Scripture

Psalm 16

Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." I say of the holy people who are in the land, "They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight." Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

1 Kings 17

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there."
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food." So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."
"As surely as the Lord your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread-only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it-and die." Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.'"
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
"Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, "Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, "Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him!" The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"
Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth."

Sprout into Awareness of Eternity & Your Everlasting, Growth-Filled Life

by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

Read the message below. Video premieres today at 8 pm EDT, click here to watch on YouTube with live text chat

Interestingly, despite references to resurrection, eternal life with God, and a spiritual or netherworld called She'ol throughout the Hebrew scriptures, many people hold the opinion that Judaism doesn't believe in an afterlife. That's because in some way that's true - many Jews and Jewish sects are vocal that they don't put stock in there being anything after death!

Many of us may fall into that camp as well, no matter our tradition - although we might be shy about sharing that with others of our faith. It seems natural to doubt the concept of a spiritual world - I mean, who's been there?

This was a critique Emanuel Swedenborg's sought to address when in the mid 1700's he started publishing anonymously about the afterlife after a lifetime of notable scientific and political endeavors. Or, to put it more to his liking, Swedenborg said that he was being shown the spiritual realm so that through his descriptions of it people might come to know the reality of eternal life in diverse community with each other and God, and shape their own lives accordingly. Beginning to think of the ramifications of their intentions, affections, knowledge, and actions in light of eternity, as well as transforming their relationships with death, the loss of loved ones, each other, and Divinity.

Similarly, many people who have had cardiac arrest or near-death experiences (NDE's) speak of the reality of the spiritual realm. You can find catalogues of these accounts with a quick googling of "near-death experiences," and even recent scientific, peer-reviewed studies have shown that 10-30% of those who have survived cardiac arrest remember entering a realm of experience more real than our material reality (see the AWARE study from physicians in the UK).

But what's the point? Why be curious about such phenomena, real or otherwise?

One way to put it is that simply enough, understanding the nature of our reality as much as we can is the call of all scientists and rationalists, all religious and spiritual - even if we are just trying to understand human nature. Discounting human experience because it doesn't fit our preconceptions of reality often undermines our ability to be objective and reactive to new evidence, even though in this dismissive state we might feel the most secure in our knowledge. Furthermore, the prophets, scriptures, and God speaking through many traditions emphasize that beginning to understand the eternal nature of our lives enables much positive transformation in a multitude of ways and even transcendence.

So, let's dive in!

The Hebrew scriptures are interesting because although they lack lengthy expositions about the afterlife, they repeatedly mention how the good are eternally upheld by God and include stories about spirits talking and even the odd resurrection - as we read in Elijah's story today. It may be notable that one of the few details we know about Elijah, one of the most renown prophets of the Hebrew scriptures, is that he raises a boy from the dead to the worship-filled praise of his mother. And so, there's a common thread of the porousness of death throughout this tradition's holy texts.

Of course, Christian scripture continues this theme in some very well-known and telling ways! From the raising of the dead, to the death and resurrection of God-in-the-flesh, to explicit mentions of an afterlife with a heaven and hell. And although some Christian traditions believe in an afterlife only after a final judgment, both Christ and current-day near-death experiences speak of seeing paradise "today," or very shortly after the time of death.

Swedenborg is of a similar vein, saying that sometimes it takes up to 3 days before a person awakens in their spiritual body. In his descriptions, he emphasizes this idea of truly having a spiritual body - with arms and legs - one that transforms to fit and represent the nature of our spirit. Swedenborg describes the afterlife to be very much like Jesus' and scripture's parables: full of symbolism and archetypes, a realm where the environment, house, and body you find yourself in speaks volumes about the nature of your spirit, at least in that moment. Thus, we may eventually find that we are in a hell (or a heaven) of our own loves and our own making, although angels and good spirits continuously endeavor to uplift, educate, and empower us to continue to find better housing if we're willing.

In Swedenborg's heaven, there is a diversity of religious thought and cultures, all ultimately working as one spiritual body. Like the New Jerusalem as described in the final Biblical book of Revelation, heaven is a wondrous kingdom with gates in every direction so that all who are willing to live a loving and wise life may enter of their own accord in their own way, empowered by Divinity. And because of its diversity of healthy love, wisdom, and symbolism, it is full of meaningful sights and structures beyond our imagination and earthly idea of beauty.

Funny enough, NDE's share similar descriptions of the heavenly realm's glory, symbolism, and even the comforting nature of the light and loving warmth there (representing the continuous sharing of insight and love in heaven, according to Swedenborg).

If the commonalities of these accounts are correct, we're called to really think about our hearts and intentions and work toward having a heavenly inner life - not banking on entering a heaven with a bouncer or being cast into a neglectfully torturous hell, but instead reflecting on the type of inner environment that we are currently starting to cultivate within and around us.

Fascinating enough, Islam and Hinduism share this common emphasis on goodness as well, although sometimes their sects (like in the other traditions) make the typically insular argument that to be good and Godly means joining them. And even Hinduism with its reincarnation emphasizes the glory of finding God's heavenly abode, never to incarnate again, as well as the risk of endlessly falling into a "hell" that fits our passionate or ignorant karmas (destructive modes of being), sometimes relating this hell to entering "lower worlds" and becoming animals that exemplify that karma.

Ultimately, all of these traditions point to the mercy and justice of God(dess) above all things. Despite the risk of embracing our hellish orientations forever, many of these traditions point to the continued chance that Divinity gives us to change our minds and hearts toward life affirmation and health. Indeed, both Swedenborg's Christianity (as opposed to many of the other theologians that have inspired current-day Christian thinking) and Hinduism point to the continued growth and transformation available to us after this life, if we but start to orient our hearts heavenward now.

These messages empower and comfort us today if we let them, as well as empower us in the face of grief, in the face of loss, and in the face of seemingly insurmountable injustice. It's not selfish to accept the comforts of reality and the offerings of the living God, indeed, it's often harder than anything else albeit easier in the long run. Christ himself exemplified this empowerment with his love and his willingness to give up his bodily incarnation for justice, openness, and goodness, assuring us that he will be with us always even in the face of our own deaths.

We're called to remember that those we have lost are not truly lost to us, and especially not to themselves, community, or God. We are often consciously or subconsciously debilitated by our fear of or love of death, unwilling to live fully, to speak truth to power or to stand for what's right due to the risk to our loved ones and ourselves. Understanding the truth of eternity and God's love for us is truly a gift, one that keeps giving the more we are willing to grow into it, shedding the decay of our selfish thinking and apathy.

The world's major scripture agree: we must die to ourselves to escape spiritual death, setting our sights on eternity and accepting our destiny of forever. Despite so many shared experiences of this truth, it's all too easy to accept cynicism and our own dominating and envious impulses to dismiss all spiritual truths, all awareness and devotion of the greater personality that empowers all things and deserves all praise. For our own sakes, in our freedom may we accept the apparent truths that are starting to speak to us, and allow our egos to die so that we may accept the eternal life already smiling within. Amen.

Blessings,

Rev. Cory