Readings: Revelation 12:1-9, 13-17, Apocalypse Revealed 533:1,3 (see below)
​See also on Youtube ​youtu.be/7a9UIkBh-nY
Photo by Mier Chen on Unsplash

Today we are celebrating, a little late, a traditional Swedenborgian holy day, June 19th. On this day, we celebrate the amazing ways that God is always breathing life into our spiritual journeys, individually and collectively, and we celebrate the vision that this reality suggests: that God has a dream for humanity, and that God is working to help us achieve it. This vision is what Swedenborg has called a New Church, and is pictured in the book of Revelation by a beautiful city descending from the sky called the New Jerusalem. This is of course, where our church gets its name: The Church of the Holy City. It is named thus, so that as we gather together in the here and now, we also look forward and work to cooperate with what God is doing in the world and for the world. 

Now, there is another metaphor used for the New Church in the book of Revelation though, and that is “the women clothed with the sun” from Chapter 12, which is our reading for today. 

But first, a note on The New Church, as a phrase:

The Swedenborgian movement has historically called itself The New Church, on our best days we know that it is only aspirational, that the New Church will never actually be bounded by bylaws, boards, membership, and committees. We make that structure because humans beings can accomplish more when we work together, and it makes us happy to gather with each other. But the phenomenon of “church” (defined in Swedenborg’s mystical way) exists wherever people work to take care of each other, raise their hearts and minds beyond their own self, and look to a higher power to help them do that. 

Certainly, human beings have always been able to do that, so “church” (mystically defined) has always existed. But there are also times when human capacities for spirituality need revitalization, especially if the earthly structures and the forms of church that we have devised are actually starting to get in the way of people caring, loving, and growing spiritually. 

Much of Swedenborg’s works are him arguing against human theologies that *are* getting in the way, particularly the kinds where we try to buy or talk our way into salvation. There is no short cut into salvation - is always whole-person transformation and nothing less, an eternal journey towards healing and wholeness, powered by the ways we connect our faith (what we believe) with the ways that we reach out to serve and love others.

So, sometimes in human systems there needs to be a newness brought to bear — God is indeed always doing a new thing! When we talk about there being a New Church, what we mean is a movement away from trying to find short-cuts to spiritual healing and wholeness, and a movement into accepting that salvation can only occur when the love in our hearts and the faithfulness in our minds work together towards the project of mutual love. There are many in the world that already understand this! And of course, it is an ongoing lesson for us all.

But let us now return to the figure of the woman clothed with the sun. She represents this revitalization of human spirituality, this New Church, in particular, the ways that it now exists in heaven, for everything on earth is connected to everything in heaven. She is clothed with the sun because any such revitalization must have the love of God at its core, and we learned in our meditation several weeks ago that the Lord appears in heaven as the sun.

The moon beneath her feet represents the New Church on earth, reflecting those rays of the Divine sun as best we can, but not being the origin of them. Swedenborg notes that since all things in heaven and earth are connected; there could be no New Church in heaven if there is not one on earth, and vice versa. Yet, we note the *separation* of the sun and the moon in this picture; what of that? The mystical church on earth and the mystical church in heaven *are* connected, yet always working towards full conjunction. We are a work in progress, in the process of becoming ever more connected. Or, to use a Lutheran phrase to describe the character of it: “already but not yet.” We are already connected but our union is not yet full and complete. There will always be more work to do. So, what is it that actually conjoins us with God and the heavenly church? The work of love, of course.(1) We unite ourselves with God and heaven when we love what God loves and when we act in accordance with that. But let us return to that in a moment.

Because the next question is a little less heart-warming. We have already asked what conjoins, so the next question is: what fractures, what separates? What devours?

Here we come to the great red dragon from the story. The woman is in labor and gives birth to a child, representing all the humane perspectives that a revitalized human spirituality will center: God is Divine Love & Wisdom, God is always forgiving, God made heaven for all, salvation is available to all who live the kindest life they can, sacred scripture speaks on many levels, all religions can be a path to God, and more.

Yet the dragon wishes to devour such humane, useful, effective ideas, to center other ideas instead. Ideas that make God and spirituality punishing, exclusive, materialistic. Ideas that center power, rigidity, cruelty. Ideas that tell us we should be out for ourselves, that mutual love is weakness, that faith need only be the right words to the right person, that some deserve salvation more than others.

We see the dragon everywhere, everywhere around us and everywhere within. A desire to connect more authentially with others in our life might be devoured by a fear of vulnerability. A desire to connect with God more intentionally is devoured by our lack of follow-through. A desire to apologise is devoured by our sense of pride. 

A desire to be a more welcoming church, town, country is devoured by a fear of change. A desire to take care of the vulnerable is devoured by a lack of generosity. A desire for integrity and process is devoured by the hunger for power.

There is much that stands in the way. But ultimately, though the dragon and what it represents stands there waiting, what I see connecting the New Church in heaven and the New Church on earth is the phenomenon of labor: the work of it, the pain of it, beauty of it, the courage of it, and the sheer creativity of it. The phrase “a labor of love” is a phrase for a reason; we know the truth of it. We might think of the New Church, this revitalization of the human spirituality and what it can achieve, as the opposite of a black hole: something that is continually birthing new, thoughtful, caring, brilliant, helpful, comforting things that can assist in our spiritual journeys. These things might be birthed in churches, or in spiritual movements, but they can certainly be birthed in many other places too. Anywhere or anyplace that looks to learn and grow in service and love, in movements of all kinds that stand for justice, hope and peace.

And so then, our work is two-fold, to facilitate and assist in birthing the newness, the comfort, the preciousness of every tiny piece of spiritual growth we and the world might make, and then to be vigilant against the dragon that would devour them. And I hesitate to use such language, because such language is so often used to pit human beings against each other. You’re the dragon, no you’re the dragon. Battle metaphors are powerful *and* flawed tools.

But we know the world, and we know our own hearts, do we not, my friends? There *are* forces, habits, tendencies within us that will swallow our good intentions whole. And what is the world made of, but us? We need to be able to see the dragon with clarity, to know the way it is appearing within us, and work to let go of the claws that it has in us, while at the same time resisting the dragon’s sneaky disguises as “othering” or as shame, or as judgmental pride.  Instead, we look to the story and see that the child is protected by being sent up to God. We protect the preciousness birthed by the New Church by first and foremost relinquishing ownership, surrendering pride and power and merit, and centering God instead of ourselves.

There are many ways to picture the powerful story of God’s presence with us, of God’s vision for humanity. The woman clothed with the sun is a beautiful one that speaks to us on many levels. It communicates to us a timeless sense of connection, generativity, beauty and protection, as well as the reality of what stands against those things. As we celebrate New Church day, today and in the future, I hope we all might be in equal parts hopeful, clear-eyed, and willing to labor. Amen.

(1) Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven #1068


Readings:

Revelation 12:1-9, 13-17
1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.
4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.


Apocalypse Revealed 533:1,3
A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet. This symbolizes the Lord's New Church in heaven, which is the New Heaven, and the New Church to come on earth, which is the New Jerusalem.
…The woman here appeared clothed with the sun because the church is governed by love toward the Lord; for it acknowledges Him and keeps His commandments, and that is loving Him (John 14:21-24). 
The moon appeared under the woman's feet because it means the church on earth, which was not yet conjoined with the church in heaven. The moon symbolizes the intelligence in a natural person, and faith (no. 413). And its being seen under the woman's feet means, symbolically, that it was a church to come on earth…
[3] The church in heaven does not continue in existence unless it is conjoined with a church on earth, because heaven where angels are, and the church where people are, function together, like the internal and external components in a person…

Readings: Mark 3:20-35, Apocalypse Revealed 723 (see below)
Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

The gospel of Mark, as a narrative, really gets down to business quickly.  Literally, we have turned ONE page from the start, at least in my bible, and Jesus is getting into all kinds of trouble. He has already been baptized by John, called his disciples, preached all over the place and healed many people of various diseases and maladies, including leprosy and paralysis, eaten with a (gasp) tax collector and other sundry sinners and challenged the religious authorities on the subject of the Sabbath. Jesus has been very busy, and people are taking notice. Large crowds follow him around, and we start our text for today with the acknowledgment they were preventing him from even doing normal things like sitting down at a table to eat.  Understandably, Jesus’ family is concerned.  They do not yet understand what he is trying to do.  Their time will come, as Jesus’ brother James will one day be the leader of the Jesus movement in Jerusalem, after Jesus’ death.  But for now, they think he is out of his mind.

However, his late-to-the-game family is the least of Jesus’ troubles. The religious authorities and the political elites are already plotting to kill him.  By page three of the gospel. They are actively looking for reasons to denounce him and trap him, and we are treated to one of those arguments here. They recognize that Jesus is performing miracles that are beyond human means. They see the transformative nature of his works. But they attribute the power of these accomplishments to the devil. They see him heal people and free them from possession, and they call such work satanic. Jesus exposes the ridiculousness of their assertion.  Hell does not stand for human freedom and human thriving; why on earth would the devil participate in such work?  Hell seeks dominion and enslavement, not healing and not liberation. It doesn’t make any sense. Then Jesus says “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven…”
Now, this is quite the pronouncement, seemingly in conflict with Jesus’ words and actions so far, based as they have been on the necessity for repentance and the availability of forgiveness. So, blasphemy must be pretty bad then, to elicit such a response. What is blasphemy though exactly? It is sort of an umbrella theological term, which at best can mean irreverent behavior towards that which is sacred and at worst cursing and reviling God and what God stands for.  And clearly, it is this second more troubling and serious end of the spectrum that Jesus is talking about. 

Because we are not talking about the ubiquitous OMGs that seem to clutter our cultural landscape.  Certainly, taking the Lord’s name in vain is not to be encouraged but habitual and relatively unconscious blasphemy is very different from what Jesus is talking about here in this text.  Swedenborg makes a distinction between blasphemy that originates in the understanding and blasphemy that originates in the will.  And I quote (1):

“The second kind are the ones which are so horrible, not the first. Those that come out of the will by way of the understanding spring from evil of life, whereas those that come solely out of the understanding and not at the same time out of the will spring from falsity of doctrine or from the illusions of the outward senses that deceive a person set fast in a state of ignorance.”(1)

Ignorance and thoughtlessness do not condemns us. True blasphemy is never just a misunderstanding, one cannot trip and accidentally blaspheme. Neither is it blasphemous to be skeptical about God, or even wrong about God. Paul, author of many biblical epistles, is an excellent example of this. He started out as a devoted Pharisee persecuting Christians because he thought it was the right thing to do. But as soon as he had a spiritual experience, heard from Jesus that he was in the wrong, he immediately changed his behavior completely. His will was to be zealous for God, even as his understanding led him to work against God. But since his will was not for himself and his own power and rightness, then as soon as he understood his wrongness he transformed his behavior.

However, it is entirely another thing to see and recognize the work of the Holy Spirit for what it is and call it satanic as we understand the religious leaders in our story to have done, to see resurrection and re-creation, God’s main work in this world, and to say that it is worthless and treat it with contempt. To say essentially that the vulnerability and struggle of re-creation is fundamentally the wrong way to go. We might take the German Christian church during the rise of Nazism, as an example. The German Christian church actively allowed Nazi ideology to permeate and twist the gospel. Nazi flags were hung in churches, strewn upon altars. They took the Word, full of God’s bestowal of worthiness on all creatures, and deemed it inadequate, claiming that the Nazi interpretation of the gospel, based on purity of race, was the true fulfillment of the Word.  They took God’s depth and breadth of love and made it narrow, made it an excuse for domination and superiority.  It is an understatement to call this an over-reach, even though it was. It was also blasphemy of the worst kind.  The only way to justify such a disparate interpretation is from a will for power, for nothing else can cause God’s name to be taken up in the spirit of exclusion and death. This was not a mistake in interpretation, this was not an honest disagreement, this was the will for power twisting the gospel into its exact opposite. This is blasphemy. Taking the vulnerable, transformative, resurrection message of the Jesus and making it about the dominance of one people over others.

And this is what there is no coming back from, no forgiveness. What we are capable of understanding about God stems from what we love and value. When we try our best to love God, and not our self-as-center, we might make mistakes of understanding but we are inherently open to correction because in our love for God we submit our understanding to God, we submit our own interpretations and preferences to God’s mission for the universe.  Therefore our understanding of God’s truth can and likely will change over time. This is part of our spiritual journey, our trajectory of transformation and growth. But this will not happen if our will loves ourself and our own ego above all else. Growth and change is then threatening to our sense of ego-power. We will prefer that which is static and certain for that can be more easily controlled. Being created anew is inherently uncontrollable because it involves a surrender of self, and to the self that is focused on power, such surrender is impossible. And so the blasphemy that calls God’s creative and transformative character hellish cannot be forgiven because this kind of blasphemy rejects the whole premise of forgiveness, rejects the whole notion of transformation, rejects the goodness of re-creation at all. It is a self-inflicted wound, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The lack of forgiveness comes not from God. God cannot turn away from us. As we heard in our reading, it is against God’s nature.(2) The lack of forgiveness for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit comes from rejecting the idea of vulnerability as useful, repentance as necessary, and forgiveness itself as a way forward into new ways to love.

Notice also, that Jesus, as testy as he sometimes gets, does not take these affronts personally.  He sees himself as part of God’s larger movement for all of creation, and therefore exposes the heart of the worldview that these religious leaders espoused.  It seemed that they were objecting to one troublesome man, but Jesus points out that to be against the healing and liberation that he, Jesus, brings is also to be against the whole trajectory of the Holy Spirit, to be against the character of God. The whole of the cosmos expresses God’s creative power, and every part of the universe participates in its own on-going creation, and Christ is just one part of that larger picture.

The Holy Spirit is calling us all to take part in the adventure of on-going creation. Like all adventures, it won’t all be sweetness and light along the way, but the horizon is ever expanding if we are willing to let God lead us.  And perhaps it will serve us today to think about where we are throwing up roadblocks to our own re-creation.  Where we have convinced ourselves that rightness is better than vulnerability, where we have convinced ourselves that we are so chosen and blessed that we need not stoop to care for the forgotten, where we have convinced ourselves that true Christian love is fanciful and ill-advised.
Because, blasphemy is not an act that comes from nowhere, it comes from what we have chosen to love and value. When the self is loved above all, then the movement of the Holy Spirit towards others is incomprehensible. Though it is hard sometimes, when we choose to love God, we choose to love the principles of expansion, inclusion, surrender and redemption, we choose to love the existence of a creative and blossoming universe.  And so praise be to God, the creator of wonders.

Amen.

1. Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 9222:4
2. Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity 56

Readings:

Mark 3:20-35

20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” 22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” 23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.” 31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Apocalypse Revealed 723

For blasphemy symbolizes a denial of the Lord's Divinity in His humanity, and an adulteration of the Word, thus its profanation. For someone who fails to acknowledge the Lord's Divinity in His humanity and falsifies the Word, but not intentionally, does indeed commit profanation, but lightly. But people who claim for themselves all the power of the Lord's Divine humanity, and for that reason deny His Divinity, and who apply everything in the Word to acquiring dominion for themselves over the sanctities of the church and heaven, and for that reason adulterate the Word - those people commit serious profanation.

True Christianity 56

…From these few points you can see how insane people are who think that God can condemn anyone, curse anyone, throw anyone into hell, predestine anyone's soul to eternal death, avenge wrongs, or rage against or punish anyone…In reality, God cannot turn away from us or even look at us with a frown. To do any such thing would be against his essence, and what is against his essence is against himself.

Readings: I Samuel 3:1-20, Secrets of Heaven #561 (see below)
Photo by NEOM on Unsplash

This is such a beloved story from the Old Testament; it says beautiful things about listening for the voice of God, about call and vocation, about mentorship. Well, at least the first half of it does. The second half is a little more complicated. Yes, from Samuel we learn that it is important to listen for the voice of God. But then, what will that voice say?  What will that voice call us to do? What if it involves judgment? What if it is difficult?

So, first, some background on the text: the book of Samuel comes directly after the book of Judges in the bible. Earlier on, in Exodus and later, the Children of Israel had benefited from having two strong leaders in Moses and Joshua. But then comes a more trying time, which is chronicled in the book of Judges. Tribal wars begin to escalate, the state of things starts devolving. From time to time, leaders called “Judges” rise up to carry Israel through one crisis or another, but the trajectory remains downward and increasingly out of control.  

Now, back when Joshua led the nation, he had placed the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant at a place called Shiloh. Through all the troubles, this where it remained, and where we find ourselves in the story of Samuel. Previous to our text for today, the book of I Samuel introduces us to Samuel’s mother, Hannah, who in a familiar kind of story in the bible, was a favored wife who was also barren. She prays for a child at the tabernacle at Shiloh, and promises that if her wish is granted, she will place the child into the service of the Lord. She does became pregnant, and when Samuel is old enough he becomes an apprentice to Eli, priest of the tabernacle and descendant of Aaron.  But as trustworthy and kind and diligent as Eli was, his sons, also priests, were the opposite. They were corrupt. They were taking more than their share of the people’s sacrifices, and they were sleeping with the women who served in the tabernacle.  And Eli, in his old age, had failed to curtail their excess and their abuse of their role. This is the context of Samuel’s call story.  A society rife with corruption and violence, including even the priests of the tabernacle, and as a result, communication from the Lord was rare.  It felt like God was absent, but even if God was present, no one was listening.

And into this space, the Lord spoke Samuel’s name. Two times Samuel went to Eli, thinking that his master had called him, but he had not, and he sent Samuel back to bed.  The third time, however, convinced Eli that it was the Lord who was calling Samuel, and so he counseled Samuel as to what he should do.  When the Lord called again, Samuel said “Here I am, speak for your servant is listening.”

It is such a sweet and tender scene.  The openness and innocence of Samuel speaks volumes, as does the gentle and wise mentorship that he receives from Eli.  And in the tenderness of the moment, it becomes tempting to stop right there. But this is not the end of the story. The Word that Samuel receives from the Lord contains a judgment upon Eli. Samuel delays communicating this likely painful and awkward truth.  But Eli, admirably, demands to know what the Lord said in full, and he accepts the judgment in full.  His sons cannot remain in leadership, and because he did not restrain them, neither can Eli.  And so Eli steps aside to let Samuel take on the mantle of authority as the one who speaks God’s word.

It is a beautiful call story, but you can see, if we stop too soon we don’t get the whole of it.  God communicates with the world because God loves the world, and God has hope for the world. So, it is important for us to listen for what God is saying. And it is equally important to listen even if God’s word contains judgment upon ourselves and our behavior.  

It may seem to us that the judgment upon Eli was unjust. In the chapter before, he does indeed reprimand his sons, but they do not listen to him. Eli is clearly a good man. He has a good moral compass, he was loyal to God and likely his sons’ behavior pained him considerably. But what he didn’t do is challenge the structures that allowed his sons to take advantage of others. Eli is the part of us that is trying our best but is essentially happy with the status quo. The part of us that attends to what is in front of us faithfully. The part of us that might even be pained and saddened about the ways that other people are behaving but don’t actually do anything about it.

I know I struggle with the Eli part of myself all the time. Things happen in this would that we would never sign off on ourselves, and perhaps we don’t mind saying so.  But how far are we willing to go to change the structures that support or necessitate materialism, poverty, racism, sexual abuse and harassment, and gun violence in the world, just to name just a few. Certainly, I know I go much less far than I might wish to such change things, stymied by overwhelm, confusion, apathy, embarassment or any number of impediments.

And so the difficult question before us all, is whether we —diligent, kind, steadfast Eli— have we restrained our figurative sons? Have we challenged those around us, our families, co-workers and friends, when they have crossed a line, have we called out sexist behavior in real time, have we admonished a friend for a racist joke or idea, have we resisted the dehumanization of others however and whenever it occurs?

Further, have we worked to restrain and transform the kind of ideas within ourselves that support injustice? In Swedenborg’s metaphorical universe, sons often represent forms of truth, the shape of our ideas, the way we see things. Corrupt sons are then corrupted, false, misleading ideas. Ideas like “one person can’t change anything,” “those in poverty should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” “we live in a post-racial society,” “I deserve all my personal advantages,” “those people are just like that,” “it will always be this way.” Ideas that perpetuate “othering” and dehumanization and apathy, ideas that make complex things simple and simple things complex, ideas that justify the centering of ourselves and our egos and our comfort.  How far have we been willing to go to challenge these ideas within us?  To uproot them, and strip them of their power so that the Word of God can replace them?
Eli’s failure didn’t come from trying his best to restrain the corruption and bumping up against the limits of what one person can do. Eli’s failure came from whatever excuses allowed him to ultimately overlook his son’s behaviors, to throw up his hands. He spoke to them but did nothing to change the system in which they had free reign. So, this is not about taking responsibility for everything in the world that is bad, but taking responsibility for what we can do. Believe me, I stand convicted in this pulpit as much as anyone.  

So yes, this is a hard hard Word from I Samuel today. Do we perhaps now feel something of Samuel’s ambivalence, something of Samuel’s reticence at hearing what the Lord said. But…there is good news here to be had, for two reasons.

The first is the *existence* of Samuel. If Eli is a part of us, then Samuel is too, just as much. Samuel is the part of us that is devoted, looking to be guided, wanting to hear, committed to showing up, a state fueled by what Swedenborg calls “remains” or a “remnant.”  It’s a bit of a strange term, granted, but what he means by it is that all of the good and true things that we learn throughout our lives, all of our good experiences of love and compassion we have received, these are protected by the Lord deep inside of us. This pure goodness and innocence is preserved, stored within us if you will, ready to be drawn upon when needed. And there will definitely be times when it is needed; our Eli challenges are but one way that we might drift away from or avoid the life of the spirit. But, our Samuel nature is ready to respond to the Lord, our Samuel nature provides a well-spring from which God can work with us and through us.  And this goodness that “remains” with us in this way, it is a gift from the Lord, it is God working every which way to build us up, nourish us, give us chances to succeed and change. “The Lord preserves all these states in us in such a way that not even the least significant of them is lost.” This goodness that God stores up for us is inviolable, no matter how steadfastly we might turn away.

The second piece of good news is Eli’s integrity at his judgment. Eli might have been old and nearly blind, but he knew when the Lord was speaking. The good news is that the part of us that is distracted by worldly things, worldly concerns, the part of us that is afraid or overwhelmed or anxious or weary, that part of us is still essentially and deeply good. This part of us nurtured and mentored Samuel, and recognized the importance of Samuel. It just also needs to open up to the Word of the Lord, accept the judgment and do better, to allow the rise of Samuel to occur and the word of the Lord to become present on the earth. And this is exactly what Eli did.

There is *such* hopefulness in this story. In the midst of chaos we see God doing a new thing, we see God doing what God does: re-creation. But understandably, God doesn’t begin this work with our Eli natures, as good and kind as they might be, for they are mired in the business of the world, mired in linage and tradition and the preservation of what exists. God starts re-creation with Samuel, the innocent openness that will hear and respond. Sometimes we might resist, we might feel uncomfortable about what the Lord is telling us, but that is okay, this is part of being human. The important part is that we are hearing it and recognizing it and wrestling with it, for by contrast, Eli’s sons weren’t hearing anything from God at all. Our Eli natures do not come under judgment because they are impure or imperfect, they come under judgment precisely because God is hopeful for us, and God believes in what we can do and what we can be.  And so Samuel speaks God’s Word and..“The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.” Amen.


Readings:

I Samuel 3:1-20
1 The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. 2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. 6 Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8 A third time the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 

11 And the LORD said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’ ” 15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.” Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.” 19 The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.


Secrets of Heaven #561
To explain what a remnant is: It is not just the good and true things that we learn out of the Lord's Word from the time we are small and that become stamped on our memory. It is also all the states that rise out of those things, such as a state of innocence from babyhood, a state of love for our parents, siblings, teachers, and friends, a state of charity toward our neighbor and compassion toward the poverty-stricken and needy. In short, it is all states of goodness or truth.
These states, along with the good and true things imprinted on our memory, are called a remnant. The Lord preserves them in us, hiding them away in our inner being without our slightest awareness and carefully separating them from the things that are our own — in other words, from evil and falsity.
The Lord preserves all these states in us in such a way that not even the least significant of them is lost.