the word

The Word Made Flesh

The Word Made Flesh
A Sermon by Rev Brian W. Keith

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“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Night; a time of quiet when the bustle of the day dies down; a
time of weariness when we make ready for a restful sleep; also a time
of darkness and cold; our vision is limited and we seek the warmth of
fires and homes.

Nighttime plays a prominent role in the birth of the Lord. It was
at night in a dream that the angel appeared to Joseph giving him
reasons to marry Mary. Later at night he warned him of the danger of
Herod, and eventually informed him that it was time to return to the
land of Israel. It was in the night that the Lord was born and the
shepherds found their way to the manger. And it was in the night that
the wise men saw the star in the east, and then had the star lead
them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem where it stood over the house
where the young Child lay.

The nighttime scenes surrounding the birth and early years of
the Lord’s life depict the shroud that had descended upon the world.
Their God, Jehovah, had not been seen nor heard from in hundreds
of years. They were lost and rudderless without Him. Other than
maintaining the ancient rituals, they had little sense of who He was
and how they were to live. Hearts were growing colder from the
confusion and distortion of everything good.

Even with the few descendants of the ancient churches, some
of whose knowledge resided with the wise men, there were but scant
glimmers of light. Perhaps those wise men alone among the ancients
saw the star. Certainly its light was not overpowering. So even with
the ancients there was but little understanding of who the Lord is.
What minimal truth remained was heavily shaded because all they
had ever seen of the Lord was a representative not the Divine in its
glory (see Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture 99).

But our images and memories of the birth of the Lord are not
focused upon the darkened states. Rather we remember the
multitude of heavenly hosts shining upon the shepherds, the star
guiding the wise men, and the light of day in which Simeon lifted up
the infant Lord, blessed God, and Anna proclaimed His glory to all.
For the Lord’s coming is a coming with light and with life. “And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.”

One of the wonders of Christmas is the fact that the Lord is
born with light in the midst of confused and dark states of life. When
we see little but gloom and hopelessness, He comes to us. He holds
us in His hands, nourishing an inner sense of hope that we might
endure and overcome. Then His full presence with us is in the light of
the morning, enabling us to recognize who He is and how we might
walk in His ways. This is why the morning with its light and warmth
corresponds to the Lord’s coming. (see Arcana Coelestia 22, 4240e;
Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture 99)

For the Lord came as the light of the world. This is His glory.
We can see it shining upon us in the truth His advent brought. For
until the Lord took on a physical form as a tender infant, all the earlier
concepts of Him were vague at best. (see Doctrine Concerning the
Sacred Scripture 99)

All of the true ideas that had existed with the ancients about
marriage, life continuing past the veil of this world, and how His
providence guides us were only misty images of what they might be.
For all truth had been filtered through the heavens. Dependent upon
the finite grasp of the angels, the glory of the Lord had shone dimmer
and dimmer into this world, until at last the vision of Him was nearly
lost.

By His birth the Lord acquired a natural degree of life. As He
put it on and gradually made it Divine, the warmth of His love and the
light of His wisdom became immediately present with all. This is the
light of the new day the Lord’s coming heralded for mankind, a light
shining in the darkness, leading to the brilliance of day. We can
sense this when we reflect upon our awakening states not those
mornings which come after too little sleep, or when we are rudely
awakened by alarms and the bustle of hurriedly preparing to rush off
to work. But we feel it in the quiet mornings when we awake
refreshed and revived when we listen to the singing of the birds and
know the dazzling sunlight portends the warming of the earth. The
light has a special quality then. With clarity we see beauty in even the
simplest things around us. And we can sense the closeness of
heaven, the closeness of the Lord’s Advent as our spirits are lifted up
to the new day. (see Arcana Coelestia 7844:2)

As the Word made flesh, the glory of the Lord can bring us a
peacefulness unlike any other. Not a peace like the quiet of evening
when we are preparing to rest. Rather it is a peace of contentment
and confidence. As the Heavenly Doctrines note, this peace is “the
very Divine truth in heaven from the Lord which universally affects all
who are there and makes heaven to be heaven; for peace has in it
confidence in the Lord, that He directs all things and provides all
things, and that He leads to a good end. When a person is in this
state, he is in peace, for he then fears nothing, and no worry about
things to come disturbs him.” (Arcana Coelestia 8455) The glory of
the Lord’s Word shines upon us when we have such assurance that
He is in charge, carefully guiding every one of our steps.

This is the state of the angels. Their unpleasant memories of
this earth have been set aside. They have no desire to leap into the
future. Rather they fully enjoy the present, sensing all the goodness
that the Lord is giving them now. For they trust in Him, knowing that
He is leading and caring for them no matter what happens.

We may taste some of this angelic peace as we celebrate the
Lord’s advent or awaken in the morning. But we enter into it more and
more as we set aside the things of this world: worry about the future,
too great a focus on natural toys and conveniences, our selfish drives
and desires. To the extent that we can enjoy earthly delights without
making them all important, that we can serve others without always
thinking about what we will get out of it, so far peace can enter our
lives. It is then that we become convinced that the Lord’s light is the
true light and most of the problems and troubles we experience can
fall away. It is then that we can glimpse the Lord and experience His
peace, His Advent into our lives.

In one sense there is nothing startlingly new or different about
this idea. Indeed, it is so simple, so fundamental, that it hardly needs
to be said. So we are affected by the Word made flesh as the Divine
flows into some of the simple truths we already know. This is one of
the reasons the Lord was born on earth that the Divine goodness
might be joined with our common sense and simple ideas of Him that
we have. (see Arcana Coelestia 2554)

The Lord’s birth itself did not reveal any radical new information
that had not been available before. In fact there would be no real
instruction until thirty years later when the Lord began His public
ministry. But His birth signaled a beginning of salvation for all
because His presence, His love for us all, was proclaimed by His
coming down among us, filling us with His good.

For us now, the Christmas story reveals His glory, the brilliance
of His Divine Human in which we may know and love Him. The Divine
as it is in Itself is far beyond our comprehension and affection, even
as it was for the ancients. So the Lord was born that we might see
His nature and have it shed light on our lives, giving us the
confidence and trust that He is always with us, always leading us in
paths of peace.

The Lord then becomes flesh and dwells among us when even
our limited, simple ideas of truth can be filled with His presence,
showing us something of His love. For the Lord’s coming into our life
is not simply to make us feel good. Yes, the Lord would have us
experience states of happiness and joy regularly, and eventually in
heaven constantly. While He may be born in our states of darkness,
His full Advent is to us in light the truth of His Word which can fill our
minds. Every time we recognize a concept as Divine, as coming from
Him and leading our minds back to His love and mercy, His advent
has occurred. Then the Word is made flesh, living, for us. We are
touched by it, we are enlightened by it, and we are strengthened by it.
(see Arcana Coelestia 8792)

This is our sight of the Lord, His birth among us. It brings us
light, and it will bring us warmth. We can embrace this light, this new
vision of the Divine, and use it to recognize and follow His teachings.
(see True Christian Religion 774) Then the truth of peace will be ours.
So let this Christmas day affect us with the joys of morning. As
its light brings a new brightness to our day, as its warmth stirs a
renewed heat in our lives, let us feel the Lord’s closeness to us. His
birth on earth was the taking on of a natural form of life that we might
know Him, see Him, and love Him. As we put off an excessive focus
on the things of this world and upon our concerns, He can come
closer to us, bringing us the peace of dawn-a peace that has within it
complete confidence in His truth, in His guidance, a complete
confidence that a heaven shall be made from this human race.
This was the reason for His coming to touch our hearts and
enlighten our minds, that He might become the Word made flesh for
us eternally. Let us behold His glory, full of grace and truth.
Amen.
Lessons: Luke 2:1-7; John 1:1-18; Arcana Coelestia 8455

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DAILY INSPIRATION

“Knowing a lot makes no difference if we do not live by what we know.”

Arcana Coelestia 1100

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Man Who is Taught from the Word is Taught by the Lord Alone

Lastchurch - The Eternal PurposeSelection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Lord is the Word, and that all doctrine of the church must be drawn from the Word. Since, then, the Lord is the Word, it follows that the man who is taught from the Word is taught by the Lord alone. But as this is not easily comprehended, it shall be illustrated in the following order:

(1) The Lord is the Word because the Word is from Him and treats of Him.

(2) Also because it is the Divine truth of the Divine good.

(3) Thus to be taught from the Word is to be taught from the Lord.

(4) That this is done mediately through preaching does not take away the immediateness.

First: The Lord is the Word because the Word is from Him and treats of Him. That the Word is from the Lord is denied by no one in the church. That the Word treats of the Lord alone is not denied, indeed, but neither is it known. This has been set forth in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord (n. 1-7, 37-44); also in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 62-69, 80-90, 98-100).

Since, then, the Word is both from the Lord alone and treats of the Lord alone, it follows that when man is taught from the Word he is taught from the Lord, since the Word is the Divine; and who except the essential Divine, from whom the Word is and of whom it treats, can communicate the Divine, and plant it in the heart? When, therefore, the Lord speaks of His conjunction with the disciples He says:-

That they should abide in Him, and His words in them (John xv. 7). That His words are spirit and life (John 6:63).

And that He makes His abode with those who keep His words (John xiv. 20-24).

To think from the Lord, therefore, is to think from the Word, seemingly through the Word. [That all things of the Word have communication with heaven has been shown in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture, from beginning to end.] And since the Lord is heaven, this means that all things of the Word have communication with the Lord Himself. It is true that the angels of heaven have communication; but this, too, is from the Lord.

Secondly: The Lord is the Word, because it is the Divine truth of the Divine good. That the Lord is the Word He teaches in John in these words:-

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:1,14).

As heretofore this has been understood to mean only that God taught men through the Word, it has been explained as a hyperbolical expression, not meaning that the Lord is the Word itself; and for the reason that it was unknown that by “the Word” the Divine truth of the Divine good is meant, or, what is the same, the Divine wisdom of the Divine love. That these are the Lord Himself is shown in Part First of the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom; and that these are the Word is shown in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 1-86).

How the Lord is the Divine truth of the Divine good shall also be briefly told.

Every man is a man not from his face and body but from the good of his love and from the truths of his wisdom; and because it is from these that a man is a man, every man is also his own truth and his own good, or his own love and his own wisdom. Apart from these he is not a man.
But the Lord is good itself and truth itself, or, what is the same, He is love itself and wisdom itself; and these are the Word which was in the beginning with God and which was God, and which became flesh.

Thirdly: Thus to be taught from the Word is to be taught by the Lord Himself, because it is to be taught from good itself and truth itself, or from love itself and from wisdom itself, which are the Word, as has been said. But every one is taught according to the understanding that belongs to his own love; what is beyond this is not permanent.

All those who are taught by the Lord in the Word are taught a few truths in the world, but many when they become angels; for the interiors of the Word, which are Divine spiritual and Divine celestial things, although implanted at the same time, are not opened in man until after his death, thus in heaven, where he is in angelic wisdom, which in comparison with human wisdom, that is, man’s former wisdom, is ineffable. That Divine spiritual and Divine celestial things, which constitute angelic wisdom, are present in all things, and in each thing of the Word, may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 5-26).

Fourthly: That this is done mediately through preaching does not take away the immediateness. The Word must needs be taught mediately through parents, teachers, books, and especially the reading of it. Nevertheless it is not taught by these, but by the Lord through them. And this the preachers know, and they say that they do not speak from themselves but from the spirit of God, and that all truth, like all good, is from God. They are able, indeed, to declare the Word, and bring it to the understanding of many, but not to the heart of any one; and what is not in the heart perishes in the understanding; “the heart” meaning man’s love. From all this it can be seen that man is led and taught by the Lord alone, and is led and taught immediately by Him when this is done from the Word. This is the arcanum of arcana of angelic wisdom.

(Divine Providence 172)
June 17, 2017
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Bringing Forth Things that are Useful

Lastchurch - The Eternal PurposeSelection from Doctrine of Faith ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

From his earliest childhood man has the affection of knowing, which leads him to learn many things that will be of use to him, and many that will be of no use. While he is growing into manhood he learns by application to some business such things as belong to that business, and this business then becomes his use, and he feels an affection for it. In this way commences the affection or love of use, and this brings forth the affection of the means which teach him the handling of the business which is his use. With everybody in the world there is this progression, because everybody has some business to which he advances from the use that is his end, by the means, to the actual use which is the effect. But inasmuch as this use together with the means that belong to it is for the sake of life in this world, the affection that is felt for it is natural affection only.

But as every man not only regards uses for the sake of life in this world, but also should regard uses for the sake of his life in heaven (for into this life he will come after his life here, and will live in it to eternity), therefore from childhood everyone acquires knowledges [cognitiones] of truth and good from the Word, or from the doctrine of the church, or from preaching, which knowledges are to be learned and retained for the sake of that life; and these he stores up in his natural memory in greater or less abundance according to such affection of knowing as may be inborn with him, and has in various ways been incited to an increase.

But all these knowledges [cognitiones], whatever may be their number and whatever their nature, are merely the storehouse of material from which the faith of charity can be formed, and this faith cannot be formed except in proportion as the man shuns evils as sins. If he shuns evils as sins, then these knowledges become those of a faith that has spiritual life within it. But if he does not shun evils as sins, then these knowledges are nothing but knowledges [cognitiones], and do not become those of a faith that has any spiritual life within it.

This storehouse of material is in the highest degree necessary, because faith cannot be formed without it, for the knowledges [cognitiones] of truth and good enter into faith and make it, so that if there are no knowledges, faith cannot come forth into being, for an entirely void and empty faith is impossible. If the knowledges are scanty, the faith is consequently very small and meager; if they are abundant, the faith becomes proportionately rich and full.

Be it known however that it is knowledges [cognitiones] of genuine truth and good that constitute faith, and by no means knowledges of what is false, for faith is truth, and as falsity is the opposite of truth, it destroys faith. Neither can charity come forth into being where there are nothing but falsities, for charity and faith make a one just as good and truth make a one. From all this it follows that an absence of knowledges of genuine truth and good involves an absence of faith, that a few knowledges make some faith, and that many knowledges make a faith which is clear and bright in proportion to their abundance. Such as is the quality of a man’s faith from charity, such is the quality of his intelligence.

(Doctrine of Faith 25-29)
June 11, 2017
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The Word has a Soul

Lastchurch - The Eternal PurposeFrom Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In heaven nothing at all is known about the names, countries, nations, and the like; the angels have no idea of such things, but of the actual things signified by them. The Word of the Lord is living by virtue of the internal sense. This is as the soul, of which the external sense is as the body. And just as with man when his body dies the soul lives, and when the soul lives he no longer knows the things that pertain to the body, so when he comes among angels he does not know what the Word is in the sense of the letter, but only what it is in its soul. Such was the man of the Most Ancient Church; who, if he were living and read the Word at the present day, would not cleave at all to the sense of the letter; but would be as if he did not see it, but only the internal sense abstractly from the letter; and indeed as if the letter had no existence. Thus he would be in the life or soul of the Word. It is the same everywhere in the Word, even in its historical parts, which were just such as are narrated, and yet there is not so much as one little word therein that does not, in the internal sense, enfold within it deep secrets which never appear to those who hold the mind in the historical connection.

(Arcana Coelestia 1143)
February 28, 2015

If There Had Been No Word

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If There Had Been No Word

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

If there were no Word there would be no knowledge of God, of heaven and hell, or of a life after death, still less of the Lord.

As there are some who hold, and who have thoroughly convinced themselves, that man may know without the Word of the existence of God, and of heaven and hell, and of other things taught by the Word; such cannot properly be appealed to from the Word, but only from the light of natural reason, since they do not believe in the Word, but only in themselves. Inquire then, from the light of reason, and you will find that there are in man two faculties of life, which are called understanding and will — the understanding is subject to the will, but not the will to the understanding; for the understanding merely teaches and points out what ought to be done from the will; and for this reason many who are of an acute genius, and who understand better than others the moral principles of life, still do not live according to them; but if their will favored them it would be otherwise. Inquire further, and you will find that man’s will is his selfhood [proprium] and that this is evil from birth, and that from this comes the falsity in the understanding. When you have found out these things, you will see that man of himself has no wish to understand anything except what is from the selfhood of his will, and if this were his only source of knowledge, he would have no wish from his will’s selfhood to understand anything but what pertains to self and the world; and everything above this would be in thick darkness.  For instance, in looking at the sun, moon, and stars, if he should think about their origin, he could not think otherwise than that they exist from themselves.  Could he raise his thoughts higher than many of the learned in the world, who while knowing from the Word that all things were created by God, yet acknowledge nature?  If these had known nothing from the Word what would they have thought?  Do you suppose that the ancient wise men, such as Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and others, who wrote about God and the immortality of the soul, obtained this knowledge primarily from their own understanding? No; they obtained it from others by its having been handed down from those who first knew of it from the ancient Word…. Neither do the writers on Natural Theology derive any such knowledge from themselves; they merely confirm by rational deductions what they knew from the church where the Word is, and possibly some among them confirm and yet do not believe.

(True Christian Religion 273)
January 7, 2015

Can You Contribute to Your Own Salvation?

 We have choices. We need to freely choose to live a life according to the Lord’s principles. The Lord can only approach us with His love and wisdom and mercy if we prepare ourselves to receive Him. We are taught that the Lord can only be present with us in what is His own. So we must acquire truth from the Word and attempt to live by it, shunning evils as sins. When we do this we create a place where the Lord can dwell. The power to do this of course is not ours, but comes from the Lord when we ask for it, and live in the light of the Word.

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“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Taught By The Lord

Lastchurch - The Eternal Purpose

Passages from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 14).

Every man is a man not from his face and body but from the good of his love and the truths of his wisdom; and because a man is a man from these, every man is also his own truth and his own good, or his own love and his own wisdom; and without these he is not a man.

But

[T]he Lord is Good itself and Truth itself, or, what is the same, Love itself and Wisdom itself; and these are the Word which in the beginning was with God and which was God, and which was made flesh.

Therefore to be taught from the Word is to be taught by the Lord Himself, because it is to be taught from Good itself and from Truth itself, or from Love itself and from Wisdom itself, which are the Word; but everyone is taught according to the understanding appropriate to his own love; what is taught beyond this does not remain.

All those who are taught by the Lord in the Word are instructed in a few truths while in the world, but in many when they become angels. For the interiors of the Word, which are Divine spiritual and Divine celestial things, are implanted at the same time but are not opened in a man until after his death, when he is in heaven where he is in angelic wisdom; and this in comparison with human wisdom, that is, his former wisdom, is ineffable.

Divine spiritual and Divine celestial things, which constitute angelic wisdom, are present in all things of the Word in general and in particular.

(Divine Providence 172:4,5)
 March 16, 2017
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THE MOUTH OF THE LORD

THE MOUTH OF THE LORD

A Sermon by Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom Preached in Florida August 6, 1995

“For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5).

When the Lord God speaks, that is with us the Word of the Lord. We know that the Lord spoke both testaments. What else? Has the mouth of the Lord also spoken the Writings of the New Church? If so, the Writings themselves should say so. For the testaments testify of their Author, as the Lord said: “Search the Scriptures for … these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39).

If the Writings are the Word, they should also testify of their Author. So is the Lord their Author? We read: “I [Swedenborg] have not received anything whatever concerning the doctrines of the [New Church] from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I have read the Word” (TCR 779). “No spirit has dared, nor has any angel wished, to tell me anything, still less to instruct me about what is in the Word, or … doctrine from the Word. I have been taught by the Lord alone, who was revealed to me” (DP 135).

It is clear that the Lord dictated the Old Testament through the prophets as they said, “The Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying … “; and the New Testament through the Evangelist, but recalled later, as He said, “The Holy Spirit … will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). And the Lord prophesied the Second Coming: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now … When the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12,13). And “Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand” (Rev. 22:10).

There was clearly more to come. And now, in the Writings, more has come. If the Lord’s spirit of truth has spoken the New Church Writings, then they should be able to explain the truth about their Author; they should “speak plainly of the Father” (John 16:25). Do they? Do they explain the words such as, “O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5)?

Yes. The Lord’s essence is Love, the Divine Itself, called Father; and for the “sake of human comprehension … this is distinguished into Divine good and truth … The Divine truth is called Son” (AC 3704). However, this understanding was first stated around 450 A.D. in the Athanasian Creed which says: “As soul and body are one man, so God and Man are one Christ” (Lord 55). Just as our soul is embodied, so the Divine Love was embodied in the human, making one Christ. The Lord is God in person. It is as simple as that.

Thus “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” was Christ’s own soul talking, the Father seen at the time as a shining cloud (Matt. 17:5). And the words, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” came from the crucified body wracked by temptations when the soul seemed absent. So the Lord is one God, both in Person and Essence; Father and Son are soul and body in Christ. And the Holy Spirit? The Lord breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). It is the spirit of truth from the mouth of the Risen Lord.

On earth the Lord spoke in parables, but in the Writings He speaks plainly of the Father. The parable “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58) means plainly that Jehovah was His soul (AC 10579:5). Thus the Old Testament “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it” through angels, in the New Testament became the Lord Himself saying, “Verily, verily I say unto you.” Those who heard Him, said, “No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46) But still, He spoke in parables.

Now in the Writings He speaks plainly. But where is the Lord now? After His resurrection the Lord “became an essence by itself which fills the universal heaven, … the Divine Human” (AC 3061). He spoke the Writings to Swedenborg directly (see TCR 779, DP 135). For the risen Lord, we read, “is Doctrine Itself” (AC 5321). When He speaks out of heaven, His Doctrine is seen as a crystal city. The river in that city is knowledge of the internal sense of the Word.

The Lord as Doctrine Itself now explains how He formerly revealed the Old Testament: it was spoken by Jehovah through angels: “The Lord spoke the Word through [angels] … whom He filled with His look, and thus inspired with the words which they dictated … so it was not influx but dictation. And as the words came forth directly from the Lord, each one was filled with the Divine and contains within it an internal sense [for angels], while men understand them in a natural sense. Thus has the Lord conjoined heaven and the world by means of the Word” (HH 254).

This transflux used to flow through angels who dictated both Testaments:

First, events themselves happened under Providence, e.g. the Exodus (see AC 1675, 2523, 6025), or the spiritual eyes of the person were opened, e.g. Mary seeing Gabriel (see AR 36).

Second, there was Divine inspiration and recollection. Angels later recalled to Moses and dictated the record of the Exodus. Or Mary “pondered all these things in her heart,” and “a sword pierce[d] her heart [to reveal] the thoughts of many” (Luke 2:35). Mary’s account was re-worded to Luke later by angelic dictation.

The angel Gabriel was part of that transflux. But this “transflux ceased” with the glorification (AC 6371). There was no transflux through angels when the Lord revealed the Word’s internal sense. Instead, the Divine Human “our Father in the Heavens” (AC 6887:3) spoke the Writings directly from His mouth. We are now told how the two testaments were written.

There are two stages of revelation, the Writings say, which “are to be most carefully distinguished” (AR 36; cf. Lord 52). “When the Word came … [they] were in the body and heard Jehovah speaking. The Word … was not revealed in a state of the spirit or in vision, but was dictated … by the Lord by a living voice.” Thus no writing ever took place during vision, but only when it was over.

In fact, no one could write the Word while in vision, because everything is ineffable until dictated (see De Verbo 4). That is why angelic dictation of both testaments, once written, has an internal sense for the angels and a literal sense for men, conjoining heaven and the church (see HH 254).

However, the Writings of the New Church were not dictated by angels. We read, “No spirits dared, no angels wished” to say anything concerning the Word or doctrine” (DP 135). If came “from the Lord alone while I read the Word” (TCR 779). “The Lord has manifested Himself [to me] in Person, and filled [me] with His spirit” (TCR 779, title). Since the transflux whereby angels dictate “has ceased” (see AC 6371), angels can no longer dictate a spiritual sense within a literal sense.

Swedenborg established this fact by actual experiment: “Retaining in my memory what I had spoken, when I returned into my natural state … I then wished to bring it forth … and describe it, but I could not; it was impossible … There is no ratio” (De Verbo 4).

That is when angelic language is used. By contrast, when the Lord speaks directly, nothing is beyond expression. We read on: ” … yet they could be described even to their rational comprehension in terms of natural language … There is not any Divine arcana which may not be perceived, and even expressed naturally” (De Verbo 6). “Spiritual truths can be comprehended just as well as natural ones” (Faith 3). “The doctrine itself … for the New Church … was revealed to me out of heaven; … to deliver it is the purpose of this book” (NJHD 7). So the ineffable could be and was written.

It is therefore clear from the Writings that they are the Word which the Lord Himself has spoken out of heaven. Thus the Old Testament’s “The mouth of the Lord has spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5) through the New Testament’s “verily verily I say to you,” is fulfilled in “from the Lord alone while I read the Word” (TCR 779). When the Writings say so often, “The case herein is this,” we can be sure it is the Lord Himself speaking.

Thus all of the Writings, whether published or not, were inspired by the Lord, not by angelic dictation, since that mode of revelation had ceased. Since no angels dictated them, they are the living Word of the Divine Human Himself. Only heaven’s language is ineffable, not its doctrine. The Lord who is Doctrine Itself put Heavenly Doctrine right into human terms through Swedenborg, but only after visions ceased. The Lord can speak to us since He took His whole glorified body with Him.

The Lord began this “plainly of the Father” revelation on the road to Emmaus and in Jerusalem, after His resurrection. He then ” … beginning at Moses and all the prophets, … expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself … He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27,45). But although He spoke comprehensible doctrine, or the Spirit of Truth even then, “they could not bear it,” and it was not recorded. Some 17 centuries later, through Swedenborg’s mind, the Lord finished revealing heavenly truths: what angels know in ineffable language has now been spoken directly and plainly by the Lord “our Father” “out of heaven.”

This second coming was prophesied as the New Jerusalem coming down “from God out of heaven.” We read, “John was carried to the third heaven, and his sight opened, before whom … the Lord’s New Church as to doctrine [appeared] in the form of a city” (AR 896). John’s Holy City thus is the Heavenly Doctrine, published “in this book” (NJHD 7). And the river of the water of life John saw flowing from the Lord’s throne is “the Apocalypse now opened and explained as to its spiritual sense, where Divine truths in abundance are revealed by the Lord for those who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem” (AR 932). The city and the river include all the Writings published from 1749 to 1771.

We are all invited to drink of that river: “Let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” This means “to receive the truths from the Lord without any work of his own” (AR 956). The work has been done for us all that exposition and writing thirty volumes, twice [a copy for the printer]! All we have to do is to read or listen, and the understanding of the truth carries us along, self-evidently, without any work of our own.

The New Church is a new dispensation; the Heavenly Doctrines are worded in rational terms to stand on their own, self-evidently. They shed new light on all areas of life. They reveal life after death. They show us how the church is to be established from pure and sound doctrine, which is understood and applied to life by the individual, who is a “particular church” (TCR 245). Since every area of worldly life has heavenly light shed on it, the Lord can now lead both angels and human beings together as a New Heaven and New Church on earth. This use is served by the New Church, and the open-eyed cooperation between both worlds is meant by the angel’s words to John: “I am your fellow servant … Worship God.” Amen.

Lessons: Isaiah 40:1-5; Rev. 22:6-10, 17; NJHD 7, De Verbo 4, 6; TCR 245 (portions)

De Verbo 4

The difference between the natural and the spiritual … is such that there is no ratio between them … This it has been given me to know by much experience, retaining in my memory what I had spoken to the angels when I returned into my natural state, I then wished to bring it forth … and describe it, but I could not; it was impossible; there were no expressions, nor even ideas of thought, by which I could express it; spiritual expressions [are] so remote from natural ideas and expressions that they did not approximate in the least …

De Verbo 6

[However, although] I could not utter nor describe them by any spiritual or celestial expression, nevertheless they could be described even to their rational comprehension by words of natural language. There is not any Divine arcana which may not be perceived, and even expressed naturally.

New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 7

The doctrine which is delivered in the following pages also is from heaven, because it is from the spiritual sense of the Word, and the spiritual sense of the Word is the same with the doctrine that is in heaven … But I proceed to the doctrine itself, which is for the New Church, and which is called Heavenly Doctrine, because it was revealed to me out of heaven; to deliver this doctrine is the design of the present book.

True Christian Religion 245

It is known that the church is in accordance with its doctrine, and that doctrine is from the Word; nevertheless it is not doctrine but soundness and purity of doctrine, consequently the understanding of the Word, that establishes the church. Neither is it doctrine, but a faith and life in accordance with doctrine that establishes and constitutes the special church in the individual man.

HEALING FROM AFAR

HEALING FROM AFAR
A Sermon by Rev. Grant H. Odhner
Preached in Rochester, Michigan May 30, 1993

“The centurion answered and said, `Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be healed'” (Matt. 8:8).

Though the story is very brief, it paints quite a portrait of this centurion. He was not a Jew but a Roman, a Gentile. He was an officer, as his title “centurion” implies, a commander of one hundred soldiers. He was a man of rank and dignity, and was well paid. In a small town like Capernaum he was an important man indeed.

Given all this, there are a number of striking points about him. First of all, it’s striking that he is willing to bring his problem before Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi and prophet. The Jews had no love for their Roman oppressors and shunned them. And the Romans felt a great deal of contempt for the proud and stubbornly nationalistic Jews. This suggests that the centurion was an open-minded man. Why else would he be willing even to consider believing in Jesus’ power and going to Him for help? True, he may have been desperate, but it seems unlikely that desperation alone would have been able to overcome the enormous social gap between a Roman centurion and a Jewish prophet.

The centurion is evidently a humble man. Not only is he willing to seek Jesus out and plead with Him, he is also aware of his own unworthiness. He says, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.”

There is another telling thing about the centurion. His purpose for coming is to plead not on his own behalf, but on behalf of his servant. He had no compelling obligation to take this degree of personal interest in the welfare of a slave. No doubt he did it partly as a matter of honor and out of a sense of justice, but further, it’s clear that he also cared about him and was grieved on account of his suffering. He pleads, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” Luke’s account of this story says openly what is only implied here: that the servant “was dear to him” (Luke 7:2).

So the general sense we have about this centurion is that he is a good man. He’s noble and humble, a man of authority who nevertheless places himself under authority, not only in his civil occupation but in respect to God. He believes in the power of things greater than himself here, in the power of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He has “great faith,” as the Lord said.

The basic message of our story is that people who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His power, regardless of their status in our eyes (as church people), find healing and are invited by the Lord to “sit down” in the kingdom of heaven. We also learn that those who have this faith are good-hearted toward their fellow human beings, are humble in their own eyes, and approach Him for help. This is, in fact, the basic message of the whole New Testament. And as such it’s the most vital one to be learned from this story.

It might be noted in this connection that we need to be careful not to just gloss over the literal stories of the Word, or spend all our time dissecting words in search of higher meaning. We may be tempted to do this because we do believe that there is deeper-than-surface meaning in each and every word of Scripture indeed, that there are deeper and deeper levels of meaning there. But we need to remember that the higher senses rest in the literal sense. The surface story conveys the basic, general idea and affection. The inner senses then infill this general idea and affection with important details, details which cast light on the general meaning and enrich it. But the general meaning is the basis for the higher. So we must first understand it and take it to heart before we can see anything deeper.

This is the case with the story we are considering. Do we acknowledge the general truth that salvation requires humility, requires making effort to approach the Lord, requires great faith in His power? Do we feel this truth? We should find strength and a sense of delight in this basic message. Only when we have felt that can we really see and benefit from a deeper meaning.

Are we ready to move on to the “internal sense” and look at a more detailed idea of the “great faith” pictured in our story? The Word’s internal sense is more abstract than the literal sense. In the internal sense we don’t take the people, places, things, and actions as concrete things outside of us but as things inside of us. For example, the main characters usually stand for different parts or forces in our own mind. In our present story there are three main characters: the centurion, his servant, and Jesus. Let’s look at what they represent spiritually.

The centurion is the “internal person” in us, the higher part of us that is aware of spiritual issues and problems. Our internal person is the voice of conscience in us. Its job is to preserve order in our mind and life, to protect us from spiritual enemies, to impose discipline and direct us in good and useful ways. This part of us should be the master, carrying out the will of an even higher Master, the Lord, just as the centurion described himself:

I … am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, “Go” and he goes; and to another, “Come” and he comes; and to my slave, “Do this” and he does it (Matt. 8:8f).

The centurion aptly pictures our “internal person.”

His servant pictures the lower part of our nature, the “external person.” Our body and senses, our natural urges, our instinct for self-preservation, our love of worldly delights, possessions, and comforts these things belong to our “external person,” to our external mind. They are not in themselves bad, but they are intended to serve our internal person. The internal person, when we give it the power and authority, keeps the external person in subordination to itself, so that heaven can flow in and be present.

(The centurion’s soldiers are also mentioned. These, too, picture things in the external person which serve the internal person. More specifically, they stand for truths, or knowledge about what is true, which help in bringing order to our mind, defending and protecting it.)

Now it’s the lower part of our nature (the “servant”) that is susceptible to the influence of hell. It is not our love for the Lord or for our neighbor that can be perverted, but our love for our self and for things which serve self; also, our love for worldly goods and delights. Our love for these lower things can be inflamed and excited so as to rise out of its proper place and take precedence over our love for the Lord, for others, for the common good.

The centurion’s servant was sick. This describes a state of mind in which our external person has risen out of its proper place and become sick from evils. When this happens the hells hold our attention in selfish and worldly attitudes and concerns (and in their negativity). It then becomes very difficult for our internal concerns and wishes to work in our life. So our external person becomes, in effect, paralyzed, unable to serve. This is the state from which we need to be saved by the Lord.

Now the “centurion,” our higher nature (our conscience, the heavenly part of us), senses the sick state of our outward person. It senses the incapacitation and “dreadful torment” of the lower mind. Our internal person loves the external part of us; it loves outer delights and knowledge and the worldly things that serve it. It loves and values it as a useful servant, and longs to restore it to health.

Note that pain and unhappiness are experienced by the outer part of us when evils sicken it, but also are experienced by the inner part of us. From our inner perception of the goodness of heaven we feel the unhappiness of evil. Our inner person, which aspires to heaven, also feels a sense of loss in not being able to express its aspirations with any power and satisfaction.

For example, take the evil of speaking ill of others. This evil has its source in our outer person, in its love of self. When we let that love of self make our own pride and sense of self-worth more important than loving our neighbor, we find ourselves building up ourselves by cutting others down, by speaking ill of them.

This evil makes our outer person “sicken.” It suffers because by speaking ill of others it reaps unpleasant consequences. It alienates itself from the people who hear us; we lose their esteem and trust (or we fear this loss). Evil brings to our outer mind many mistrustful and unpeaceful emotions, which sicken it.

Meanwhile, our higher self suffers too because it aspires to truthfulness, to feeling love for others, to serving and building them up. It grieves over the outer self’s sickness. It also feels a sense of loss because after our outer person has spoken ill, it cannot turn right around and express any of its heavenly aspirations without a sense of hypocrisy and shame, without feeling a certain emptiness, without feeling a lack of delight and satisfaction, without feeling a lack of power in doing well.

Back to our story. The centurion turns to Jesus for help. This represents our ultimate realization: that only the Lord can restore our outer mind to health. This realization comes to our internal person. Only our internal person can perceive our need for the Lord and successfully turn to Him for help. Putting it another way, only from love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor our internal person’s guiding loves can we turn to the Lord. These loves in us alone are humble and willing to receive His help.

So the centurion turns to Jesus with “great faith” in His word, and his servant is healed that same hour. Our inner person turns to the Lord with faith and our outer person finds healing. In a way it’s this simple, but let’s look at the internal sense for a more specific idea of what’s involved in the healing.

The centurion’s “great faith” was that he believed that Jesus’ word could heal his servant. Jesus didn’t need to make a big show of coming to his servant’s bedside and laying His hands on him. His word, spoken from afar, had the power.

In the gospels Jesus (or “the Son of Man” as He is usually called) stands for the Lord’s Word. When He was in the world, the Lord was the Word. This is why He calls Himself the “way,” the “truth,” the “light of the world,” the “Word made flesh.” He came to reveal the “Father,” that is, He came to reveal the Divine love and goodness. Truth is what reveals love and goodness, brings it to view and to light. Truth also enables us to love by showing us what we must do and how we must change to receive love or be aware of it. Further, love saves us by the truth; it has its power through the truth.

So to believe in “Jesus” or “the Son of Man” is to believe in the Word and its truth. It stands for the realization that salvation is accomplished by means of that truth, that the Word is the Divinely provided means for healing our external person. “Believing in Jesus’ word” also stands for obeying it, living according to it. There is no real belief that stops short of doing. How can we truly say that we believe something if we don’t act on it when we can?

The centurion let the Lord heal his servant at a distance, by His word. He was willing to walk away from Jesus without knowing for sure whether his servant was healed. He didn’t know until he got home that the healing took place. This is symbolic of the fact that the Lord’s Word heals indirectly from our point of view. It doesn’t bring immediate results. We must have faith in it. We must apply it to our life; we must experiment with living it to discover how best to understand it and make it work in our own situation. Its healing can happen only over time, through our ongoing efforts. This ongoing process of living according to the Word is pictured symbolically in the centurion’s “going his way” and walking back toward his sick servant.

This indirectness of healing through the Word is important, because it is in harmony with our need to find the Lord in freedom. It gives us a meaningful part to play in our salvation. It gives us a sense of “ownership” in our rebirth, even as we discover that the Lord is doing the work. It provides for a process of change, which enables us to come to realizations gradually, which are more life-affecting and ever-deepening. This could not happen if we were healed instantaneously, without any ongoing effort of our own.

So our story’s internal sense deepens for us our idea of what is involved in spiritual sickness and health. It puts us in touch with the different elements in us that are involved: our internal person and our external person. It gives us an idea of what we are dealing with psychologically. This distinction between our inner and outer self empowers us to identify with our inner aspirations and to challenge our own attitudes when they are working against the inner “us.” The internal sense gives us more to go on.

Our story’s internal sense also deepens for us our idea of what it means to have “great faith” in the Lord and His “word.” It leads us to reflect on the nature of the Word why the Lord provides that we be saved through it, gradually and not instantaneously. It frees us to realize that having great faith does not just mean having an emotional feeling toward the Lord (something which we cannot hope to sustain): rather it means believing that if we try to live by the Lord’s Word, He will bring about change in our life; He will give us new feelings; He will restore our outer life to health and order, so that the things we care about inwardly, the unselfish ideals that we aspire to, that we have sometimes tasted, can become realities in our life again. To believe in this promise and to patiently live this life is to have “great faith.”

May we have such faith! in the Lord’s love, in His power, and in the wisdom of His leading. May we say in the humble spirit of the centurion, “Lord, … only speak a word and my servant shall be healed.” Amen.

Lessons: Deut. 9:1-5; 7:17-23; Matt. 8:5-13; DP 172

Divine Providence 172

Since the Word is from the Lord alone and treats of the Lord alone, it follows that when a person is taught from the Word he is taught from the Lord, for the Word is Divine. Who can communicate the Divine and implant it in the heart except the Divine Himself from whom it is derived and of whom it treats? When, therefore, the Lord speaks of this conjunction of Himself with the disciples He says that they should “abide in Him, and His words in them” (John 15:7), that His words were “spirit and life” (John 6:63), and that He makes His abode with those who keep His words (John 14:20-24). Therefore to think from the Lord is to think from the Word and, as it were, by means of the Word …

That the Lord is the Word He teaches in John in these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). As this passage has hitherto been understood to mean only that God taught people through the Word, therefore it has been explained as a hyperbolical expression, implying that the Lord is not the Word itself. The reason is that people did not know that by the Word is meant the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, or, what is the same, the Divine Wisdom of the Divine Love …

Every person is a human being not from his face and body but from the good of his love and the truths of his wisdom; and because a person is a human from these, every person is also his own truth and his own good, or his own love and his own wisdom; and without these he is not a human being. But the Lord is Good itself and Truth itself, or, what is the same, Love itself and Wisdom itself; and these are “the Word which in the beginning was with God and which was God” and which was “made flesh.”

Therefore to be taught from the Word is to be taught by the Lord Himself … The fact that this [teaching] is done mediately by preaching does not destroy its immediate nature. The Word can be taught only mediately through parents, teachers, preachers, books, and especially through the reading of it. Nevertheless, it is not taught by these but by the Lord through them. This, moreover, is in keeping with what preachers know, for they say that they do not speak from themselves but from the spirit of God, and that all truth, as also all good, is from God. They are indeed able to declare the Word and bring it to the understanding of many, but not to the heart of anyone. And what is not in the heart perishes in the understanding; and by the heart is meant a person’s love. From these considerations it may be seen that a person is led and taught by the Lord alone, and that he is taught immediately by Him when this is done from the Word. This is the central truth (arcanum) of angelic wisdom.