|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Past Sermons |
 |
|||
|
Friend, Move Up Higher Letter From Your Editor, August 1998 Bible Reading In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5) Noticing how the guests chose the places of honor, Jesus told them a parable. "When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit at the lowest place, so that upon your host's arrival, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Luke 14:7-11) Reading from Swedenborg When we do good works for the reward we will get, we may say that we want only to be the least in heaven, because we know from the Bible that this is what we are supposed to want. But we are still thinking that by saying this we will become great--so we have the same goal in mind. However, when we do good things with no thought of reward, we do not even think about being great; we think only about being of service. (Arcana Coelestia #6393.4) Sermon Every new beginning can remind us of the mystery of The Beginning. For the beginning of a new church year, and for the first sermon of a pastorate, a blindingly obvious place to start--or so it seemed to me--was with the first day. But that's fine, because I also believe that the obvious is often the nearest and the safest port to set sail from. Every day repeats the events of the first day. I want us to be reminded here that in the Bible, as for the Jewish tradition right up to this day, as for that matter in the Old English tradition, a day runs from one evening to the next evening. From that perspective, the daybreak--the coming of new light--is the pivot around which the day turns. Our days have become varied and complex. And yet today, as every day, as the first day, pivots around the coming of new light. Our spiritual lives, just as our natural lives, are divided into days. A new day of the spirit starts, as did the first day, with darkness and void. That is to say, it starts with a sense of emptiness, a sense of need. It can be a time of being stuck, but also a time of restlessness, as the Spirit of God hovers, or "broods" in some translations, over the deep. Then the dawn comes. A fresh insight breaks, bringing new joy, new hope. The new insight allows us to see our way again, letting us move forward once more. Yet every spiritual day brings us eventually to another spiritual evening. The helpful and needed insight of one day is the oversimplification, the half-truth, even the stumbling block of the next day. Our now not-so-new insight has taken us as far as it will go. We return to spiritual evening, to restlessness and discontent. Swedenborg writes of the creation of light: "The first state is when a person begins to know that the good and the true are something higher" (Arcana Coelestia #20). The Latin begins, "Primum est," meaning, "First is . . ." The translation is tricky since in Latin, adjectives need not accompany a noun, and there are no articles. It could be "a first," "the first." First what? First step? First stage? For the purposes of this sermon I will take this passage to mean that the recurrent first step forward in each of our spiritual days happens when a person comes to see that goodness and truth are something higher than he or she had previously supposed. Swedenborg speaks repeatedly of what he calls "appearances of truth." There is a middle ground between utter falsehood and absolute truth. As finite human beings we live in the land of appearances. Truth itself--God's truth--is infinite, and thus beyond our grasp. That is why our spiritual lives necessarily have many days. The truth is always something higher . . . higher than even our best understanding so far. The parable of the last seat at the wedding feast is a case in point. The story is found in the Gospel of Luke: Noticing how the guests chose the places of honor, Jesus told them a parable. "When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit at the lowest place, so that upon your host's arrival, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Luke 14:7-11) Jesus tended to pose riddles--challenges to his hearers. Certainly, taken at face value this parable seems to fall short of the mark. Jesus notices people jockeying for position. He points out that if you are seeking honor and avoiding disgrace, there is a more sophisticated strategy: sit in the lowest seat and let someone else move you up higher. We've all seen people play the false modesty game; we've probably all done it ourselves at some point. Is Jesus recommending this to us? Surely the truth here has got to be something higher. For a mystic like Meister Eckhart, the words of the host to the guest are the words of God to us. In that light, let us read the parable again, paying attention to what the host actually says to the guest. Let us see if we can find a word of God to us in them. When the guest sits in the highest seat, what the host says to him is actually quite short. Three simple words in the Greek: "Dos touto topon": literally, "Give him space." Does the host say, "hang your head in shame and walk to the end of the table"? No, he simply says "give this person space." Other translations are possible. Perhaps, given the context, the most likely is "Give him a place." Noticeably absent, any way you look at it, is the word for "your"--despite the fact that many English versions, including the one just quoted, add a "your" back in. Who says some people have more honor than others? Who says that some places are better than others? Who says the places are yours or mine? Who says that two people can't share a place? Who, for that matter, says that you can't ask everyone to move down a little? Not the host of the feast. The guest brings these assumptions with him; culture and upbringing have dictated them to him. When the guest sits in the lowest place, the host says, "Friend, move up higher." Are we to understand that now someone else is going to bear the humiliation and public disgrace of being asked to give up a place to someone else? The parable as given to us simply doesn't say. At one level, Jesus is suggesting a more sophisticated strategy for getting honor and avoiding public disgrace. At another level, he is inviting us to reexamine our assumptions about honor and disgrace, respectful treatment and humiliating treatment. Honor and disgrace, respect and humiliation. Swedenborg, I think, would see these as appearances of truth--not exactly false, but not the final truth either. This means we need to spend a moment reflecting both on what is right about these ideas and on what is wrong with them. In our world there are many roles that imply differences of status. Parent and child, student and teacher, clergy and laity, doctor and patient, counselor and client, police and policed, governors and the governed. In the military there are ranks, in academia degrees. There is licensing and certification of all sorts. These distinctions have their proper uses, which need to be respected. Yet when they become too rigid; when they make it hard to connect as one person to another; when they become a source of shame; then they have been taken too seriously. At the risk of sounding judgmental, I would say that the hapless guest for whom it is a "disgrace" to give up a seat to someone "more distinguished" is at a point of spiritual evening, and awaits a new light. As Swedenborg put it, the first step is to realize that goodness and truth are something higher. The parable gives an example of the need to move to a higher truth--but not a random example. I chose this particular parable for the two sayings of the host--sayings a mystic would read as God's words to us. To repeat, "Give this one space," and "Friend, move up higher." I want to propose them as good mottoes for us in the year to come. For a group of our size we contain considerable diversity. Many walks of life are represented, many backgrounds, many different points on life's journey. We need to honor and respect these differences without letting them become too big--without letting them get in the way. In a word, we need to give each other space. A Swedenborgian church recognizes that there are many paths. It seeks to support the continued spiritual growth of all who come and participate. While we make space for each other, we also want to urge each other on. In truly spiritual matters, one person's advancement is not at the expense of another's; it is not a competition nor a zero sum game. To all who come we say first, "Welcome!" And having extended that welcome, let us be ever saying one to another, "Friend, move up higher."
Prayer O Master and Friend, in our new beginnings, and as we join with others in the banquet of spiritual life, remove from our minds all thought of honor and status, of competition and reputation. Take away our desire to be considered the highest and the best, and replace it with a warm and heartfelt desire to serve. Instead of imposing our own ideas and our own will on others, may we give them space to grow stronger in their own beliefs and goals. And instead of worrying about our own place at the banquet, let us continually say to one another, "Friend, move up higher." Amen. |
Contact Us | Links | Sitemap