlled by the earthly empire of
Rome. I remember the tears that came freely to my eyes as I expressed to
the group how lost and out of control I felt--how I was unable to follow
the path I had chosen; how I no longer _had_ a path.
     That was the low point of my life, when everything I had hoped and
dreamed for seemed to lie in ruins around me. I felt lost and defeated. It
was my personal zero hour.
     I suspect that each one of us in this church can look back over our
lives and find times when we reached that zero hour . . . times when our
whole life seemed to have come to nothing--to one big zero. Some of us may
even be experiencing it right now.
     Yet despite that big zero, a "zero hour" is _not_ a point where things
end; it is a point where things are just beginning. In its military usage,
it is the beginning of a new operation or attack. In human terms, it is the
beginning of a new phase of our lives.
     As I look back on that particular zero hour in my life, as dark at it
seemed at the time, I now see that simply by experiencing that low point,
the healing process had begun. The evil forces (if you will) that were
trying to drag me down had lost their cover. They were out in the open now,
where I could see them. I saw the fallacy of those voices telling me that
there was nothing I could do about my life--that I might as well give up. 
     From that moment forward, I have known that _I_ am the one--with God's
help--who will determine whether my life has meaning and direction or not.
I have known that even though I cannot control all the circumstances that
affect me, I _can_ take control of my own life, and make choices that will
turn it in a better direction.
     As I look back on that zero hour of my life, I also know that it was
the Lord who made it possible for me to come to that realization and begin
to turn my life around. I know that my faith in the Lord--as weak as it may
have been--was what gave me the ability to turn that zero hour into a
beginning of a new phase in my life rather than an ending in depression and
despair.
     As we approach the birth of our Lord, each one of us can have this
same assurance about our own lives, wherever we happen to be on its winding
course. For we can look at _humanity's_ zero hour, and see what happened
then. We can look at that low point in human spiritual and moral history,
when all was dark in the minds and hearts of humankind. And as we hear the
familiar story of the birth of our Lord, we can know and feel within us
that it is exactly at our zero hour that our broken hearts are open to a
new birth of the Lord into our lives. In that darkness, there is space for
a great light to shine: the light of the Lord our God, come to earth, and
to human hearts, to live with us forever.
     This new birth is a quiet and gentle one. We may barely notice it when
it is happening--just as I did not realize through my tears that my life
had just turned around. But if we allow that simple, gentle birth--that
birth of new love and light and strength from the Lord--to grow within us,
we will soon begin to feel its power. We will feel the power of the Lord
beginning a new operation and a new phase in our lives. To use the words of
Isaiah, our inner desert and our parched land will become glad; our
personal wilderness will rejoice and blossom. We will see the glory of the
Lord--the splendor of our God. 


From leewoof@tiac.net  Thu Dec 25 04:43:31 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 23:43:31 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "To Hear the Angels Sing," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971224234331.00999930@pop.tiac.net>


                      To Hear the Angels Sing
      A Christmas Eve Sermonette by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
          Bridgewater, Massachusetts, December 24, 1997

Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7. The people have seen a great light
          Luke 1:26-38. The angel Gabriel foretells Jesus' birth
          Luke 2:1-20. The birth of Jesus

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel,
praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace
to people of good will." (Luke 2:13, 14)

I think Luke was indulging in a little understatement here. Yes, he
mentions a great company of the heavenly host praising God. But I can
hardly imagine them simply _saying_ "Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace to people of good will." Such a momentous occasion--the birth
of the infinite God into our world--fairly demands to be _sung_ forth by a
huge angelic choir.
     One thing is certain: whether those angels _spoke_ the good news or
_sang_ it, ever since, people have had an irresistible urge to conceive of
that great company of angels as a choir, and to put forth the glorious
message of the Lord's birth in song. This very service celebrates the
Lord's birth largely with music--and this is one of the reasons it is our
best-loved service of the year. So many of our favorite songs are Christmas
carols. . . . The human spirit longs to celebrate the Lord's birth in song.
     Why this great symphony of music to celebrate this particular event?
Why do words alone seem insufficient to express what wells up in our spirit
at this time of year? It is not hard to see why. Words alone can express
our thoughts and _some_ of our feelings. But only music can express the
full range of human emotion that surrounds the great events of our lives
and of our history as a people--especially of our spiritual history.
     The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is certainly the
greatest event in our history. It is the greatest event in our _world's_
history--the turning point at which humanity ceased its downward spiritual
plunge toward complete abandonment to materialism, lust for power,
oppression, and cruelty toward our fellow human beings. The birth of our
Lord Jesus is the great light that shone in the darkness, turning us away
from our headlong rush away from God and spirit. It is that point in
history when we began the long and arduous journey back toward God's
heavenly kingdom--a kingdom ruled, not with an iron scepter, but by the law
of mutual love; a kingdom that is not of this limited, physical world, but
which brings the infinite love, compassion, and wisdom of God into contact
with our finite human minds and hearts.
     Yet we are not here simply to memorialize an important event in our
distant past. If the Lord's birth had simply been an great turning point in
our history, it would not be celebrated throughout the world with an
outpouring of human emotion expressed in music, in gifts, in decorations,
in family gatherings, and in hundreds of other ways that make Christmas so
special to us.
     The Lord's birth is more than a historical event. The Lord's birth is
_personal_ for each one of us. The angels were not only singing the Lord's
birth two thousand years ago. They are still here with us, this very
evening, singing the Lord's birth once again. Because the Lord's birth does
not happen only once, nor only in history.
     The Lord's birth happens over and over again, within each one of us.
It happens every time we open our minds--and even more, our _hearts_--to
the Lord's ever-new presence within us. It happens when we let go of old
angers, old hurts, old jealousies, with our family, our friends . . . with
those we consider our enemies. When we let these barriers to human love and
understanding drop, and begin to build a new relationship with those around
us based on mutual love and respect, the Lord is born within us. When we
lay aside our prejudices and reach out to someone we formerly avoided, the
Lord is born within us. When we stop punishing _ourselves_ for sins long
past, and begin building a new, more outgoing and loving life, the Lord is
born within us.
     Yes, the Lord's birth is ever new. It is ever new within us whenever
we open ourselves up newly to the Lord's presence.
     When we do open ourselves up to that presence, we will find that words
alone do not do justice to the joy that wells up in our lives. We will find
ourselves humming and singing to express our joy. And the angels will be
singing a joyous song with us. 


From leewoof@tiac.net  Sun Dec 28 19:04:52 1997
From: leewoof@tiac.net (Lee Woofenden)
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 14:04:52 -0500
Subject: SERMON: "He Came to Save Us from our Sins," by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971228140452.00955ca0@pop.tiac.net>


                   He Came to Save Us from our Sins
  A Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas by the Rev. Lee Woofenden
               Bridgewater, Massachusetts, December 28, 1997

Readings: Psalm 24. Who is this King of glory?
          Matthew 1:18-21. He will save his people from their sins
          _Doctrine of the Lord_ #33. How the Lord saves us

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give
birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will
save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20, 21)

Christmas has come once again, and, for a little while longer, is still
with us. Tradition holds that the Christmas season begins with Christmas
day and goes for twelve days, ending with Epiphany on January 6th. This is
reflected in the popular Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
     This means that we have a little more time to consider the meaning of
Christmas. For in all our Christmas preparations, and in our anticipation
of the big day and of the family gatherings that surround it, it is hard to
settle our minds down for quieter contemplation of the great event that is
the cause of our Christmas celebration. Now that Christmas day is past, and
the family gatherings are drawing to an end, perhaps our thoughts are a
little more free to dwell for a time on just what it is that we celebrate
at this season--for the Lord's birth is at the center of our Christian faith.
     The meaning of Christ's coming to earth is by no means a settled
question among the various branches of Christianity. Just yesterday, I
officiated at a memorial service in our sister church. The extended family
of the person who had died was present at the service--about 100 of them!
This family covered a wide range of Christian belief, from Swedenborgian to
fundamentalist. Afterwards, I found myself in a conversation with two of
the more fundamentalist variety.
     It was an engaging and challenging discussion. These two people did
not conform to the stereotype of rigid fundamentalists who only want to
cram their own beliefs down others' throats. They asked questions and
listened respectfully, in addition to stating their own beliefs. They
seemed genuinely curious to find out about this Swedenborgian belief that
some of their family members held to.
     Their fallback position was, of course, that in order to be saved, we
must believe in Jesus. Yet their responses were not so hard core when I
asked the question, "What about those who have never heard of Jesus, or
have simply not heard enough to base any belief on? Are they all
condemned?" One of them, in particular, said he believed that the Lord was
able to save these people also, since they could not be blamed for not
believing in Jesus if they had had no chance to learn who Jesus was. This
issue seemed to present them with a genuine conundrum--and I came away from
the conversation feeling that at least these two fundamentalist-leaning
Christians had room in their beliefs for questioning and growth.
     What does this have to do with the meaning of Christmas? The questions
we were discussing, and our views on those questions, were central to our
respective beliefs about exactly why the Lord Jesus came into the world.
All three of us looked to the Bible for enlightenment on that question, but
we came up with some different perspectives on what the Bible said--the two
of them from their more literal interpretation, and I from my more
spiritual interpretation based on what we in our church learn from Emanuel
Swedenborg's religious writings.
     The issue of salvation is central to the Christmas story, as we learn
in our reading from the Gospel of Matthew:
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give
birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will
save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20, 21)
In contrast to the talkative angels in Luke's Gospel, the angels in Matthew
are brief and to the point. This particular angel clearly considered the
issue of salvation to be of primary importance in the Lord's birth, since
it was included even in this parsimonious announcement of the Lord's birth.
"You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from
their sins."
     The name "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew name "Joshua," which can be
roughly translated as "Jehovah is salvation." A simpler way to say this
would be, "the Lord saves." So the popular saying "Jesus saves" simply
states the meaning of the name "Jesus." In our text from Matthew, we are
told why Jesus was given this name: because he would save his people from
their sins.
     Now that things _are_ calmer, and we have more time for reflection, we
can take a closer look at just what the salvation is that comes to us by
means of the Lord's birth into our world. This is something we can carry
with us as we move from Christmas into the New Year and beyond.
     The twenty-fourth Psalm (which we also read this morning) expresses
some of what the Lord's salvation means:
Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the
King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and
mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:7, 8)
"The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." Salvation does
involve a battle. When we celebrate the Lord's birth, and think of him as a
baby in a manger, our minds do not usually look forward to the life that
followed. When we are contemplating that innocent baby, we do not think of
the terrible struggles that this baby endured as he grew to adulthood and
then pursued his public ministry.
     Yet our church teaches us that throughout his life on earth, Jesus was
continually struggling against the combined forces of evil and falsity that
we know of as hell. In fact, this struggle was the primary reason the Lord
came to earth at the time that he did. For humanity had reached its lowest
ebb spiritually, and nothing but the Lord's own presence and power
struggling directly against the evil forces that were dragging us down
would be sufficient to overcome those evil forces and save us from
spiritual death.
     At the time of the Lord's first coming, Swedenborg tells us, humanity
had fallen so far away from a loving and spiritual way of life that the
opposite of that life--the evil of selfishness, greed, and contempt for
others--had gained a tremendous, choking influence over people's minds and
hearts. It was getting to the point where even those who _wanted_ to live a
good life could not, because the path toward goodness was being blocked by
those who had chosen to go in the opposite direction.
     The Lord had tried to clear the way through prophets and religious
leaders. But merely human vessels for the divine power had proven
insufficient, and the downward slide continued. So the King of glory
himself, the Lord strong and mighty, found it necessary to come and
personally wage that battle to free human minds and hearts from a spiritual
destruction that was  fast overtaking us.
     Does this mean that our work is done for us? Can we now, as some of
the more extreme fundamentalists believe, simply state our faith in Jesus'
saving power, and be saved in a moment? Is there nothing further that we
can or must do?
     Here we come face to face with a paradox. For even Swedenborg agrees
that if we see things as they really are, God alone has the power to save,
and we, as finite human beings, have not the slightest ability to save
ourselves. We are entirely dependent on God's saving power. So we must ask
the question again, in another way: Do we as human beings need to do
anything to contribute to our own salvation?
     Even the most hard-boiled fundamentalist would agree that there is at
least one thing that we _do_ have to do: express our faith in Jesus. And if
we broaden our ideas, both of the meaning of faith and of the meaning of
faith in _Jesus_, we will find that we as Swedenborgians agree one hundred
percent. It is true that the only thing we as human beings can do is
express our faith in Jesus, for everything else comes from the Lord.
     Yet, what does it _mean_ to express our faith in Jesus? Does it mean
merely to say with our mouths, "I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior?" Even
the two people I was speaking with yesterday did not accept this, but said
that a genuine faith must be expressed in a _life according to that faith_.
Otherwise, it is not faith at all.
     As Swedenborg says many times over, faith is not faith unless it is
united with love, nor is love love unless it is united with faith in God.
When the two of these are together, they become real not only in their
union with each other, but in their inevitable expression in an active life
that expresses that love and faith. In other words, if we have genuine
faith in the Lord, it is not just something that is up in our heads; faith
is not an intellectual thing. No, genuine faith involves not only our
heads, but our hearts and our hands as well. Genuine faith is a belief in
the Lord together with a heartfelt _love_ for the Lord and for our fellow
human beings. This love moves us to serve each other and make each other
happy. Our _faith_ in the Lord's teachings becomes our guiding light,
showing us how we can be genuinely helpful to each other. For it is only by
following the Lord that the good things we do will result in genuine,
long-term good. Without the Lord's continual guidance, we tend to become
bulls in a china shop, doing more harm than good in our misguided efforts
to be "helpful."
     As paradoxical as it may seem, it is true that all power and all
salvation is the Lord's, and none of it ours; yet at the same time, we must
make our own choices and fight our own battles as if we were doing it on
our own. It is only when we make a conscious choice and an active
commitment to the Lord's way that we become genuinely receptive of the
saving power that comes from the Lord alone.
     In our church's beliefs, then, we have something that can satisfy both
those who say the Lord alone saves, and those who say that we must work out
our own salvation. Both are true--it is only a matter of perspective: our
perspective, or the Lord's. _We_ must act as if our salvation depends on
our own efforts so that we will make the effort to overcome the evil and
false parts of ourselves, and so move closer to God's way. Yet _God_ knows
that none of the power to do this comes from ourselves, but from God
only--and we should also recognize this as we struggle to reform ourselves.
     Christmas, then, is not simply a wonderful, feel-good holiday of love
and light in the midst of darkness. Once the celebrations are over,
Christmas becomes a call to the conflict and the struggle that will
accompany us throughout our lives if we are growing in our Christian faith
and life. Christmas is a challenge. It is the challenge of the Lord's own
presence, offering us the power to overcome our sins of self-centeredness,
of putting _things_ above _people_. In coming to us as Jesus Christ our
Lord, God is offering us the power to overcome these sins in ourselves. The
Lord is offering to save us from our sins, if we will only hear that call,
and allow the Lord's power to grow from the infancy of our initial
acceptance of the Lord to the maturity of devoting our entire lives to
God's way. 


From EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com  Mon Dec 29 22:14:30 1997
From: EHCARSWELL@compuserve.com (Eric Carswell)
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 17:14:30 -0500
Subject: SERMON: Increasing in Wisdom
Message-ID: <199712291715_MC2-2D7A-C10A@compuserve.com>


Increasing in Wisdom
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
December 28, 1997

        And [Jesus] went down with [His parents] and came to Nazareth, and
was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 
And [He] increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. 
(Luke 2:51-52)

This coming week we will end one calendar year and begin a new one.  Many
people have had January 1 remind them of the passing of time and the
changes that have taken place within and around their lives during the past
year.  People have also used it to set goals for the new year.  

Each of us is called to be on a spiritual path that requires change. 
Without continued progress on regeneration or spiritual rebirth our lives
will be sadly troubled in many ways and the jobs we would fulfill will be
flawed.  We know that the happiness, peace, and usefulness of heaven cannot
come to anyone unless he or she grows spiritually.  Each one of us enters
adult life led by motives that are natural.  We know that the Lord said,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God."  He said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (John
3:3, 5)

While we all know that we aren't perfect, few of us like to see specific
examples of our flaws.  It is easy to get defensive or discouraged when
something hasn't gone very well.  There is a part of many of us that hopes
that we will always see things correctly, set the best priorities, make the
most useful decisions.  When someone else's responses or just our own
reflection opens our eyes to an undesirable result few if any of us find it
easy to feel grateful.  But the Lord has created us such that He wants us
to learn and grow in wisdom and usefulness.  He is with us every tiniest
moment of every day, preparing us, guiding us, and protecting us.  He does
this work in a way that leaves us feeling free in our thoughts and motives.
 He wants us to feel that our lives are our own.  For this to happen much
of the most important learning that we need to be happy will come from
recognizing things that we would want to do better in the future.

We know that balancing priorities isn't easy.  There are many useful things
to consider.  Imagine the following event: Picture that your sixth grade
daughter, (or grand-daughter, or niece that you have had visiting)  took
the train into Chicago with a group of friends and one adult last Friday
morning.  Early evening arrived and she wasn't back.  Finally you call
another parent to see if she knows the reason for their delay.  The mother
says, "They weren't delayed.  They came back at 3:00."  After a number of
phone calls you finally gather that she seemed to have stopped for a moment
by some street person as the group hurried to catch the train.  No one
remembers seeing her since they got on the train.  A missing person report
is filed with the Chicago Police and a car goes down to check the train
station and the route that the group took.  They find nothing.  You spend a
horrible night, not sleeping a wink, worrying about what might have
happened.  Finally at nearly lunch time the girl shows up.  What are some
of the feelings and thoughts that would race through your head when she
came through the door?  
In response to your questions you learn that the day before she stopped by
a young woman with a toddler and baby who was sitting by the side of the
street with a pile of belongings crying.  The young woman had to move to a
new apartment several blocks away, but had no one to help her.  She could
not carry all the stuff and take care of the children and she could not
leave the stuff by the curb without it likely getting stolen.  Darkness and
bitter cold was coming.  Your daughter, grand-daughter, or niece felt she
had to help.  By the time she was done, the young woman said it was far too
dangerous for her to walk to the train station by herself in the dark. 
There was no phone to use.  They all slept long and hard and then the girl
took the train home using the last of her money for the train fare.
   
Would you say this girl deserves to be punished?  Would you say that she
did exactly what she was supposed to do in that situation?  What would you
want to her to know about the effect of her choices on you during the hours
that you didn't know where she was or what was happening?  What would you
hope she would learn from this event and do differently next time.

Now consider the story of Jesus remaining in Jerusalem while his parents
journeyed back toward Nazareth.  Joseph and Mary traveled a full day north
before they realized that Jesus wasn't with them.  Joseph may have thought
he was traveling in the front of the caravan group with the children and
women.  Mary may have thought He was in the back of the group with the men
and older boys.  They would then have had to travel a day's journey back to
Jerusalem.  On the third day since they first left Jerusalem, or perhaps
after searching three days, they finally found Jesus in the temple.  Given
that Jesus was nearly thirteen, the age when a Jewish male was accepted
into the adult religious community, it is interesting that it wasn't Joseph
who spoke to Him when he was found.  The only words we have are those of
Mary, who said: "Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I
have sought You anxiously."  They point out the effect of His actions on
them and their worry for His safety.  The exact meaning of Jesus reply
isn't clear.  He responded by wondering why they had searched and He said,
"Did you not know that I must be in those things that are My Father's."
(Luke 2:49)  Although many of us grew up hearing the words "I must be about
My Father's business" the original language isn't that clear.  Perhaps
Jesus was merely saying, "Why were you searching?  Where else would I be
but in the temple?"  Mary had specifically referred to Joseph as Jesus'
father, so there may have been some mild correction in His response, but
note that the following verses state that Jesus returned with Joseph and
Mary to Nazareth and was "subject" or obedient to them.  It specifically
states that He "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."

Did Jesus learn something important from this experience?  Did He feel
completely content with how He had stayed in Jerusalem and caused such
trouble and concern for his parents?  Would it be perhaps appropriate to
describe this event as a clear example of a mistake that Jesus made while
He was growing up.  

How different is this mistake from the one of the young husband who arrives
home hours later than usual and really hadn't thought of telling his wife
he would be late.  He didn't reflect on the  appropriate concern and fear
his lateness would evoke in his wife's mind, so he didn't intend evil, but
the effect on his wife was not good.

We are told about Jesus:

        God assumed the Human in accordance with His Divine Order.  Since .
. . it was God who descended, and since He is Order itself, it was
necessary, if He was to become an actual human being, that He should be
conceived, carried in the womb, born, educated, acquire knowledges
gradually, and He would thereby be introduced into intelligence and wisdom.
 In respect to His Human He was, for this reason, an infant like other
infants, a child like other children, and so on; with the sole difference
that this development was accomplished in Him more quickly, more fully, and
more perfectly than in others.  That this development was in accordance
with order is evident from these words in Luke (2:40, 52): "And the child
Jesus grew and waxed strong in spirit.  And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and
in the stages of life, and in favor with God and man".   (True Christian
Religion 89)

Growing in wisdom requires a similar progression for each of us.  We start
out completely ignorant.  We must learn the rudiments of what is true.  Our
initial understanding in childhood, youth, and even into adulthood will be
quite flawed.  In fact our understanding will always be relatively
imperfect.  But from our first understanding we must make daily decisions. 
Recognizing the difference between black and white can be easy even for a
very little child especially when it doesn't involve him or her personally.
 But balancing various potentially good and useful priorities is much
harder.   Consider again the words that I read as part of the second
lesson: 
 
        [There must be a development] of Divine truth with a person who is
being regenerated. This progress is such that the person is that he begins
by becoming able to discriminate between false ideas and true ones; for
from the truth in which he is he can see falsity, because it is opposite;
but he cannot at this first time settle differences between the truths of
faith within the church; in order to be able to do this he must make
further progress, for a person is enlightened successively. This is very
evident from youths and young adults, who believe the doctrinal things of
their church to be truth itself, and from these judge of false ideas, but
as yet are not able to settle differences between matters of faith within
the church. This ability comes by degrees; and therefore a person to whom
this is possible must be of a more advanced age, and must have the
interiors of his understanding enlightened. (Arcana Caelestia 6766:2)

While we probably don't sense that we are regularly called to "settle
differences between matters of faith within the church," we are regularly
called to balance different potential uses or good things.  Consider the
following example: When my sister was in third grade my parents built a new
home.  When it came time to have it painted the contractor gave them a
number of "stock" colors and some custom ones that cost a little more.  My
sister really wanted her bedroom to be a light violet color.  My mom
decided, partially because light violet wasn't a stock color, and partially
because she didn't think it really made much difference to have my sister's
room painted a light green.  For years my sister looked at the walls of her
room and had the thought come to her mind, "My parents don't really listen
to me or particularly care what I want."  Certainly there were probably
hundreds of decisions involved in building the house, involving balancing
cost, function, and appearance, but would if you knew that saving a few
dollars on the paint for a young girl's room would be such a powerful
symbol of being cared for or not, who would make that choice?  My mom
wasn't intending evil but her choice in this situation, at least in
retrospect, doesn't seem as useful as it could have been.  

We all face many situations each day that call us to balance different
priorities and uses.  A person can be too focused on himself, money, and
career to the exclusion of other parts of life and especially the
relationships he should put greater priority on.  A person can also be too
focused on whether everyone is getting what they want or seem content in
the immediate present.  The Lord calls us to be come ever wiser and more
useful as we make the decisions that come before us on a daily basis.

As we look to a new year, may we look toward have our understanding of what
is true and good progressively enlightened.  May we have open eyes to see
when our intentions, thoughts, words, and actions have been flawed and
harmful to ourselves and others.  May we learn from reflecting on the ups
and downs of our daily lives with the sure knowledge that the Lord can
guide us to ever greater wisdom, usefulness, and happiness.  May we trust
that if we are willing to do our part, He will lead us ever closer to a
happier and more spiritual home in the coming year than we can possibly
imagine.  May we be sure that it is His wish that the coming year brings us
greater wisdom and all the usefulness it carries.  AMEN.

       Lessons: Luke 2:41-52

When a person is being regenerated, he is let into combats against false
ideas, and is then kept by the Lord in truth.  However, the truth he is
kept in is that which he had persuaded himself to be truth, and from this
truth he fights against false ideas. He can fight also from truth not
genuine, provided the truth is such that in some way it can be conjoined
with good; and it is conjoined with good by means of innocence, for
innocence is the means of conjunction. Hence it is that people can be
regenerated within the church from any doctrine, but those pre-eminently
who are in genuine truths. 
        Arcana Caelestia 6765
[There must be a development] of Divine truth with a person who is being
regenerated. This progress is such that the person is that he begins by
becoming able to discriminate between false ideas and true ones; for from
the truth in which he is he can see falsity, because it is opposite; but he
cannot at this first time settle differences between the truths of faith
within the church; in order to be able to do this he must make further
progress, for a person is enlightened successively. This is very evident
from youths and young adults, who believe the doctrinal things of their
church to be truth itself, and from these judge of false ideas, but as yet
are not able to settle differences between matters of faith within the
church. This ability comes by degrees; and therefore a person to whom this
is possible must be of a more advanced age, and must have the interiors of
his understanding enlightened. 
        Arcana Caelestia 6766:2

All books mentioned, other than from the Bible are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.
___________________________________
from
Eric Carswell
Glenview, IL
USA

Internet: EHCarswell@compuserve.com