by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

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Readings

Revelation 12:1-12

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
    and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
    because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
    because he knows that his time is short.”

Read the written message below

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Sometimes it feels like we’ve been left out to dry. We feel exposed and let down, vulnerable, depressed, and undersupported. And unfortunately, often we are undersupported and underappreciated – on an earthly level. But funny enough, as we lean into the compassionate warmth and the enlightening truth of God in our lives, we can find that we feel spiritually protected, cared for, and more and more mentally sound, even amidst great trials. Further, as we lean into care, oneness in God, and compassion, we’ll find that we ourselves are able to better support and appreciate those around us – while empowering that in others.

I think we see the impact of receiving more of the warmth and light of God in therapeutic practices today. Like a small spiritual sun, therapists often help us to shed a compassionate (warm) light on our own lives, which in itself often helps us to heal and grow. They can hold space and lead us toward a more truthful understanding of our situation, which in turn helps us to slowly start to set other things aright both within ourselves and without.

Our story today embodies this idea as well – that spiritual or mental light and warmth bring us into a safer, healthier, and more whole state. Even if we sometimes must accept the pain rooted in our past or the struggle of the healing process itself.

Indeed, the 18th-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg believed that our reading from Revelation 12 is about us in a broad sense: that the woman clothed in the sun and her son represent the heavenliness within and around us that God is bringing into being, and that the dragon represents the forces of selfishness and misused religiosity that are also often within and around us as well.

It’s a well-known trend in Biblical scripture to describe the church and its people as a woman (which sometimes can make serious opinions about gender-conformity within the church a little strange). In the case of our reading today, a woman clothed with the sun may symbolically represent a healthy, diverse “new” church in the midst of God’s warmth and light (described as a sun), as Swedenborg believed. It’s important to note, however, that Swedenborg’s ideas about the church were also more universal and centered on what makes each of us a walking “church.” We are a church to the extent we are centered on the love and wisdom within us, no matter our tradition, and not on one specific organization.

Further, since the church exists within us to the extent that we center on God’s compassion and truth within and through us, we can easily see that the woman clothed in the sun is a representative of not only the church, but God herself. Swedenborg believed that the only true human (in a somewhat mystical sense) is God – and that God is encompassed by a spiritual sun made of Divine Love and Wisdom, and so this further solidifies the possible inner-meaning of this tale about a woman in the sun, her child, and a dragon. Indeed, we’re told that the remnants of God, true wisdom and love within us, are safeguarded by the Divine throughout our lives, just as the woman with child is safeguarded, until those aspects of Divinity can shine forth and give birth – even if it takes some trial.

But what about the dragon, you ask? Well, of course I’m going to talk about the dragon!

I think we can better understand the dragon by looking to the first place an evil lizard appears: in Genesis! And yes, the serpent in Genesis seems to be a lizard – at least until forced to crawl on the ground “eating dust.” In that story as in ours, the destructive reptile represents the aspects of ourselves and society that are a bit more cold-blooded: selfish, self-seeking, bigoted, and murderous at heart – especially when it comes to healthy spirituality. Swedenborg relates this red, powerful, multiheaded dragon to the insanity of misusing Christianity (in particular) for our own selfishness, grounding that insanity in distorted dogmas, and seeking to destroy healthy forms of spirituality, religion, and yes, even healthy forms of Christianity.

And so, although Swedenborg often writes that this kind of imagery is how God works in us, he also believed that there was a more earthly, prophetical meaning of this tale. He believed it told the story of how God was slowly crafting a new age of reborn Christian and spiritual thought, and that the process would have to struggle against the dragon and the pains of spiritual childbirth rooted in our fall from the Garden of Eden, which was our general turning away from Godly love and toward selfish ones.

We are invited to find healing, growth, and protection in our own process in this imagery, leaning into our Heavenly-Woman attributes and away from our dragon. As we do that, we may have to face the pain within to give birth to something new, instead of seeking to immediately escape it by distracting ourselves away from what we feel, our own bodies, or our histories. This often calls for spiritual practice through some trial, such as deep breathing (like in real childbirth!), prayerful mindsets, and present-moment compassionate awareness, which loosens our tendencies of labeling, attaching to, and despising things. And ultimately, as we turn back toward our own healthy, heavenly loves and wisdom, our dragons will be cast down and we’ll find our rightful place with each other in diversity, giving birth to something majestic and new.

Compassion and honest awareness to you,

Rev. Cory

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