What is Heaven?

Readings: Genesis 28:10-17, Luke 17:20-21, Heaven & Hell #54 (see below)
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​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.