View Screen-Reader Accessible Site

The Lord in the New Year

WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE

JANUARY 1, 2012

The Lord in the New Year

  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Click for all-text version

Open your Bible


Light a Candle


OPENING SONG

Happy New Year, 2012
Abba

READINGS


From the Bible

John 14: 8-12

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.


From Swedenborg

True Christian Religion, #81
81. In the preceding chapter God the creator, together with
creation, has been treated of. This chapter will treat of the Lord the
redeemer, together with redemption; and the next chapter of the
Holy Spirit, together with the Divine operation. By the Lord the
redeemer we mean Jehovah in the human; for in what follows it
will be shown that Jehovah himself descended and assumed a
human in order that he might effect redemption. The name Lord is
used and not Jehovah, because the Jehovah of the Old Testament is
called the Lord in the New, as is shown in the following passages.
In Moses:
Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah; and thou shalt love
Jehovah God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deut. 6:4, 5);
and in Mark:
The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul (Mark 12:29, 30).
Again, in Isaiah:
Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make level in the wilderness a highway for
our God (Isa. 40:3);
and in Luke:
Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way (Luke 1:76);
besides other


MESSAGE


Before I discovered Swedenborg, I was a seminary student at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. It was in the early days of the Feminist-Liberation Theology Program there. Many of us would frequently change the word “Lord” in songs and liturgy to “God.” We saw “Lord” as a hierarchical term of authority, and one that was usually masculine. “God,” however, had no connotations of power or authority or gender. It could comfortably be the “creator” and the “ground of all being” for all of us.

When I became involved in the Swedenborgian Church, I was quite uncomfortable with the frequent use of “the Lord.” Swedenborg sometimes spoke of “God,” and I couldn’t understand why he didn’t use “God” all of the time.

It took me awhile to realize that Swedenborg had very different and specific meanings for “God” and “the Lord.”
When Swedenborg talks about the creator of the world, he refers to God. He says that he uses that term in the way that “Jehovah” is used in the Old Testament.

5. As the acknowledgment of God from knowledge of God is
The very essence and soul of the entire contents of theology, it is
Necessary that the unity of God should be the first thing treated off.
This shall be set forth in order in the following sections:
(1) The entire Holy Scripture, and the doctrines therefrom of the
Churches in the Christian world, teach that God is one.
(2) There is a universal influx [from God] into the souls of men
Of the truth that there is a God, and that he is one.

Part of the ultimate plan of the Creator God/Jehovah, was to come to earth and take on human form. This is where Swedenborg veers away from most of Christianity. Christians generally believe that God sent his son, Jesus, into the world. Then Jesus left the Holy Spirit, and there was a trinity: Father, son, Holy Spirit.

Swedenborg is quite insistent that Jesus was God taking on human form; not God producing a son. There is only one God, and that one God came to earth in human form with the name of “Jesus.”

As Jesus took on his earthly ministry, he started to call himself “Lord.” He was God in a human manifestation. As he walked the earth, his divine nature and human became more closely intertwined. It is similar to our own regeneration, where we bring our human self into complete relationship with the divine. In some traditions, the goal is to rid oneself of all human attributes to strive to be more like the divine. To Swedenborg, however, our humanity is just as important as our divinity; for the Lord is the Divine Human. We are not to try and diminish our humanity, but rather to elevate it into union with divinity. The life of Jesus is a model on how to do that.

Often, the “Lord” is used in Christianity as Jesus, the son of God on earth, and the risen Christ. With the Holy Spirit this completes the trinity.

Because Swedenborg does not accept a “trinity,” his use of the term “the Lord” is the Creator/Jehovah who came to earth in human form and is now a complete Divine Human. “God” to Swedenborg is generally Jehovah before taking on a human manifestation. Swedenborg's rejection of "trinity" is confusing, however, for he does recognize three ways that the Lord can be expressed:  as Love, as Wisdom, and as Action in the world or Good, Truth, and Charity.

This concept of Swedenborg’s sort of gutted the essence of mainstream Christianity - esp. as taught by Luther --that what you did in the world was not all that important as long as you accepted the correct belief before your death. That correct belief was that Jesus was the son of God who died to give you salvation. If you believed that at the time of your death, you would go to heaven even if you had lived a very evil life. However, if you lived a life of love, but didn’t have that particular belief about Jesus, you went to hell.

That’s why Swedenborg’s concept of the “the Lord” opens the door to an acceptance of all religious traditions. Next week, we’ll look more at how this plays out in our relationships with other faith traditions today.

On swedenborgiancommunity.org we use a variety of terms to refer to the One God – the Divine Human, including “God”, or “Divine” or “Divine Human” or “Love and Wisdom” or “Creator” or “Lord” or “spirit.” We encourage each person to find the word or words that best helps him or her find the Divine Human.

When you pray, what terms help you feel connected with the Divine Human?


[Note:  for expanded sermon resources, click HERE.]


Let us Pray:
[prayer contributed by Rev. Judith]

Beloved Lord,  our creator, protector, comforter and guide in all things. Help us with Your Inspiration and Care to regenerate into all that we can be.
Show us how to achive Peace, Prosperity, Unity, Harmony and Brotherhood in our world. Show us how to be better Christians and to serve you through our special talents.
Thank you for the wonderful year ahead and for the power everyday to do your will.  We humbly thank you for the Great year ahead and for opening us to Your Inspiration. Amen. "

[for expanded inspiration and prayer, click HERE].




CLOSING SONG
Kyrie Christe Eleison
[this well-known Gregorian Chant, Lord Have Mercy, was contributed by one of our participants on this site.  Feel free to suggest music that you would like to see in worship.]



Now extinguish your candle [s]
                    

Close your Bible


         
 


.

Go in peace, being open to seeing the One God in all things.


Prayer Service 9 PM Eastern; 6 PM Pacific;  Chapel Chat Room
Coffee Hour Chat; 9:30 PM Eastern; 6:30 PM Pacific; Fellowship Lounge
Please visit our new worship page!