Sermon: Can Conjugial Love Return?

Sermon: Can Conjugial Love Return?

Pittsburgh New Church

February 23, 2020

Rev. Calvin Odhner

Introduction

Does anybody in here have a pet?  What is it?  Do you love it?  Yes, of course we love our wonderful pets!  How about a little brother or sister, do you love them?  Sometimes!  But that’s a different kind of love isn’t it!  There are different kinds of loves, aren’t there?  And today the Lord shares with us a special love that is the king of all loves!  All other loves are wrapped up in this love and that love is called conjugial love. It can only happen between a husband and wife. Let’s read how it started in Genesis chapter 2 verse 15:

Conjugial Love 58.1

That by virtue of its origin and its correspondence this love is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, beyond every love from the Lord that exists with the angels of heaven and with the men of the church. (CL 64.4)

Sermon

Sometimes it’s good to reflect for a minute what it is we are actually supposed to be doing here on earth—what is our real purpose here?  Even the casual New Churchman recognizes the basics we are supposed to be living by:

(1)       That there is one God, in whom is the Divine trinity, and that he is the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2)        That saving faith is to believe in him.

(3)        That evils must be shunned as sins, because they are of the devil, and from the devil.

(4)       That goods must be done, because they are of God, and from God.

(5)       That they are to be done by man as of himself; yet that he must believe they are from the Lord with man, and through him.”  (CL 82)

 Ok, so that’s it in a nutshell!  Doing these things will lead us to heaven—they will open up an “inner way” incrementally as your knowledge and intelligence increase. We read

…When we are born, we come first into the earthly level, which gradually develops within us all the way to that summit of intelligence called rationality. The second level called spiritual is opened by a love for being useful that comes from our intelligence, a love for our neighbor. (The) third level called celestial is opened by a heavenly love for being useful, that is a love for the Lord; and love for the Lord is nothing but applying the precepts of the Word to our lives, these precepts being essentially to abstain from evil things because they are hellish and demonic and to do good things because they are heavenly and divine. This is how the three levels are opened in us sequentially. (DP 237)

The more we learn of how Divine Providence operates on the universe the more we understand what is best for us, how we should live and what will ultimately make us happy. There is a lot of trial and error on this pathway.  If I were to read a quote from the heavenly doctrines to you, how much could you accept from it?

The state of the man who conjoins himself with..(the Lord), by a life according to His commandments, is more blessed and happy after death than before it in the world;   (CL 29.28)

You might be able to easily hear that but do we really understand it?  It would be different if you had had the experience of being in the other world for a couple of years, lamenting how much more you should have followed the Lord on earth.  Experience is such a great teacher!  The Lord wants us to be proactive in our spiritual life right now!  We know this from the Lord’s words to Thomas:

because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.  (John 20:29)

If we actually knew all the secrets today, what the Lord has in store for us—could we handle it? That we are only one of an infinite amount of earths with humans on them (Earths in the Universe), that heaven is made up of people from many different religions (DP) and is in the shape of a human!  That we must be married in the world to come, to enter fully into heaven.  That we must transform the loves we have now for new affections which the Lord provides when we shun those spirits which attack us each day.  The truth is fantastic! It frees us from the slavery of living our own man-made truths, trading them in for what actually is so!

So, what’s the problem?  We know what to do!  The problem is something that we have to get to know so well and be able to recognize so easily that we understand it inside and out!  This thing is called the “natural man.”  The natural man is all about the love of self and the world but the amazing thing is that we can observe our natural man at work!  With practice, we can watch it do its dirty work. When someone says something not in our favor the natural man goes into a frenzy of anger and resentment. Yet it wants to remain as secret as possible for when it gets discovered, it is so obvious that it gets exposed and possibly rejected not only by the outside world but also by the individual who is suffering from it. Nowhere is the “natural man” more prominent than in our marriages, as you all know!  When we have not done our spiritual work, the work of shunning evil and lust, the natural man is alive and well in our marriage and is even running the show.  If we have done some spiritual work, then a husband and wife have a common point of spiritual connection where the Lord can bond them deeply together. We read 

They who…love corporeal natural things, and only from them love things rational, cannot be conjoined with a consort as into one except as to those externals; and when the externals fail, a coldness invades the internals, and dispels the delights of that love, as from the mind so from the body, and afterwards as from the body so from the mind, and this until nothing is left of the remembrance of the earliest state of their marriage, and consequently no cognizance of it. (59.2)

So our marriage is a great place to observe our spiritual life’s progress and to witness the “natural man” at work.  Now you would really have to not be paying attention to recognize that women are very different than men. Yet males have a tendency to overlook these amazing differences in their efforts to be right! Sorry men, but its doctrinal!  We are told that

The universe was created by the Lord a most perfect work; but nothing more perfect was created therein than woman, beautiful in countenance and charming in manner, to the end that the man may render thanks to the Lord for this bountiful gift, and repay it by the reception of wisdom from him. (CL 56)

As husbands we tend to misjudge these creatures and their love for us!  With their God-given perception, perception that we unfortunately don’t have, they are constantly trying to get us back on track and we are doing our best to ignore it!  Strange set-up isn’t it?! 

That the Lord has taken the beauty and grace of life from the man and transcribed them into the woman; and for this reason the man without reunition with his own beauty and grace in woman is stern, austere, dry, and unlovely; and is not wise unless for himself alone, and such a one is foolish. But when the man is united with his beauty and grace of life in the wife, he becomes agreeable, pleasant, animated, and lovely and thus wise. (CL 56.4)

So why are couples often in constant battle or even in mild disagreements?  The “natural man.”  It is this natural man that wants to divide, separate and destroy. If we are not paying attention, it will do just that.  Yet, if husbands will recognize it, they have been given a secret weapon from the Lord to manage their lust for variety and wandering eye. Each woman is given the perception of the delights of conjugial love and with this perception comes beauty.  In fact, their whole body is an organ of perception(CL 56.3) where they are constantly perceiving their husbands changes of state.  If a husband can find it in himself to trust his wife and to tell her what he is experiencing, at the time it is happening, from the lusts of the natural man through her perception she can guide him in his journey out of the abyss. That is, as soon as she recovers from finding out just how bad our condition is!  This is the secret weapon the Lord has given every husband if he has the courage to use it!  To recognize that the lusts of the flesh are not him, but come from hell, and with practice, they both can stand above them and see them for what they are as a team.   We read

All good flows in from the Lord, and all evil from hell, Arcana Coelestia 904, 4151. A man at the present day believes that all things are in himself and from himself, when nevertheless they enter by influx, and he knows from a doctrinal of the Church that all good is from heaven, and all evil from hell, Arcana Coelestia 4249, 6193, 6206. But if he would believe as the case really is, he would not appropriate evil to himself: for he would cast it away from himself into hell; neither would he account good to be his own, and thus would not claim any merit from it, Arcana Coelestia 6206, 6324, 6325. How happy the state of a man would then be, because from the interior he would then see from the Lord both good and evil.

Your challenge this week, if your married or single, is to observe the “natural man” at work and to watch him work behind the scenes to create drama, distress and discontent in your life.  If you’re a husband, take it one step farther and share your challenges with your wife and watch what happens!  Allow her to use her God-Given talents to purify the love you both want!

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He [h]made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Genesis (2;21)

Amen. Let us pray

Sermon: Feeding the 5000

Sermon: Feeding the 5000

Pittsburgh New Church

February 9, 2020

Rev. Calvin Odhner

 Text: John 6:1-14

Arcana:AE 617:4

He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.                                                                                 (John 6:12-13)

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church! We have been learning about the beginning of the Lord’s ministry—who can tell me a miracle the Lord performed? (water to wine, lame to walk, raised from the dead) good!  These are all miracles the Lord can perform in our spiritual life!   Today, we discover the Lord can even feed us spiritual food!  Let’s read from John chapter 6. 

Sermon

We are so fortunate in the New Church to know what life after death is like—to understand the system, how it works and what is required of us.  Even more incredible is how much the Lord has put in place for us to succeed in our spiritual efforts and to help us along the road to becoming an angel.  Our job for this short time on earth is simply to keep striving, keep evaluating, searching for truth in our lives and following the Lord’s teaching.

 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

He asks each one of us: Do you believe this?”

Often when people transition to the other world it is so smooth, so complete they don’t realize they have moved from one world to the next.  An important question to ask ourselves is “will you seek out the Lord in the other life when you discover you are in a different land? The answer is simple—if you sought the Lord in this life you will definitely seek Him out in the other! Your hunger for spiritual truth can guide you while you are on this earth. This was also true for the people in Lord’s time as well. Some were following Him, tracking Him, wanting to be near Him. 

With the disciples, the Lord crossed the Sea of Galilee to the sunny green pastures which rise gently from the shore at the northeast corner of Lake Tiberius. As they sailed, they were not far from land so people on shore could track them. They ran on foot along the shore to follow them while others joined the company from the little towns which they passed along the way.  When the boat with the Lord and the disciples touched the beach, a great multitude were already there waiting for them. We are told the Lord pitied them; they seemed to Him like sheep not having a shepherd. The Lord uses this metaphor in so many places to describe us in the Word:

•         Psalm 23:1-3 ESV
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

•         Psalm 78:52 ESV

   Then he led out his people like sheep
    and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

•         Psalm 79:13 ESV
But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    will give thanks to you forever;

•         Psalm 119:176 ESV
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
    for I do not forget your commandments.

•         Isaiah 53:6 ESV
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—everyone—to his own way;

If you can imagine this scene on the shore of the lake from the Lord’s eyes, there are about 5000 men not including women and children in front of Him. Possibly 10,000 people altogether, waiting for Him to teach them and heal them.  If the Lord looked to the left, He could see several towns with people roaming around not interested in Him, not in the fold.

 Who are you following?

 Once you're outside the fold its dangerous out there, isn’t it?! Where the shepherd cannot fully protect you.  In the Lord’s sphere, the focus is on love to the neighbor.  When we are outside of it, we immediately begin to focus on self. This leads to self- gratification and non-stop pleasure seeking, most of which gets us in trouble!  Who are you following?  Depression, anger, resentment, addiction, marital discord—there are so many ways the hells keep us out of the “fold”, outside the fence.  They stop us from running along the shore towards the Lord!  If you feel like that right now, you’re following several different masters.  The Lord has a promise for you if you choose to come back:

•         Ezekiel 34:11-16 ESV
Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

This is just what the Lord did this day to the 5000!  For those who were willing to follow Him, He went among them and healed those that were sick.  Leading them up on the grassy slopes, above the sea, He sat down and taught them. These people wanted the Lord!  They wished to be cured from their sicknesses and addictions to false masters. Because He loves all people, He did to them as they wished—just as He will feed us if we ask. In Matthew we read "He saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick" - in Mark we read "He began to teach them many things," and in Luke "He spake unto them of the kingdom of God." By teaching us and talking to us of the kingdom of God, the Lord is doing something for our inner being: He is feeding our souls!

As the body corresponds to the soul, so the fish and the bread correspond to our “inside food" or the good and truth from the Lord. Here is a secret which the Lord has given to us of the New Church. Just as the soul is in the body, so the spiritual food is in the natural food. It is the kernel of which the natural food is the shell. Goodness which the Lord gives is inside the bread, and knowledge of truth which He gives is inside the fish. There could be no bread in the world if there were not goodness from the Lord, for through this the Lord creates the bread. There could be no fish in the sea if there were not truth from the Lord, for He creates the fish through this.

To see how this works —think of a walnut, see how beautifully the shell outside fits the nut inside? The two are quite distinct, right? Yet the one fits the other so closely. The Lord makes the shell to grow from the kernel to protect the kernel and also to further the growth of the kernel.  Although the shell cannot be created without the kernel, yet the kernel would not develop perfectly without the shell. Everything in Nature has a shell, or a sheath, or a covering, that fits it snugly and promotes its growth and protects it. A tree has bark; a bird has feathers; the animal has fur. The muscles have a membrane; an ear of corn has a husk;  fruit has skin; the seed has a covering.  Everywhere, if you look for it, you will find a kernel or an inside, and a shell on the outside.

Everything in Nature, both the outside and the inside, is itself a shell. For everything in Nature is natural, or outside; and its kernel, or inside, is something spiritual, which is in the spiritual world; for the natural world outside snugly fits the spiritual world inside and protects it. And every particular natural thing is said to "correspond" to a particular spiritual thing that is inside of it. The Lord asks us to seek out this spiritual food, this good and truth, which as a shepherd, He wants to feed us with. Your challenge this week is to allow the Lord to be your shepherd!  Follow Him in humility.  We read:

to love one another as I have loved you        (John 13:34)

11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them [b]to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.”                      (John 6:11-12)

Amen. Let us pray.

Sermon: The Samaritan Woman at the Well

Sermon: The Samaritan Woman at the Well

Pittsburgh New Church

February 2, 2020

Rev. Calvin Odhner

Text: John 4

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” TCR 579

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church!  We have been studying the beginning of the Lord’s ministry. He’s been baptized by John the Baptist, gone through a forty day fast followed by temptations in the wilderness and has performed the miracle at Cana—changing water into wine.  Now he is on the move again, to Samaria.

Sermon

We read:

4 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

When the Lord’s on the move you can be sure, because the Word is Divine, this describes something happening in our spiritual life!  At the time of the Lord’s pilgrimage on earth the land of Canaan was divided into three regions—Judea, Samaria, and Galilea. These three regions stand for the three degrees of our mind. Moving from Judea (the higher part of our mind where good is implanted) to the lower part of our mind (the natural part), truth must go through the rational part of our mind—called Samaria. 

 Let’s talk about Samaria for a minute, this was the thriving capital where the 10 tribes of Israel made their homes.  It is here the Assyrians swept down from the north and captured those pesky Jews, carrying them off to Assyria.  To replace these Jews the king of Samaria peopled Canaan with Assyrians from his own land—what better way to make sure there would be no resistance in the future! The Assyrians brought with them their idol worship.

 At one point these Assyrians were being eaten by wild lions. The king of Assyria thought that it must be because they are not worshiping the God of the land—Jehovah.  So, he sent a Jewish priest back to Samaria from Assyria to teach them how to worship Jehovah along with their idols.  These new “Samaritans” still represented the “rational mind” but now, because they opposed Israel, they represented a perverted rational that was opposed to the spiritual.  They worshiped Jehovah and they worshiped their own gods—a sort of Jewish/gentile.  Does that sound familiar?  Somebody who sort of worships the Lord and sort of worships their own gods?  Yep!  It’s us! It’s our rational mind.  We know the Lord, we know what He wants us to do, but this pesky love of self also has needs and wants to be worshiped!  Every piece of this history describes us to the last letter!

5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 

It may seem like this traveling around by the Lord from place to place was random, until we learn that this exact plot of ground is the one Jacob gave to Joseph two thousand years earlier. Everything in the Word connects with everything else. In fact, Joseph’s bones are buried on this site!  Jacob represents the natural mind and Joseph represents the spiritual.  The transfer of the plot of ground from Jacob to Joseph represents natural good becoming spiritual. This is what is about to happen with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Despite our need to worship foreign gods, the Lord has implanted good in us that seeks the truth—just as these Samaritans have!  His coming to this Samaritan city spiritually means that His influx of divine truth into the parts of us that have an affinity for good is where He seeks to give us a deeper perception of the truth.  This teaches us how little we know of the work the Lord is doing behind the scenes, it’s staggering! When the Lord’s on the move in your mind, He’s coming to awaken every good thing in you!  He is connecting in every way imaginable that He can connect with you!  Remember what He told us:

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

                                                                   (John 15:16)

It’s our job to just begin the reading of the Word and the applying of little bits and pieces where we can in our life just crack the door open to allow the Lord to work in your external life. This is where He brings the “living water!”

6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The well represents the literal sense of the Word. The woman of Samaria represents our state—one of having interest in the Word and coming to draw truth from it as we are doing today. But also knowing we have our idols waiting, doing push-ups outside and waiting for us to walk out those church doors! The Lord’s thirst is His desire to save everyone!

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Just imagine being so resentful to a race of people you weren’t allowed to even ask them for a drink of water!  This is the predicament the Jews got themselves into and it had been getting worse for 700 years. It’s the predicament we can all get ourselves into with longstanding resentments!  We cannot dissolve these on our own!  We need the power of the Lord which we receive in humility when we draw from His well.  This is why the Lord had to come again, we read

that but for the Lord's coming no one could be saved, is to be understood as meaning that no one could be regenerated but for the Lord's coming. (TCR 579)

Without the Lord “coming into our mind,” we are as trapped as the Jews of old. This hatred for their Samaritan brothers represents the separation of faith and charity. When what we know to be true stays in our mind and doesn’t come out into the world in our daily life.  But here by the well, we witness the pattern of respect and tenderness demonstrated by the Lord that we need to have for our neighbor. The Lord shows the woman this is why He came, to break down the barriers between people. 

The truths that we learn from the Word are first just knowledge, they have no life.  Only when you walk out of here today and connect the truth you have learned with love and affection for the Lord, making Him the source of all life and acting on that truth with all your heart does it become “living water.”  This is the “gift of God,” that the saving truth in the inner man implanted by the Lord craves and begs for the truths received from the Word in the outer man so that when the inner truth is lived it becomes that living stream carrying life and health wherever it goes!  Your challenge this week is to spend five whole minutes with the Lord at the well—ask Him what Living Truth is needed in your life. Ask Him what truth He wants you to bring into your life.

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Sermon: Fill up, Draw out!

Sermon: Fill up, Draw out!

Pittsburgh New Church

January 12, 2020

Rev. Calvin Odhner

Text: John 2:1-12

Arcana: 2649

Introduction

Good morning! Welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church!  What’s missing in your life?  Have you ever given that a thought?  Maybe money is missing or friends or happiness, what’s missing? I’ll tell you what’s missing in my life, Spanish!  I had 5 years of Spanish but how much Spanish can I speak now? Nada!  Why? because I never used it. I never had the day in day out give and take of talking with people in Spanish. Whatever we don’t use, we lose, don’t we?  This morning we are going to learn about what everybody's life is missing and how to learn it, grow it, and keep it going.  Let’s read from John Chapter 2:

“Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.”    (John 2:2-3)

Sermon

First, I want to mention how awesome it is to be in the New Church!  I don't know why you were chosen to be here, or what’s special in you?  But you’re about to unlock the story of the “Marriage at Cana” which millions of people have wanted to do for centuries and we are going to make that happen right now!

If you want to be in the New Church, you’ve got to learn to hear stories from the Word and turn them into intangibles, spiritual elements, that are just as real as this lectern. The spiritual pieces we are all made of, this is the world the Lord lives in! In 1998, the Ford Motor Company spent millions of dollars on the slogan— “Built to Last” Yeah, well… they don’t last! Nothing survives this trip to the other world but the spiritual parts of ourselves. These are the things we all need to focus on because they’re all we’ve really got! 

You're in a unique position—you get to see and hear a “sneak preview” of the other life because of the Second Coming!  But you’re always left in freedom, to believe or not!  If you choose to believe it, that the Lord knows you to your very core… that He deeply loves you… and wants to teach you how to be with Him….then these first 11 verses of John are what you’ve been looking for…they are literally “dripping” with Divine Truth…. and teach us… what’s missing in our lives! Before we start, let’s do some map work: At the time of the Lord’s ministry the Holy Land has been divided into 3 provinces: 

 Galilee

Samaria

Judea

Because you’re in the New Church, you have "let go” of the idea that there are “accidents,” or things that happen by “chance.” The Lord is in control of even the tiniest things in our lives and the division of these three provinces at that time represents our mind. Galilee representing our “will." Samaria representing somewhere between our will and our understanding—our “thought life.” Judea representing our “understanding.” When our will and understanding—the two parts of our mind are separated, the good desires we have do not seek the truth that can carry them out.  In other words, it pictures a person who knows a lot of book facts about how to live but never acts on any of them!  This is when we get into spiritual trouble. What we're after is the truth that we know, to be applied in our life!  This is the marriage of good and truth!  The Lord’s whole job on earth was to glorify His Human, that is, overcome the evil tendencies in the “Mary human” and gradually unite the Son with the Father, combining Divine Truth with Divine Love. 

You’ve felt this if you have ever fallen in love. The highest and deepest joys of life come from the love between and man and a woman, the marriage of good and truth and the greatest evils and disasters in life come from its abuse. This marriage of love and wisdom is why men and women are different. It’s how the whole world works, always an effort in nature, in space, in our minds—everywhere! A constant effort to bring love and wisdom together—heat and light, soil and water. This is the reason the first miracle takes place at a “marriage feast” for marriage in its highest sense represents the union of divine love and divine wisdom.

2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

A wedding pictures a person whose “desires” and “understanding” agree as to what to do.  The number “three” pictures completeness; so "the third day” after the Lord was baptized suggests the fullness of time, the fact that the Lord had now reached a state in which He could be in His active ministry. Galilee—(look on your handout) pictures our external plane of life, and Cana, which means "reedy," suggests a mere external understanding. A “reed” is the symbol for the literal sense of the Word. It can easily be bent by the winds to whatever a person wants to justify. Mary represents the church (her presence) and the fact that the church is recognized. The fact that the Lord and His disciples were invited shows that we are talking about a person who desires the presence of the Lord and knowledge of Him. All of these details together give us a picture of a person living an external life with a mere external knowledge of the Word, yet having a genuine desire to live rightly, recognizing the church, and desiring to know more of the Lord. Isn’t this the state that many of us are in today?  Lots of “water,” external knowledge and truths, and Mary said, "They have no wine." Water and wine both represent truth, but water is truth on the natural plane, wine is truth on the spiritual plane. When we can see truth not only as necessary in our external life, but through acting on the truth, we see it in our spiritual life and this brings us real spiritual satisfaction. Through putting our truth into our behaviors with others, the water is changed into wine. Mary told the servants at the feast,

"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." This is following the Lord. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." (John 15:14)

Then the Lord made use of the vessels which were there—six of them, representing the general knowledges essential to the orderly development of a spiritual life. He asked the servants to fill them with water to the brim. Did He send them out for new wine? No! He just used what he had!

 "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off ... But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)  Then He said, "Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast."

 This is the command to use the truth we have! This is the Lord’s kingdom within us!  As we do this, the water is changed into wine.  Just like my Spanish, if you never take your truth out of your mind and use it—you forget it.  When you are facing a difficult problem in your life, use what truth you have, trust in the Lord, and watch a way open for you. The Lord gives two commands: fill up, draw out. Fill your water pot with truth and draw out that truth into your life!

10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

  Amen. The sacrament of Holy Supper will now take place.

Beginning a New Year

Sermon: Beginning a New Year: Reading And Reflection

Pittsburgh New Church

December 29, 2019

Rev. Calvin Odhner

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church!  What amazing thing happened at Christmas? Who knows?  Yes, the Lord was born! And just as the Lord was born and grew into a young boy, he had to learn from the Word. He had to learn how to behave just as we all had to learn!  Did the Lord understand everything all at once?  NO!  It took years, just as we know nothing when we are born but over time we start to learn and we pick up speed and momentum!  All this on our way to becoming and angel!  Let’s read about the Lord as a young boy. Luke chapter 2 verse 40:

“and He said to them, Why is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

 Sermon

I’m sure most of you have never heard of Matt Stutzman. In December of 2015, he shot an arrow 930.04 ft. in Mckinney, Texas and hit the bull’s eye! This made him the Guinness Book of world records holder for the longest accurate shot in archery history—oh, by the way he has no arms!  He taught himself to shoot with his feet and his shoulders!  Now, if Matt had been off by just one degree he would have missed the target by over a 2 feet!  It reminds me of the teaching in the Heavenly Doctrines that:

“every moment of our life is a new beginning to all that follow”

Every moment has a series of consequences to eternity. We are given the analogy that each moment of our life is as if we are shooting an arrow at a target. If we are just slightly off the mark at the first moment, the arrow goes far off the target if no adjustment is made. In fact, the word "sin" in Greek literally means "to miss the mark." This is why, at the beginning of this New Year, 2020, is such a great time to make some new spiritual adjustments to take an opportunity to adjust our course!  Traditionally many people do this with new year’s resolutions!  I want to share with you the top 10 “failed” new year’s resolutions:

1.        Lose weight/exercise.

2.        Quit smoking.

3.        Learn something new.

4.        Eat healthier.

5.        Get out of debt/save money.

6.        Spend more time with family.

7.        Watch less TV, spend less time on Facebook.

8.        Travel.

9.        Be less stressed.

10.     Get more sleep.

11.     Volunteer.

Do any of these sound familiar? But the Heavenly Doctrines offer another way to really target the personal work we need to begin this year and that is through reflection.  Reflection is our ability to stand above and to look down on our life, to see the bigger picture.   Let’s take a moment right now and reflect on where the areas of pain are in your life. Resist the temptation to blame it on your mother-in-law. Just examine where it hurts, take your time. This is why you are here this morning, to spiritually grow so let’s practice it, go inside and notice the pain? Remember, spiritual or emotional pain is just as much a danger signal that something is wrong as pain in your body. Close your eyes and reflect, see if you can target the pain. Ask the Lord to show you very clearly what you are to work on, when you can see it—this is your New Year’s resolution! It is through reading the three-fold-Word and reflection that we slowly begin to see the areas of our life that are fertile for change!

“And when He was twelve years old, they went to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.” And it came to pass, after three days, that they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions.  And all who heard Him were amazed at His intelligence and answers.

The Lord learned information just as we do!  His mind was attracted to the truth in the Word because of His Divine heredity- so He absorbed the truth from the Word much faster than anybody else!  He was wise at 12 years old!  It is by means of knowledge that the Lord teaches us! When we reflect on and apply these knowledges in our life, we become spiritual.  We learn to think as the Lord thinks—it is easy, no?  Why? Because we must compel ourselves. This is the reciprocal action the Lord is looking for!  Compelling ourselves, despite the fact that we want to do it our way.   This is how the Lord became wise at 12—He was just beginning to understand why He was here and who He really was.  Just as we need to understand why we are here, that this world is not the end, but rather the beginning and that by living a spiritual life from the Word we are journeying to becoming angels for eternity! For many of us this is a stretch and this is where reading the Heavenly Doctrines can help!

We read:

"Without the Word no one would possess spiritual intelligence, which consists in having knowledge of God, of heaven and hell, and of a life after death; nor would [he] know anything whatever about the Lord, about faith in Him nor anything about redemption, by means of which nevertheless comes salvation" (SS 114).

But the practice of reading and reflection in the New Year will pay-off big returns not only as you slowly regenerate in this world but it makes all the difference in the other world.  This habit alone will completely change your experience when you first enter the other world.  When we wake up in the spiritual world we go on thinking and feeling just as we did before. Our thoughts and emotions seem exactly the same as before. At first we are not aware of the slightest change!  We seem to be in our accustomed surroundings, in the company of those we have known and loved. The Lord is so gentle we do not know we have departed out of the world. Only through angelic instruction are we brought into a state of reflection on our former state of life. As we ‘reflect’ we begin to notice strange things that could not happen on earth. By this experience we are brought to recognize that we are, in fact, in a spiritual world. This reflection must come from our association with others; that is, from angels whose use and function it is to preside over the process of resurrection from the dead. Without this instruction we continue to believe we are still on earth. Indeed, with the evil, who reject the instruction of the angels, the fantasy that they are still in the body returns, and some never escape from it. This instruction from the angels is with the good who love spiritual things and are willing to be instructed. They gladly accept the idea that they have departed from the world and eagerly seek to explore the wonders of their new life. Yet after a brief time, they no longer reflect on this, but take it for granted, enjoying the spiritual world even as people on earth enjoy the natural world. Swedenborg describes the experience of a newly arrived spirit, saying:

"He knew not at first where he was, supposing himself to be in the world altogether as if living in the body, for all souls [recently] from the life of the body [have this impression], inasmuch as they are not then gifted with reflection upon place (SD 2031)...[or upon] time, the objects of the senses, and the like… which would enable them to know that they are in another life… (SD 2032).

To reflect is to fix our thoughts on something give it careful consideration and, it literally means to “bend back.” It is in reflection that we can view our loves and make incremental changes towards being reborn.

We read:

As long as man lives in the world, he can advance in…regeneration only by alternations of state between the natural and the spiritual. AC 933

 And again in Divine Providence:

It is only through innumerable changes of state that the individual can be "born again of the spirit," and from natural become spiritual, angelic. And these changes involve alternations between the dominance of the natural and the spiritual in man, and the gradual subordination of the natural to the spiritual. (D. P. 279.)

The whole purpose of our lives on earth is to learn to judge between good and evil, truth and falsity, and freely choose the one and reject the other. We are not alone in this, the Lord is by our side bending our thoughts toward Him every day.   We are all about to embark on a New Year! Through our reading and reflection, we will make incremental changes that will make this a fantastic year!  Set your spiritual goals—put reading and reflection at the top of the list! And submit to the Divine Guidance that comes…

“and He said to them, Why is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”     

                                                             Amen

Christmas: The Annunciation

Sermon: Christmas: The Annunciation:

 The Birth of Charity

Pittsburgh New Church

Dec 15, 2019

Rev. Calvin Odhner

 Text: Luke 1:28-37

TCR:688

 “Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”        (Luke 1: 28)

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church! Last week we heard that John the Baptist is calling us to prepare for the Lord’s birth!  He is crying out in the wilderness of our mind “Hey, the Lord is coming!  Are you ready to receive Him?  Now all kinds of things are happening.  Today, we get to see an angel appear to Mary—let's read about it! 

Sermon

Think back for a moment to past Christmases in your life!  Such lovely times! There is something so peaceful, so precious about Christmas.  It’s a time we set aside to celebrate the Lord’s miraculous virgin birth.  We celebrate the life-giving truths He brought into the world.  Every year we are touched by the Lord’s birth story. 

“Hallelujah, the Lord God, omnipotent shall reign, and His name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, father of eternity, prince of peace."

Those who have studied the times and history of the Jews are agreed that at the time of the Lord's birth, there was a universal expectation of His coming. Throughout Jerusalem, Judaea and Galilee, wherever Jews or Israelites met together they would talk of the Messianic prophecies and express their feeling that the time was at hand. The Jews had suffered heavily under Roman rule and it seems, although they expected the Lord’s birth almost as one man…they had turned away from the reliance upon the Lord to a reliance on the sensual—on what they could only touch and feel.  They had closed the upper door which love and wisdom freely flowed through.  Maybe you have suffered too! For some of us Christmas can be a stressful time, a dark time, a time when our old challenges re-surface as we navigate family, money, and relationships.  Holidays sometimes underline loss and“old wounds that bring us down on our emotional knees.  If Christmas has more darkness than light for you, now more than ever we need to hear His announcement, that He is coming into the world!   That He is at this moment drawing near and we are to reach out our hands to receive what He has to offer.  He brings heaven down near to people and He draws people up, to a closer conjunction with Him. There must be a human reciprocal action.  The Lord acts but we must react, in freedom, as of ourselves, to the Divine action.  We read

“linking is impossible unless it is reciprocal, since a one-sided link not balanced by one on the other side falls apart of its own accord.” (CL 61)

Not only is this true for us but it was true for Mary!  Every act of her life had conspired to make her fit to be the mother of the Lord. Her devout study of the Word showed her response to the salutation of Elisabeth, known as the Magnificat; this is made up entirely from phrases of the Old Testament, which must have been in her memory from repeated reading and meditation to be called forth spontaneously, in beautiful order and sequence under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This Annunciation, this announcement to Mary that she would bring the Lord into the world, gives us the assurance that our constant work toward walking the streets in heaven is not in vain.  We know that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary during this dark time in the world, a time when the light of truth was nearly extinguished.  Herod, the dominion of the love of self, like in our lives today, is present and dangerous.  His goal is to kill any hint of opposition to his power, any small act of kindness between you and your family.  The family carnage he is capable of is not unknown to many of us.  But let us go now to Galilee with the angel Gabriel to find Mary.  She is young, betrothed and full of hope.  She is looking forward to her coming marriage to Joseph.  We know she is loved by a “just man” and that she is an obedient woman (AC 4593).  Mary represents an affection for truth and so the angel says,

 “Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

  Although we are aware of Herod’s presence, we all carry ideals—good ideas about how we should live, how we should love one another.  We may be needy ourselves, but we automatically comfort a friend in need, deeply care for the welfare of our children, and many times refrain from making that mean comment.  The Lord protects our ideals in Galilee—the quiet part of our natural mind.  He guards our innocent affections and heavenly loves despite the turmoil of our natural life.    You may not always be in touch with your ideals as they are more or less hidden depending on our state of reception.  But eventually, and especially at Christmas, they may long to come forward as Mary longed to marry a “just man,” a carpenter: Joseph of the house of David. Her wish represents the longing to have our gentle ideals wedded to a way that we can apply them to life.  Through repentance and the shunning of evil’s that pass through our mind, we seek to bring these ideals into our life.  Yet we fail more often than not, which prompts Mary to ask “How shall this be seeing I know not a man?” How can I have charity for the neighbor in my life when I don’t have enough wisdom or understanding to conceive of it? The answer is that the Lord provides for the birth of charity in each of our lives.  When there is an innocent affection for truth in our ideals the Lord can now be born.

 “The Holy spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you.”

Just as the Lord was born in a dark time in the world the Lord can be born among your suffering, in your sadness, right in the midst of the evils that plague our own natural minds.    Take this opportunity with Christmas around the corner, to put your earthly life in order, to focus on repenting from evils you know you are committing, to prepare and wash the birthing area of your mind with the truths of the Word.

     Mary discovered that she not only got to marry Joseph and have children of her own, but she was also permitted to be part of the most important event in history, the birth of the Lord.

“Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest.”  

She was not only to have her dreams and ideals that she wanted for a happy and useful life on earth, but when we allow the birth of the Lord into our own mind, He gives us His dream for us too.  That He will live inside of us forever. Interestingly, Swedenborg met the Lord’s mother, Mary in the other world….

… I once saw Mary, the mother of the Lord, pass by; she appeared overhead dressed in white. She paused then for a moment to say that she had been the Lord's mother, and He had been born to her. But on becoming God He had put off everything human He had from her, and she now worships Him as her God, being unwilling for anyone to acknowledge Him as her son, since everything in Him is Divine.  (The Last Judgement 66 continuation)

 We too are to get on our knees and worship this Divine Man as Mary does.  It takes time to realize a life of merely sensual living, focusing on ourselves, is dry and not worth living.  When we discover the uplifting effects of repentance and love to the neighbor, we finally hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness, John the Baptist,  "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”  This discovery creates an environment, where the Lord combines the true thoughts we have with the good things we do—this is the birth of charity towards the neighbor.

 When this birth is imminent, the angel Gabriel appears, and we move beyond the love of self!

      Childbirth is a painful process as many of you know!  During the height of delivery,  mothers sometimes feel like giving up.  Often this is a sign that the baby is about to be born.   The Lord is born in us the same way!  Do not give up…  Repentance, the giving up of the self, is painful!     Yet it brings satisfaction and contentment—the “feeling of Christmas.” Look for the simple ways the Lord reveals Himself in your relationships and connections and remember the Angels words to Mary:

“Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 

                                                            Amen

Thanksgiving Day Service

Thanksgiving Day

Pittsburgh New Church

November 29, 2019

Text: John 4:35, Matthew 9:35

Arcana: AC 5957

"He that reapeth receiveth reward, and gathered fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." (John 4:36)

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church! Who had a good Thanksgiving?  turkey? yes what else, potatoes? yes

Great!  But what makes it really good?  Yes we have family and friends…that is great! It is so fun to hang out together but even if you are having Thanksgiving alone,

to be grateful to the Lord, somehow this gratefulness brings the Lord’s presence and brings contentedness into our life.  I want to read to you some passages from the Lord and I think you will recognize them all but I want you to think about them with the idea of thankfulness and being content.

Sermon

From most ancient times, people have recognized the fruits of the earth are a free gift from the Lord.  If you’ve ever had apples growing in your back yard, it’s fantastic to watch them come out without doing anything! Every fall you have delicious fruit!  Every summer, if you have a garden, you can watch the magic!  Everything blooming and growing and bursting with life.   And in the fall, we store what we have harvested, we thank the Lord for his delicious bounty!

It is so easy today to become disconnected with our source of food.  With all the packaging and fast food we may not see the day to day miracles of plants blossoming, fruits growing and ripening on the tree. Yet, none of this growth could happen without the fertile ground, sun and rain, the wonderful balance of our environment.  We have no control over these and yet the Lord gives these to us according to His Will.  In fact, every thought we have, the labor we give to make the produce are from the Divine, although they feel they are our own.  Our produce harvest then, is truly a miracle, an example of how the Divine Presence of the Lord, through His love and wisdom, sustains our lives and keeps our bodies alive.  But in the Lord’s sight, the real harvest is not the fruits, grains, and vegetables, and produce from the earth, but the spirit we carry within us!  This is because the Lord looks to what is eternal.  Just as we can be disconnected from our food source we can get so wrapped up in our life that we disconnect from our spiritual source where our life and happiness come from.  Gratitude and thankfulness for this spiritual life get us back on track!    They are essential for the nourishment of our soul and this is the true Thanksgiving!

            We read: 

“Thanksgiving and its accompanying gratitude” cause people to turn to the Lord and be separated, at least temporarily,  from the love of self and its evils which are obstacles to the Lord's inflowing good (AC 5957).[1]  

Gratitude opens our mind and heart for the reception of eternal blessings. “Thankfulness” inspires love, and with it, gives us the desire to make a return for the benefits we have received. When this love is directed to the Lord it drives us to inquire how we may truly serve the Him. This enables the Lord to feed us with the bread of heaven, providing that spiritual harvest to which He referred when He said to His disciples:

 "He that reapeth receiveth reward, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

 In the Word, we find traditions of “thanksgiving”way before the Pilgrims.  There is the feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacles celebrated by the Children of Israel—these were all commanded by the Lord!

When we look at children today, are they grateful without being taught and trained to feel and express gratitude? If parents do not teach gratitude to their children, and no one else teaches them to express it, will the children themselves ever think of it?  Experience teaches us that they will not!   Parents know they must begin very early in a child's life teaching them to say "please" and "thank you."  Think of how an ungrateful person affects you?

The Heavenly Doctrines equate ungrateful with love of self and self-centered behavior. When we develop the skill of being grateful, we are building a truly noble character! An ungrateful child is utterly selfish, and selfishness is destructive of all human connections. It’s destructive of all contentment and happiness, and it’s not just true for children!  Thankful and grateful adults carry a heavenly trait!

 We may be sure people would never have thought of giving thanks to the Lord for His blessings, unless He had taught them to do so, unless He had required it of them, not for His own sake, that He might glory in it, but for our sake, as a means of making us unselfish, humble, and content with our lot. 

What are you grateful for? what do you have in your life that you can’t imagine not having?  Now here comes the hard part—have you told that person how grateful you are to know them and to have them in your life?  Being grateful is like a muscle we can develop and strengthen.  Many people have a grateful list, they write down in their journal 5 things they are grateful for each day and not surprisingly this brings contentment. We are told that gratefulness comes from the Divine truth we receive from the Lord.  It is the presence of the Lord with us that causes us to “give thanks” to Him. It is by His continual presence that we are grateful (AR 372).[2]  

“Thanksgiving” signifies -all worship of the Lord is from the Lord. In other words, we can worship the Lord only from those things which we receive from Him. We are to worship Him only from the things of good and truth He has given us through His Word (AR 249).[3] 

In fact, the word “thanksgiving” in the original tongue means “confession”; confession not only of our own unworthiness but of the Lord's goodness, of His unceasing mercy—a confession that His truth is eternal.[4]   Think of the humility involved with this confession!

Music starts

 Short meditation on “thankfulness.”

In this state of appreciation, what do we want to do?  We want to give to others! We want to love everyone!  We are so grateful, we want to share that gratefulness in a life of use and charity with others!

Your challenge for the day is to keep this gratefulness alive all day and bring it to others throughout the day.

1 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31)

Amen. Let us pray. 

Sermon: Moses and Regeneration

Sermon: Moses and Regeneration

Pittsburgh New Church

November 3, 2019

Rev. Calvin Odhner

We’ve been talking about the children of Israel, how they came into the Land of Egypt, into the land of Goshen, and what a land it was!

 Egypt was a place of great knowledge—they built pyramids, the sphinx-the largest statue of its time, amazing artwork, gold inlaid mummies, artifacts of incredible talent!

Long ago the ancient churches were there and these even had communication with heaven. Their worship was full of beautiful correspondences, we read

[3]…Divine things present themselves in the world by correspondences…the Word has been written exclusively by means of them. The Lord spoke by correspondences, because He spoke from His Divine, for that which is from the Divine, descending into nature, is turned into such things as correspond to Divine things.                                            (Doctrine for sacred scripture 20:3)

The Egyptian hieroglyphics are nothing else but correspondences from the spiritual world!  See if you can decode some of them!

This story of Moses’ birth is how the Lord is born in our mind by means of the internal man.  Just as the Lord was born into a harsh environment Moses too was in danger.  The children of Israel had entered into the land of Goshen just as the elementary truths and memory knowledges enter into our mind from the internal man. These truths are placed there by the Lord until they are ready to receive good from the internal man, good that will lead us to the beginning of regeneration. 

This endeavor of the Lord to enter into every person is incredibly powerful! But you’ve seen in everywhere!  When you lift up a piece of plywood and there’s a plant growing underneath it. When it looks like a tree is growing right out of a rock, this powerful force comes from the Divine through the internal man into our minds. You have witnessed how a son looks like his father!  or even how a son can even look like his grandfather. 

We read

…the inmost of life, which is from the father, is continually flowing and working into the external, which is from the mother, and is in the effort to make this like itself, even in the womb, can be seen from sons, in that they are born into the disposition of the father, and sometimes grandsons and great-grandsons into that of the grandfather and great grandfather. (AC 6716)

This is how the Lord was able to be born like any other man but from his Father become Divine.  This flow from the internal man can get blocked off if we work at it hard enough and this is what happened to the Egyptians of that time.  The Egyptians’ spiritual struggle was that they believed that life was from themselves rather than they are a vessel and all life is from the Lord.

The whole universe!  All the planets with infinite humans on them of all shapes and sizes, no matter how far away they are, receive the Divine that proceeds from the Lord.  This is Life. These are the goods and truths from the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom that create the order you see in the natural world and the order we have in our minds.  But when man gets confused, we read and

believe that all things are blind flowings, and that if there comes forth anything that has been determined, it is of his own prudence, he perverts order; for he applies to himself the things of order with a view to taking care only of himself, and not of his neighbor, except insofar as his neighbor favors him.  (AC 6692)

 This perversion of order, believe it or not, has a strange effect and is what leads to magic! For what is magic, but something that looks one way but really is another—its craftiness. We read

Hence, wonderful to say, all who have firmly impressed on themselves that all things are of their own prudence, and nothing of the Divine providence, are in the other life very prone to magic… (AC 6692:2)

 There is actually a place called the “hell of the magicians.” Just so you know how “into it” the Egyptians were, below this “magician hell” is another world, where the Egyptians of that time were full of magic.

Speaking of magic, just imagine if I had a match in my hand and I wanted it to disappear (performing magic trick).  Magic is deception by craft and it gets stronger the more we believe life is from ourselves.

1. And there went a man from the house of Levi, and took a daughter of Levi.

2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son; and she saw him, that he was good, and she hid him three months.

3. And she could no longer hide him; and she took for him an ark of rush,

Baby Moses represents the Word and he was laid in a little ark made of rushes, which represent simple truths.  How does the Lord enter into our life? Through those simple truths—being kind to others, helping people in need, remembering to call someone who’s hurting. These simple truths are the basis and beginning of a spiritual life.

and daubed it with bitumen and with pitch;

 Bitumen and pitch represent our minds which are a mix of good and evil.

We read

When a man is being reformed, he is kept by the Lord as to his internal in good and truth, but as to his external he is let into his evils and falsities, consequently among infernal spirits who are in these evils and falsities. These hover round him, and endeavor by every method to destroy him.

 Is there anything that you can imagine that could look more precarious than a baby in a homemade reed boat floating down a river?  Yet, this is the picture the Lord gives us of our spiritual condition before regeneration starts. It looks as though we don’t have a chance and yet the Lord protects us from deep within the internal man every moment. We read

…the good and truth which flow in through the internal render him so safe that the infernal spirits cannot do him the least harm; for that which acts inwardly prevails immeasurably over that which acts outwardly;

                                                                                    (AC 6724:2)

And Pharaoh’s daughter came down to wash at the river;…

And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’

children. And his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call

thee a woman, a nurse…..And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go.

It is our affection for knowledge that creates the basis of our rational mind.  Without knowledge we have picked up along the way, truth would have nothing to attach itself to.  In our curiosity for learning these truths, displayed by Pharaohs daughter, she asks “what’s in the basket?” which leads to our discovery of the Divine in the Word.  We read

factual knowledge is what those who are being regenerated must learn first, for that knowledge is the groundwork for things that compose the understanding, and the understanding is what receives the truth of faith (AC 6750)

 As our internal man continually seeks to come forward into our rational, the stages of regeneration commence in our lives.   Can we assist in this process? This week seek out those moments of quiet reflection, where you can hear the voice of the Lord.  Find a quiet place to have that conversation so that you may feel the presence of the Lord.

1. And there went a man from the house of Levi, and took a daughter of Levi.

2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son; and she saw him, that he was good, and she hid him three months.

Amen. Let us pray

Sermon: How the Church is Born in Man

Sermon Series 1:

How the Church is Born In Man

Pittsburgh New Church

October 13, 2019

Rev. Calvin Odhner

Text: Exodus (Portions)

Arcana:AC 4966

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from all thy heart, and in all thy soul, and in all thy mind; this is the first and great commandment; (Matthew 22:37)

 

Introduction

Has anybody ever had fresh corn on the cob?  Well that was probably planted by a farmer!  He had to get everything ready for that corn to grow—he had to plow the field, harrow it, and then level it some more because next he was bringing out the planter and everything has to be smooth for the planter. It’s the same with our mind, the Lord has to prepare the soil in our mind for “seeds”  and this is the story of Exodus. Let’s read it, Exodus chapter 1. 

 

Sermon

We have been learning that the Lord is more involved in our life more than we ever thought possible!  And it is finally in the Exodus story where we learn just how carefully and quietly the Lord enters into our mind. How gently he sets the stage and prepares everything so all will grow and multiply.

1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came.

2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5. And all the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy souls; and Joseph was in Egypt.

When we talk about how the Lord enters our mind and begins His work, we first must acknowledge that the whole process is being run by what the Heavenly Doctrines call the “internal man” or the "internal celestial.” 

This is the “home” of the Lord within everyone and He is constantly providing us with life from this (AC 6636) source within us.  No one is ever left on his own to fend for himself, for the Lord provides a continuous source of life which we can choose to close off or open depending on our love of good (AC 6628).

You may have felt cut-off from the Lord at some time in your life, alone and without hope, but this was an appearance. Oddly, the Lord provides states like this for one reason! Our salvation, so that we will come to know some truth we do not recognize at the moment.

This “internal man” is “and Joseph was in Egypt.”  This is how the Lord describes Himself within our mind, as Joseph was the ruler of all Egypt so the Lord is the ruler of our whole mind.  

For the meaning of Egypt though, we must go all the way back to what was happening in this part of the world during ancient times—for where there is no space and time it is all the same to the Lord! 

Egypt was one of the homes of the Ancient Church, where they understood the correspondence of things of this world with the things of heaven.  It was actually a big deal, and they made studies of it. 

They knew “mountains" represented “people who possess the goodness of love,” (AR 336) because those angels motivated by their love to the Lord, live on mountains. 

They knew “valleys” meant the “church” in a person was literally “going downhill,” that their love and worship of the Lord had departed from holiness and was becoming unclean and profane in the “valley.”

It was in this land called “Egypt” that the Ancient Church fell and people started to mess around with magic-they actually became addicted to magic (AC 1462).  And so, the Land of Egypt, over time had two meanings—a place where people knew good correspondences, and then a place where they practiced evil correspondences. 

The word idea of a mountain remains the same-everybody knows what a mountain is! But now it had two meanings—a good correspondence and an evil correspondence.

You’re now ready to learn a word you will read over and over again in the Heavenly Doctrines—”memory-knowledge.”  Memory-knowledge is “the mountain,” it can be either good or bad depending on if it is connected with truth or falsity (AC 4964, 4749, 6023).  All memory knowledge is in the “external man.”  This is the Lords “secret trick.” He's got to get these truths of the internal man into the external man, so He implants them in memory-knowledges. We read

 in order that a man may be regenerated, his internal and external must be conjoined together, for unless they are conjoined, all good flowing in from the Lord through the internal man into the external or natural man is either perverted, or suffocated, or rejected, and then the internal man is also closed. The method in which this conjunction is effected is what has been described in this chapter, which method is by means of the insertion of truths into memory-knowledges.

                                                                  (AC 6052)

“And Joseph was in Egypt’ —this sentence can now come to life for us. Joseph represents the Lord in the internal man and Egypt represents memory knowledges in the “external man.” In this case, they must be good correspondences because the Lord is present and in fact, they are! They are memory-knowledges of the church! 

1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came.

2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

Now it gets amazing!  Remember, we are talking about how the Lord enters our mind. How the Lord first starts cultivating His thoughts within us—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, all the brothers represent truths going into memory-knowledges.  Truths about the church, truths about how to love the neighbor and all the things that you have learned about how to treat each other.

These are all coming into “Egypt” but not just anywhere in Egypt, into the land of Goshen.  In the middle of the “natural man,” the Lord places this “best tract of land (6051) so that truths can begin to wax and multiply! 

Jacob, the patriarch of all the children of Israel signifies truth and here they come. You can picture them coming from the outlying lands down into the land of Egypt, all the families with their animals-good affections towards the neighbor.   

The Lord carefully delivering truths into your mind on good soil into a safe land where these truths of the church will multiply.

 Now it makes sense when we read

In the inmost sense the migration of Jacob and his sons into Egypt represented the first instruction of the Lord in knowledges from the Word…

                                                                  (AC 1462)

Now, how much control did you have over this?  Zero.

This is what I mean when I say you have no idea how much the Lord is managing your spiritual life. Never, ever give up, trust in Him, He has got this, stop stressing—it really does no good but gives the hells a ‘fun day out.”

Who gets all these truths from the Internal man?  Everyone! Even the Lord, remember this?

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I tell thee. And he arose and took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod;...(Matthew 2:13-15, 19-21)

So here in this first chapter of Exodus we discover that nothing happens in our mind by chance or is left up to nature.  That the Lord carefully protects us and leads us to the land of Goshen, even when we thought Joseph was dead!  This is the epic journey we are all on and most of you know what’s coming—400 years of slavery, plagues, escape and disappointment, 40 years in the desert, yet, where does all this lead us?  Into the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey…

1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came.

2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5. And all the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy

souls; and Joseph was in Egypt.

 Amen. Let us pray

Sermon: How the Lord Protects Us, Part 2

Sermon II: How The Lord Protects Us

Pittsburgh New Church

October 6, 2019

Rev. Calvin Odhner

Text: 1 Kings 3:16-28

Arcana: AC 6466,6467

24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  (John 12:24)

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church!  How many of you have seen a newborn baby?  Yes, nearly everyone—and if you talk to the mom of the newborn what’s always on her mind?  The baby!  She is always feeding it, cuddling it, checking every little thing—is it warm enough, is its head up enough, you might call it the "personal bodyguard" and “100% protection plan” for the baby.  And, you’ll never see a mother backdown from protecting her baby—no matter what, so strong is her love. This love was first, the Lord’s love that He imparted to mothers. This is how much the Lord cares for each of us!  Let’s read a story about a mother and a baby….

Sermon

We have been talking about how the Lord preserves our spirit, how he protects us from evil, attempts to surround us with good. This subject is so interesting, so complicated with so many new and fresh ideas regarding our life in this world and the next, that it must be digested slowly to receive the full impact of how the Lord preserves the human race.

Let’s start by following a novitiate spirit who has just arrived in the other world…

Spirits fresh from the world, before they have been instructed by angels, believe no otherwise than that the all of life is in the man himself, and that nothing flows in; because they know nothing in particular about heaven, thus neither about influx thence. (AC 6468)

These new spirits soon discover that there is only one life that flows in from the Lord into people, just as there is only one sun for this earth and it brings all our heat and light! 

Just as the sun is received by different objects according to how they are shaped or their color—the Lord’s influx flows into us according to the things we love and delight in. 

…everyone has life in accordance with the form of the interiors which he has acquired by willing and acting, thinking and speaking.  (AC 6468)

Good delights connect us with heavenly influx, evil delights connect us with evil influx.  So it is us who summons spirits to ourselves that match who we are.

Angels can tell if a new spirit is open to being instructed about the Lord. We read

Neither are spirits who are not good willing to be instructed in these things, for they desire to live from themselves    (AC 6468)

Who wants to hear about the Lord when we believe all life is from ourselves?  But, when a spirit is willing to be instructed he or she for the first time learns the secret of how the Lord leads people. He does so through spirits. Let me share with you the first time Swedenborg discovered this….

Before the way was opened to me to speak with spirits, I was of the opinion that no spirit or angel could ever know or

perceive my thoughts, because they were within me, and known to God alone.

And then it once happened that I observed that a certain spirit knew what I was thinking, for he spoke with me about what I was thinking of, in a few words, and gave an indication of his presence by a certain sign. At this I was astounded, chiefly because he knew my thoughts.

 From this it was evident how difficult it is for a man to believe that any spirit knows what he is thinking, when yet he knows not only the thoughts which the man himself knows, but also the least things of his thoughts and affections, which the man does not know—nay, such things as the man can never know during the life of the body. This I know from the continuous experience of many years.   (AC 5855)

It is these spirits—good and evil, that permit the life from the Lord to continually flow into us. Without them we would drop dead as a stone.

 In this way the Lord is technically within us and not just through general influx like animals, but in what the Heavenly Doctrines call “particular influx”— managing our thoughts and affections…

That all life is from the Lord, it has also been given to know from the fact that no spirit thinks and speaks from himself,

but from others, and these others from yet others, and so on.  (AC 6470)

In this, granted, strange way, the Lord protects and leads each of us. But His Leadership is even more powerful than we know—consider this statement concerning the Lord's power in our daily life:

It was shown me by experience during the space of an hour, how all the thoughts are ruled by the Lord. There was an

influx like a most gentle and almost imperceptible stream, the current of which does not appear, but still leads and draws.

This, which flowed in from the Lord, led in this manner all the series of my thoughts into the consequent things, and although gently, powerfully, so that I could not possibly wander into other thoughts, which also I was allowed to attempt, but in vain. (AC 6474)

This is how the Lord leads imperceptibility, leaving us in freedom and yet protecting our salvation.

Many people wonder why the Lord didn’t make sure they were given tons of money, or grandchildren, or a husband or even a wife, believing that everything has been left to fortune or chance.  But the Lord leaves nothing in our life to chance. He manages everything for our eternal welfare.

We don’t get to know why we don't always get what we want. We think we are just unlucky but the Lord plays a hand in every action of our life. 

A great example of this was with a “not so good spirit” Swedenborg met. The Lord actually permitted the angels to see where this man would have ended up without the His protection. 

There was a certain one who had confirmed himself in the notion that nothing is of the Divine providence, but that each and all things are of sagacity, and are also from fortune and chance….When he came into the other life he continued there his former life, as all do; he sought out and learned all things—even magical arts—that he supposed might be of service to him, and by means of which he might take such care of himself as to be fortunate… from himself.

 I conversed with him, and he said that he was in his heaven when this was the case, and that there could not possibly be any other heaven than that which he made for himself.….the same spirit was reduced into the state of his infancy, and the Lord showed the angels what his quality had been at that time, and also what was the then foreseen quality of his future life, and that every detail of his life had been led by the Lord, and that he would have plunged into the most atrocious hell if there had been even the least cessation of the continual providence of the Lord.

                                                      (AC 6484)

It may surprise you that the Lord works this closely in your life! But all this comes from His deep love for us! His words in the Word are a real invitation, a very real hope that we’ll join him…

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.       (Isaiah 55:6)

and again

“Come unto me, ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. (Matthew 11:28)                  

We read

Scarcely any man believes that the Lord takes such care of a man, and this continually from the first thread of his life to the last of it, and afterward to eternity.              (AC 5992)     

We’ve probably all heard that there are at least two angels and two devils with every person.  What you may not know is that these spirits change very quickly depending on our states(AC 5851) in a way, we are in charge of what angels or devil are with us.

So, what exactly do angels do in a day to protect us?  When infernal spirits attack, the angels protect—this is the order of operations.  Angels especially regulate our affections for these are what make up our spiritual life.  

They observe whether any new hells are open, and if a person has brought themself into any new evil. If they have, angels can close that hell as far as the person lets them and they can remove any spirits who attempt to emerge from that hell. 

What else are they looking for?  We are told they

disperse strange and new influxes that produce evil effects.   (AC 5850)

 Especially do the angels call forth the goods and truths that are with a man, and set them in opposition to the evils and falsities which the evil spirits excite.

…and this every moment, and every moment of a moment; (AC 5992:3)

All this happens every moment of every moment, so our job and your challenge this week, is to keep your thoughts clear and clean, keep your intentions directed towards heavenly ends. These two things bring the presence of the Lord into your life which bring tranquility, peace, and happiness (AC 6469).

                      Amen. Let us pray.