Once again, we find ourselves in a season of harvest, a time to celebrate that the green Earth provides for our physical and spiritual nourishment. Perhaps there is no greater nourishment than the Word. One of Swedenborg’s greatest contributions to Christianity is the idea that the Word founded upon correspondence; it is written in such a way that deeper truths may be discerned when we engage with the text. Patterns in the story point to patterns in our own spiritual lives. When we are able to read the Word open to what lies beyond or within the words on the page, we will be able to see ourselves in it. This inner sense of the Word teaches us how to tell the difference between truth and falsity, between right and wrong. It teaches us how to worship so that we may better perceive truth and see the love that underlies all events and all people. It helps us to heal from the wounds of our past, and it helps us to embrace the future for which we were created. Because everything of heaven and hell is reflected in everything of the world, which is to say that all aspects of our physical lives correspond to our spiritual realities, it is possible for us to learn, to grow beyond our shortcomings, and to be nourished.
Part of a Swedenborgian spiritual practice is to apply correspondences to our study of the Word. We are not satisfied by a merely literary experience of Scripture, and we are cautioned not to mistake literal interpretations for heavenly truth. In our observance of the sacrament of communion, for example, we are not to assume that the wine and the bread are Christ’s literal blood and body simply because Scripture reports that’s what he said at the Last Supper. Wine and blood correspond to truth. Blood signifies a higher truth because it conveys life. Bread and body correspond to goodness, and body a higher good for the very same reason. It is not the food and drink that changes, but the perceptions of those who partake of them. The act of eating itself is a correspondence; sincere worship nourishes the spiritual body just as physical eating nourishes the physical body. Limiting ourselves to a literal interpretation denies us the unspeakable valuable lessons that the Word offers.
Even as Swedenborgians, however, we can inadvertently limit ourselves in this way. We are eager to apply correspondence to our study of the earlier Hebrew scriptures, but when it comes to the Lord we still tend toward the literal. Take the phrase “son of God”, for example. A “son” in the Word corresponds to a derivative truth. That is a truth that follows from and is based upon a larger concept. The “son of God” would then be one who lives and teaches truths that originate from Divine Love and Wisdom, giving these truths form so that they can be appreciated by others, which is exactly how Scripture depicts Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was a teacher with a strong internal connection with the Divine Source of Life itself, a teacher who embraced a mission of helping others make connections that were appropriate for them. Historical Christianity has chosen to interpret the phrase “son of God” more literally. Given that Jesus too often used figurative language to express deeper truths, can we reasonably assume that he was speaking literally when he identified himself as a “son of God”?
Please understand that in saying this, I’m not saying that any one way of thinking about Jesus is right or wrong. We all have a responsibility to work such things out on our own, according to how the Creator inspires us. I do mean to say that we can waste a lot of time arguing over whose interpretation of Scripture is correct, and, as a species, we have. “The Great Schism” of 1054 was the mutual separation of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Church based in Constantinople. It was brought about by several factors, one of the most important being a difference in how each branch of Christianity viewed the nature of the “son of God”. The Eastern Church, influenced by Greek philosophy, maintained that the world received “the Holy Spirit”, the third member of the Divine Trinity, from the Father, while the Roman Church decreed that the world received the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. They even changed the Nicene Creed, written 700 years earlier, to reflect their assertion. The mutual excommunications of the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople stood until 1964, in a joint ceremony that essentially ended a 910-year-old hissy fit. Swedenborg argued that their disagreement was based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the Trinity, and how unfortunate that arguing over heavenly truths that world-based humans were not ready to comprehend made people forget to feel charity toward one another, charity being one of the most essential qualities of a Christian life.
My point this morning is that reading the Gospels with the application of correspondences can yield a wealth of truly soul-nourishing concepts. You may have noticed that both of our biblical readings involved shepherds. Seeing the Lord as a shepherd is a familiar and cherished image to us today, but the people he was speaking to didn’t understand what he was saying to them. Apparently these weren’t people who were accustomed to figurative language. Given that many Christians still think of themselves as sheep, we have to wonder if people today understand what Jesus was saying. Sheep correspond to the good of charity in us, the part of us that is innocent and humble and trusting of the Lord’s leadership. The “good shepherd”, then, is that which protects and maintains this state within us, because it is in this state that we most readily receive the inspiration from the Lord. This “good shepherd” shows us which are the greenest pastures where the most nourishing spiritual goodness is to be found. The “good shepherd” leads us to still waters, the most peaceful, most rational truths. The “good shepherd” protects us from the falsities and evils that infest “the valley of the shadow of death”. Jesus identified himself as the gate, the introductory ideas that would lead us into a place of safety and growth. Jesus spoke in correspondences, using worldly images to connect us with eternal truths and the most satisfying, satiating goodness.
There are some Christians who do not believe that Swedenborgians appreciate Jesus enough. I tend to respectfully disagree. True, we don’t fight for opportunities to express our “personal relationship with Jesus Christ”. We don’t go from door to door working to convince others to adopt our way of thinking. We don’t measure our success by the number of people in our pews, or our worthiness in the eyes of heaven by the number of notches in our Bibles. We are Christians that are not satisfied by superficial interpretations of the Word and so we choose to delve more deeply. We chose to experience the unfolding Word as a community, sharing the insights we receive for the benefit of each other. We honor Swedenborg not as a spiritual autocrat that proclaimed what the Bible absolutely means for everybody, but as a guide that pointed us in another direction so that our spiritual journeys would be more deliberate and more fulfilling.
For us, the sacrament of communion isn’t just a religious obligation. It is an opportunity to recommit ourselves to our covenant with our Creator, our promise to be the best people we can be, to be watchful of the falsities that can lead us astray, and to be mindful for the Divine Presence in all things, regarding everything as purposeful and beautiful. I can’t tell you what the particulars of your covenant should be. That’s between you and the Lord. I can only share with you what it means for me, as a Swedenborgian student of Jesus of Nazareth. As I accept the wine and the bread, I vow to be open to the truths that are revealed to me, because the Lord has assessed that I am ready to receive them, and to the goodness that I will endeavor to accept without complaint. And I will participate in the sacrament knowing that, with the Word poised and ready to show me a greater nourishment than mere bread and wine can provide, my cup truly overflows.
READINGS
Old Testament reading: Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
New Testament reading: John 10:1-11
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Reading from Swedenborg: Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture #8
Since the Word is inwardly spiritual and heavenly, it was composed using nothing but correspondences; and when something is written by means of nothing but correspondences, its outermost written sense takes on the kind of style we find in the prophets and in the Gospels, a style that has divine wisdom and everything angelic hidden within it even though it seems to be commonplace.