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The Interfaith Hologram

October 5, 2008

WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE



Open your Bible


Light a candle





  OPENING SONG
Hava Nagila Dance
from show of Efim Aleksandrov, Oct. 2007
 
READINGS
from the Bible N.I.V.
Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard. [a]

4 Their voice [b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.

8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.

10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.

11 By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.

13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Footnotes:

Psalm 19:3 Or They have no speech, there are no words; / no sound is heard from them
Psalm 19:4 Septuagint, Jerome and Syriac; Hebrew line

from Swedenborg

In the Lord's sight, the universal church on earth is like a single individual just as heaven is. ...  
Heaven and Hell, 308


 
 
MESSAGE


It’s a picture-perfect October Maine week-end. The days are warm; the evenings chilly. The leaves are slowly turning an array of exquisite colors. The vibrant aromas of apples, cider, and pumpkin pies seem to be everywhere. 
Daisy and Coconut took me to the Kennebunk Beach, where they can run free the way God created them. Coconut, the little Maltese, loves to race after the big dogs, with her white bangs blowing into her eyes and her long ears flapping behind her. She yaps at the dogs to notice how big and brave she is inside.   Daisy, Pomeranian from a puppy mill, has turned her years of confinement into a deep and abiding love of anyone who will love her back. She stops to see the little girl who wants to “pat the doggie.”   She is drawn to the woman in a wheel chair whose face lights up with a big smile when she sees Daisy trotting over to visit her.
There are days when I wonder about God’s presence in the world. This isn’t one of them. Every breath I take draws in a cellular-level awareness of Divine Love.
I’m convinced that the atmosphere is vibrating with the many holy days in this month.  The Muslims are breaking their Ramadan fast with a grand feast. The Jews have celebrated the Rosh Hashanah New Year, and now are deep into the repentance of the Days of Awe prior to Yom Kippur later this week.
Many Christians are honoring St. Francis Day this Sunday. He is probably my all-time favorite saint, whose feast-day is often honored by animals being invited to church for a special blessing. A few years ago, Daisy wrote a sermon for me that I delivered on St. Francis Day. She said we should stop blessing the animals; and let them bless us. Just in time for St. Francis Day this year, I received a delightful surprise from my friend in the spiritual book store: a copy of a new theological book, Dogspell: the Gospel According to Dog.   I have laughed and laughed with it, reading passages out loud to Daisy and Coco. Episcopal priest Mary Ellen Ashcroft writes that a student once told her: “if I thought that God loved me as much as my dog … it would change everything.  I wouldn’t be looking for love in all the wrong places.” Ashcroft notes that “many of us have fashioned or accepted a God smaller, meaner, more petty, than our dogs.” Ouch. That hits home. Some days I question God’s presence and love. There is never a day that Daisy and Coco aren’t “in my face” with a presence and love that I could never doubt.
Some Christians are honoring “World Communion Sunday” today.   It seems to be a day made for open-hearted love of the diverse ways God is worshipped.
Rev. Dr. George Dole’s recent talk on “Religious Pluralism” is published in the October  Messenger – now on our web site!   Dole said that the way we often look at religious pluralism is the description David Bohm gave of seeing our world as “a set of recurrent and relatively stable elements that are outside of each other.” He goes on to quote Bohm saying: when one works in terms of the implicate order, one begins with the undivided wholeness of the universe, and the task of science is to derive the parts through abstraction from the whole …”
 
He compares this statement with Swedenborg’s statement that there is a single whole, a “church universal,” (Heaven and Hell 308) and we derive our different religions from that whole.
 
So often, our efforts at interfaith dialog begin with an assumption that our religious traditions are vastly different, and we must carefully articulate those differences to each other. 
 
What would it mean to our interfaith relationships if we began with Swedenborg’s “In the Lord’s sight,“The universal church is like a single person, just as heaven is.” (Heaven and Hell 308).  Well, for one thing it would mean that we would not begin with our differences, and then search for commonality. Instead, we would begin with the hologram.
 
Physicists Michael Talbot writes:
 
Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole.
The "whole in every part" nature of a hologram provides us with an entirely new way of understanding organization and order. For most of its history, Western science has labored under the bias that the best way to understand a physical phenomenon, whether a frog or an atom, is to dissect it and study its respective parts. A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get smaller wholes. … Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.  [Talbot, The Universe as a Hologram.]
 
Separateness is an illusion. Try to let this concept sink in. It is mind boggling. Let’s sink into the universal wisdom being honored right now by our Jewish brothers and sisters from that perspective.
Here is a description of repentance from a Jewish writer:
Repentance reminds us that we have control over ourselves. We can change. We are not a pawn. We are not a slave to different habits. Prayer says that we can have relationships, a relationship with God and relationship with man. Charity says that we can help the poor. We can alleviate human suffering. We need all three simultaneously, otherwise, we, too, will tend to do evil.
 
It is not all that different from what we Swedenborgians believe, is it?
A mystic significance was attached to the custom of blowing the Shofar - Ram's Horn. In ancient times, the blasts of the horn were believed to have the power of driving away evil spirits. The Shofar is blown to remind Jews of the intended sacrifice of Isaac, for, according to Judaism, Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac on that day on the spot where the Jerusalem Temple was later erected.
 
Since, by the Command of God, a ram was substituted for Isaac (Genesis, 22); the sages explained that the blowing of a ram's horn would remind us of God's providence. The sound of the Shofar has the unique quality of penetrating the human soul and causing the heart to tremble. The sounds are a wake-up call to repentance.
Listen to the Shofar – ram’s horn – as it is played in a Rosh Hashanah service.

 
 
According to Jewish Mysticism, although we have the free choice to do other than G-d's will, G-d is always in control. In other words, even when we can do other than G-d's will we cannot oppose His will or undermine His plan.
Therefore, when we have done wrong and are sorry for that, we must realize that no matter what we have done, it can all be recycled back into G-d's plan and contribute to the ultimate good of the world. Of course this does not mean that we can just go ahead and do wrong. The path of transgression removes us from G-d. This distance causes us feelings of alienation and spiritual anguish which may become manifest as physical ailment.

However, if you sincerely regret your wrongdoings and resolve never to do them again then you are forgiven and your past will be recycled and put towards future good.
Yom Kippur is an amazing day of transformation where your darkest deeds from the past turn into light. This is because the light of the World to Come, so to speak, is shining into our world on this day. You can receive this light and be transformed by it if you plug yourself into the expanded consciousness of Yom Kippur through the proper acts, prayers and thoughts prescribed for the day.
From within our Swedenborgian tradition – or any other – we can participate in these Days of Awe in preparation for day of transformation where our darkest deeds can become light.
The Days of Awe continue until the evening of Oct. 8th [Wednesday] when Yom Kippur begins at sunset.
Allow yourslf to experience God’s love this week. It can come through nature, through pets, through the religious traditions of our friends. And through the honoring of our own traditions.
You are invited to join our cyber service this evening at 9 Eastern and 6 Pacific. We will have a cyber communion in honor of World Communion Sunday. There will be prayers of blessing for everyone. Anyone of any tradition is invited to have a piece of bread and a small glass of wine or juice. I will offer a prayer of consecration to attune to the Love and Wisdom within these elements. Beyond time and space, we will break bread together.
 
CLOSING SONG

We will Break Bread Together


 




 
Now extinguish your candle [s]                        




And close the Bible.