Readings: Genesis 28:10-17, Luke 17:20-21, Heaven & Hell #54 (see below)
See also on Youtube
​Photo by Johannes Plenio

Today we have before us the question: What is Heaven? But before we go there, let’s zoom out a little bit. One the the most important questions, perhaps THE question really, of religious and spiritual traditations is: Is this all there is? This earthly life that we perceive around us, it is the only reality that exists? Does our life end when our body dies and our consciousness leaves it?

And honestly, in the end, who really knows? One thing we do know about though, is the reality and pervasivness of human spiritual experience. We all know of it, to greater and lesser degrees. For as long as human beings have existed, they have had experiences that seem to point to something beyond us. What exactly? Again, who knows? But it seems to be a persistent, if variable, part of being human. There are many explanations for it, ranging for scientific to biblical to mystical, but none have been able to grasp the whole of it. And perhaps that is for the best. 

For our tradition, for illumination on the nature of the spiritual realm, we look to the expansive and detailed spiritual experience of Emanuel Swedenborg. Do we understand his experiences as true, or at least that truth can be found within them? Well yes, that’s what it means to be a tradition, but of course what that means to each person is different. Do we believe that his spiritual experience is a revelation, that it contains the intentional Word of God to us? Some of us do, though we disagree about what that means exactly (and that disagreement is totally okay). Do we believe that Swedenborg has said everything there is to be said on the topic? At least in our branch of the tradition, we recognize that Swedeborg’s experiences were filtered through the lens of his own mind, which was situtated in his own context. Given that, his perception was necessarily limited, but I would argue, this blessedly gives us the opportunity to grapple with the information in positive ways and imagine what else can be learned.

So as we return to the question before us today - What is Heaven? - it is with this background. Swedenborg wrote voluminously about the nature of heaven and, for the most part, the precepts are compassionate, common sense, consistent, and comforting. Are they the whole of it? Perhaps not, but they are an excellent start.

First, let’s talk about what heaven is NOT.

Heaven is not a place on high, above us. We humans are limited by our necessarily spatial language, and we have long described things that are beyond us somehow as “above” us. But the truth is that heaven is right here in our midst. It is not separate from us, it is here right now, and it is connected to us. We are simply not aware of it.

And thus heaven is not actually even a “place.” Rather, it is a state of being, a state of awareness. Swedenborg received the gift of having the awareness of this world, this plane of existence, and awareness of the spiritual realm both at the same time, and this was possible because we exist in both realms simultaneously. Our body anchors us to the physical realm, and our spirit connects us to the spiritual realm.

Swedenborg writes that heaven is in fact made by the divine nature of God flowing into us, and the level of which we are able to accept that inflow (without ownership of it) is the level to which we will be in heaven, or not.(1) So we can see that heaven is not a “place” or is even “anywhere” in the way we understand that idea, but rather is a state of being that is open and receptive to the inflow of God. 

Next, heaven is not a reward that we are granted because we have believed or said the right things. It’s not even a reward for *doing* the right things, for the right things can alway be done for the wrong reasons. Rather, heaven is the spiritual home of our inmost heart. What God wants for us is our eternal happiness. Happiness, true happiness, can only occur where we feel in tune with the mission of the place and people around us. And so, as we find our way to heaven, we are guided to that place within it that is best for us, one that resonates with our inner nature.

But the character of heaven is not relative to us per se, it is first and foremost a realm of mutual love, a state of being that God has designed to ensure optimal happiness for us. There is alot of beautiful and valuable variability under the general umbrella of mutual love, and the more we ascribe to mutual love as a notion, and the more we try to conform ourselves to living that way, the more comfortable in heaven we will be. Heaven is a choice. 

And believe it or not, the same is true for hell. For those for whom mutual love is abhorrrent, they are given a place to be. Not in heaven, for their discordance with the mission of mutual love would be disruptive, as we certainly know it to be in this world too. But more so, they would be unhappy in heaven, for their hearts wouldn’t be in it, and hypocrisy is not possible in a realm where our spirits shine forth unimpeded.

So therefore, heaven, and hell for that matter, are not a judgment made upon us by God, they are the culmination of a journey, the grounding of a process. God most pressing concern is where will we be most happy. If that is hell, if we have consistently refused God’s invitation to the greater happiness of heaven, then that is where we will end up. Heaven, and by extension hell, are not a judgment given by God but a choice that we have lived into.

And finally, heaven is not exclusive. It is not a realm accessible only to Christians, only to those who profess the right belief. As a realm of mutual love, heaven is accessbile to all humans who live a life of integrity and honesty. Each human being is beloved of God, it doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from. And so each human being is given every opportunity to build a heavenly character inside themselves using the building blocks that are accessible to them. A God of divine love could do nothing else.

So now, let’s move on to what heaven IS.

Through our discussion of what it is not, we have already determined that heaven is: a state of being, a choice, our spiritual home that welcomes all, one that is actually right here, even if we don’t have an awareness of it just yet. 

It is also:
Diverse. While the notion of mutual love might seem pretty straight forward, there is so much room within it for ways it might be expressed. And so Swedenborg talks about the incredible diversity of heaven, that there is an infinite number of communities, each coalescing around shared values and interests, and that no individual angel is like any other. Heaven is composed of an infinite variety of people and communities, and this variety is a big part of what makes heaven delightful; a perfect balance of individuality and and shared purpose. (2)

Heaven is beyond time. While the notion of eternity can be intimidating from inside our temporal minds, heaven is a place where we do not experience time in the same way. Things continue to occur in sequence, for our minds are made for that, but the overall experience of time is according to our state of being. Swedenborg writes that angels do not experience eternity to mean infinite time but rather infinite state of being.(3) Think of the ways that time appears to speed up or slow down according to our own enjoyable or unpleasant experience. II imagine it’s a little bit like that.

Next, heaven is active. It is absolutely a place of peace, but that doesn’t mean it is a place of languidity or passivity. Heaven is a realm of mutual love, but that doesn’t mean purely sentimental and blissful feelings, but love that is expressed in action. To quote Swedenborg: It is the activity of love and faith that makes heaven (4). We can all imagine that we would be totally bored if heaven really were about sitting around all day on clouds. It’s not; it contains all the kinds of activities that keep our hearts and minds engaged and living.

And finally, heaven is evolving. Swedenborg doesn’t actually say this explicitly but I think it is a safe extrapolation from what we already know. If heaven is populated with people from this world who have become angels, and we ourselves remain essentially who we are after we die, made as we have been from our experiences, and our life, and our ongoing brilliantly individual activities of love and faith, then it makes sense that the quality, the character, of heaven would evolve to reflect that. Of course this would be the case, and also be God’s very plan.

So all of this speculation can be pretty fun, or at least, I think so, but what does this mean for our lives right now? 

How does our perspective shift when we understand heaven to be here with us, and within us, as indicated in our bible texts? If the afterlife if not actually “after” but “now”? If we are currently participating in a journey that will simply continue in the spiritual realm? Well, in that case, there is no putting any of it off until later. We are building our heavenly character now, or not. This gives us an incredble amount of agency to shape our internal trajectory in the here and now, regardless of circumstances. And perhaps this feels like a lot of pressure - for those of us susceptible performance anxiety, or perfectionism, it might well be. But we remember, it is not about getting to the “right” place, it is just about getting to “our” place, our heavenly home. God is preparing it for us, and us for it, right now, and is doing so through our every experience, no matter how small.

And as we imagine that God is doing the same with every other person in the world, who exists now and ever has existed, does it change how we view them, how we value them? Does it change how we might judge them? Does it change how we might wish to help them? When we are all on the same journey regardless of our culture, religion, circumstances - how does that equalize us?

And now that I have reached the end of this sermon I realize that it has been a true firehose of information and I apologise for that. But this is also the blessing of our particular tradition. Heaven is not abstract to us. It is deeply familiar, reflecting the beauty of our smallest moments and activities, constructed out of our individuality and the ways that we love each other. It is not beyond us. It is right here, deeply connected to our life, and our decisions, and our every moment. And to honor this reality, I can only offer this benediction from the Iona Community, which we will hear again at the end of the service:

God to enfold us, God to surround us; God in our speaking, God in our thinking; God in our life, God on our lips; God in our souls, God in our hearts. 
Amen

1. Heaven and Hell #8
2. Heaven and Hell #56, Secrets of Heaven #690
3. Heaven and Hell #63 and #67
4. Heaven and Hell #51

Readings:

Genesis 28:10-17
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran.
11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Luke 17:20-21
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation;
21 nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Heaven & Hell #54
It can never be said that heaven is outside anyone. It is within; because every angel accepts the heaven that is outside in keeping with the heaven that is within. We can see, then, how mistaken people are who think that getting into heaven is simply a matter of being taken up among the angels, regardless of the quality of their inner life, who believe that heaven is granted merely because of [the Lord's] mercy. On the contrary, unless heaven is within an individual, nothing of the heaven that is outside flows in and is accepted.

Readings: Psalm 27, Luke 19:1-10, Divine Providence 338:9 (see below)
See also on Youtube
Photo by Tom Swinnen

Today we begin with the question: What is salvation? It is certainly a word that one hears a lot in regard to religion. In a religious context, salvation seems to be something good that we can receive from being in relationship with God, or a higher power. 

In general terms, being saved, experiencing salvation of some kind, means moving from a set of undesirable circumstances to a different set of more desireable circumstances. A friend might come to save us when we have a flat tire on the side of the road. We go from being stranded to being at home, or we go from having a broken vehicle to having one that is drivable. A parent might grab their child when they are about to cross the road without looking. A co-worker might save us from an impossible deadline by helping us out with our work. There are so many macro and micro ways we are saved by each other in this world, and gratitude abounds for that.

In Christian theological terms though, the traditional definition is narrower. The salvation that Christians receive has to do with the afterlife, not this world. Our positive relationship with God saves us from an eternity in hell, traditionally a place of torment, and allows us an eternity in heaven instead, traditionally a place of bliss, peace and happiness.

But the traditional Christan view (which I will now try to paraphrase) has some caveats:

Since God is wholly and completely just, and since humanity is so wholly bad (I mean, just look around), God demands accountability and reparation from us, because a truly just God could do no other. And of course, we are so bad all the time, in ways large and small, that we could never pay the cost. In that case, all human beings would be in hell all the time. So Jesus, out of love for us, stepped in to pay the bill for us, and God was so moved by this offering that it was accepted on behalf of us all forever - but only for those believe and accept what Jesus did. Thus, we are “saved” from the fate that was due to us by recognizing the value of, or having faith in, Jesus’ mighty sacrifice for us. 

And reformed Christianity doubled down on the importance of right belief, because of the idea that what we “do” or how we act, can never contribute to our salvation because our motives can never be pure. We will always be trying to get into heaven with what we do, and that is inherently duplicious and tainted no matter what. Only acts in which we have nothing to gain can be purely good, so we must be saved by faith, by belief first, then once freed from selfish motive, our actions can be purely good, if we wish them to be. We are saved by surrendering the idea that we could ever save ourselves. 

And much of this has made sense to many people, especially when there things to atone for that we feel like could never be made right no matter what we do. But there are also some problems. 

What do we do with the biblical decription of God’s steadfastness and love? Isn’t love inherently responsive and forgiving? Where is the balance to God’s justice? Is God so inherently transactional?

Does this process of salvation reflect how human beings actually work, emotionally and existentially? Are we actually defined by one moment, one confession of belief, or is our selfhood, our character, created more progressively?

Because, at it’s best, faith alone salvation does allow us to step off the hamster wheel of ego or fear-based striving, which can be its own kind of tyranny. We can surrender to the truth of the way Jesus has loved us all and know that it is enough. There is a very sweet and needed freedom there.

And yet, at its worst, faith alone salvation gives free reign to humanity’s worst tendencies. When we imagine that all of our sins past and present have been forgiven due to one mighty sacrifice, well that creates a different kind of freedom - one that justifies any kind of bad behavior going forward. Just say the right words and it is done - the rest of life is gravy. 

Further, when we imagine that there is one right way, one right set of words to say and beliefs to profess, oh and by the way, we have them and we control them, this also gives the Christian church an enormous amount of power, which I think we can safely say it hasn’t used well. 

Would God design a system with such an enormous accountability-free loophole? Would God design a system that disenfranchises every single person who has never even heard of Jesus?

Swedenborg thought that it could not be so. So he spoke of salvation as a progressive partnership between faith and action, a process that changes us from the inside. A process that keeps us accountable to the selfhood that we are creating. A process that does us the respect of giving our actions true meaning.

Yes, we absolutely need to surrender our selfhood to God, surrender our notions of righteousness and judgment to God. We give our faith to something higher than ourselves, a framework of ongoing relinquishment that keeps us on the right and true path. 

But the problem is that we are not made in a moment. Our selfhood, our character, our life, is not made in a moment, even if it is a transcendent important meaningful moment. Our life is made up of all the moments that we string together, our character made of all the decisions we make one after another.

We have to put our money where our mouth is for our faith to have any meaning at all, for it to “save” us. Like with our friend saving us from the flat tire on the side of the road, we’ll need to actually call them, we’ll need to help them haul the spare from the trunk, we’ll need to hand them the tools and watch the safety of the jack…because if we don’t, if we don’t see ourselves in partnership with the whole salvation situation, we won’t bother to avoid the potholes in the future, we won’t bother to replace the tires when they are worn out, we won’t bother with the ongoing maintenance and awareness that driving safely requires.

It’s good to have a friend that we believe in and can count on. But we don’t want to be someone who relinquishes consequence and accountability because we happen to have a good and generous friend. We don’t want to be someone who just uses them to get home.

Because, salvation is not just about getting somewhere, getting off the side of the road and back home, getting to heaven rather than hell. Heaven is not a reward, or a ticket we can buy, heaven is the home of our inmost heart. Such a home must match who we inherently are, or at least, who we are willing to work to become. One moment of faith, however well intentioned, and especially if not well intentioned, cannot make such a match for us. 

But a life of ongoing creation, one of partnership with God that progressively builds a heavenly selfhood, can. And this is why I especially like the way that Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley subsitutes “healing” for the word “salvation.” (1) He writes: I certainly believe it is a better theological choice. Healing is a process that requires our cooperaton.” And he rephrases our text for today:

“[Healing] has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.” 

We note how holistic Zaccheas’s experience was. He had an openness to something more, a *faith* in something larger than his current circumstances, his current way of doing things. He knew that Jesus was important but that knowing alone wasn’t enough. He needed to make changes to his life, make reparation for what he had done wrong. And this brought him into right relationship with his higher power and the people around him. Healing came to his home; where there was brokenness in his way of being, he repaired it. And this “saved” him but only because he was changed from the inside out. He was saved from perpetrating harm, and the ways that perpetrating harm would dictate who he was becoming. 
And actually, seeing salvation this way, as healing, reframes the whole process as almost mechanistic, and less moralistic, and I mean this in a good way. We can’t function at our best, or be our happiest, or serve others around us really effectively, unless we are healed and whole (or at least, on the way to becoming so). This is what God ultimately wants for us. God’s salvation is not about trying to be “enough” or “right” it is about being healed. Being healed of our self-centeredness, being healed of our flaws, being healed of our limited perspectives, as well as being healed of our hurts, our traumas, our wounds. Because this is what a God who actually cares about our well-being, our happiness, would do: design a process that has a chance of bringing us to wholeness and peace, and then walk that process with us.

This is why salvation is not a moment, it is a journey. And the destination is not a place, the destination is the wholeness of ourselves. Some moments, moments of faith, especially ones that send us down an important road, are special, but they cannot be so special that they make the journey that follows meaningless. Our faith is the lamp, and then we must consciously take each step as it is illuminated. And thanks be to God, we don’t do it alone. 

Amen

(1) Decolonizing Evangelicalism by Randy S. Woodley and Bo C. Sanders, p18


Readings:


Psalm 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
4 One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.
7 Hear my voice when I call, LORD; be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.
13 I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Luke 19:1-10

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.
3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Divine Providence 338:9

We can see from this that if we look deeply enough, we find that the theologies of all our churches teach how to live; and since they teach how to live, they teach that our salvation depends on how we live. Our life is not breathed into us in an instant but is formed gradually, and is reformed as we abstain from evils as sins--specifically, as we see what is a sin, recognize it, admit it, and then do not intend it, and therefore refrain from it, and also as we know the means that relate to knowing God. By these two means our life is formed and reformed, and they cannot just be poured into us in an instant. Our inherited evil, which is essentially hellish, has to be banished first, and goodness, which is essentially heavenly, planted in its stead. 

Readings: John 20:19-22, 24-29, The Doctrine of Faith 1-3, 13 (see below)
See also on Youtube
Photo by Ann H


Today we hear about two post-resurrection appearances, the second of which revolves around the reaction of one of the disciples, Thomas. The name Thomas is Aramaic for twin, although we don’t ever get to hear anything about who his other half might be. He appears in the gospel of John two times before this episode, and once after. He is an engaged follower of Jesus.

Now, we’ve all heard him referred to as “Doubting Thomas.”  In this, I think he gets a bit of a bad rap. He certainly wasn’t the only one being unsure. Just previously in this gospel, when Mary Magdalene found the stone rolled away from the tomb and told Simon Peter about it, he immediately ran over to see it with his own eyes.  He wasn’t content to just believe what Mary said, he needed to see the evidence himself.  Shortly afterward, Mary herself sees Jesus and tells the disciples what he said to her.  Yet, the tone of their subsequent gathering is initially fearful and tense; did they not believe her?  As we continue in our reading, we learn that in his first appearance to the disciples, Jesus showed *them* his hands and his side long before he showed Thomas. We can imagine the disciples first being overwhelmed, surprised, puzzled, and then reaching forth to touch their beloved teacher.  Then, as they are convinced that he is real and not a ghost, they are overjoyed.

Thomas’ process is essentially the same as all of these, and falls into a pattern of stories in this gospel where a skeptical person is given what they need in order to believe. The fact is, even though some translations do use the word “doubt” here in this episode, the Greek word for doubt, as in “wavering in faith”, is not used here at all. The text says more literally, “do not be unbelieving but believing.” Jesus is not reprimanding Thomas, or shaming him.  He is helping him. And he is not only helping him take the journey from unbelief to belief in terms of whether the resurrection actually happened, more importantly, he is helping Thomas recognize the meaning of the resurrection, helping him recognize what universal truths are revealed in the event of Jesus rising from the dead.

Jesus knew that believing cannot be a simple piety test, and that shame can never bring us to faith. He wasn’t saying “Look how real I am, you really should have believed.”  He was saying….See me, feel me, understand at a deep level what my resurrection means.” This is an important distinction, because v 29 is often seen as an implicit criticism of Thomas.  In this verse, Jesus says “Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” It sounds like Jesus is comparing Thomas to others who believe without seeing, and that Thomas is coming out wanting.  However, in historical context, this verse can alternatively be read as encouragement for the next generation.  John’s gospel was the last of the gospels to be written, some 60 years after Jesus was crucified. By this time, the first generation of apostles were passing away. The witness of those who had actually known Jesus had always held a very special place in these developing Christian communities, as one might imagine. And they were all, at first, expecting that Jesus would return very soon. But as the years went by, these communities were needing to understand what the transmission of faith looked like in a world in which no one alive actually had known or seen Jesus. And so we have teachings like this one lifted up, a teaching that blesses those who did not get to see Jesus in person but who still believe in him, a teaching saying that *their* witness, through the gospel, can be just as real and as important as Thomas’ who got to put his hand in Jesus’ side.  These second generation believers, and the ones that come after, could be equally blessed. And we can see that the statement fits within the general form of the common beatitude, as in “blessed are those who mourn”, with the undesirable state of not having seen Jesus in person being, against expectation, blessed.

But, there is still much more to be mined in this episode.  Because, Thomas did not only acquiesce to the veracity of the resurrection, he demonstrated understanding as to what it meant.  He didn’t say, wow that was really amazing, how did you pull that off?  He says “My Lord and my God!” With this declaration, he recognized that Jesus’ resurrection was an indication of the presence of God in this world.  He recognized that Jesus’s resurrection was an indication of the pervasiveness and expansiveness of God’s love.  And he recognized that Jesus’ resurrection effected an essential connection between God and humanity.  These are important universal truths, truths that tell us something indispensable about the character of God.  Thomas was recognizing not just something that happened, but something that was true in a larger sense, and this led him to a declaration of his faith.

Likewise, Swedenborg describes faith as an inner recognition of truth. Rather than being what he calls “blind faith” as in believing in something we don’t understand because we are told that we should, real faith is born over and over again, in that moment when the light switch turns on and we recognize something as being reflective of reality, of being real, of being true. It can be a basic principle about the world, or ourselves, or human beings, or God; it can inspire us or convict us or both, but it is something that shines the light of clarity on “what is.”  And with this sense of clarity comes a trust in “what is,” a trust that we can live by. An example that comes to mind for me is the truth that it is important for us to talk about the things we are afraid of, or ashamed of. A good friend of mine once organized a conference called Finding Hope, which facilitated discussion on issues like depression, suicide, mental illness, domestic violence and addiction. The conference tagline was: “Finding hope in the face of things we don’t talk about.”  After losing several acquaintances to suicide, addiction and mental illness, my friend realized that struggling with such challenges alone simply compounds them.  She recognized the fundamental truth that we *need* each other, and that we cannot be present for each other if we don’t talk to each other, especially about the things that are hardest to talk about.  In that moment, a sense of faith in the importance and effectiveness of connectivity and vulnerability between people was born for her.  She experienced a powerful inner recognition of truth, a universal truth.

But the process doesn’t end there. Swedenborg reminds us that this inner recognition of truth is itself motivated and guided by something else: our desire to do good.  Goodness loves truth and searches for it because love expressed in goodness always desires a way to become real, a way to be shared. Our loving desire to do good is constantly searching for a form, searching for ideas, and constructs and truths that give it a shape to be born in the world.  Imagine for example how our love for someone leads us to search for the perfect birthday present in order to adequately express our love to them. This is a simple image of how goodness searches for truth so it can become real. Our faith depends upon our love as its genesis. Our inner recognition of truth, our openness to that flash of illuminating light, comes from how much we care about being a force for good. And from that state of love and openness, the experience of faith is the switchboard lighting up within us because love has now found a way to be in the world.  In the case of my friend, *her* inner recognition of truth was birthed by a desire to prevent the loss of life and to spark hope in the hearts of those who are struggling.  She was open to the inner recognition of that truth because she loved and valued human life.

We read earlier from Swedenborg: Since what is good loves what is true, [a] desire [to do something good] leads to a desire for truth and therefore to the recognition of what is true, which is faith. By these steps, in proper sequence, a desire to do something good takes form and turns into caring.

And there we see the final step. For my friend: A love for human life, leading to a recognition of a fundamental truth about connectiveness, leading finally to a caring form: the Finding Hope conference.  Now, we don’t all have to be event managers - that’s my friend’s wheelhouse but it is not everyone’s. And that’s okay. The same inner recognition might lead one person to train in counseling, another to simply reach out another human being, and a third to change the way they think about their own challenges.  The point is *not* the scale of the form taken, but the fact that it is a virtuous cycle…love leading to faith leading to action.  And sometimes along the way, we also get to experience joy, just as the disciples and Thomas did, because of the prospect of love being manifested.

As we contemplate Thomas, we see that this process is both personal and universal. Faith is the inner recognition of universal, timeless, spiritual truths, but WE, each of us, have to be the one doing the recognizing. These truths must come alive for us personally and not just because we have heard about them from someone else. We all move from various levels of unbelief to belief by figuratively touching the body of Jesus ourselves, by recognizing the realness of certain truths in our lives. But we must resist the temptation using belief as a way to feel superior over others, or as a way to judge the love and intentions of others. Unbelief on any theological topic is a neutral state.  There is nothing wrong with being unsure, nothing wrong with waiting for the flash of light.  We are all waiting and hoping to some extent.  Even I, your pastor, struggle with some of the ideas expressed in our chosen tradition. The struggle to understand is not a failing, it *is* the love of truth, it is love searching for a form, and there will always be many forms. It is, in its own way, a holy struggle, and God is in it with us, a non-anxious presence saying as Jesus did “Peace be with you.”  God does not condemn honest unbelief and neither should we.  We should never ever use belief in a set of theological principles as a way to judge someone’s commitment to God or faith or justice, for we can never know what truths are going to come alive for each person in their own context.

The moment between Thomas and Jesus was intimate, just one person and their God. Jesus was not ashamed of his wounds or his embodiment, showing up in a locked room to provide the personal clarity that Thomas needed, in the most concrete of ways. Likewise, Thomas’s declaration was personal: “My Lord and My God.”  Thomas needed to say “unless I see the nail…” because each of our faith journeys are personal.  Faith is not about saying we believe the right things, but about the transformation of how we understand our relationship with God and our place in the world.  And journeys such as these are not always straight forward, there is plenty of winding and waiting and searching.  But one thing I do know, is that we will all need to put our hand deep in the wound of God to understand anything about being truly human.

Amen.

Readings:

John 20:19-22, 24-29

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Judean leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus ), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Doctrine of Faith #1, 2, 3, 13.

1. Faith Is an Inner Recognition of Truth 

Nowadays, people understand “faith” to mean nothing more than thinking that something is true because the church teaches it and because it is not obvious to the intellect. In fact, the common saying is, “Believe, and don’t doubt.” If someone replies, “I don’t understand it,” people say, “That’s why you have to believe it.” The result is that today’s faith is faith in the unknown and can be called “blind faith”…

2. Real faith is simply recognizing that something is so because it is true. This means that people who are devoted to real faith both think and say, “This is true, and that’s why I believe it.” That is, faith is dependent on truth, and what is true is the object of faith…

3. All the same, the widely shared opinion is that no one can understand things that are spiritual or theological because they are supernatural. However, spiritual truths can be grasped just as earthly ones are—perhaps not as clearly, but still, when we hear them we do get a sense as to whether they are true or not. This is especially so in the case of people who have a longing for truth.

13. Having just said what faith is, I need now to say what caring is. Caring originates in a desire to do something good. Since what is good loves what is true, this desire leads to a desire for truth and therefore to the recognition of what is true, which is faith. By these steps, in proper sequence, a desire to do something good takes form and turns into caring. This is how caring develops from its origin, which is a desire to do something good, through faith, which is a recognition of what is true, to its goal, which is caring. The goal is the doing of something.
We can see from this how love, which is a desire to do something good, brings forth faith, which is the same as recognizing what is true, and by this means brings forth caring, which is the same as love acting through faith.

Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3, 8-13, Mark 16:1-15, 19, True Christianity 838 (see below)
See also on Youtube
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels

Most scholars agree that, despite its placement as the second gospel in line, the gospel of Mark was the first gospel to be written, some 30 years after Jesus died. So, let me tell you something about our text for today that blew my mind when I first heard about it. The earliest versions of the gospel of Mark that have to this day been discovered do not include the verses after verse 8, in our reading today. That’s right, the earliest versions of the easter story in Mark end with “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”  That’s where it ends. The following verses 9-20 were added later. Wow, right? No Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, or to the disciples, no Jesus being taken up to heaven, just these women being told to go tell the disciples and not doing it because they were afraid.

Now, I don’t blame you if you feel bit grumpy with me right now.  Perhaps it seems like I have let the air out of the Easter balloon.  I totally get it.  So, let me be clear, I do believe that the holy spirit has worked and does work within those verses after verse 8.  The bible has come together in fascinating and inspired ways, and God finds a way to speak through all of it, the parts that comfort and the parts that challenge.

But in this case, with the knowledge of how the original gospel writer ended this story, we now have the opportunity to uncover a little piece of treasure that we might not have otherwise.  We have the opportunity to ask the question: how does this familiar story change when it is ended this way?

Well, one thing that I have noticed is that it thrusts us, the reader, headlong into the story ourselves. When the whole story is tied up with a pretty bow, it is easy for us to keep our distance.  Certainly we might feel happy and joyous and grateful about the resurrection, but these events happened a long time ago.  And really how often do we go to anoint a body after burial, or contemplate how we are going to access said body because of a giant boulder?  It can be hard to relate.

But then, with this abrupt and unexpected ending, our safe distance is exploded.  Because hanging in the air, hanging in the silence after verse 8 is the question: what would we have done? In our shaky intake of breath, in our quickened heartbeat as our certain ending is taken away, we become these women.  We become these women because we know we would have been trembling and bewildered too.  We know we would have been afraid. And we suspect we might have done exactly the same as them. We suspect we might have been too afraid to act.

How does it feel to face up to that possibility?  It’s kind of awful, right, a bit squirmy. That’s okay.  I assure you, God is in the squirminess. God is in the the suspended moment of uh-oh, when we really see ourselves, perhaps even more than in the certainty of a happy ending.  Believe me, God is not disappointed with us in that moment, God is excited for us, because in that moment, in each of these moments that we encounter throughout our lives, we have a choice.  We can choose to keep the blinders on because it is comfortable and convenient, or we can say, “Coach, put me in the game.”

This is one of the reasons that I love this shortened ending. As readers, we are no sooner done learning about the engaged and courageous life of Jesus, we are no sooner confronted with the reality of the resurrection than we are asked to embody it.  Because that is what the gospel is for: to be embodied in the here and now.  Jesus life, death and resurrection is not just something to feel grateful for, it is something we are called to enter into. We are not simply lucky that God did something wonderful for us once, we are called to make it real in our everyday. God’s incarnation into this world, Jesus’ death and resurrection is telling us about the way that God works all the time, about how love is the engine of the universe, about how suffering and brokenness will never have the last word.  And we get to choose if we are going to step into that reality, if we are going to have a part in furthering that reality. 

What we learn from the other gospels is that this ending in Mark was just a pause. Two thousand years later we are reading the story, so the women must have told someone eventually.  Even in the text itself, this is hinted at. The angel tells the women specifically to go find Peter by name.  The last time we had seen Peter in this gospel, he was weeping.  Not at only at Jesus death, but at his own denial of Jesus, at his own shortcomings.  Yet, in the resurrection, Jesus returns to him, as he returns to us all.  Jesus’ followers were human, and failed him many times, yet Jesus still called them and loved them.  As one of my commentaries pointed out, Jesus did not return and try to find a group of better disciples who would not fail him. He deliberately sent these women, these trembling and bewildered people, to minister to a weeping and despairing person, Peter. Flawed people ministering to flawed people. Broken people transforming brokenness. Because that’s what the good news is: even in the bleakest most improbable of circumstances, transformation is possible.  Out of suffering can come healing, out of death, resurrection.  And not as some sort of divine program to make us stronger…God is not a drill sergeant, demanding our suffering so that we might be purified, but rather, God took what is evil in the world - hostility, fear, hate, self-preservation, greed, and showed us that these things will not have the last word.  This is God’s great promise to us: there is nothing, not even the world’s darkest impulses, that cannot be transformed, cannot be brought to life, through the power of love.

And so, now we are given an opportunity. There was clearly more to be written, both in the same gospel and other gospels.  And likewise, there is more to be written for us as well. How will each of us write our ending of this story?  How will *we* be resurrected out of our fear, out of our complacency, out of our self-centeredness?  Because, let me tell you, if we desire it, if we open ourselves up to it, if we work for it, we surely will be. The last words of the angel were this: “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” Jesus returned to them, not in the great city Jerusalem, but to Galilee, the place where he endeavored to uncover the reality of God’s kingdom time and time again with his actions and his words, to the place of their everyday life together.  And so too does God return to us.  As the question hovers over us, “What would we have done?” we are reminded that God returns to meet us in the place of our struggles, our details, our mundane, too-busy, distracted, falling-apart life.  God is there already, waiting for us.  And perhaps we are trembling and bewildered, perhaps we are weeping and disappointed; sometimes our everyday life does that.  Yet, hallelujah, Jesus has risen, so that we too might rise up and head into Galilee, so that we too might rise up to each moment that stands in front of us, that we too might remain present to our lives and that we might do it in community with each other. For, the kingdom of God is not something that we aspire to, it is something we carry within us; may the power of the easter season reveal its presence to us.  “There you will see him, just as he told you.”

Amen.


Readings:

Isaiah 55: 1-3, 8-13

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”

Mark 16:1-15, 19

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ” 8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. 12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. 14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 

True Christianity 838

Because God at the level of his essence is burning with a love for uniting himself with us, it was necessary for him to wrap himself in a body that was adapted in such a way that we could receive it and enter into a partnership with him. Therefore God came down and took on a human manifestation according to the divine design that he himself established at the creation of the world. His conception occurred through an offshoot of his own power; he was carried in the womb, was born, grew in wisdom and love, and came closer and closer to his divine origin until he was fully united to it. In this way God became a human being and a human being became God…Reason sees that there is no other way in which God, whose love is like the purest fire, could unite himself to people and people to himself.