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Flying into the New Year
WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE BY THE SWEDENBORGIAN ON-LINE COMMUNITY
Light a candle
OPENING SONG
READINGS
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
573. The expression “born again,” which means, as it were, created anew, is here used because “to be created” signifies to be regenerated. [TCR]
FLYING INTO ANOTHER YEAR
Hans Christian Anderson wrote a story in 1850 about a mythical bird called a phoenix.
IN the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, in the first rose, a bird was born. His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was beauteous, and his song ravishing. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one—the one solitary Phoenix bird. The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years, he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg.
The bird flutters round us, swift as light, beauteous in color, charming in song. When a mother sits by her infant’s cradle, he stands on the pillow, and, with his wings, forms a glory around the infant’s head. He flies through the chamber of content, and brings sunshine into it, and the violets on the humble table smell doubly sweet.
The Phoenix represents “resurrection” in many traditions throughout history, including Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, and Phoenicians. The Phoenix has been said to live in India and to migrate to Egypt every 500 years. This is probably inspired by Garuda, the bird of the Hindu god Vishnu. He saw the bird as sunlight. The phoenix has also appeared in Christian history.
The Egyptian phoenix [Bennu bird] was popular in early Catholic art as representing resurrection.
St. Clement thought that the phoenix was a real animal, and referred to it as sign of Christ's resurrection.
Job 29:18 is usually translated in Jewish scripture as:
Most Christian translations are:
18 “I thought, ‘I will die in my own house,
my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
Swedenborg doesn’t have any reference to “phoenix,” but he does talk about birds:
776. '[Every] bird according to its kind' means all spiritual truth, 'flying things' means natural truth, and 'winged thing' sensory truth. [A.C. 776]
Of course, he has a lot to say about regeneration. Here are a few of his thoughts:
Man is conjoined to the Lord by regeneration (n. 2004, 9338). And consociated with angels in heaven (n. 2474). He does not come into heaven, until he is in a state to be led by the Lord by means of good, which is the case when he is regenerated (n. 8516, 8539, 8722, 9139, 9832, 10367).
573. The expression “born again,” which means, as it were, created anew, is here used because “to be created” signifies to be regenerated. [TCR]
577. Regeneration, therefore, is the means of salvation, while charity and faith are the means of regeneration.
The New Year is a good time to think about regeneration, rebirth, and transformation.
Christmas is the time that we honor the birth of the light in the world; the celebration of the rebirth of the light in each one of us. After Christmas, we honor the start of a new year; a time to continue the process.
We can "fly" into the New Year as a phoenix would. Most of the time we think of the "New Year" as a time to put together some resolutions of things that we'll do -- like losing weight and quitting smoking. These resolutions are good and important for us. However, we can move far beyond them if we think like a phoenix.
Imagine on New Year's Eve that you are an old phoenix, reaching the end of its 500 years. Think about that phoenix jumping into a burning pyre -- and then re-emerging transformed as a young bird with bright new feathers.
Let God burn away your old self, and repaint your feathers in bright, shimmering colors.
How? Before starting your list of New Year's resolutions, say a prayer. Ask for God's guidance on your regeneration, and how the New Year can be a step in that process. Then, out of that prayer, see what New Year's resolutions you need for yourself to let God's process work through you.
Make this a "Swedenborgian" New Year, where we incorporate the change of the year into the process of our regeneration, turning to God to guide us on that journey.
Happy new year, 2011!
CLOSING SONG
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Extinguish your candle.
Close the Bible
Go in peace, preparing your heart for the birth of a new year.
