Heavenly Life Consists of Intending and Doing Healthy, Useful Things
March 24, 2019
There will be a live audio Reflection & Prayer Service with community chatroom conversation in connection with this Multimedia Service this Sunday evening at 9 pm ET. Catch it towards the end of this Multimedia Service or on our Worship page. Video of the broadcast 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'd Love to Change the World
(from "When We Rise")
Jordan Fisher
Worthy
Jacob Banks
READINGS
From Biblical & Hebrew Scripture
Proverbs 12:11-28
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense. The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers, but the root of the righteous endures. Evildoers are trapped by their sinful talk, and so the innocent escape trouble. From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward. The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult. An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies. The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy. No harm overtakes the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble. The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy. The prudent keep their knowledge to themselves, but a fool’s heart blurts out folly. Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor. Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt. In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality.
From Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Click here for free ebooks of Emanuel Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Click here for free ebooks of Emanuel Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Heavenly Life Consists of Intending and Doing Healthy, Useful Things
By rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
As most of you know, Emanuel Swedenborg was an 18th century scientist-turned-mystical theologian. He wrote many beautiful books, and unintentionally inspired our denominational name and the roots of our interfaith-Christian beliefs. He was quite the industrious guy, and spent much of his life as a well-known scientist in his home country of Sweden, where he created many things and even made many scientific discoveries. Some of which we’re only coming to find out now, from how the brain changes as it learns to how solar systems form.
It makes sense then that later, when writing spiritual and theological texts, that such a useful gentleman put quite the emphasis on the importance of “use,” saying that Divinity “is the form itself [and the source] of all uses.” He wrote often about how God gives rise to all the types of useful things and activities around us. Indeed, for Swedenborg, all things are created in their own useful form, and that that is what allows creation to build communities and ecosystems that form greater wholes, from the smallest particles to each of us – as we talked about a few weeks ago.
But what is use, truly? And how can we translate this concept into our everyday living and reflecting?
I think our scripture reading today helps to illuminate this concept for me. Proverbs 12 from the Hebrew Bible describes a number of human actions and states that are good, and contrasts them with others that are evil, as it calls them. It describes good things, like telling the truth, being diligent and having kind words for each other, in contrast with being a false witness, being foolish and lazy, and desiring to dominate others. In a way, I see this Proverb, like many other scriptures in many other traditions, as emphasizing that there are uses, and then there are misuses. All things might have been made for good useful things, but in our freedom we often don’t use them for that, even if God somehow ultimately does.
Not only that, but these verses tell us that Goddess delights in us as we do good. God is pleased when we are kind to ourselves and to each other. Scripture tells us that these things are useful because they uplift peace and blessedness. And in a sense, Proverbs helps to show that being of use has less to do with being industrious for profit’s sake, as our society may sometimes emphasize, but that it has to do with doing helpful things in healthy ways for our communal wellbeing and joy.
Sort of makes sense, doesn’t it? That humanity would work to uplift humanity and the humane treatment of all creation.
The Israelite people in the time of Proverbs acted more like a village than what we enjoy today in our largely self-interested towns. There were safeguards for people in this society from falling on hard times for any number of reasons, and if you did, you found there was support and nurturing mechanisms for your wellbeing even then. Non-profits didn’t have to form to do elements of this, it was done by the rules and concerted efforts of the whole.
What a vision of community.
Interestingly enough, in Swedenborg’s visions of the spiritual realm, which he says the Lord inspired for our benefit, he saw a heaven filled with all types of life and peoples from all cultures, all in healthy communities that create a greater whole: the body of heaven in the image, likeness, and presence of God. In these communities, they each work in their own way to provide joy and support for everyone, and none worry about housing, clothing, or sustenance because society and God take care of these things as a whole. The individuals in heaven get to follow their healthy passions in their own ways, and they find that there’s generally a place for that work, there’s use for it, especially as they work on using those passions to help uplift and support others.
Swedenborg says that it is actually that passion, the affection of uplifting and supporting others, that fuels Divinity. This love for all drives God to create and uplift in unbounded diversity, and it inspires all angels, all people in heaven, in their own ways as well. Although this motive may be hard to accept in the earthly plane for a number of reasons today, we are called to work to make it easier and easier for us to put this communal love into action, and to uplift each other in smarter and smarter ways, with appropriate safeguards and deligence. Each element of doing this, of uplifting others and ourselves spiritually and physically, is a higher use inspired by God, a higher use reflecting God’s motives (at least in my reading of Swedenborg and the Bible). Moreover, Swedenborg believed that we were in connection with heaven and Divinity now, today, and that they strive to become more embodied and present within and around us in every moment.
The Lord’s Prayer, for example, emphasizes this call to receive a heavenly way of being in community. The typical, King James English translation of the prayer states, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” To make our work, our spiritual practices and activities, more truly useful, more truly Godly, they must intentionally take part in God’s prayer, God’s will: “thy kingdom come.” Yes, God may use all things for good in a number of ways, but as Proverbs describes, for our physical and spiritual actions and decisions to be of higher use for us, they must have their root in what Swedenborg calls the purpose of creation: a healthy, diverse kingdom, diverse queendom, of God.
Yes, industriousness is good, when done healthily. But if it only serves ourselves, we distort ourselves and the system, and in that distorted system many become hoarders of vast amounts of material wealth and power, many misuse the system for their own gain even in times of great strife. We each can be guilty of this in some way and we all have room to grow.
I believe that this community has done a wonderful job being both diligent and caring in its approach to ministry and work, but we’re always working with less than perfect information and there are probably always better ways to approach our uses. This takes responsibility, reflection, and a diversity of people willing to participate and willing to share their opinions, and it starts with just wanting things to be a little more like heaven.
As they say, it takes a village to raise us up, it takes a village to raise use up in health. We are each called to reflect on our hearts, our intentions, and our actions in the light of scripture’s wisdom and in the warmth of the Divine Lady’s love.
Amen.
CLOSING SONGS
Creation Calls
Brian Doerkerson
Movement
Hozier
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