Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

In Revelation 12:7-17, it says:

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

In Secrets of Heaven 9276:7, it says:

The Church…resembles an actual human being in this respect, that a person has two fountains of life, namely The Heart and The Lungs. It is well known that when human life begins the first part to develop is the heart and that the second is the lungs, and that from these two as fountains of life every other part of the body receives life. The heart of the Grand Man, that is, of heaven and the Church, is composed of those who are governed by love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, and so, considered without reference to persons, consists in love of the Lord and love of the neighbour. But the lungs in the Grand Man, or heaven and the Church, are composed of those who are governed by charity towards the neighbour, which comes from the Lord, and from this by faith, and so, considered without reference to persons, consists in charity and faith coming from the Lord. The remaining organs and members in the Grand Man however are composed of those who are governed by external forms of good and external truths, and so, considered without reference to persons, consist in external forms of good and external truths, by means of which internal truths and forms of good can be brought in. Just as the heart, then, flows first into the lungs, and subsequently from itself through these into the organs and members of the body, so too the Lord flows through the good of love into internal truths, and through these into external truths and forms of good.

And finally, in Matthew 28:16-20, it says:

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

May the Lord bless the hearing and the doing of His Word.

This is June 13th. New Church Day approaches. The 19th of June. Celebrating the anniversary of the beginning of the establishment of the Lord’s New Church in heaven and on earth with the publication of the book, True Christian Religion. What are you planning on doing about it?

There will be a pageant here. There will be a picnic. The Cathedral will be lit. In some homes, people will decorate. In some homes, there will be special foods prepared. These are all great external ways of acknowledging one of the most significant dates in the history of creation.

The New Jerusalem is descending down out of heaven from God. What are you doing about that?

The Lord established the New Church, first in heaven, and then on earth, by means of the opening up of the internal sense of His Word, and going back and explaining what His life on Earth was all about, and giving us the tools that we need to go back to His Word and to see the deeper truths that have been lying hidden there all along. The Lord did this, and He did it through the means of people.

First, he called Emmanuel Swedenborg. He opened his eyes. He sent him back to read the Word. He taught him.

But beyond that, He has called many more people to help with the establishment of the Church on earth.

In heaven, on June 19th, the Lord sent out His disciples into the spiritual world to help establish the New Heaven. On earth, it is up to us to establish the externals that can act as vessels for His church on earth.

What is the church?

It’s not this building. It’s not a corporation in Pennsylvania. It’s not the priesthood; the priesthood serves the church. The word “minster” means “servant”.

We’re told very clearly that the job of the priesthood is: to administer the things of worship, to teach truths, and to use those truths to lead people to a life of good. That’s the use of the ministry, of the priesthood.

What’s the purpose of the church?

It’s not really that mysterious. The purpose of the church can be seen in the reflection of the purpose of the priesthood.

The purpose of the church is to worship the Lord, to go to His Word to learn His truths, and then to live those truths: to do good. That’s why there’s a church.

We all personally benefit from our participation in this process of worshiping the Lord, learning truths, and doing good. Which includes shunning evil. It includes being useful in our daily lives. It includes finding extra ways of helping those in need. It includes enjoying time together, and recreations.

We’re also told that the church is the heart and lungs to the larger kingdom of the Lord on earth. What does that mean?

The New Church is meant to be the heart and lungs to what we sometimes refer to as “the Universal Church”.

Out there are people who are not part of this movement we call “the New Church”, who nevertheless in their hearts intend to do good, intend to follow the Lord. They are living their lives as best they can. The main difference between them and the people in this building now is they have less data, less information. Other than that, the intent is the same. These are people who want to follow the Lord. They just have a less clear idea given to them of who that is, and what that means. And yet, they manage. They do a very good job. They go to heaven. They do good on earth.

But they could do better, if they had better information. We could do better. Otherwise, you could come to church once, open up the Word, read a little bit, and be done. No more learning truth!

But, that’s not how it works. We can all do better in how we understand the Lord and his purposes for us.

So, the church is the heart and lungs to this larger church. What do the heart and lungs do?

The heart moves blood in sort of a figure eight. The heart moves blood first out to the lungs. And then draws it back to the heart. From there, it sends it out to the rest of the body. And then, the blood returns back to the heart again to complete that loop.

And in fact, here’s something interesting, once you think about the internals sense of it: the force needed to move the blood through the body is so great that the heart by itself can’t do it; it’s only through the action of the rest of the body that the blood can finally be moved back towards the heart.

So, there’s a reciprocation there, but it’s principally the heart that moves the blood through the body. That’s what a heart does. It moves the blood to the rest of the organs and members of the body.

What do the lungs do?

The lungs breathe in air, and then breathe out air. This is a process of taking in oxygen and releasing various toxins. Every part of your body, every last cell of it, needs oxygen. The lungs by themselves cannot do the job, though, because oxygen is in a gaseous form that can’t transfer from the world around us into the cells of our body.

The lungs can do a great job of bringing this air with the oxygen in it in to the body, but then they’re done. That’s all they can do. The lungs need a heart to send blood out there, so there can be a marriage, so that the oxygen can be wed to the blood cells. So, there can be a marriage of good and truth. And this oxygenated blood then gets drawn back by the heart and sent out to the rest of the body.

And that is a clear spiritual picture of the Church.

When the Lord looks at us, that’s what He’s seeing. We are the heart and lungs to this larger body. When the Lord looks at humanity, He sees us in the form of a person. When He looks at the Church, and He sees us in the form of that person’s heart and lungs.

Now, if you think about it, a heart and lungs by themselves are pretty pointless. If we had a real heart and lungs as a visual aid here, we probably wouldn’t even want to look at it. That’s not the human form. That’s just a little piece of it.

A heart and lungs apart from the body have no value. Likewise, the Church does not exist for itself. The Lord established a Specific Church for the sake of the entire human race.

We’re taught that the world connects to the Lord by means of the Church. Even people who are not aware of the Church have a connection to the Lord through the Church. But, we’re told that their connection is a dimmer one, and a more distant one.

So, we are to be that heart and lungs. How do we do that as a church?

Well, we could decide to just be the lungs of the world. we could say, “Our job is to go to the Word and read it. And be done.”

That doesn’t do the world any good. That fills our minds with truths, but that’s not enough.

We could say, “Well, what if we send blood out to the lungs and back—what if we do that?”

Well, then we’re marrying good and truth; that’s a good thing. And the heart itself can be fed; and the heart can be kept alive that way through this oxygenated blood. But the rest of the body’s going to die.

We need to take that marriage of good and truth out to the world! Not just the truth by itself. Not just good by itself.

We could decide, “Well, as the church, our job is to feed the poor and the hungry and the needy, and to visit the people in prison, and to do all these natural goods of charity and that’s it, that’s what we’re going to do. And then, on Sunday morning, we’ll get together privately and talk about the Lord.”

That wouldn’t be a church. There’d be blood without oxygen.

We could decide, “Well, let’s just take the Word, and buy Super Bowl ads, and billboards and just plaster the Word everywhere, where everyone can see it. And then we’d be a church.” That’s trying to put air into the cells without first taking the oxygen out, wedding it to good, and putting it into use.

People receive truths that are connected to good. People learn best when their affections are engaged. The most useful way of being the church, from an evangelical standpoint, is to find ways of doing good, in the Lord’s name.

The Lord said:

“Let your light [your truth] so shine before men that they may see your good works and so glorify your Father who is in Heaven.”

That right there, in a sentence, is the doctrine of evangelism.

Wed good to truth and take that out into the world. Do good things, certainly—support natural charity, as a benefaction—but do it in a way that also offers the truth.

Consider when you do something kind for someone just on an individual level. When you pull over on the side of the road to help somebody change a tire, because the Lord has commanded you to love your neighbor as yourself. And you look at this person by the side of the road and you think, “If I were in that position, I would really want somebody to help me right now. And this is what the Lord wants. And as inconvenient as this is for me, I’m going to help that person.” You’re wedding good with truth.

And then when the person tries to praise you for it, to say, “Wow! You must be an incredible person. Bless you. You are an angel…” then—just as the angel did with John in the book of Revelation—you have to stop them from bowing down to you, and say, “This? This isn’t from me. I’m trying to follow my Lord as I understand Him. I’m trying to live the life that I learn about in my church.”

And that will plant a seed. It may even start a conversation. “You go to church? What church?” That’s outreach, that’s evangelism. And that is marrying good to truth.

Now, the Lord has established a particular Church, time and time again, because the human race needs a particular Church, a specific Church. And an interesting thing happens every time, in the Word, where we read about the establishment of a Church: the Lord gives a particular commandment over and over and over again—though in the New Testament, it sounds different than in the Old Testament.

The first church is symbolized by Adam. The first human being. And the Lord’s first command to Adam was to “Be fruitful, and multiply.”

Eventually the Church that Adam represents fell away from the Lord—turned away from the Lord—turned to all sorts of evil, to the point where the Lord needed to establish a new Church for the sake of the revival of the human race. That Church is represented by the man, Noah.

And in the story of Noah, as he comes out of the ark, the Lord commands Noah, “Be fruitful and multiply.” And so starts the Ancient Church.

Jacob has his name changed to “Israel”. And he is to be the father of the Israelite people., and he is the symbol of the start of another Church.

And the Lord commands Jacob: “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Now, on an external level, this is just a command to have children and grandchildren, and to spread biologically. But, on a deeper level, being fruitful means bearing fruit: doing good. And multiplying is the result of taking truth, wedding it to good, and bringing it into life.

There’s story after story about the use of truth that results in more truth. The parable of the talents: each of those people who took their small amount of money out into the world and invested it, came back with double. And that’s what happens when we live truth. When we wed truth to good, our understanding of the truth increases.

So that’s one level of being fruitful and multiplying. There are a couple more ways of looking at it.

But first, what about the Christian church? When the Lord established the Christian church, He did not give a command to reproduce. He said nothing about being fruitful and multiplying—in so many words.

In the New Testament, He spoke in terms less remote from the spiritual meaning. He said:

“Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the [one!] name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [meaning, in His name, "Jesus Christ"], and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded.”

Which, on a spiritual level, is being fruitful and multiplying. On a personal level, again, the Great Commission is telling us the keys to being the church: becoming disciples, learning the commandments, obeying them. That’s the life of religion.

But the Lord spoke to us as individuals, and He spoke to us as the Church. And the Church itself is meant to turn to the Word, then to live it and to do good. And to be fruitful. And to multiply. And to make disciples of all the nations.

There is nowhere in the Writings that describes an internal sense for the Great Commission. We could speculate as to why that is. Some may say it’s because the internal meaning is very close to the plain, external meaning. There are parts of the Word where the internal sense is identical to the literal sense. For instance, in the Old Testament, when the Lord said, “I, the Lord your God, am one,” the internal sense of that is…”I, the Lord your God, am one.” There are parts of the Word that shine forth plainly. Perhaps the great commission is one of those. We’re not told otherwise.

But even if you start to look at what it means on a deeper level, it still draws you back to the idea of the church as a body being fruitful and multiplying. This is not because we need numbers in the church, but because there are numbers of people out there who need the church. They don’t have enough opportunities to hear what we get to hear every Sunday.

Remember, the church is not here for our comfort. Because we’re the church. We’re not here for ourselves, any more than you, as an individual, are put on this earth just to have a good time. The Lord would like you to have a good time; it’s one of the wonderful things about our theology. Because we have a theology that at its heart is about eternal happiness, and the Lord loving you and wanting you to be happy. But, what He wants you to actually do is to make other people happy. And then trust that He’ll have other people make you happy.

Likewise, the Church’s purpose on earth is to serve the human race.

Now, we’re told that the greatest pleasures in heaven are all wrapped up in the joys related to marriage, to “conjugial love”. It says in the book, Conjugial Love, in number 68:2, in explanation of this:

The reason why all pleasures, from first to last, are conferred on that love, is that its purpose so far excels that of the others. Its purpose [the purpose of the love within marriage] is the propagation of the human race, and so of the heaven of angels. …This purpose was the ultimate aim of creation….

So, once again, the Word leads us back to this idea, on a very natural level, of reproducing. And it makes sense when you think about all the joys associated with marriage, and all the power involved in that relationship, and how the Lord constantly talks of the Church as a marriage—it makes sense then to connect that idea with the purpose of the Church.

A healthy marriage—under typical circumstances—has some sort of offspring. (Note that, because of the imperfections of living in the natural world, this can mean different things in different circumstances to different couples.) Now, every healthy spiritual marriage has spiritual offspring.

If we’re going to be the heart and lungs to the Church—if we as a church are going to be the heart and lungs to the greater Church and humanity—then there has to be a means of connecting what we have with what people need. There have to be blood vessels.

We have to be in the world, and we have to be not of the world. That is a very hard place to stand.

We are called to stand firmly for a set of truths and beliefs that are at odds with what most of the world usually says. But to do it in a way that allows people to approach it, to connect with it. In a way that’s not merely condemning (the way truth is by itself), but that is uplifting—as truth is when it’s wed to good.

So, what can we do about this?

Well, first of all, the biggest threat to our success—the biggest threat to this greatest mission ever given to people in the history of humankind—is the separation of faith from charity.

We have this story of the dragon out to kill, first the woman’s offspring (her son, which represents the doctrine of the New Church), then out to kill the woman herself (the New Church), and then, out to kill her other offspring. We’re not even told about that right away. We have this great victory. The dragon is first thrown out of heaven, then is stopped from killing a woman. Then it says, “In fury, he went off to kill her other offspring.”

Those “other offspring” are people who desire to follow the Lord and His commandments, who are not of this church. And the dragon’s out to kill them. There is spiritual warfare being waged right now on the whole human race.

And that dragon is a symbol of the separation of faith from charity, and the division of the Lord—who is one person, the Creator of the Universe and the Savior of Mankind—into this sort of odd three-person-one-God-idea that just destroys any real understanding of who He is. That’s what the dragon is a symbol of.

And that the dragon attacks the child, attacks the woman, and attacks her offspring is not just a warning to us along the lines of, “Well, there are those other churches that teach those bad doctrines; you’ve got to be careful of them…” This is a warning to us about what happens inside our own hearts, and inside our own church. The separation of faith from charity happens every day.

Every time I decide to be right instead of good, I’m separating faith from charity. Every time you see somebody else’s error and point it out while ignoring the good in them that you’re meant to look towards, you’re separating faith from charity. When we fight—in our families, in our marriages, well… There’s a good kind of conflict. Remember, we have to stand firmly for what is true. But if we can’t do it in a loving way, then, once again, we’re separating faith from charity. And we are killing the church.

Happily, the Lord raises His Church up in many different ways, and He’s not depending just on us. But, wouldn’t it be better if we continued to participate in what He’s trying to do in the world?

So, here’s what we can do. It’s very simple. It’s not easy, but it’s very simple.

On an individual level: continue to turn to the Word, continue to marry good with truth, and continue to shun evils.

Look in your heart and examine your life, find things that do not belong, and take them to the Lord and ask Him to help remove them. If you don’t have an evil to look for, focus this week, or this month, on ways that you might be separating faith from charity, and see how you can put those two back together while still standing, in integrity, with the truth, but in a loving way.

What about Bryn Athyn as a congregation and as a community? The Lord sees each congregation as a person. What can that person do?

Bryn Athyn can continue to stand, in integrity, for the truth that has always been preached here in your churches, and that has always been taught in your schools, and can do it in a way that is welcoming and inviting to the world around you. In time, Bryn Athyn, as a person, can reproduce! Can be fruitful, and multiply. In the proper order of things, denominations don’t need to start new congregations; it’s not the shepherds who make new sheep. Congregations themselves should reproduce! Be fruitful, and multiply.

Someday, there should be a church in Doylestown. One in Germantown. One in Cherry Hill. Why not one in West Philadelphia? And you people here can do that. You don’t have to wait for permission; it’s not hard to do.

Open up new doors.

Create more events: marriage symposiums, family symposiums, conferences. Invite people to hear about the life after death. Find ways of taking the truth that we’re taught, marrying it to good, and taking it out into the world, so that the people that are desperate for it can find it, can connect with it, and can draw closer to the Lord. So that they can worship Him, in His Divine Human.

You have the power to change lives. You have immense power. And with the proper and humble exercise of that power, the Lord will give you great joy.

Just as the joys of marriage are wonderful, so are joys that come from any kind of marrying good to truth. And anyone who has been a witness to somebody “coming in from the cold”—somebody finding a church community where, finally, the Lord made sense, where doing good really was the point—if you’ve been a witness to somebody having that “coming home” experience, you know the joy that I’m talking about. It is overwhelming, and it is beautiful. And you have the opportunity to participate in it.

The New Jerusalem is descending—down from heaven, from God—and you are invited to be a part of its establishment on earth. What a privilege!

Be fruitful, and multiply.

Amen.

[This sermon was first preached at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral on June 13th, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. Audio of that is available at NewChurchAudio.org.]

[Bryn Athyn Family Contemporary worship gathering, Bryn Athyn Church School, Bryn Athyn, PA, 2010.04.26, 0930.]

Introduce:

• I am in love, and full of love, and it brings me joy.
• My most painful moments have been because of love.

Connect:

• Love is important
• Lord is Love
• But HOW do you love?

Instruct:

Love Defined (DLW 47)

• To feel another person’s joy as if it is your own.

Three Parts to Love (TCR 43:1)

• Outside of oneself
• Be more at one with them
• “Bless” them from yourself

The Secret to Love (John 15:1-17)

• The Lord is the root of love
• Keeping commandments improves love
• Love others the way the Lord loves us: sacrificially

Apply:

• Repent: work on your own spiritual growth
• We are first attracted to ourself in others, but must then learn to love the OTHER in others.
• Practice selfless listening: still mind, attention to body language, prayer.

Inspire:

• When you love, you bring the Lord into people’s lives.

Divine Revelation about Love

Divine Love and Wisdom 47

Divine love and wisdom cannot but be and have expression in others it creates. The essence of love is not to love self, but to love others and through love to be conjoined with them. It is also the essence of love to be loved by others, for thus is conjunction achieved. The essential ingredient in all love consists in conjunction; indeed in it consists its life, which we call pleasure, gratification, delight, sweetness, bliss, happiness and felicity.

Love consists in willing what one has to be another’s, and in feeling the other’s delight as delight within oneself. That is what it is to love. In contrast, to feel one’s own delight in another, and not the other’s delight within oneself, is not to love; for this is loving self, whereas the first is loving the neighbor.

These two types of love are diametrically opposite each other in nature. Both indeed conjoin, and to love what one has in another-in other words, to love oneself in another-does not appear to undo that conjunction; but in fact it does so undo the conjunction that the more anyone has loved another in this way, the more the other eventually hates him. For such a conjunction gradually becomes undone of itself, and love then turns to hatred to the degree that it does.

True Christian Religion 43:1

The essence of love is loving others who are outside oneself, wanting to be one with them, and blessing them from oneself. Two things – love and wisdom – constitute the essence of God; but three things constitute the essence of God’s love: his loving others who are outside of himself, his wanting to be one with them, and his blessing them from himself. The same three constitute the essence of his wisdom because in God love and wisdom are united, as was just explained. It is love that wants those three things, however, and wisdom that brings them about.

John 15:1-17

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

But what is a priest? What is our job description? One way of getting a handle on this is to look at the uses of a shepherd. (“Pastor” actually means “shepherd”.) Shepherds help their flocks by providing protection from wild animals. They guide the sheep in and out of the sheepfold. They lead them to good sources of water. And they ensure that their flock has plenty of good food.

Pastors are commanded by the Lord to do the same, only on a spiritual level. Pastors ensure order in the church by means of Divine Law. We administer external worship–Sunday morning gatherings, Holy Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and the like. We teach people the truths of faith from the Word. And then we are meant to use those truths to lead people to live a life of good, and so to lead them to the Lord. Note that teaching truths is not enough, if we are not also leading to the good of life.

In both Ezekiel and in John we read contrasts between good shepherds on the one hand, and evil shepherds and thieves on the other. What marks an “evil shepherd”? Evil pastors abuse their power. They work for the sake of their own gain and honor, rather than for the sake of the salvation of souls. And they separate the truths they teach from the life of good.

Now, the one truly good shepherd is the Lord Himself. He alone teaches, and He alone leads. But He has provided for there to be a priesthood that exists for the sake of facilitating the learning of His truths and the living of His goodness. A good shepherd, like the Lord, gathers the scattered. He works to help heal the spiritually sick and wounded. Very importantly, a good shepherd “enters by the door”, meaning a good pastor preaches not from his own intelligence and prudence, but from his understanding and perception of the Lord’s Word. And then a good pastor joins truth to good and so leads his flock to the Lord.

So what can you do with this information? Two things. First, now that you know more of what the Lord has taught us in His Word about the purpose of the priesthood, you can hold us accountable. What’s more, only by having a clear idea of what the role of the pastors is can you know how best to partner with them to help form the Lord’s church. The priesthood is not the church; we are only servants. You as the church have a responsibility to approach the Lord, learn from His Word, and live a life of charity. We clergy cannot do that for you. But be confident that we are all dedicated to helping you do that for yourselves.

[The above is a summary of the message I delivered at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral on Sunday, March 7th, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. Below are the full readings and a transcript of the complete sermon. You can also listen to it online at NewChurchAudio.org.]

Ezekiel 34.1-16:

1 The word of Jehovah came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Jehovih: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah: 8 As I live, declares the Lord Jehovih, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah: 10 Thus says the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

11 “For thus says the Lord Jehovih: 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 Jehovih. 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.

John 10.1-16:

1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 311-319:

311. There are two things which ought to be in order with men, namely, the things which are of heaven, and the things which are of the world. The things which are of heaven are called ecclesiastical, and those which are of the world are called civil.

312. Order cannot be maintained in the world without governors, who are to observe all things which are done according to order, and which are done contrary to order; and who are to reward those who live according to order, and punish those who live contrary to order. If this be not done, the human race will perish; for the will to command others, and to possess the goods of others, from heredity is connate with everyone, whence proceed enmities, envyings, hatreds, revenges, deceits, cruelties, and many other evils. Wherefore, unless they were kept under restraint by the laws, and by rewards suited to their loves, which are honors and gains for those who do goods; and by punishments contrary to those loves, which are the loss of honors, of possessions, and of life, for those who do evils; the human race would perish.

313. There must therefore be governors to keep the assemblages of men in order, who should be skilled in the law, wise, and who fear God. There must also be order among the governors, lest anyone, from caprice or ignorance, should permit evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it. This is guarded against when there are superior and inferior governors, among whom there is subordination.

314. Governors over those things with men which relate to heaven, or over ecclesiastical affairs, are called priests, and their office is called the priesthood. But governors over those things with men which relate to the world, or over civil affairs, are called magistrates, and their chief, where such a form of government prevails, is called king.

315. With respect to the priests, they ought to teach men the way to heaven, and also to lead them; they ought to teach them according to the doctrine of their church from the Word, and to lead them to live according to it. Priests who teach truths, and thereby lead to the good of life, and so to the Lord, are good shepherds of the sheep; but they who teach and do not lead to the good of life, and so to the Lord, are evil shepherds.

316. Priests ought not to claim to themselves any power over the souls of men, because they do not know in what state the interiors of a man are; still less ought they to claim the power of opening and shutting heaven, since that power belongs to the Lord alone.

317. Dignity and honor ought to be paid to priests on account of the holy things which they administer; but they who are wise give the honor to the Lord, from whom the holy things are, and not to themselves; but they who are not wise attribute the honor to themselves; these take it away from the Lord. They who attribute honor to themselves, on account of the holy things which they administer, prefer honor and gain to the salvation of souls, which they ought to provide for; but they who give the honor to the Lord, and not to themselves, prefer the salvation of souls to honor and gain. The honor of any employment is not in the person, but is adjoined to him according to the dignity of the thing which he administers; and what is adjoined does not belong to the person himself, and is also separated from him with the employment. All personal honor is the honor of wisdom and the fear of the Lord.

318. Priests ought to teach the people, and to lead them by truths to the good of life, but still they ought to compel no one, since no one can be compelled to believe contrary to what he thinks from his heart to be true. He who believes otherwise than the priest, and makes no disturbance, ought to be left in peace; but he who makes disturbance, ought to be separated; for this also is of order, for the sake of which the priesthood is established.

319. As priests are appointed to administer those things which relate to the Divine law and worship, so kings and magistrates are appointed to administer those things which relate to civil law and judgment.

Rev. Glenn “Mac” Frazier:

Just a week ago we concluded the annual meeting of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Ministers, pastors, bishops from all over the world were gathered here in Bryn Athyn. People from Kenya, Togo, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa, Korea, Brazil, Canada, all over the United States, other places, were all here for a week, some of them longer, to discuss the matters of the church.

One of the topics discussed was the government of the church. As we read in the New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine (n. 311-319), the priesthood was established as the governors of the Church. But what does that mean?

One of the terms for a priest is “pastor”. Specifically, within the General Church, we designate pastors with a blue stole. We don’t often use these particular terms this strictly, but technically a “minister” has a white stole, a “pastor” has a blue stole, and a “bishop” has a red stole.

But that’s our particular use of these terms. More generally, the Writings talk about pastors, and the word pastor means “shepherd”. And there’s a reason for this. The Lord Himself over and over again is compared to a shepherd. And He is described as a shepherd perhaps most famously in the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd….”

In our reading from Ezekiel (34:1-16), He declared that He was the Good Shepherd and that He would personally shepherd His people. Again, in the reading from John (10:1-16), he said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” And we can look at what a shepherd is and what it means and from that gain a better understanding of the role of the priesthood in the Church.

Now, this is a doctrine that does not get preached very often. If you’re going into theological school, it’s something that you probably spend a good bit of time looking at because it pertains directly to your life. But because of this it doesn’t get preached from the pulpit very often. We hear it, maybe, when we’re witnessing an ordination.

But it’s important for the entire Church to understand what the role of the priesthood is, because the Church as a whole has to make decisions. And without understanding the role of the priesthood and what it really is—rather than what, perhaps, we’ve come to expect it to be—we can’t make good decisions.

Now, the Lord as a shepherd is represented by King David. David himself was both shepherd and king. The Lord has a priestly component and a kingly component. The shepherdly part is that priestly component.

What do shepherds do for their sheep? Just from common knowledge, but also from descriptions in the Old and New Testament, shepherds (as one way of dividing it up) provide four uses to the sheep.

First of all, a shepherd protects the flock. Animals will try to steal sheep, and it’s the shepherd’s responsibility to fight off those animals and to separate them from the flock. Two animals that come up several times in the Old Testament are lions and bears. And these are symbols of evils and falsities, in particular the falsity of faith separate from charity that will attack a church or a flock. And so it is a responsibility of the priesthood to protect the Church, just as it is a responsibility of a shepherd to protect the flock.

A second thing that shepherds do is they guide the sheep. Typically in the ancient Near East, multiple flocks would be kept in a sheepfold or a pen that would often be attached to a house, and a shepherd would go in through the gate and call out his particular flock and then lead them out into the hills. And when sheep get lost, it’s the shepherd’s job to bring those sheep back together and to maintain that flock. So that’s the second use that a shepherd performs, is he guides the sheep from place to place and where they need to go.

The third thing that a shepherd does—as part of that guiding—is to make certain that the sheep find good water. And that they have enough water. And that it’s a clean supply so that they can drink from it.

The fourth thing that a shepherd provides is food—pasture, green grass—and he makes certain that the sheep have enough to eat and that they eat the right things.

So on a natural level, this is what a shepherd does, and on the spiritual level, this is what a pastor is meant to be doing, too.

We talked a little bit about how a pastor is meant to protect the flock. We also read about the idea of separating a disturbance from the church. A lot could be said about that. A lot has been studied along those lines. It has been debated. It’s not the focus of today’s sermon, but it’s something that’s definitely worth spending some time talking about.

In terms of guiding, there are a couple of different forms of leadership that the priesthood provides. One of them, on a very external level: the priesthood has been established to lead in worship. We have numerous teachings about this. In a wedding, it’s supposed to be a member of the priesthood that blesses the couple. We’re the ones who are meant to lead in Holy Supper, just as we will lead Holy Supper today after this service. Holy Supper is something that is lead by the priesthood. The priesthood is responsible for baptisms. And for leading worship in general. That’s one form of leadership.

Within worship, one of the primary functions of the priesthood is to teach—to instruct. Specifically, to teach truths from the Word.

The final part of the responsibility of the priesthood is vitally important. Let me go back very briefly to this idea of the Lord having a kingly part and a priestly part.

The part of the Lord who is King is responsible for truth. The Lord as Divine Truth is like a king. He’s about rules and laws and judgments. The Lord as Priest is about Divine Love. He’s about the life of good, and about healing the broken?hearted.

The possibly-most-important part of the whole priestly role is to take those truths and to then use them to lead to good. A minister can stand and give you information—data, truth—for hours and hours, can load you up with more truth than you know what to do with, and then send you out the door. But unless there is a connection to good, he’s not really doing his job.

This is the central truth of our Church: that truth must be wed to good. Faith and charity cannot be separated and survive. And so it is not just enough for us to preach the truth, but to preach the truth in a way that you can use in your life. That you can connect to good in a way that then leads you to the Lord.

Now it’s not the priesthood that leads you to the Lord. And, in fact, it’s not really the priesthood that teaches you the truth.

Yes, it sounds like I just contradicted everything that’s been said up to this point. On a deeper level, the Lord alone teaches, and the Lord alone leads. But He has established a priesthood for the sake of facilitating that.

So for instance, if I have a good idea and I preach my good ideas to you, that’s not the Lord teaching, that’s me teaching. That would be somebody not entering through the door to the sheepfold to call the sheep out, but sneaking over the fence to try to steal the sheep. When the Lord said that the good shepherd “enters through the door”, he was saying that a good pastor (among other things) teaches the truths of the Word. We all have opinions, theories, ideas, education, that’re useful to one another. But the role of the priesthood isn’t just to give out good ideas, but to take what the Lord says in His Word and to try to connect it for people and to share it with people and to teach that to people.

And yes, we bring in other ideas from other fields. And we point to things in nature as examples. But in the end, it’s about the Lord’s Word and showing people the Lord in His Word.

We read in Ezekiel and then again in John comparisons of evil shepherds with good shepherds. And there are other similar comparisons throughout the Word. The entire book of Jeremiah is full of things about bad shepherds.

What does an evil shepherd do? An evil shepherd abuses their power. They use the sheep for their own gain. And they work for themselves.

We have a number of doctrines that tell us that a priest can be just as effective as a good person or a bad person. The truth he preaches is still the truth, but he does it for different reasons. But a truly good shepherd is concerned primarily with the salvation of souls, not with all of the honor and gain that might come with being an “important” person.

Evil shepherds also will separate truth from good. It is easy to stand and appear spiritually wealthy by showing off great amounts of spiritual wealth (which is truth), and to come off as “learned”, when the most important thing is to give somebody at least one truth that they can live. And to connect that to good. There are a lot of churches that you can go to where you will hear things from the Word, but then be told “and it doesn’t matter what you do. Just accept this teaching in your mind and you’ll be OK.” And that’s separating truth from good.

So it’s one of the responsibilities of the priesthood to say not only “You need to know this information,” but also, “You have to change your life to live according to it.” And so part of the priest’s job is to give uncomfortable information. To say “here’s the truth, and here’s a path towards following it.”

Now with that providing of the truth and instruction, there has to be leadership. This is why people can come to a priest when they are struggling with a temptation or a decision or a situation and say, “I heard you say on Sunday that I can’t look at people that way. That I can’t treat people that way, that I can’t speak that way. How can I stop?” And then it’s the priest’s responsibility to sit with them, to pray with them, to show them how to repent. To encourage them. To lead them as a shepherd.

Good shepherds—the Lord said that He would gather the scattered, that He would heal the sick and the wounded. These are important parts of what it means to be a good shepherd. He said that good shepherds “enter by the door”, which means they teach from the Word. And the good shepherd joins together truth and good. And the good shepherd brings the church together into one flock.

Now this does not mean that all teaching and leadership and all related circumstances are purely the matters of the priesthood. We have other teachings that talk about the role of parents and of other teachers in instructing people. We have teachings about heads of households teaching their servants. Not many of us have servants today, but it stands as an example of the fact that teaching and leading are not solely the realm of the priesthood.

But they are the particular realm of the priesthood. It’s what we are meant to train for. It is what we are meant to spend every day of our lives doing.

So this is a lot of information. And I would be a bad shepherd if I just gave you information and then walked away. Why are we hearing a sermon on the Doctrine of the Priesthood today? Most of you are not in the priesthood. Most of you have no plans on joining the priesthood.

It’s because you have to understand what the role of the priesthood is within the context of the church. We priests are not the church; you are the church. And we are servants of the church. And for us to be able to work together, we have to understand one another’s roles.

And Sunday after Sunday after Sunday you hear sermons about the life of charity, about repentance, about the Ten Commandments, about marriage. All the things that really have concrete meaning in your lives. But as a church you also make decisions. And in order to make decisions as a church, you have to understand the role of the priesthood.

So here’s what you can do with this information.

First of all, you can hold us accountable to it. You now know what the Lord has commanded us to do. Make sure we do it.

What’s more now that you know the role of the priesthood—or have been reminded of it—that gives you the ability to cooperate with us. Because the purpose of the church is not the purpose of the priesthood.

If the shepherd’s job is to teach truth, and to lead to good, the church’s job is to go to the Word and learn truth, and to do good. As individuals, and as a spiritual community.

The priesthood can’t do these things for you. No minister can “regenerate” for you, repent for you. A minister’s prayer is not going to change you as much as your own prayer will. But we are dedicated to helping you live the life of charity and approach the Lord in His Word. Working in cooperation together, we together can become more and more the Lord’s Church.

February can be a hard month. We’ve had a pretty rough one this year, in fact. There are fun parts to it. But it’s been cold. And it’s been inconvenient. And sometimes it seems like it’s the shortest month in the year on purpose, because it’s the hardest one to get through. Right in the middle of February, though, we celebrate Valentine’s Day. Right in the middle of all of the cold, and the dark, and the flu season, we have a day set aside for celebrating love. And this is something that really needs to be celebrated—it needs to be focused on—that needs to be thought about and talked about and practiced and studied. Love is everything.

We have piles of cliches about love: “Love makes the world go round.” “God is love.” These are cliches that everyone knows, that we see on bumper stickers, because one of the most fundamental truths behind the entire universe is that God is love itself. And that so pervades the universe that He created that we can innately sense the truth of this idea of the importance of love.

In our personal experience, we know what it feels like to be loved. It feels good. On a more mature level, it feels good to love. To be able to make somebody else happy brings joy to oneself. And, in fact, we’re taught that all delight, all joy, all happiness comes from heaven, and that all of the joy and delight and happiness in heaven comes from love. And, in fact, at its very root is marriage love—conjugial love. That’s where all happiness comes from.

So love is important. And when loves breaks down, the results are often deeply painful. A little baby can die of lack of love just as easily as die of lack of oxygen. Physical affection, for a newborn, is essential.

A person who lives without love barely lives at all. Maybe there’s been a time in your life when you felt you had no connection with other people, where there was no one who really cared about you or where there was no one for you to care about. And if you’ve been in that place, you know how life is only half alive. And conversely, if you’re in love right now, you know what that feels like, too. It brightens everything. It sharpens everything. It increases your ability to enjoy all the other good things in your life.

So it’s important to understand love. And that’s something the world’s not very good at. While everyone can say, “God is love,” how many people really know what that means? Or that “love makes the world go round.” Well, how? How does it make the world go round? How do you love?

In the New Church, we have revealed to us an enormous amount of information—truth—about love. Truth that the rest of the world needs to hear–truth that we ourselves need to go back to over and over again–because love is the essence of life.

So, for instance, we read that to feel the joy of another person as one’s own joy is the definition of love. And conversely, that loving yourself in another person isn’t real love.

Now, what does that look like? Very often, we’ll do something for somebody because part of us understands that we’ll get something for it. Sometimes we’ll do something nice for somebody because they remind us of ourselves. They’re one of “our people”. We’re going to take care of “our own”. That’s not real love. It gives us a picture of love. But real love is sacrificial. Real love is doing something for somebody else purely for their benefit.

The Lord said that we are to love one another as He loved us. And you can go back throughout the entire Word and look at every single thing He did and know: He did it because He loves us. He loves you. And then He said, “Now, you go love in the same way.” Love selflessly. Love sacrificially. Love the way the Lord loves.

In True Christian Religion we read the three essential qualities of real love. The first one is it has to be directed at somebody outside of yourself. That makes sense. And in fact, that unlocks one of the most basic keys to understanding the meaning of the universe. We have it handed to us so we can glibly say, “Oh, well, the world was created so the Lord would have someone to love.”

That’s a deeply profound, powerful idea. Think about that. God is love itself. And for love to be real, there must be an “other” than the self to be loved, and so He created you. And He created the entire universe as a foundation and as a home for you, so He could love you.

So that’s the first part of love: there has to be one outside of yourself.

The second part is that love desires to connect with and to become one with its object. The Lord desires closer connection with you. Now, we’re told that we are meant to love the Lord: “Love the Lord your God.” That’s the first and greatest commandment. But how do you do that? Where is He? You can’t see Him. You can’t have Him over to your house. How do you love the Infinite?

Well, He tells us, over and over again. When He says, “Abide in My love,” He also says, “Keep My commandments.” If you want to become closer and closer to God—if you want to become one with the Lord—you read His Word. Get to know Him. His word reveals His mind, His inner thoughts, His affections. Spend time in His word and you will get to know Him, and you can come to love Him that way.

What does that have to do with how we love one another? Well, if you desire to love a person, then you need to connect with them, you need to draw closer to them. How do you become more one with a person? You spend time with them, and you get to understand them. Be curious about them. Listen to them. Connect with them.

Again, in Divine Love and Wisdom, in part of that definition of love, in addition to feeling the joy of another is one’s own joy, there is also the desire that what is yours becomes theirs. That whatever you have is for them as well. And that’s part of that joining together as well.

Now, the third part of love is that love desires to make its object blessed. In modern terms, that means to make happy. And not just frivolous happy, not the kind of happy you get when your favorite television show comes on, but deep, lasting happiness. The kind of happiness that you receive when somebody you deeply care about receives the one thing you knew they needed. The deep happiness that you get from having a job that does good to the world, that you’re good at. The deep happiness that you get from a lasting relationship, from 50 years of marriage. The happiness that you get from heaven.

So those are the three parts of love. Love desires some “other” as its object, to connect with and become one with, and to make happy. Again, that’s why the whole universe exists. We exist so that the Lord can make us happy. So that He can build a heaven from us.

So, what can you do to love another person? First of all, you can recognize that you really have to be loving of the “other” in that person. That means not just loving the parts in them that you best understand, or that you are most drawn to. This is especially important in marriage.

When a couple comes together in marriage, they’re drawn together by those parts that are alike. Those loves are in alignment with each other, but no two human beings are perfectly alike. So what happens (and this happens in marriage most intensely, but it happens in all human relationships) is, those parts which are not alike, over time, can come into conflict.

Another commandment the Lord gave about love was to “love your enemies.” On a deeper level what He was saying is, “You have to love those that disagree with you.” In fact, your spiritual enemy, on a very deep level, is somebody who disagrees with you over a matter of doctrine or truth. So even with deep philosophical, religious disagreement, the Lord says your answer is: to love.

So, you have a difference in taste as to what restaurants to eat out at. That’s nothing compared to a difference in doctrine, or theology, or religion. So yeah, you need to love that in the person, too. Even if you’re not a fan of Mexican, or they’re not a fan of Italian, work to appreciate what’s different in the other person, as well as what you recognize of yourself there. Try to connect with the other person. Spend time with them. Get to understand them. Try to see the world through their eyes.

We have this beautiful image given in the book, Marriage Love—or Conjugial Love—of husbands seeing through their wives’ eyes. In particular, seeing other women through their wives’ eyes as a means of not looking at other women inappropriately. We can generalize this. Try to see the world through another person’s eyes.

There is something here so basic to how we work that it can surprise you once you start working on this. You see, the way we tend to operate, just because of our nature, is that when we’re in a conversation there’s a part of us that’s listening to what the other person is saying, looking for advantage of some sort. Whether it’s, “There’s something I want to say; how can I fit it in?” or, “Which part of this is interesting to me, that I can steer the conversation towards?” or, “How can I make myself look good by responding to this?” That’s not the whole thing that goes on in our minds, but that’s a big part of it.

How often does somebody ask you for advice, and your first instinct is to suggest something that might be of benefit to you? It doesn’t necessarily mean you say it, but we all have a voice that speaks that way. It’s one of a couple of voices. Once you start paying attention to that, it can be surprising how often it speaks up. Also, once you once you start paying attention to that, you can then push it aside, and you can become more selfless in how you listen to another person.

The Lord also said (in our reading from John), that there is no greater love than the love of one person laying down their life for another. That’s truly sacrificial love. When the Lord said this, purely on a literal, natural level, He was foreshadowing the Crucifixion, where He literally laid down His life.

What is the Crucifixion a symbol of? What was going on, spiritually, there? Part of what the story of Easter is—part of what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is all about—is what it looks and feels like to be spiritually born again, to regenerate. To face temptation and come out the other side a spiritually reborn person.

Why such a terrible image, such a painful image? Well, because that’s what it feels like. To face temptation means to look at something inside yourself, that does not belong, that is not in order with what God commands, and to give it up. Sometimes that feels like dying.

So how does this connect with love?

The number one thing you can do to improve your marriage, and more generally speaking, one of the number one things you can do to improve any relationship, is to work on your own spiritual growth. The health and beauty of any connection between two people, derives from the good of each of those people. You have no control over the good in another person; there’s nothing you can do about it. You are entirely responsible for your own spiritual growth.

If you want your marriage, your friendship—whatever relationship matters to you—to be happier, healthier, more useful, more productive, and better for other people, work on yourself. Work with the Lord on making you a better person, and, guaranteed, the world around you gets better. Rather then focus on what is a problem with the other person, look to yourself and say, “What can I do to improve things? What do I need to repent of?” And then turn to the Lord in prayer, and ask for Him to take that from you. And do the hard work of shunning evil. The more you do that, the better you will become at loving other people.

Here’s what happens when you do that. You become a more complete vessel for the Lord’s love. The more you work on your own spiritual growth—the more you repent, the more you allow the Lord to regenerate you, to recreate you as the spiritual being that He intends you to be—the more He can work through you. Every bit of evil that is removed from you clears the way for more good to fill you. Where the Lord is, good things happen.

If you practice becoming better at being a loving person, then you become a means for the Lord to be present in other people’s lives. You become a blessing to other people. Where you love other people, the Lord loves other people, because He is love itself. You can’t be loving to somebody else without the Lord being in that. So think about that.

How about if everyone here today, as a Valentine’s Day resolution—we don’t have those but maybe we should—as a resolution to become more loving, as something to do in this terrible, cold, snowy February, or as something to finish off the marriage conference that we’re having here this weekend, decide that you’re going to practice being better at loving other people. You’re going to choose one of these things. You can choose to be a better listener, or to try to see through other people’s eyes, or to listen selflessly. You can choose to work on becoming a better person. Find something in you that you know damages your relationships with other people and ask the Lord to help you take that out.

Pick any of these things and decide, “For the next four weeks, I’m going to give it special focus.” If you do this, and if we all do this, there will be a palpable change. That’s inviting the Lord into our community. It’s inviting the Lord into our marriages. It’s inviting the Lord into our hearts. The Lord has promised that He is standing at the door waiting for that invitation; all we have to do is give it, and He will come in. So do this, and you will become a blessing to those around you.

Amen.

Readings:

Divine Love and Wisdom 47-48 (Rogers)

47. Divine love and wisdom cannot but be and have expression in others it creates. The essence of love is not to love self, but to love others and through love to be conjoined with them. It is also the essence of love to be loved by others, for thus is conjunction achieved. The essential ingredient in all love consists in conjunction; indeed in it consists its life, which we call pleasure, gratification, delight, sweetness, bliss, happiness and felicity.

Love consists in willing what one has to be another’s, and in feeling the other’s delight as delight within oneself. That is what it is to love. In contrast, to feel one’s own delight in another, and not the other’s delight within oneself, is not to love; for this is loving self, whereas the first is loving the neighbor.

These two types of love are diametrically opposite each other in nature. Both indeed conjoin, and to love what one has in another-in other words, to love oneself in another-does not appear to undo that conjunction; but in fact it does so undo the conjunction that the more anyone has loved another in this way, the more the other eventually hates him. For such a conjunction gradually becomes undone of itself, and love then turns to hatred to the degree that it does.

48. What person cannot see this who is able to discern the essential nature of love? For what is it to love oneself alone, and not someone apart from oneself capable of returning that love? It results in rupture rather than conjunction. A conjunction of love results from its reciprocation, and no reciprocation is possible in self alone. If it is supposed to exist, it is from an imagined reciprocation on the part of others.

From these observations it is apparent that Divine love cannot but be and have expression in others whom it loves and by whom it is loved. For inasmuch as there is such an ingredient in all love, it must exist especially, which is to say, infinitely, in love itself.

Gospel of John 15:1-17 (ESV)

15:1 ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 ”This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

True Christian Religion 43 (Rose)

43. 5. The essence of love is loving others who are outside oneself, wanting to be one with them, and blessing them from oneself. Two things—love and wisdom—constitute the essence of God; but three things constitute the essence of God’s love: his loving others who are outside of himself, his wanting to be one with them, and his blessing them from himself. The same three constitute the essence of his wisdom because in God love and wisdom are united, as was just explained. It is love that wants those three things, however, and wisdom that brings them about.

[2] The first essential, God’s loving others outside himself, is recognizable in God’s love for the entire human race. And as those who love the purpose also love the means, God also loves all the other things he created, because they are the means.

All people and all things in the universe are outside God, in that they are finite and God is infinite. God’s love goes out and extends not only to good people and good things but also to evil people and evil things. It goes not only to the people and things that are in heaven but also to those that are in hell – not only to Michael and Gabriel but also to the Devil and Satan, for God is the same everywhere from eternity to eternity. As he says, “He makes his sun rise on good people and evil people, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

Despite this, evil people and things are still evil. This is a result of what is in the people and the objects themselves. Evil people and things do not receive the love of God as it truly and most profoundly is; they receive the love of God according to their own nature, much the way thorns and nettles receive the heat from the sun and the rain from the sky.

[3] The second essential of God’s love, his wanting to be one with others, is recognizable in his partnership with the angelic heaven, with the church on earth, with everyone in the church, and with everything good and true that forms and constitutes an individual and a church. In fact, seen in its own right, love is nothing but an effort to forge a partnership. In order to fulfill the purpose intended by the essence of his love, God created human beings in his own image and likeness – characteristics with which he could forge a partnership.

Divine love constantly aims to forge a partnership with us, as is clear from the Lord’s saying that he wants to be one with people, he in them and they in him, and he wants the love of God to be in them (John 17:21, 22, 23, 26).

[4] The third essential of God’s love, his blessing others from himself, is recognizable in eternal life, which is the unending blessedness, good fortune, and happiness that God gives to those who let his love in. As God is love itself, he is also blessedness itself; and as every love exudes pleasure, so divine love eternally exudes blessedness itself, good fortune itself, and happiness itself. God gives these blessings to angels and people after death through his partnership with them.

[Transcription by CastingWords.]

Part two, “Follow the Rules of Forgiveness” will be the following Sunday. The series wraps up with part 3, “Let Go”, on July 26.

I’m extremely excited about this message series! I’ve had a lot of people say they wanted to hear about how to forgive, and I’ve found a pile of stuff in the Word on the topic. I could talk all year on the topic, but this time around I’m zeroing in on just three things Jesus said, along with the deeper truths hidden behind his words.