Despite the moments of joy in our lives, today we face many seemingly insurmountable issues: from catastrophic climate change to sex trafficking and all the expressions of exploitation and oppression. These issues often start within us - passed down, learned or created as we lean into our selfishness or protect ourselves from more pain: from caring too much and being too open and honest.
We each can feel alone in our silos of self doubt, megalomania and cathartic desire, and yet we’re told by tradition after tradition, that the Great Spirit, the Good One, knocks on our door – continuously inspiring our goodness and life, while hoping that we one day let her further in. Divinity hopes to have a deeper relationship with us and God(dess) strives to use such a connection to help each of us receive the personal and societal transformation that we so desperately need. Some of our issues may seem insurmountable, but “the Universe,” the Lord, God’s Providence and personal presence can do all things, and save us from the pit of destruction.
This is true about terrible, evil leadership; about climate change and destructive lust; about unjust anger and all the many things that call out for transformation within and without, whether we know it or not.
God is at work for you, for us, and his knocking is a resounding pounding, reverberating the call to justice and health through every moment, every situation. Like Swedenborg, I don’t believe this Divinity judges our traditions, but he is aware of our hearts, minds, and actions, caring of our every move and working to be close to us so that we may relinquish horror and receive heaven to infinity. She is the part of us that is health itself: the compassionate part, the beautiful, the knowing, vulnerable, and honest pieces. She is so close and yet we often feel like she is far, take a moment to recognize and feel her presence with you, just as palpably as if another friend were present.
Often, in our internal loneliness, we find no room to acknowledge the Divine Being’s deep personal embodiment within and around us, literally and spiritually sitting here with us. And yet, it can be so helpful to.
Divinity is in everything, expressed through manifold details, from Donald Trump to the Dalai Lama, from the serial killer to the sage. But we choose how to use many of the gifts he provides. Like the Sun, scripture tells us that God sits at every door giving life, goodness, and love to one and all – all the positive glimmers of health, personality, and humanity. We choose how much of these gifts we give our Higher Power credit for. Giving credit, realizing that Divinity is with and within us as our source, can not only help us relinquish ego and gain more humility – vital in the work that needs to be done – but also can empower us to greater wholeness, greater peace, love and wisdom. Leaning into God’s personal presence in our life and society can heal the nations.
This isn’t bravado, although may sometimes seem so – or like an unfounded hope. Scriptures from the native peoples of the Americas to the ancient texts of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles tell us that if we feel stuck: remember and turn to God. She’s always near, the best friend imaginable, enabling and ready to enable change, especially that of our hearts and our habits.
Our scripture today is of that bent, I believe, and can help us lean into God’s personal presence. Indeed, Emanuel Swedenborg, the scientist-turned-mystical visionary that inspired folks like Emerson, Helen Keller, and Robert Frost, wrote volumes on how Divinity is personally present with us, which we can feel especially as we read and reflect on scripture. He also believed that scripture was of such a metaphorical quality (as spiritual parable) that it speaks to how Divinity helps us lean into her presence, helping us to receive more of that Personality’s openness, health, and compassion.
So let’s look at our reading from 2 Kings today, trying to feel God’s presence in it and with us, while internalizing the characters and story as we should any good parable. It starts by describing Naaman – the commander of the King’s army, a great man in high favor, but one who suffers from leprosy, a disease of the flesh. Can you relate to this? I can, it sounds like that part of me that often feels like its in charge, the head of my army of one, in constant combat in its pride, suffering a disease of egotism and destructive habits.
And the one who speaks wisdom to this man, who tries to help him, is an abducted, captured girl that serves his family. Sad, yes: the part of us that is wise and healthy is often captured: a servant to more despicable fragments of our personality, not acknowledged as from Divinity and not free to reign or act but misused and abused. However, if we’re willing to lean into God’s presence, we may start to listen to this humble, servant self, and perhaps, one day free her.
As we lean into God’s presence we may start to get glimmers of wisdom about how to heal. Like the servant girl, this part of us may call on us to see the prophet Elisha in a neighboring kingdom – it may inspire us to turn toward sources of Divine health outside of our current worldview or understanding. This may mean finally opening our scripture, or turning toward a more loving, transformative frame for our spirituality.
Now, as our story describes, after we lean a little into Divinity’s wisdom and start to open up to a wider source of understanding than our day-to-day reflection, we may find ourselves disappointed, either chastised as Naaman is - shut down by the distant King of Israel, or by feeling put off because it doesn’t seem to be speaking to our situation or need for growth. When we approach sources of knowledge and change we’re often disappointed by having to sift through its King: its store of hard to interpret ideas, its claims to authority and perhaps its seeming judgment of us – so we feel let down.
On the flip side, when people come to us for support and insight we can sometimes act like this King, becoming unwelcoming and defensive about our wisdom. Allowing the proud, defensive ruler in our head to keep us from promoting Divinity’s presence in other people.
Or, more likely, our wisdom may just seem to not be to their liking or ability to receive it, so we give up and they walk away. This is something we can also do to ourselves as we turn to our higher wisdom for help and then decide that it doesn’t seem able to enact the change we need. No matter how we get there, at this stage we can feel dejected and resigned, as both Naaman and the King do. But, if we were to remember that Divinity is nearby, inspiring greater insight, we may allow a ray of inspiration to transform these situations altogether. Which is what we see in our story.
Next Elisha, the prophet of God, speaks up! As the story describes, if we’re willing to travel to Israel, to lean into the Lord’s presence – which is the seat of goodness and holiness within and around us – just when we feel low the Divine Prophet in our midst will most readily surprise us and give us the insight that we need to heal. Opening our hearts to the Higher Power’s transformative whisper and thunder will give us the wisdom that we need to rid ourselves of our leprosy, both personally and societally – no matter our tradition.
Despite the openness of God’s empowerment, this process isn’t always easy. We aren’t often willing to even see our destructiveness and narrow worldviews, let alone look for a prophet to help us give them up. Like Naaman, we may even dismiss God’s voice as that of a lackluster prophet, saying that his solution is too easy to actually work, not elaborate enough given the weight of the issues.
But if, like Naaman, we eventually allow the humble parts of us to inspire us again with its wisdom and humble action, we may find ourselves blown away. As we should, Naaman decides to dismiss his hesitancy and takes the simple cure of leaning into Divinity’s presence, dipping himself seven times in the holy stream of the Jordan, and coming out youthful, healed, and clean.
Lean into that presence as well. Take the simple cure. Feel and trust in the Lady’s transformative personality nearby. Give up the defensiveness, the bickering and the dominating attitude, stop rationalizing your selfishness and instead, rationally accept your confidence in your Higher Power. In awareness and trust of God’s presence, love and power, walk to the Jordan and become clean.
