 Readings: Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Secrets of Heaven #5757 & #1413 (see below)
See also on Youtube Photo by Konstantin Kleine on Unsplash Today we come to the end of Moses’ journey. The children of Israel are close to the promised land, and Moses climbs a mountain in order to get an unimpeded view. He can see the sweep of the entire land before him. And in one sense, this is a sad story. Moses will not get to step foot in the promised land. This is because of an incident in Numbers 20, a time when God was displeased with Moses and enacted this particular consequence. And in another way, it is a perfect time for a transition in leadership. Joshua has already been designated by the Lord to be Moses’ successor, and Moses has commissioned him in the presence of the people. A new leader to take them forth into a new land. It is implied in the text that it was God’s own self who buried Moses; a tender and intimate gesture.(1) The people grieved for thirty days, and Moses remains the greatest prophet of the Jewish tradition. We’ve been following the Israelites on their journey toward the promised land for six weeks now. This seems like a good time to talk a little bit about the promised land and what it represents in the Swedenborgian worldview. For Swedenborg, all things in the Bible represent an aspect of our own interior, spiritual landscape. These representations have levels of meaning; levels that through their connected significance, work to bind us to each other, to heaven and ultimately, to God. So therefore, most things in the bible will have mulitple internal meanings: a personal or individual meaning, a communal meaning, a heavenly or spiritual meaning and then finally, a meaning relating to God’s self. And so it is with the notion of “land,” and specifically, the promised land. The Israelites spent a long time heading towards that “land” that was promised to them, a holy land, a land of milk and honey. When we think about what “land” means to us, there are several things that come to mind. Land is something we walk upon, something that we enter into, that has boundaries, that gives shape and form to our journeys, that connects us to our ancestors, a place where we might make a home, a place that might inform our character, a space we inhabit as we live our lives. Moses climbed the mountain and the Lord “showed him the whole land.” and said “this is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob….I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes…” The land is both promise and destination. And it is in this metaphorical and poetic, yet concrete, sense that Swedenborg talks about all the different things that the “promised land” means in these stories. In a personal way, the promised land represents the potential of our spiritual journey, the mature internal space to which we are heading, our angelic shape that is revealed through the process of spiritual growth. In a communal way, the land represents the earthly communities that we all seek, that shape and guide our journeys, support our growth. In a concrete terms, this means the church, or whatever other kind of spiritual community in which we gather. In more mystical terms, it means the Lord’s kingdom, the embodiment of justice and love in all human community in this world. And the meanings continue: on a spiritual level, the promised land represents heaven; the ultimate formative community, the force that shapes us into angels, the destination of our soul, the place where we will find active and peaceful belonging. And finally, in an ultimate way, the land represents the Lord, the elemental love and wisdom that we are all heading toward, from whom all these subsequent levels flow, and not just in a top down way, but as a loving vibrant pulse of life from the inside. (2) This multi-level promise and opportunity of “the promised land” is the way that God shows up for us, the divine intentionality and vision that God has for us and our lives. The journey that the children of Israel have taken in these past weeks, represent aspects of *our* ongoing journey in relationship to God’s vision, a path away from that which enslaves our thinking and our feeling, and towards the promise of the land: a spiritually mature selfhood, beloved and just earthly community, supportive heavenly community, and a resilient connection to our God. But, I found one little addition to all this talk about land that seems to take it even further. Swedenborg mentions that the inner meaning of “land” is different to that of the “ground.”(3) The land is the community or the spiritually mature person who is still yet to exist, it’s what we are working towards, while the ground represents when that reality comes into being. And that really resonates for me. When we see the land, when we think of the land, or even of *our* land, we think of it in a broad sweep, like when Moses is on the mountain top, but the ground, the ground is something we touch and interact with. We put our hands in the ground, we work the ground, when we speak of someone being in touch with their own life and selfhood, we call them “grounded.” If we are going to live our lives in the promised land, if we want to inhabit the land, really inhabit the generative opportunities that God is giving us, we have to pay attention to the ground, to the everyday details and relationships and structures of our lives. To bring the reality of God’s vision for us into being, we are going to have to get to know the ground of our lives, till it and plant it, water it and nurture it. In Swedenborgian terms, the process of becoming an angel, or regenerating, is pictured in seeing land become ground, or seeing faith growing through love. (4) And I find this a really useful way to picture the difference between vision and actuality. There are times when we need to be inspired by a grand vision, to know that there is somewhere purposeful and hopeful in the direction that we are heading. This is seeing the land from the mountaintop, like Moses. And then there are the times when we just need to get to work to make that vision happen. The children of Israel were not going to be able to inhabit the promised land by staying up on that mountain. They were going to have to come down to the ground and engage with the realities of inhabiting that land. And they would find plenty of challenges ahead for them. And this is why Moses will often also signify divine truth (5). It is the purpose of truth to show us what is possible, and what is real, to be up there on the mountain and show us the whole of the land. And perhaps, like me, you are feeling overwhelmed by being up on the mountain these days, by seeing the broad sweep of what is happening in our country, seeing the truth of incompetence and cruelty and a naked desire for power. There is beauty on the mountain top but sometimes we also find fear, for the purpose of truth is to communicate reality, and the reality is that human beings sometimes ignore the promise of God’s vision for us. Sometimes, maybe even each day, there will be part of us up on that mountain. We need those big picture moments. Moses was the vision, he saw the way out of slavery, he connected the people with God and translated God’s vision of the new land for them. He gave shape and reality to the covenant. But the mountain top is not supposed to be our home, the promised land is our home. And so another part of us will need to scrabble down that mountain, cross into the land and get busy tending the ground so that it can bear nourishment, so that it can be a place where our choices do some good, where our heavenly natures can start really coming into being. Knowing the mountain top truth alone won’t make the promised land our home, won’t make it so we know the ground, and won’t make the ground fertile and nourishing. Only embodied, active love at the ground level of our lives and our world can do that. And it takes time, determination, courage to bear fruit. But it will, because the promised land is God’s intention and vision for us all. So, this really is a sad poignant story. A great man passed and the people mourned. Sometimes we would prefer to stay up on the mountain, stay in the anticipation of God’s kingdom. But, Moses’ death also marks the next important part of the journey: turning the land into the ground. We need to be able to see and appreciate God’s divine intention for us, and then we need to be able make it our own. To turn hope into love, truth into justice at the ground level where it makes a difference in people’s lives. Amen.
Readings: Deuteronomy 34:1-12 1 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” 5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. 9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 who did all those signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. 12 For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Secrets of Heaven #5757 & #1413 5757 The land of Canaan symbolizes a range of things…It symbolizes the Lord’s kingdom and it symbolizes the church, so it also symbolizes someone in the church… 1413 Because it represented the Lord's kingdom, it also represented and symbolized spiritual and heavenly qualities of the Lord's kingdom and, here, of the Lord himself.
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