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Alive-- and in Pain

WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE


Oct. 18,  2009
Rev. Wilma Wake


Open your Bible



Light a candle



 
OPENING SONG

It Is Well With My Soul

 





READINGS


From the Bible:

Mark 3
1Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."

4Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.

5He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.



Swedenborg

After the great lights are kindled and placed in the inner self, and the
outer self is receiving light from them, the time arrives when we first start to live.
Earlier, we can hardly be said to have been alive, thinking as we
did that the good we perform and the truth we speak originate in ourselves.
On our own we are dead and have nothing but evil and falsity
inside, with the result that nothing we produce from ourselves has life.
So true is this that by our own power we cannot do anything good—at
least not anything inherently good. ...
Heavenly Secrets, #39

There is a constant inflow from the spiritual world into the physical world.  Unless people realize that there is a spiritual world and that it is as distinct from the physical world s an anntecedent circumstance is from its consequence or a cause from it causes, they cannot know nything about inflow.
DLW   NCE, 340


Message

 ALIVE .... and  IN PAIN


Rev. Robert F. Molsberry
















It was 6:00 PM on May 31, 1997. In an instant, Robert S. Mulsberry’s life was changed forever. He had been living an idyllic life in a small Iowa town as a parish minister, as well as a husband, father, and athlete. He had spent the afternoon working on his sermon for the next day, with a text from the 3rd chapter of Mark about Jesus healing on the Sabbath. He never did deliver that sermon, but he lived through it the next day when doctors spent the Sabbath trying to save his life.

At 6 PM on May 31st, he was riding his bike, when a hit and run driver blindsided him. Mulberry barely survived, with permanently paralyzed legs and a life in a wheel chair.

How could he come to terms with such a tragedy?  He wrote a book about his healing journey, called Blindsided by Grace:  Entering the World of Disability.

 

He writes: 

I was blindsided by a drunk driver and have had to face a great deal of uncertainty, loss, grief, and pain.  My losses have encompassed more than the use of my legs.  I’ve also lost a sense of self-image that was highly dependent on my physical abilities and appearance.  I’ve faced ongoing health issues and reconstructive surgeries.  My life expectancy, in all likelihood, will be much reduced.  Many people who see me roll cheerfully nod with determination through my day have no idea what it costs me, what I’ve had to give, and how I still grieve.

But whole new realities have also opened up as a result of this life-changing incident.  My pace has slowed down and I have been forced to become more deliberate and disciplined.  People tell me that I was a decent enough pastor before the injury, but I feel as though I have become more caring and compassionate since the accident.  I can empathize more with the trials that all people go through.  I see human diversity in a whole new light.  I have begun to develop new theological insights.  I’ve had to rethink my understanding of God’s role in tragedy and suffering, and what biblical healing is all about. [16]

 


Michael J. Fox has a similar perspective.  He writes about his experience of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease:

What [the doctor] did not tell me; what no one could, is these last 10 years of coming to terms with my disease would be the best ten years of my life – not in spite of my illness, but because of it.

Coping with the relentless assault and the accumulating damage is not easy. Nobody would ever choose to have this visited upon them.   Still this unexpected crisis forced a fundamental life decision:  adopt a siege mentality, or embark on a journey. Whatever it was …. that allowed me to go down the second road … was unquestionably a gift, and absent this neurophysiological catastrophe, I would never have opened it or been so profoundly enriched.  [p. x]

 

How can we understand such injury and illness from a Swedenborgian perspective? Swedenborg tells us that in the 5th stage of regeneration, we are coming alive – we are awakening to who we really are. What if we awaken to paralyzed legs or Parkinson’s Disease?

Eugene Taylor, Ph.D,  is a Swedenborgian who is a Lecturer on Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, and the 1983 Wiliam James Lecturer on the Varieties of Religious Experience at Harvard DivinitySchool.  In his book, A Psychology of Spiritual Healing, he discusses a way to understand healing:

 

Often, we think of sickness as something transitory; but for millions of people, illness is chronic, even lifelong.  The loss of limbs, a radical disfigurement, terrible pain, all of these my be permanent adjustments that a person has to make.  Chronic illness, however, can also be a stimulus to kinds of internal growth that would not have been other possible. … Beethoven composed symphonies while completely deaf.  Jackson Pollock, as well as numerous other artists, used conditions of psychopathology to produce new dimensions in modern art.   … while terrible things might happen to us, there is simply no telling what new doors will open up for us in our response to pain, sickness, and infirmity.  Our illness can always become the vehicle toward the actualization of a spiritual destiny higher than the physical or psychological.  [140-41]

 

All of this makes sense from a Swedenborgian perspective. 

There is a constant inflow from the spiritual world into the physical world.  [DLW 340]

The more we align with the spiritual influx, the more we are in a state of healing; regardless of the circumstances of the body.

Physicist Stephen Hawkins says of his severe disabilities:

  I guess we’re all pretty disabled on the cosmic scale.  What difference is a few muscles more or less?  Disability does not really affect my consciousness.  I see it as an inconvenience like color blindness.

 
Through reading Swedenborg, Helen Keller came to have a similar view on her disbilities.  It was only her physical sight and physical hearing that were impaired.  Internally, everyone has impairment of the spiritual eyes and ears.  Hers, however, were far more developed that for most people around her.

The true principle of cure is the divine love brought by the Lord’s humanity and life of divine truth … AC 5712

We can love who we are.

Molsberry writes:

 

If I could be miraculously cured, … would I go for it?  Darn straight I would!  I’m no idiot. ….but have some gifts appeared as a result of – not just in spite of, but also because of – my injury and subsequent disability?  Yes.  And is life – just as it is , with no miracle cure on the horizon – manageable?  Yes.  And is it – just as it is  - a good life?.... Darn tootin’!  Michel J. Fox considers himself a lucky man for having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  I consider myself gifted for having been made aware of the blessings that followed my injuries and disability.  ….Acceptance is getting to the place where you can value your current condition, whatever it my be, in spite of its limitation.  [75]

 

The basis of healing is the Divine influx.  As we align with this, we find healing.  It may not be paralyzed legs walking again.  But it could be a paralyzed soul dancing. 

 

What challenges do you face in your life:  physically, emotionally, or spiritually?  Are there spiritual blessings in your challenges? How can you find healing through aligning with the Divine in you?

 

 


Closing Song
I've Got Peace Like A River



Extinguish your candles
 
   




And close the Bible.            
 

 
Go forth;  Allowing Divine Love to heal you.