Readings: Luke 6:44-49, True Christianity 245 (see below)
See also on Youtube
Photo by Adem Percem on Unsplash
Today we explore a section of Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of Luke which concludes what is known as the Sermon on the Plain. In this Sermon, he teaches his disciples the Beatitudes, saying Blessed are the poor and those who mourn, he teaches them to love their enemies, to judge not lest they be judged, to be merciful and not hypocritical. Jesus has provided his followers with a lot of learning, both in that Sermon, and through other experiences. Now, he ends on the point that while a lot of learning can be a foundation, it is most important to live according to it. Which can often be trickier that we might first think.

Jesus uses two everyday metaphors to make his point. The first metaphor speaks to the goodness and usefulness of what we are able to accomplish. The second speaks to its resilience or longevity.

The first metaphor is one Jesus uses often: the fruit tree. While we are more likely now to pluck our fruit from a bin in the produce aisle, the experience of growing and picking fruit directly would have been very familiar to people in an agrarian society. They would understand what it is that makes a “good” tree able to bear good fruit: the compost, the pruning, the condusive environment. Jesus is drawing an implicit parallel between all the teachings that he has just delivered and the compost, good soil and water that is necessary to create a fruiting tree. But he is also implying that part of the picture is our willingness. We can give as much compost and water as we want to a thornbush or a briar but it will never produce figs or grapes. Likewise, if we have the heart of a thornbush or briar, we won’t be able to produce truly good actions. But the combination of good teaching, what we might in a religious context call Truth with a capital T, and a good heart filled as best it can be with love and good intention, this will produce good fruit in action.

The second metaphor is about building a house. This would also be very familiar, especially to Jesus, who was a carpenter himself, or who was at the very least a carpenter’s son. The durability of a structure depends on the quality of its foundation. Deep foundations are particularly important when building on a flood plain. Such foundations must not only be able to withstand water but also the soil erosion caused by a flood. So, Jesus calls upon the durability of rock. Again, he is comparing good and true teaching to the rock itself, something that we can build upon. Build what? The structure and purpose of our life. Life sometimes will throw a torrent of water at us, a flood of hardship that can take many shapes. And Jesus is saying via this metaphor, that when we can reach down to rely on our most cherished values, then these hardships don’t have to take us apart. These hardships don’t have to lead to us taking others down with us as we struggle. A life without a strong foundation of values is vulnerable to the uncertainty of hardship, just as a house built on sand might be.

So, an unshakable foundation leads to an unshakable structure. An unstable foundation leads to a unstable structure. I do want to push in on one aspect though. Because I can see how this metaphor might lead us mistakenly to a sense that we are shooting for imperviousness in the face of hardship. We imagine the steadfast little house withstanding the rushing waters, nothing getting in, nothing causing rupture or damage, and standing just the same as the waters fall away. There is indeed something about that idea that might help us to be brave. But it also might convince us that the goal is to always remain completely unchanged, that it is always better to be stoic, defended, utterly rational, immovable and unquestioning. 

For there is another way to imagine the metaphor, another way to picture hardship in our life that shakes us up, that has the potential to topple our life, and that is an earthquake.

Earthquake-resistant building requires a completely different style of design. Flexibility of structure is intentionally sought in order to absorb seismic energy. The building rests on flexible bearings instead of being fixed to the foundation. Diagonal bracing helps absorb lateral forces to prevent the twisting of the structure. Materials are used that allow the structure to bend, and designs generally seek a low center of gravity. And yet still, a foundation of bedrock rather than soil is essential, for soil can essentially liquify during an earthquake. The key is the combination of a solid anchor and a flexible structure, where the building is kept in place but the design intentionally dissipates the destructive seismic energy.

As we bring this understanding to Jesus’ original metaphor, we see the continued importance of the bedrock as foundation. We see the essential benefit of cherished values, of true teaching, of compassionate insight. This is the bedrock of our lives. 

But the structure of our lives, the selfhood that we build, the good works that we try to achieve, the habits we rely on, the opinions that we hold; these must be designed for flexibility. Hardship will change us, and this is a good thing. With a strong foundation based on truths that teach us to love God and to love others, this change will hopefully lead us in hopeful and expansive directions. Hardship will always be terrifying and disorienting. Whether we are surviving the equivalent of the torrent of water or the earthquake, the goal is to withstand the hardship not to conquer it. The goal is to make it through intact without surrendering our humanity.

Now, there are times when we need a certain amount of imperviousness. We want to be able to keep out certain things that show up in hardship: perhaps negative self-talk, the expections of others, pessimism, avoidance, temptations towards cynicism, self-centeredness, and lashing out. We want those things to just flow on by, while we hang on tight to our bedrock of trust, the value of dignity for ourselves and others, the importance of rest and kindness, humility and curiousity, honesty and accountability.

And then there are other times when we will need to be flexible to make it through hardship. We will need to remember that God built us for resilience, to withstand metaphorical earthquakes, but only if we are willing to let go of our iron grip on “how things are supposed to be” or “what we imagined life would be like” or “what we think it looks like to be right, or to be strong, or to be holy, or to be worthy.” We still need that bedrock. We still need that belief and trust in dignity, integrity, compassion, caring, honesty, humility and love. But as hardship teaches us, as hardship changes us, we also need our selfhood, and the structure of our life - the building of our life - to be able to shift enough in place so that we can see how those things can come to us in new ways. To see how we might have misunderstood them. To see how we may have misapplied them. To see how we might have thought that maybe we didn’t need them. 

And this reminds me of one of my favorite passages from Swedenborg:

But those motivated by good are so to speak flexible; and when they humble themselves before the Divine they bow right down to the ground. For truth without good is utterly rigid; but when it regards good as the end in view that rigidity starts to change into flexibility. (1)

The rigidity of truth is important but it can only take us so far. When we try to apply truth to life, when we try to do good and be good, when we look to what good and worthy goals for any situation might be, rigidity must change into flexibility. Not all the way. An earthquake-resistant building doesn’t just float off like a balloon when the earthquake starts. It is the combination of steadfastness and flexibility that is the magic, that is the way to being truly resilient, that is the way to keep our house standing.

The text uses the phrase well-built. There are many ways to understand what well-built might mean in our particular lives. Only we can know the times when we need to hunker down and be  impervious, and the times that might call for more flexibility and learning. The key is looking towards the ultimate good. The key is thinking about what will produce the good fruit from the first metaphor Jesus uses. The answer will always be some portion of relying on our bedrock and building with wisdom and adaptability. How much of each? Well, that’s the trick isn’t it? That’s what we get to live into. Amen.

(1) Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven #7068


Readings:

Luke 6:43-49

A Tree and Its Fruit
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.
45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

The Wise and Foolish Builders
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.
48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

True Christianity #245

As everyone knows, the church depends on its body of teaching and its body of teaching is based on the Word. Nevertheless, it is not the body of teaching itself but its integrity and purity, and therefore an understanding of the Word, that forms the church. The church in miniature that is in us as individuals is also formed and established not by a body of teaching but by our faith and by our living our faith. Likewise, what forms and establishes the church in miniature in any of us is not the Word; it is the faith based on true perceptions and the life based on good actions that we individually draw from the Word and apply to ourselves.

Readings: John 14:1-14, Apocalypse Revealed 613 (see below)
See also on Youtube
Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash

Today’s text begins a section in John’s gospel that is called the Farewell Discourse. Jesus and the disciples have just finished a meal together, what we now call the Last Supper, and Jesus has just predicted that Peter will deny him three times. It is a heavy moment, after which Jesus begins his final teachings to his disciples.

He begins by trying to comfort them, they who had always, very understandably, resisted Jesus telling them he was going to die. He talks to them about the ways that he will continue to be with them, to lead them and to work for them. And he utters some of the most important words in the Christian faith: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Now, the Christian tradition has often used these words to say that the only way to salvation is to believe in Jesus. These words have been used to justify hatred or dismissal of other faiths, used to justify colonialism and the cruelty that has been the hallmark of colonialism. These words have been interpreted to say that millions of people are going to hell for eternity for the crime of simply not being Christian (or even, not being the right kind of Christian).

But of course, what kind of God would set things up in this way? Not the God I believe in. So, what is another way to interpret Jesus’ words?

In our tradition, we see Jesus describing a process not a particular religion; a path of spiritiual development, not belief in a particular set of doctrines. The way, the truth, and the life is a three-fold process by which we can evolve and grow as human beings, and we can do it in any religious context, and even (the horrors!) a secular one. Because, if a God of love was going to provide us with a path towards heaven, then a God of love would provide a path that is applicable and effective in as many contexts as possible.

First, “the way.” The story of Jesus is a powerful one, because of the way that he walked through his life. But where did the story of his public ministry begin? With John the Baptist and his baptism of repentance. The way into spiritual life always has to begin with humility. An essential openness to learning. If we approach our faith with arrogance, certainty, a hunger for dominance and power, or a need to be right, this will always lead to harm for ourselves and others, and particularly, a kind of harm that impacts the vulnerable and the marginalized most acutely. This is exactly the kind of harm that Jesus was working against. So a stance of essential humility is the first step on the way. The following steps involve building on humility with repentance, an openness to seeing what in our life needs to change. What we need to question or give up. What we need to apologize for. This is a difficult phase, not only because getting started with anything can often be difficult, but because this is the phase where we need to willingly and actively put down our defensiveness. We cannot move on to the next stage until we do.

But if we do, then we are ready for the second stage: “the truth.” Humility has started us on “the way” and so the next step is to seek clarity and enlightenment. We have opened ourselves to seeing patterns, perspectives, habits, that we need to let go of, and harm that we need to repair and heal. So we explore “the truths” that guide us in doing so. We might ask ourselves: where did this pattern come from? What is it protecting? We might ask ourselves: where did this perspective come from? Do I truly believe it? We might ask ourselves: Why do I act in this certain way? What story about myself is it perpetuating? We might ask ourselves: what harm have I caused and why? What can I do to make it right?

In our tradition, we call this part of the process “reformation.” We see the pieces of ourselves that may have assembled in maladaptive ways, usually protecting something painful or sad or vulnerable inside of us, and we try to re-form ourselves, and our thinking and our acting, in healthier ways. This will often involve re-framing of certain ideas and perspectives that will then filter down into how we feel, allowing for shifts that we might describe as healing or relief or finally coming home to ourselves. This stage takes courage and patience, as we untangle our defenses, as we let go of inherited narratives, as we face the reality of our failures. But it also brings liberation, and a chance to create something new.

And so finally, Jesus says he is “the life.” After we have reflected on our patterns, after we have re-framed our thinking, then it is time to make different choices. It is time to live differently. We won’t always do so perfectly. But every tiny decision builds the foundation of our new selfhood. Every small act grounds us in the reality of new growth. In our tradition, we call this stage “regeneration,” a metaphor anchored in nature. We picture seeds sprouting in nourishing soul, new buds appearing in the spring-time, the miracle of a salamander growing a new tail, or a caterpillar embracing the full dissolution that is the cocoon, in order the emerge as a butterfly. With God, we are making ourselves anew. We are being reborn though the way, the truth, and the life. 

But why does Jesus then say: No one comes to the Father except through me? This does sound rather exclusive, it does sound ripe for a kind misinterpretation that is interested saying certain people are “in” and certain people are “out.” 

We know, of course, from many many other stories about Jesus that this was not his viewpoint.  He was particularly focused on the people that human systems of domination put on the margins. Jesus would never wish to create yet another system of exclusion based upon himself. So, this is how our tradition interprets this saying: that the only way to try to fully embody the Divine Love that created us, is to engage with the process just described, the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to Divine Love without walking the process of spiritual growth.

You see, we don’t understand Jesus and the Father to be separate, as indeed, Jesus makes clear in this very text. We see the Father as metaphorical language describing the Divine Love that is the essence of God’s being. We see Jesus as that Divine Love reaching for us, reaching so far as to take on a human body, just like our own. This reaching took on the shape of a person and a life, teaching us what it looks like to care for others, to speak truth to power, to sacrifice the self for a greater cause. 

There is such universal and foundational truth to be found in Jesus’ life, and so Christians hold the gospels with reverence, we turn them this way and that like a precious stone in the light, trying to perceive each new sparkle that might enliven our mind and comfort our heart. We read them to each other in community so that our individual interpretations might bless each other, and might expand our perspective. For us, Jesus is a source of Divine Truth, Jesus is a companion on the journey, guiding us in the way, the truth, and the life, in humility, reflection and application. Jesus embodies this process, because he walked it himself. And there is no way to Divine Love that doesn’t engage this process in some way and in some form.

But it is the process that is the key, not the words that we use to name it, not the religion we have formed to practice it, not the beliefs we have created around it. Humility, reflection, and application, are found in many traditions and in many contexts. Jesus was one embodiment of it. But a God who “so loved the world” would give us many ways, many truths, and many means of living a good and loving life. God welcomes every beloved child who walks the process, regardless of how they came to it, regardless of how far along the path they are. 

It is truly heart-breaking that we human beings have used Jesus words as tools of domination rather than a means of connection. As a way to pretend we have co-opted God’s favor, as a permission structure to indulge our worst tendencies. We should see this clearly, we should mourn it, we should repudiate it. And then, lend our hands and our hearts to the project of healing, and living a different way. What a gift it is to have God’s guidance on this path. Amen.


Readings:

John 14:1-14
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.


Apocalypse Revealed 613

The name of the Father means the Lord in respect to the Divine called the Father from which springs all else, and at the same time in respect to His Divine humanity called the Son, since the two are one and the same person, united like a soul and body…the Father also means the Divine goodness of the Lord's Divine love, which in the Gospels is everywhere meant by the Father when referred to by the Lord, while the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom is meant by the Son. When the Lord glorified His humanity, these two were united like a soul with its body and a body with its soul.