Being “Swedenborgian”- Honoring the Divine’s Dance With Each of Us
February 10, 2019
There will be a live audio Reflection & Prayer Service with community text chat in connection with this Multimedia Service this Sunday evening at 9 pm ET. Catch the audio and chat at the bottom of this page or on our Worship page. Video is posted there later.
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OPENING SONGS
Try to dance, move, sing, hum or play along with this music – or enjoy a meditative listen with deep, mindful breaths
I Hope You Dance
Lee Ann WOmack
Turkey's Whirling DErvIshes
Ensemble Al-Kindi & the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus
READINGS
From Biblical & Hebrew Scripture
2 Samuel 6:12-23 New International Version (NIV)
12 Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
Exodus 15:19-27 New International Version (NIV)
19 When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen[a]went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. 20 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. 21 Miriam sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”
22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.[b]) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test.26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
May the Lady add a blessing to the reading, hearing, and understanding of her Word
First Nations Earth Prayer
O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me! I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. I seek strength, not to be greater than my sibling, but to fight my greatest enemy – myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.
Being Swedenborgian - Honoring the Divine's Dance with Each of Us
By REV. Cory Bradford-watts
Today I’ll continue the longstanding Swedenborgian tradition of offering my view of what being "Swedenborgian" means. We'll also explore how Divinity hopes to draw us into a divine waltz, furthering our one-of-a-kind connection with her into greater depths of wisdom and holy passion.
From documents pertaining to Emanuel Swedenborg, we know that later in life around the time Swedenborg was on trial for heresy by the official church of Sweden, a correspondence he received mentioned some groups forming that met and discussed Swedenborg’s theological writings. This document called his theology, “Swedenborgian.” Emanuel responded by saying, “That’s what some may call it, as for me I call it ‘actually Christian.’”
However, as a small religious movement, not only have we largely embraced the label “Swedenborgian,” but we’ve come to define it in our own ways across time. This is not only natural, but according to our namesake theologian at least, it’s healthy that we approach faith in a way that makes sense to each of us.
And that’s what it comes down to in my opinion: Swedenborg’s faith cannot exactly match up with any one Swedenborgian’s faith, nor should we try to make it so. But we should still turn to his writings to find inspiration, just as we turn to our other sources of insight.
Over time, like with many traditions, Swedenborgians have varied in their convictions on the things that serve to “truly” define someone as Swedenborgian, as Christian, or even Godly. Sometimes we have even acted quite dogmatic – a tendency Swedenborg believed that we each should work to shed while still holding to our personal convictions. But how do we do that?
In this community, I think our response focuses on emphasizing the freedom of thought, universalism, and plurality that was at the heart of Swedenborg’s thinking, as well as at the heart of his vision of Heaven and God. And it’s also exploring in community each of our viewpoints on spirituality, if we choose to share, and learning more about Swedenborg’s writings, as well as how the Divine One is manifesting in others and in the world around us in Christ’s plurality of connections, whatever other people call him.
We could write a book about what the term “Christian” meant to Swedenborg, or 30 books. But really, he uplifted the need for us to find what “Christian,” what “Religious,” what “Believer” or “Swedenborgian,” “Muslim,” and on, means to each of us in our relationship with our Higher Power and each other. In his theological writings he shares the conclusions that his experiences have led him to, telling us that he hopes that this inspires us to approach Heaven in a clearer light for our own dance with Divinity.
Being Swedenborgian may ultimately mean choosing to be in community together, in connection with some shared ideas about how we can think about and connect to God and each other. Hopefully this is coupled with us striving to further both our own waltz and our collective dance with the Holy Bridegroom. I think that like Swedenborg, we should strive to uplift the divine goodness and wisdom in each other as we embrace our diversity of footfalls. In other words, I think being Swedenborgian, being human, calls us to honor Divinity’s embrace of everyone no matter what they call her (or don’t). It calls us to encourage everyone to gain a better grip back on the Holy One in our own way as we learn more about and embolden the Goddess’ presence with all. How else can we hope to embody the New Jerusalem from Revelation, with its many gates in all four cardinal directions?
I really love that first nations’ Earth Prayer that we read today. I think it does a good job in encapsulating what this faith is for me. It begins “O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds.” For Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th century scientist turned Interfaith-Christian mystic, acknowledging the Great Spirit and his loving qualities may have been the supreme tenet of his faith. However, Swedenborg acknowledged that this Spirit, Jesus Christ, speaks to each of us in our own way, “on the wind” if you may, and we each hear that Spirit’s name and qualities a little bit differently.
As the privileged son of a Swedish Lutheran Bishop made noble during his lifetime, Swedenborg initially had a propensity to see faith through the Lutheran lens he learned as a child, but as his mystical visions illuminated his thinking starting in his 50’s, his faith started to transform – you can literally see this in his unpublished manuscripts. He started to believe and write that acknowledging Jehovah almost has more to do with how you live than which tradition, which descriptions of the Holy One, you adhere to, which of course he says throughout his published writings. Swedenborg was also a big proponent of what he thought were key healthy ways to think of God, but he most emphatically calls us to investigate our own thinking about the Divine and not to take any faith hook, line, and sinker – to ask questions like, does it make sense that the infinite God is three persons or one? Do you really think the Compassionate and Merciful Creatress condemns everyone but your sect to hell? He thought there were more logical answers to these questions than what he was hearing and so he shared them.
Through his mystical experiences Swedenborg was utterly convinced that there was a Heaven and a Hell, but since the spiritual realm’s geography is distinguished by spiritual state in his visions, personal character orientations determines where you are, he was deeply convicted that Heaven and Hell were places we chose in our hearts. Do we love doing and being good, uplifting humaneness and the world around us, or do we deeply love doing and being evil, dominating those around us for our own pleasure and material lusts. He asks, doesn’t the Lord’s work of salvation have more to do with changing the orientations of hearts and minds rather than changing our labels?
As Christ expounded in the Christian gospels, God calls us to repent and transform our lives. Jesus says we should act out of love for Jehovah and her qualities by doing good, by listening to her requests as they relate to our hearts, minds, and actions. The Bible emphasizes that this is a key way that we can be in personal relationship to the Holy One, to literally live within his love.
Perhaps your holy text isn’t the Bible, I don’t know, but I think the Lord is trying to speak to you in some way, whether its deeply through another scripture, through the scripture of your life experiences, from a deep place in your heart whether you know it or not. I believe that like the Christ, the “Anointed One” of Christian scripture, our Higher Power’s real presence in our lives calls out for us to be the neighbor, to be good, to receive loving kindness and uplift it within ourselves and with others.
Yes, Swedenborg was deeply Christian, but his Christianity acknowledged that everyone can encounter the Krishna, the Personality of the Godhead, in their own way, with their own approach and dance with her if they choose to embrace it.
The Divine approaches us based on where we are, drawing us deeper and deeper into a Holy Whirl, much like the Sufi Whirling Dervishes inspired by Rumi worship to express their reception of love and strength from Divinity. God draws us into a passionate holy dance original to each of us. Swedenborg believed that this dance can deepen into eternity, and that it shares the floor with our dance with each other in community and with nature. Interestingly, in his Spiritual Diary, Swedenborg often wrote about the many dancers and dance and song in the spiritual realm, saying that it was a key way for spirits to grow with each other and Heaven. As the next part of the Earth Prayer goes, the breath of the Great Spirit gives life to all the world, in all its whirling, turning and furthering, as the Dervishes sometimes say: nothing is still, everything turns.
Like Lutherans after Luther, being Swedenborgian is often the label applied to those of us who believe we adopt most of the core tenets of Swedenborg’s theology. But which tenets are those? Is it that Christ was the Divine Incarnation of God? That all faiths are on a journey to the Holy City? Perhaps it’s that the Word is holy metaphor and transcends the books of the Bible and occurs in some form in every community, even if primarily in the heart. Could it be that Hell is most probably eternal damnation, but it’s the damnation of selfishness that you continue to choose and kind of love?
Well, I can’t answer that for you, but perhaps it hinges on what Swedenborg believed everything hinged upon: us choosing true freedom, the freedom to think and act rationally out of love and to get better at that.
I think that was Swedenborg’s vision and hope for us: continued growth toward rationality and love, with the joy, the gratitude, the blessings, the peace that that brings. In my opinion, this is salvation for Swedenborg, this is also how he seemed to interpret Goddess’ scripture in our lives.
So to end, along those lines, I’d like to enter into a vastly Swedenborgian practice, dare I say – let’s take a moment to reflect on what one of our scripture readings may mean to us as we read it again. My only note is that often for Emanuel each detail in scripture meant something to him in relation to our personal journey towards God, each element of scripture often relates to something in our particular Divine dance. To him, the metaphor of scripture is one that invites personal allegory and motivates awareness and growth, often with a character or setting representing Divinity within us and within others, and the other items in that scripture representing our less Divine tendencies, the more selfish parts of each of us at work.
As you read, if you feel called, perhaps move or envision movements that relate to what you hear as it speaks to your life:
2 Samuel 6:12-23 New International Version (NIV)
12 Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
May the Lord add a blessing to the hearing, understanding, and the dancing of her Word. Amen.
CLOSING SONGS
Dance Me a Number
The Steepwater Band
Dance Me to the End of Love
Leonard Cohen
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