The Unbroken Circle

WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE

From the Bible

John 9
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, "No, he only looks like him."
But he himself insisted, "I am the man."

10"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.

11He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."

12"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I don't know," he said.



From Swedenborg

[5] As diseases and sicknesses, and also healings and medicines, are not said in the Word of the natural life, but of another life which is distinct from the natural life; it is therefore plain to him who gives some consideration to the matter, that man has another life, which is that of his internal man. They who have gross thoughts with respect to the life of man, believe that he has no other life than that of the body, which is the life of the external or natural man. They wonder what the life of the internal man may be, and even what the internal man is. If they are told that life is the life of faith and charity, and that the internal man is man's spirit, which lives after death, and which is essentially the man himself, they wonder still more. And such of them as live only for the body, and not for the soul, thus who are merely natural men, have no apprehension whatever of what is said about the life of faith and charity, and about the internal man, because their thought is merely from natural light, and not at all from spiritual light. Wherefore also after death they remain gross in respect to thought, and live in the shadow of death, that is, in falsities from evil; and they are wholly in thick darkness, and blind to the light of heaven.  A.C. 9031







During the past month or so, we’ve journeyed with a number of people who found healing of some kind in their lives.

There is one historical figure who was both healed and a healer -- and a Swedenborgian.  His story is amazing, and I’d like to share it with you.

HIS LIFE

Warren Felt Evans was born in 1817 in rural Vermont. His family was poor, but he yearned for an education, and worked his way through Dartmouth College in NH. He had to drop out before his senior year, perhaps because he fell in love, and realized he wanted to be a minister.

On June 21st  of 1840 Evans was married.  On July 1st, he was appointed as minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Peacham, Vermont.

For the next twenty years Warren and his wife Charlotte served in thirteen New England parishes, and had 3 children.

At age thirty-four Evans became a pastor in Concord, New Hampshire,  where the primary New England  seminary for the Methodist Church was located. (Later, the school became Boston University.)

He had achieved a brilliant career in the Methodist ministry. However, in 1860, at age 44, he became dissatisfied with his life and got depressed.

He wrote in his journal that he was seeking “a higher and deeper experience in religion,” one including a felt and conscious communion with God, “a calm happiness of unbroken fellowship with Him.”.

He was becoming bored with church writings and spoken prayers. He was reading the ‘mystics, and began praying to be led to “some book or books which would satisfy this inmost need.” Of course, one must be careful what one prays for! He felt guided to a bookshop in Portsmouth where he saw a book by mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. He began reading Swedenborg with great enthusiasm. His theology became transformed.

He was greatly inspired by Swedenborg, and wrote:

“But during this complete prostration of my nervous system my soul has tranquilly reposed in God. Far down below my trembling nerves there is a region of soul where all is still and silent.”

Yet his health, which had never been good, began to worsen. He had lived with dyspepsia all of his life.

HEALING
In 1863 he decided to visit a healer in Portland, Maine, whose fame was spreading throughout New England. The healer was Phineas Quimby. Evans had two sessions with Quimby, and was healed of dyspepsia. He felt certain that he, himself, could be a healer. Quimby agreed.

The next year, he was re-baptized at a Swedenborgian church on Beacon Hill. He and his family moved into the Boston area and for the next twenty years he taught and practiced the healing method he had learned from Quimby.


HEALER AND AUTHOR
For the rest of his life, he gave healings. He never charged. He wrote many books combining the theology of Swedenborg with the healing techniques of Quimby. Many consider Evans to be the first writer  of what is called the New Thought movement. People said that he provided extraordinary healings.


His first book, The Mental Cure, was a combination of the healing techniques of Quimby and the theology of Swedenborg.  He wrote -

God is the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and Ending of all finite things.

…This central life is everywhere and in all. It is diffused through all space and all worlds. It is the inmost essence of all created things.

The inmost essence of every human soul is divine, using the word to express that which goes forth from God. Deeply hidden beneath all our external and sensuous coverings, and all our moral and intellectual disorders, is the inextinguishable divine spark, sometimes concealed, like a gem in the ocean abyss….Here we may seek and find him, as … the mystics of all ages have averred.  God is truth, and all truth is originally in and from Him. But whence does it usually come to us? Swedenborg, whom I quote not as an authority, but as an illuminated
mind, whose opinions are worthy of respect and attention, asserts that it flows in from our living connection with the spiritual realm. No individual is an isolated existence, but the whole universe of created minds are bound up in the same bundle of life. The Swedish philosopher observes, “It is in consequence of this communication that a man enjoys the faculty of perception, and the power of thinking analytically on all subjects; and if this connection were sundered, he would be incapable of anymore or other kind of thought than a beast, and also if
this commerce with spirits should be taken away from him, or intercepted entirely, he would instantly die.” (T.C.R. 475.) For no one can live by himself alone, p. 91

Life is a flame, and the brighter it burns, the clearer the light it emits…. The inmost life, the vital force of the soul, is love.

Many have felt that in his later writings, he turned away from Swedenborgian grounding, and moved towards what is now considered the New Thought Movement.

THE UNBROKEN CIRCLE

No individual is an isolated existence, but the whole universe of created minds are bound up in the same bundle of life.

This is a basic and crucial concept to understanding Swedenborg and Evans on healing.

We are a holographic oneness. We need to stay aware of that connection in our healing journey. We shouldn’t take on burdens and struggles alone. We need to share them with God, of course, And also the God that is expressed through each one of us. `

In our Thursday chat we usually have a short healing circle, and people are remarking how much better things seem after the prayer. There is energy and love in sharing with others, and receiving their blessings for us. 

Evans is an extraordinary examples of someone who was healed of a disease, and who spent his life healing others. Yet, we might ask:  What about those who pray for healing and don't receive it?  What about the person who prayed for their cancer to be cured, but the cancer spread.  What about the paralyzed person who prays to walk again, but remains paralyzed.

Why do some get healed and others not?  In today's selection from Swedenborg, we read:

As diseases and sicknesses, and also healings and medicines, are not said in the Word of the natural life, but of another life which is distinct from the natural life; it is therefore plain to him who gives some consideration to the matter, that man has another life, which is that of his internal man.

With our physical eyes, we look for signs of a physical healing -- the cancer in remission; the paralyzed limbs moving again.  But we also need to use our spiritual eyes to look within.  In the story of Jean-Dominic Bauby, there was nothing he could do to escape from "locked-in syndrome."  However, he had a miraculous healing within his inner being; to the point where he felt like a butterfly roaming freely through the skies.  With Eric Allison's stroke, we know that Eric will never be exactly the same person he was before.  He and his wife Lisa are staying open to the Eric that is being created now with God.  We read the true story of  Adam Bloomberg who was severely injured in an accident, and in later years lost his brother to another accident.  With a lot of hard work, prayer and support, he was able to  go to college and become a physician.  But he couldn't erase the accident from his life.  He couldn't bring his brother back alive.  The healing that was most important to him was the inner change; that brought him peace inside and fulfillment in the role he played in the lives of others.

So, it's important not to take stories of great healings and healers as a comparison for our own lives.  Sometimes the physical healings DO happen.  Sometimes the healings are very deep inside, and very subtle.  We must look closely --with spiritual eyes.

Our closing song is another example of a healing that could not be physical; but it was miraculously spiritual.  The U-Tube video will give you  the true story of  Horatio and Anna Spafford, whose lives were  torn apart with unbearable personal tragedy.  Yet, at the height of his dispair, Horatio found God, and was inspired a song that has inspired many others.

In all of our stories of healing, there is a commone element:  the love and support of other people.  We are an unbroken circle of oneness; through which Divine healing power is ever flowing.

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Downloads

Title	Date
The Unbroken Circle	08/17/2008

© 2006, Swedenborgian Community
11 Highland Ave.
Newtonville, MA 02460

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