New Church Audio - Westville, RSA: Recent Episodes
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Our topic will be a somewhat obscure story from the time the Children of Israel wandered in the desert. They grew tired of the food the Lord provided and complained. This brought a plague of venomous snakes. When the begged the Lord for help, He had Moses set up a bronze statue of a snake, and everyone who looked at it was healed. What can this story teach us about the times we crave pleasure and are desperate for things that pull us away from the Lord?
There are big, life-altering, spiritual challenges that we all face from time to time. Most of us would rather not have that be the case. But they are inevitable, and the truth is they are also necessary. We need to have opportunities to face our flaws, take on our selfishness, and allow the Lord to build us back up into better people. This Sunday we will look at how we can become more accepting of the fact that spiritual life requires times of turmoil as well as times of peace and contentment.
You can’t pick your ancestors. The ones you’ve got are the ones your stuck with. The same is true of your heritage in general. For good or ill, your heredity is set. This is also true spiritually: you have inherited from birth an inclination towards certain evils. But that does not mean that we are stuck with them: we can, and indeed must, be truly born again from the Lord. While that will not change where we have come from, it will change our future.
Jesus said: “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). This teaching has led many to believe that it is difficult to get to heaven, but others wonder why God would make it difficult to get there. So, ask yourself this question: “Is it easy or difficult to get to heaven?” This is the question we will attempt to answer on Sunday!
Of course results matter! But they don’t matter in the way we might think. We tend to think that if some choice we make has a good or pleasant result, then we made the right choice; and if it has a bad or painful result then we must have made the wrong choice. The Lord, however, encourages us to do the right thing regardless of the (apparent) outcome. The immediate results won’t tell us much about whether we have done right or wrong. It’s more important for us to do what is right according to the Lord’s guidance rather than relying on our limited view of the results.
Things seem to fall apart and get broken rather easily—from our aging bodies, to the buildings we live in, to the equipment we rely on each day, to our lives in general and the world at large. Just think of your current to-do list of things that you need to fix, replace, clean, or sort out. What are we meant to do in the midst of this reality? Give up on fixing anything? Let’s talk on Sunday about the importance of maintenance and how to find the humility, courage, and trust to do the work to maintain what matters.
Back in February I gave a sermon called Back to Basics: Who is God? In that sermon we covered why beliefs about God matter so much, and how God is simultaneously infinite and omnipotent and loving and personal. We only briefly touched on the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How can God be all three of these and still be one? We will explore how these aspects of God all work together in the one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the most well-known stories in the Bible is that of David felling the giant Goliath with a simple sling. What gives us this power in our own lives? The answer from the Teachings of the New Church is... Truth! That might not sound exciting, if you think of truth as mere ideas. But when we use the Lord's truths properly, they are some of the most powerful tools in the universe.
How Long, O Lord?These words, "How long, O Lord?" were spoken by a group of people huddled under the altar, desperate to know how much longer it would be before their oppression would cease. Likewise, they are words that we might find ourselves saying when we seem unable to break free of our own sin. But although we might despair of ever being free, the Lord, in secret and hidden ways, is working for our growth and rebirth, if only we put in the little effort that we are able to.
The difference between payment and a gift is that we are entitled to payment for the work we have done, while a gift is freely given. So if the Lord freely forgives and saves us, why does it seem like we have to work so hard for it? What do we get credit for and what do we have to acknowledge is the Lord's? If we can clearly see how the Lord freely gives us what we need to work with, we'll be able to accept that gift in every situation through the choices we make.
What does it mean to engage in spiritual warfare? What does it take to become like one of the angels of Michael and fight for our Lord? These questions are important for us to explore because spiritual life is not always easy or peaceful. There are times when we struggle to follow the Lord and when it takes real effort to treat people the way He commands us to treat them. If we want the New Church to descend into the world then we must prepare the way by engaging in this conflict: before the Holy City can descend, the dragon must be confronted and defeated, and we must each do that as individuals if we want that Holy City to be present in our lives.
Intentions matter more than actions. In other words, someone who is good hearted but makes mistakes is better off than someone who is malicious even while doing the right thing. Yet even the most well-intentioned person can cause harm. Their good intentions do not negate the damage they can cause in ignorance. Rather than justifying ourselves or others by saying, “they meant well,” we must find ways of addressing the harm and correcting it, even as we support and acknowledge the good intentions lying behind it.
The Lord lends strength to those who rely on Him, the strength to resist temptation, to overcome hardship, and to do what is right and good. But when we claim credit for that strength, and take pride in ourselves over the Lord, the strength is lost and we falter. Even so, through hard work, we can turn back to the Lord and again find strength in Him.
You can tell a lot about someone by the things and people they surround themselves with. On the one hand, this is because where we choose to put time and effort is a reflection of what we value. On the other hand, it is also because we are shaped by our environments: we become like what we are surrounded by. This statement is true spiritually. If we surround ourselves with heavenly influences, we will become heavenly. If we surround ourselves with hellish influences, we will become hellish. Where and how we spend our time is not just a matter of personal preference. It is a matter of choosing who we will become.
Salvation is at the heart and soul of Christ’s message. But what actually is it? Salvation is meaningless if we do not understand what we are being saved from and how we can achieve that salvation. The New Church teaches that all of us have an inclination towards evil that would destroy us if we weren’t protected by the Lord; and that to be truly and fully saved, we need to look to the Lord, reject evil, and live a good life, based on His teachings.
The most important question that almost any religion tries to answer is, “Who is God?” In our day to day lives we may find other questions more pressing, such as “how do I keep my temper when my three-year-old scrawled crayon all over the wall AGAIN?” But how we see God actually filters into how we see all those basic day-to-day questions of life. So who is God, and how can we come to know Him better? That’s what we’ll explore this Sunday.
What is the Lord’s? In a broad sense all things are the Lord’s: He created and sustains everything in the universe. Yet we also feel as if we are our own masters. There is an innate sense that what goes on in our minds and hearts is ours and ours alone. Yet even here all that is good and true belongs to the Lord. Miraculously, when we acknowledge that truth and live it, we can actually feel more, not less, ourselves.
Avoiding is something we all do. We do it with small things, like when we ignore our body’s signals that it’s time for bed or when we procrastinate on the dishes. We do it with bigger things, like when we put off that important but difficult conversation we need to have or when we put future decisions out of mind. And we do it even with the most important things in our spiritual lives, when we know we have an issue but it is to challenging to face. But if we are to grow spiritually we cannot put off or ignore our flaws. We need to address them head on. This Sunday we will look at some of the reasons we avoid spiritual challenges and what we can do to overcome that tendency.
We are all born into ignorance. None of us knows how to do this thing called life well. But the Lord provides the tools that allow us to learn and to improve. We will never have perfect knowledge of right and wrong; but we can come to better know the truth, and so know better how to live good lives.
The challenge with the future is the unknowns. It is easy to see how the Lord led us even in hard times when we look back. It is more of a challenge to look forward and trust that the Lord will continue to lead us. And this is as it should be: the Lord asks us to plan for an uncertain future, and work towards it, so that He can direct us down the right path. When we find the right balance of planning and trust we can face what is to come with confidence.
The Lord’s birth in a lowly manger in the crowded town of Bethlehem was set in motion by a census ordered by Caesar Augustus. Everyone was required to return to their home town to be registered, which meant that Joseph had to return to Bethlehem with Mary. This census, a fairly innocuous historical event, carries a deeper spiritual meaning: it represents the human tendency to put our worth in material things, to count them up and compare our worldly success with that of other people. This mindset crowds out the Lord, and ironically, it is only when we let go of our own success and ascribe all things to Him that we can receive the true success and happiness that we want.
There are prophecies of the Lord’s coming scattered throughout the Old Testament. Many of these are well known: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…” for example. But the first prophecy of the Lord’s coming is much more obscure and less well known. It is spoken by Jehovah to the serpent in the Garden of Eden:I will put enmityBetween you and the woman,And between your seed and her Seed;He shall trample your head,And you shall batter His heel.Not your usual Christmas cheer perhaps, but this prophecy describes the purpose of the Lord’s coming: to confront the selfishness that rises like a serpent within each of us and trample it down until we can be saved from it.
To kick off our Carol Sing we will begin with a worship service in the church for the whole family. The news of Christmas was not just for a few people, but for all people, no matter who or where or when. Although “all people” covers a lot of diversity, we are all united when we come to the Lord together. We get a taste of this when we sing joyfully about the Lord together: all our individual voices are joined into one voice, united in our common love for the Lord.
In two of the Gospels the Christmas story is told in the familiar way: Jesus was born to a virgin, Mary, born in Bethlehem, and visited by Shepherds and Wise Men. Yet the Gospel of John tells the same story in a far more enigmatic way: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:1, 14)What was this “Word”? And what does it mean for it to have become “Flesh?” These details tells us something important about the Lord’s coming into the World, and even about how we still relate to Him today.
Hard times will come, no matter how prepared we might be. We cannot avoid them. What we can do is put our preparation to use, so that we can persevere through the hard times. In fact, through this perseverance we are strengthened in both love and wisdom, and may come out the other side better people. Even if we feel that we are inadequately prepared for the challenge, the Lord always provides what we need in order to get through it.
We have a tendency to think that whatever we are going through right now is how things will always be. But whether you are going through a time of blessings or of hardship, this too shall pass. In this two part series we will look at how we can prepare for hardship in the good times, and persevere through hardships to get back to the good times.
In the western world we tend to value individuality above almost anything else. The freedom of the individual is sacrosanct. The Lord also values individual freedom. Without the freedom to make personal choices we would not be able to choose heaven over hell. Yet that does not mean that all freedom is equal: one kind of individual freedom leads to hellish anarchy while the other leads to heavenly order. If we want to follow the Lord, we need to spend time distinguishing between the two.
Right at the door, right at the passage from our homes out into the world, lies a choice. It is a good choice! A choice we get to make every single day. Join us as we look at what is at the door or maybe, who is at the door.
We all want to be good: but how do we decide which good things to do? No matter how much we do, there is always more to be done. When faced with just how many needs there are in the world we can become overwhelmed. We cannot possibly do it all. In order to be good we have to constantly make a judgment call about what good things we will do, and just as importantly, what good things we will not do. We’ll talk about how to make those choices this Sunday.
Our Story is about a Raven sent to feed Elijah. Why a Raven? This bird is a scavenger. It feeds on dead creatures/carrion. Yet today, it is a choice bird that the LORD uses to take care of Elijah. Is there more to the story than meets the eye?
In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first miracle consists of turning water into wine. While this miracle is powerful in it’s own right, it also represents a spiritual process that we all must go through: just as Jesus turned simple water into good quality wine, the Lord can transform the basic ideas we know into a way of life. What were once simple truths can become the good habits that lead to heaven.
Are optimists better than pessimists? Are pessimists just realistic while optimists are naïve? What about the Lord? Is He optimistic about our potential, or does He bemoan the woeful nature of humanity? We have those two broad categories of people that conflict with each other. And at times they may be useful. But this Sunday we will look a little beyond these two categories to try to find a more spiritual view of society, humanity, and our future.
I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 8:11)
What’s the point of reflecting on your inner life? The things that go through your heart and mind? The problem is that evil that remains hidden will ultimately actually change who we are as individuals. The Lord wants us to work on our inner selves, our motivations and intentions, so that we can become truly heavenly people, in other words, people who do not just act heavenly, but who are heavenly at heart and in mind. In order for this to happen, the evils that exist within us must be examined, brought to light, and dealt with openly.
There are many ways we can think about what the Lord wants for us. One of the ways the Lord frames it is that He wants us to abide in Him so that He can abide in us. During the service we will be exploring how we can live our lives in a way that allows for the Lord to most fully abide in us, where we can feel His presence and experience His joy
Many religions have taught that there is virtue in denying yourself pleasure. The idea is that pleasure distracts us from what truly matters and entices us to live selfishly. And that is very true. But there is also a kind of pleasure, even worldly pleasure, that can fit perfectly well into a wholesome, spiritual life. The point is not to deny ourselves for the sake of denial, but rather to deny pleasures that take us away from the Lord and embrace the ones that allow us to delight in the Lord.
One of the most ubiquitous modern “idols” is the screen. It sucks us in with its promise of satisfaction, pleasure, and escape, only to rob us of time, energy, and connection. Ironically, even as we devote so much to a lifeless mass of wires and plastic, we disconnect more and more from the life-filled, flesh-and-blood people around us. We must relearn how to prioritize people, and above all the Lord, and have technology once again become a servant in pursuit of that priority.
The 23rd Psalm is one of the most well-known portions of the Bible. In it, the Lord is compared to a shepherd, providing for all our needs and guiding us through dark places. This Sunday will be spent contemplating the deeper meaning we can find contained within these powerful words of Scripture.
There’s something beautiful about being in nature, surrounded by trees and flowers, hearing the birds singing, watching as the sun lights up the clouds. It can feel like a truly spiritual experience. And in fact, it is: every last thing in nature is a reflection of the spiritual world, and ultimately, of the Lord. Nor is this just a symbolic connection: the life we see all around us is actually created and sustained by spiritual life from the Lord. Our relationship with nature is an opportunity to reflect and connect more deeply with the Lord.
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord’s forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him, He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds.
To love the Lord means to love to do what He commands (John 14:21-24). That is because He is what He commands, for His commandments originate from Him, so that He is present in them, and is thus present in the person on whose life they are engraved, and they are engraved on a person by his willing and doing them. (AR 551)
We can all agree that childhood is a time of great innocence. We see it in the faces of infants and in the behaviour of little children. The Teachings of the New Church say that this innocence comes directly from the Lord, and at heart is a simple willingness to be led by the Lord. This same innocence is not restricted to childhood; in fact, the more we as adults lean into a willingness to simply be led by the Lord, the more we return to the innocence of childhood; with the difference that because it is something we consciously choose, it can be deeper and stronger even than the innocence that we had as children.
“Grow up!” “Don’t be such a child!” “Act like an adult!” These are all familiar messages that we start to hear as we get older. We are encouraged to leave behind the things of childhood and enter “the real world.” And there is a truth in this way of thinking. But the Lord also says almost the opposite: “unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Although we do leave childhood behind, there is some spiritual element of childhood that it is essential for us to hold onto.
A Decree of Shame condemns and sends an innocent, God-fearing man to a Den of Lions with the hope he dies there. But then, there is our Lord, our God. His presence changes the narrative and brings an unexpected twist that brings nothing less than legendary and continuous happiness.
You can’t buy your way into heaven, no matter how much wealth you amass. That won’t come as a surprise to most of you. Yet somehow, subconsciously, we end up trying. Every time we feel entitled to reward because of our good deeds, we have diminished good deeds to a mere currency with which we can buy a slice of heaven. Every time we feel slighted for the ill fortune that befalls us in spite of our goodness, we have reduced God’s living Providence into a mere balance sheet of good countered by evil. It is only when we realize that goodness is its own reward that we can be free from the allure of heaven as a reward. Heaven is not a reward; heaven is the natural result of a life of goodness.
Last week we explored how the Last Judgment is not a future event that will sweep away all the evil of the world and bring an end to all our issues, but rather a spiritual event that took place hundreds of years ago, paving the way for us to freely deal with our issues. That was not the only thing that happened though: at the same time the Lord made His Second Coming, His long-awaited return to Earth. He made His advent not by appearing in person however, but through a series of books that we know today as the Heavenly Doctrines, or the Teachings of the New Church. This Sunday we’ll talk about how the Lord comes to each one of us through these new ideas.
One of the most astonishing teaching of the New Church is that the Last Judgment and the Second Coming of the Lord have already taken place... and hardly anyone noticed! This is because they are spiritual events rather than physical ones. This Sunday we'll talk about how a Last Judgment, which took place in the spiritual world hundreds of years ago, paved the way for a new spiritual era and impacts all of us even today. Then the following Sunday we'll explore how the Lord can come again into our lives, as His Second Coming continues with every individual.
With the recent elections many of us are reflecting on the future of this country. There is a decent amount of fear and worry, along with some hope perhaps. But how are we to think of these things spiritually? Sometimes we separate the political from the spiritual as if they are totally distinct parts of life. But the realm of laws and governance is supposed to be a support for a moral and spiritual society. If that support is shaky, morality and spirituality suffer. But regardless of the despair or hope we may feel, the Lord calls us to remember to put our trust in Him, and believe that He is still in charge, regardless of the apparent outcomes.
The Lord asks us to see in a new way. Maybe that is why healing from blindness was a such a common miracle. But it was not physical blindness the Lord healed but spiritual blindness as well.
Anxiety is all around us in today’s world. It is in ourselves, our friends, our communities. Does this abundant anxiety exemplify a lack of faith in the Lord? Not necessarily. It is true that faith in the Lord can help overcome anxiety; and as we grow in faith we may find that anxiety lessens. But as long as we love what is good, we will feel fear when that good thing is put at risk. The real question is what will we do with the anxiety that we feel, and can we be motivated by it to make a more loving, safe, world?
And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”(1Samuel 1:11)
Have you ever seen a person who struggles with some particular evil and thought to yourself, “I’m so glad that I’ve never had to deal with that”? It helps to put our own struggles into perspective when we can see how much harder other people have it. We could put much of this up to chance: we happened to be born into a certain family, at a certain time in history, in a particular location. But on closer inspection, none of this is random chance: all of us, like it or not, incline towards the same struggles and challenges as anyone else. It is only through the Lord’s almighty power that we can be held back from falling headlong into unimaginable evils. Today we will explore the ways that the Lord fights battles on our behalf that we will never be aware of, and how much we have to be grateful for.
Everyone needs help; none of us can get through life on our own. And yet when help is available there are many times when we don’t take advantage of it. Why is that? Why especially do we not take advantage of the help that the Lord offers? We’ll explore what gets in the way and how to have a better attitude towards the help that we are given by other people.
When someone you care about is in need, you give them help. That is a good thing, obviously! But what if they don’t want our help? Or if they need a different kind of help? Or if they reject our help? Our immediate response can be hurt; after all, we are trying to help them! But if we are going to truly help people, we need to learn to make it less about us and how we are received, and more about what the person actually needs. Giving help is about the receiver, it is not about the giver.
Elijah and Elisha were two prophets who followed in quick succession. Elijah, who came first, was poorly received and lived a troubled existence. Elisha, who succeeded him, was better received and accepted by the leaders of his day. These two prophets represent two stages in our relationship with the Lord. At first we must struggle and fight to apply His truths. But as we grow and progress it becomes easier and easier, until we live His truth with hardly a second thought.
If someone called you weak, you would take it as an insult. But what about when the Lord calls you weak? Because He most certainly does: compared to Him, we are utterly powerless. And yet far from being insulted, if we embrace our own weakness, we can let down the burdens of perfection and self-reliance, and receive from the Lord a greater power than we could ever muster on our own. We may be utterly helpless, but the greatest force in the universe is on our side.
The word “omnipotent” can be attributed only to the Lord; He alone is all-powerful. The Easter story is a manifestation of that power, in that He restored to order everything in His kingdom and took on the power to be our Savior. As He said to His disciples, “All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). On Sunday we will talk about how to receive some of that power into our own lives. There is power in goodness, in doing the things the Lord asks, in sharing what is ours with others, in extending ourselves of the benefit of others, in praying to the Lord for help.
Around Easter there are many images, some gruesome, of the Lord dying on the Cross, shedding His blood. The New Church, with good reason, does not emphasize these images. But why then did the Lord talk in terms of giving His flesh and blood? This imagery was not made up from nothing, but from the Lord’s own words. We need to listen to what the Lord taught about spilling His own blood for us; but we have to understand these word spiritually. When we do, our minds can rise above the gruesome imagery, and see the beautiful reality of the Lord giving of His own life, through the truths of Word, to regenerate us and recreate us as new and heavenly people.
Palm Sunday represents a crucial turning point in the Lord’s ministry: it was the point at which He went from preaching in the outskirts of the countryside to directly challenging those at the heart of religious life. It also led to His death and eventual resurrection. There is also a turning point for us when we submit to the Lord as King: as He enters we find new challenges, unseen evils, and deep spiritual struggle. Yet ultimately it is all for the good: just as Palm Sunday points through the Crucifixion to Easter Sunday, the Lord’s presence with us cuts through temptations and brings us to eternal peace.
We all fail. It’s part of being human. But that does not mean we are stuck with our failures. The Lord uses the failures we encounter to help us grow and eventually arrive at spiritual success. This Sunday we’ll explore what failure really means, and how we can see it differently.
What does success mean? All of us will have our own definition, and in fact that definition will change as we grow and change as individuals. But at the heart of success is service to others. When that is at the forefront of what it means to live a successful life, all of our other priorities and ideas of success can fall into place.
The New Church has many amazing truths, truths that we can be grateful to have found. They give us insight into life and inspire us to grow spiritually. But sometimes we get so caught up in having the truth that we lose sight of the purpose. But there is no point in having the truth if we don’t live it; and one of the ways we live it is by sharing it with others. The truth of the New Church is a gift that has been freely given from the Lord; and it is incumbent on us to freely share it with others.
The New Church teaches that all people of all faiths can be part of the Lord’s kingdom if they look to the Divine and live a charitable life. The Lord does not limit Himself to one group or another. What then is the point of the New Church? Although the church extends to every corner of the globe, it is still worth striving to embody the Lord’s New Church as a crucial part of that wider, universal church.
Whenever marriage is discussed, there is likely to be strong emotions. The New Church teaches that marriage is holy, sacred and pure. The high emotions are because of just how important the topic is. This week, we will spend some time exploring the promises of the New Church around marriage and how we can cooperate with the Lord’s goals for us.
What is the most unique thing about the New Church? Maybe our teachings on marriage? Maybe our view of the afterlife? These are certainly distinct teachings, but other religions believe in an afterlife, even if the details are different. Other religions have wisdom to share about marriage, even if the specifics are diverse. No, the most distinct difference in the New Church is that we teach that the Second Coming not only will happen, but has already happened.
A survey was conducted on how well people knew the 10 Commandments. The findings were a little depressing. Most people were unable to name half of them. However, there was an interesting similarity in almost every response. The one commandment that was almost universally forgotten was the Commandment to Remember the Sabbath. On Sunday, we will explore this Commandment and what it means to keep the Sabbath.
If you are rich, what are your obligations to the poor? If you are poor, how should you view those richer than you? The Lord in the Gospels teaches us about wealth and poverty and the Teachings for the New Church build on those concepts to help us understand how Christians ought to view these things.
Last week we looked at how we need to adjust our view of people who commit evil: we must bring charity to bear, so that we can focus on the good. This week we will look at what we can actually do to stop or amend the evil. This is a tricky endeavour: on the one hand, we can have a great deal of influence or even control over how other people behave; on the other hand, we are often powerless to change someone’s behaviour, and although we can influence and encourage people to change, we have no power whatsoever to actually change them.
How should we react when someone does something evil? One of the more shocking Teachings of the New Church is that we should do everything in our power to excuse them! Yet how can we excuse what is clearly unacceptable (or even inexcusable)? It takes real effort to understand someone, and love them even at their worst, but it is an effort that we are all called to make.
Luke 2:13-14 - And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
When the shepherds had seen the new-born Jesus they did not keep it to themselves. The went back to their flocks “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20). When we glorify and praise the Lord, not just with our words but our actions as well, we invite His continuing presence into our lives going forward.
Worship is not something we think of as difficult. Yet there is a lot more to worship than meets the eye. The deeper meaning of worship shows up in the story of the wise men. These men did not simply worship the Lord from where they were. They got up and traveled to find the Lord and give him unique gifts. Likewise, if we want to truly worship the Lord, we have to seek Him out, and offer Him gifts of love, faith, usefulness.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Lord into our world, as a Divine Human with whom we can have a real, direct relationship. In the Holy Supper, we also celebrate the closeness of the Lord, not just nearby but within us. Both events, the incarnation of the Lord 2000 years ago and partaking of Holy Supper in the present day, speak to the Lord’s tangible presence in our lives.
The life of David is one of courage and trust in the Lord. Yet even David, as king, fell away from the right path. It turns out that heroes can never quite live up to our hopes and expectations. The same is true of life: we build up hopes and expectations, but then feel let down when they don’t turn out. The Lord, however is different: He will never let us down; His promises always come to pass, and they turn out to exceed our hopes and expectations.
Life seems to be full of complicated choices, and the world we live in can often seem so confusing. Yet, the Lord in His Word is continually urging us to make the right choice to follow Him. Why does this many times become so hard for us to do? Clearly this choice is wise, but why isn’t making this choice easy?
The Word is, at heart, a story. It’s true that at times the nature of the story is opaque, but the central message is straightforward: God created people in order to love; when they turned away, and nearly destroyed themselves, He continued to love them; and in time, come down as Jesus Christ to save us; and this work of saving us carries on even today. This Sunday we will explore how the story that the Word tells can be life-changing.
We sometimes think that to leave our mistakes behind we can just forget about them; but we also know that really doesn’t work. The alternative seems to be to somehow make up for them, and there is truth in this. But what does it take to make up for a mistake? Especially a mistake that rises to the level of being evil? It can feel like we have to undo our mistake, and yet there is no way to change the past. The reality is that repentance (the Lord’s way of making up for mistakes) is not so much about the past, but the present: repentance does not undo the things we have done; instead it allows us to become a different person in the present moment. It’s all about who we are, not who we used to be.
We don't really believe in magic anymore: no one thinks I could make a rabbit pop out of a hat by any means other than mere trickery. But we still do fall into a kind of "magical thinking" when it comes to faith. That is, we believe that if we say the right words or go through the right motions it will magically make us into new people. But the only way to actually change is to do the hard work of changing yourself.
This week, we are focusing on family. Who is family? How do we define family? Does the Word have any teachings concerning the subject? In the event of conflicts and disagreements arising within families, how do we mend the “cracks” so that we be the family of happy memories .
Our final sermon on prayer will focus on prayers for other people. It’s hard to know exactly what these prayers do; they might not be as obvious as prayers for our own spiritual growth or that have to do with our personal relationship with the Lord. But when we pray for other people we are joined together in a heavenly community, one that turns to the Lord and looks to Him as the One who brings us all together.
Last week we looked at how to prayer. But this week we examine the question, what does prayer do? There are many answers to this question, and as many answer as to what prayer does NOT do that we wish it did. But at heart, prayer connects us to the Lord, so that we can receive His power to be reborn and regenerated.
We are starting a two-part series on prayer. This week the focus is on the practice of prayer, practice both in the sense of applying an idea to real life and an activity done with the intention of improving. Because I would guess that most of us (not all, but most) could use some improvement in our prayer lives. The New Church has something of a history of being stiff and uncomfortable with prayer. This series will be an opportunity to become more active with our prayers and appreciate the power that prayer has.
Life is at times sunny and bright, and we keenly feel the Lord’s presence. At other times life is dark and stormy, and the Lord seems absent. We move from one state to another. The Lord, on the other hand, is constant: appearances to the contrary, He never ceases to bless our lives with love and wisdom. It is up to us to practice turning back to Him, so that we can realize what has been true all along: that He has been at our side, loving and guiding us, through all the states of life.
Which matters more: being good or being right? As a church we know that both matter, and at the same time that goodness is the more important of the two. Yet often we can switch things around and put way too much emphasis on being right to the detriment of being good, This Sunday we will look at the letter to the Church in Ephesus, which urges those who put great weight in being right to focus more on doing good.
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.” (Matthew 6:34)
This simple phrase holds immense power. It’s easy to become caught up in what the future holds: worry, anxiety, fear. Our instinct is to reach for certainty and take control to make sure everything works out. This pattern becomes exhausting and is futile. Yet when we listen to the Lord we can let go of the need for certainty and instead hope, with the sure trust that the Lord will lead us through all hardships. This week, when you worry about the future, change that worry into a hope.
One of the central teachings of the New Church is that the Word has a deeper, spiritual meaning. This meaning runs through every story, every phrase, and even every word. This Sunday we'll talk about this deeper spiritual sense, and why it was revealed only hundreds of years after the Word was written, and the role it plays in the establishment of the New Church.
This week we continue with the them of the essentials of the New Church, in other words, the core ideas that define what the New Church actually is. Last week we looked at a unique view of God. This week our focus is on life. In the New Church one of the central teachings is that we must follow the Lord’s teachings, and it is only through this that we can receive salvation and eternal life. In the book of Revelation we see images of what it means to truly live what we believe and fight mightily to put it into practice.
Our sermon series for New Church Day is going to be three parts. What's new about the New Church? We're going to look at what's new about an idea of the Lord, what's new about how you live your life, what's new about an understanding of the Lord's Word. The first one about the Lord, which we're going to do this Sunday, is going to be all about the oneness of God. How, when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, we're seeing the fullness of God. We're seeing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all of it together in this one person who we can go to, relate to, have a relationship with, learn from, and worship.
It turns out that we don’t have all the answers and that we don’t have life more figured out than anyone else. When life gets hard we can quickly go from self-satisfied to despairing over ever knowing how to overcome our troubles. While we might seek to avoid this trap of thinking we have everything figured out only to have it all crash down around us, it is inevitable. Thankfully the Lord uses this experience to lead us to a place of true peace and contentment. This process is laid out for us in the story of Hagar and Ishmael.
Marriage is all about two people becoming one person. But that isn't always what it feels like. It can feel more like two butting heads or missing each other entirely or being together in person but isolated in mind or heart. So how do two become one? What does it take to fulfil that promise of marriage?
The 4th Commandment directs us to “honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.” I hope you have a chance today to do some of that honouring. But of course, this commandment goes far beyond just one day of the year and beyond just one earthly mother. More broadly we can reflect on how we honour motherhood in general, and how those qualities of motherhood come into our spiritual practices. Whether your mother is still here or has passed on, whether your relationship with your mother is deep, conflicted, or non-existent, it is possible to honour spiritual motherhood.
The Teachings of the New Church describe heaven as a place of beauty and peace. Some of the passages go into intricate detail as to what we can expect there. But although heaven is a place that can be described as our future dwelling-place, it is much more than that too. The more we know about what really makes heave heaven, the more able we will be to create heaven on earth.
When faced with some of the deepest challenges doubt can creep in. We can doubt that the Lord is going to somehow make it all ok; that our efforts will make any difference; that denying ourselves leads to more happiness than we can imagine. Yet the Lord calls us to believe in all of these “unbelievable” truths. If we wait until our belief is rock solid than we will end up waiting for forever; but if we have faith, and move forward with confidence, we will in the end see clearly the truth of what the Lord has told us.
By default we see the world from our own point of view. This is an inescapable fact of life; but our own desires, wants, and wishes shape how we see other people and the world around us. The Lord calls us to lift our minds above our default perspective so that we can look from the Lord’s heavenly one. When seen from His point of view we will find that the world is a much better place with more opportunities than we could otherwise imagine.
This sermon is adapted from one written by Rev. Gerald Waters in 2010. In it we will explore where true joy comes from, and how through a life of service we can build up a never-ending supply of happiness.
No one likes to fail. We actively try to avoid failure (as we should!). But failure is also unavoidable: it is part and parcel of trying to live a better life. Our own failures are reflected in the Lord's apparent failure. On the first Easter morning, before anyone knew He had risen, it seemed obvious that Jesus had failed. And yet through that apparent failure the Lord had the opportunity to overcome death, and hell, and sin, and so achieve true and lasting success. The path through failure leads to a better future.
Before the events of Easter, the Lord called His disciples together to have one final meal with them. Present at this meal were not just the good: also present was Judas, the betrayer. Jesus calls all of us, regardless of our state, to come to Him, and through repentance to be reborn. He gives us all that we need in order for this spiritual change to take place, through the Love and Wisdom He constantly offers us.
Easter celebrates the Lord’s victory over hell, at a time in history when hell was at its strongest. Yet Easter was not just a moment in time: in His moment of victory the Lord conquered hell to eternity. His conquest carries on in us today, and it is able to carry on specifically because of the humanness that God took on, and that still defines Him today.
When you are invited to a wedding and reception, do you accept? What if the one who is hosting the wedding is wealthy, even a king, and the only cost to attend is your time, the only requirement that you dress appropriately? Would you not most likely readily accept if possible, and even rearrange your schedule to make it work? There would be no reason not to. And to go further, what if the one throwing the Wedding were the Lord, and to enter the wedding was to enter heaven? How much more likely we would be to accept! And yet, for some reason, the Lord tells us a parable in which the obvious does not occur, in which the invitation is refused. We too live out this parable. From it, we can learn to recognize the Lord’s invitations, and so choose to accept them.
The Lord has many rules that we are to follow. One of the fundamental principles of the church is that we are to live our lives according to His laws. But with so many rules to follow it can begin to feel impossible; and if it is impossible to keep the Lord’s law, than we may start to feel we are doomed to failure. This is not the case. Although it is a challenge, the Lord is able to give us the power to keep His rules, and to even find joy in doing so.
I love the concept of the Lord leading us from one spiritual capability to the next. We will consider the ways the Lord inspires the strength of love and being genuinely considerate of others, the strength of truth and obeying it, and the strength or power of actually doing the Lord’s will. Given the 100th anniversary of Kainon School we will draw particular attention to the spiritual strengths we wish to foster in children—as parents and educators. For the children’s talk, the focus will be on the character strength exhibited by David when he faced Goliath (1 Samuel 17—parts). We will discover that David’s victory came as a result of an inner kind of strength—because he trusted in the Lord.
Do you know what a Priest’s job is? This Sunday is the first part in a series on the relationship of Priests and Laity. By learning about what a priest’s job is, we can better understand what we should expect of them and what is expected of us.
With all the distractions of life, the many mundane activities to attend to, the daily grind that never seems to end, God can get lost in the shuffle. Some have tried to transcend all worldly concerns in order to focus entirely on God, but for many of us that is not an option. The world is to present in our lives. Thankfully the Lord does not only exist on high; He is present in the worldly stuff of life, and through repentance everyone is able to meet Him even among the day-to-day concerns.
Have you ever done something to a person that you’re ashamed of, or had a person know something shameful about you? And every time you’re around them all you can think of is how desperately you just want to get away, to escape from their presence so you can stop feeling the shame? I think a lot of people feel that way about God. So they push God away and want nothing to do with him, because His presence brings their shame to life. But there are three pieces to this situation, not just you and God. It’s you, God, and your shame. And instead of pushing away God from ourselves when we feel shame, God calls us to push the shame away when He is present. That is the result of repentance: to push away that shameful behavior and so be present with God.
As our lives are challenged at this time, confusions, chaos and more uncertain burdens are coming our way, it is now the best time to find our way back to the LORD. John the Baptist is like a mirror before us today, to look at ourselves and “fish out” those bad tendencies in us that are detrimental to our spiritual prosperity.
The New Church emphasizes how much charity matter. Charity is the primary purpose of our lives, and without it no amount of faith will save us. What then of faith in God? If charity is all that matters, can we dispose of a notion of an all-powerful divine being who watches over us? How significant is that belief anyway? According to the New Church: essential. Without some acknowledgment of God, we actually cannot practice true charity. We’ll look deeper into why a belief in God is so crucial to how we live.
We live in a world filled with signs of Divine love and wisdom, and the Divine Providence which is governing our lives every moment – protecting, nurturing, and leading us. The world of nature presents an image of our spiritual lives, and can instruct us in how to grow spiritually. Yet these insights do not come just from studying nature, nor even from just studying spiritual things, but from living what the Word teaches, so that we can see from our hearts the messages from the Lord in the world around us.
What does it take to love someone you disagree with? At what point does a disagreement escalate to an argument, and in turn ruin a relationship? Is it even possible to fully love everyone you disagree with? There are lots of disagreements around us all the time, many of which do escalate. In spite of our best efforts we will have times when disagreements and arguments break the harmony of our relationships. Disagreement cannot, and should not, be avoided. But it does not have to be a messy affair that ends friendships. If we learn to disagree under the guidance of the Lord’s Word we will find greater harmony in the end.
What does it take to love someone you disagree with? At what point does a disagreement escalate to an argument, and in turn ruin a relationship? Is it even possible to fully love everyone you disagree with? There are lots of disagreements around us all the time, many of which do escalate. In spite of our best efforts we will have times when disagreements and arguments break the harmony of our relationships. Disagreement cannot, and should not, be avoided. But it does not have to be a messy affair that ends friendships. If we learn to disagree under the guidance of the Lord’s Word we will find greater harmony in the end.
While the Christmas Story sparks joy and gladness, it took place in a time of darkness and evil. That is, after all, the whole reasons Jesus needed to be born into the world in the first place. This evil is embodied in the character of Herod, the king at the time of Jesus' birth. Although at first his intentions appeared innocent enough, under the surface lurked jealousy and hatred. In him we see a reflection of our own hidden evils, evils that we need to grapple with if the Lord is to be born into our lives.
What do you do when you hear exciting news? Don’t you go and tell everyone that you can? And isn’t it really frustrating when you have exciting news to tell but someone else says it first? And isn’t that what makes it so hard to keep a secret? Imagine if you were the only one who knew your mom was pregnant, or you found out a cool present your brother will get for Christmas, or you heard about a surprise party that people are throwing for someone. You’d want to tell everyone. As we share in the joyful singing of Christmas carols this Sunday night, let’s also give some focus to how we can joyfully spread the good news of the Lord’s salvation.
At Christmas we love to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus who was born into this world! However, do we really know who this infant being was? Was He the Son of God or the Father? Was He the Son of Mary? Was He God Almighty? Was He Jehovah? Was He the Creator? Was He the Redeemer? We will take a look at who this little infant Saviour really was who came and dwelt among us here on earth.
Christmas season where we celebrate the birth of the Lord is rapidly approaching and it is useful to us to think about all the things we need to do in order to prepare for His Advent. One key item on each of our checklists should be to REPENT! We will discuss the important role John the Baptist played in preparing people for the Lord’s coming.
Christmas season where we celebrate the birth of the Lord is rapidly approaching and it is useful to us to think about all the things we need to do in order to prepare for His Advent. One key item on each of our checklists should be to REPENT! We will discuss the important role John the Baptist played in preparing people for the Lord’s coming.
Christmas season where we celebrate the birth of the Lord is rapidly approaching and it is useful to us to think about all the things we need to do in order to prepare for His Advent. One key item on each of our checklists should be to REPENT! We will discuss the important role John the Baptist played in preparing people for the Lord’s coming.
Christmas season where we celebrate the birth of the Lord is rapidly approaching and it is useful to us to think about all the things we need to do in order to prepare for His Advent. One key item on each of our checklists should be to REPENT! We will discuss the important role John the Baptist played in preparing people for the Lord’s coming.
The Lord came into this world to heal the sick. He did not come to those who were already healthy. Likewise, the Lord did not come to the righteous, or those who thought they were righteous, but to sinners, to heal them of their sin. The Lord pointed to this truth every time He healed someone who was physically ill. The physical healing was only an outward sign of the inward miracle: the healing of spiritual sin. Each and every one of our sins could be portrayed as an outward ailment. This week we turn to leprosy, through which we will learn what happens when we become isolated from God and from each other through sin, and how the Lord reconciles with us and restores us to our communities.
This is the conclusion of our three-part series on temptations. In the end we have to confront our love of ourselves. This is at the heart of any spiritual struggle. We want to be in charge, so much so that we want to be able to control the Lord. This is represented in the Lord’s last temptation. The devil took Him up onto the pinnacle of the temple, and told Him to throw Himself to the ground. Doesn’t the Word say that “He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,” and, “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone”? (Luke 4:10, 11). In others words, test the Lord. The Lord says that He’ll keep you safe. But let’s see if He really will. Force His hand. Make Him rescue you. Yet that is not how it works. The Lord will help us when we have made it clear that we want His help. In order to do this we must put aside love of self and put our trust in Him.
Last week we talked about resisting the urge to pursue pleasure above all else. This week we will look at the more intellectual side of temptation: the temptation to twist the truth to suit our own needs. This is represented in the Devil offering Jesus the kingdoms of the world, if only He would worship him. Jesus rebuked the devil, saying that God, and God alone, is to be worshipped and served. We are tempted to make ourselves the rulers and arbiters of what is right and wrong. Yet true freedom lies in serving the Lord and abiding by His rules for life.
This Sunday we will begin a three-part series on spiritual battles, or temptation. The template for entering these spiritual struggles can be found in the Lord’s temptations: before He began His ministry the Lord was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days. The three main temptations that He faced and in which He was victorious encapsulate all of the temptations that we also grapple with: the craving for pleasure, the compulsion to twist the truth, and the drive to elevate ourselves above all others.
2. Twisting the Truth – 6 November 3. Putting Self First – 13 November
This Sunday we will begin a three-part series on spiritual battles, or temptation. The template for entering these spiritual struggles can be found in the Lord’s temptations: before He began His ministry the Lord was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days. The three main temptations that He faced and in which He was victorious encapsulate all of the temptations that we also grapple with: the craving for pleasure, the compulsion to twist the truth, and the drive to elevate ourselves above all others.
2. Twisting the Truth – 6 November 3. Putting Self First – 13 November
This Sunday we will begin a three-part series on spiritual battles, or temptation. The template for entering these spiritual struggles can be found in the Lord’s temptations: before He began His ministry the Lord was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days. The three main temptations that He faced and in which He was victorious encapsulate all of the temptations that we also grapple with: the craving for pleasure, the compulsion to twist the truth, and the drive to elevate ourselves above all others.
2. Twisting the Truth – 6 November 3. Putting Self First – 13 November
This Sunday we will begin a three-part series on spiritual battles, or temptation. The template for entering these spiritual struggles can be found in the Lord’s temptations: before He began His ministry the Lord was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days. The three main temptations that He faced and in which He was victorious encapsulate all of the temptations that we also grapple with: the craving for pleasure, the compulsion to twist the truth, and the drive to elevate ourselves above all others.
2. Twisting the Truth – 6 November 3. Putting Self First – 13 November
Holy Supper will be offered this Sunday. Every time we take Holy Supper it is a new opportunity to find rejuvenation in our spiritual lives; so how do we let go of the past and really start anew? We’ll look at how the process of repentance washes away some of our baggage and gives us a great chance to start again on our spiritual journey.
Life is often messy. Many people struggle to stay on top of all their obligations, much less all the other bits and pieces of life. With this experience it can start to appear that there is no real order or purpose to life, no strand tying it all together. Yet even in the chaos the Lord’s order is present. In His eyes, every piece is accounted for, every event foreseen, and every possibility planned for. Even within the chaos, there is order; the Lord’s Divine Order.
Old age can be a time of great reflection: looking back on what has been, looking forward with wonder to what is to come after death. It can also be a time of trial and tribulation: as the body and mind fail, doubt and despair can creep in. Moses, at the end of his life, was able to reflect on the past and from that gracefully hand over his wisdom to the next generation. As we look at this concluding stage of life in this world, we will look at how we too can gracefully age and handover to the next generation.
Thank you to Lance Mansfield for once again stepping up to be our Lay Preacher.
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord’s forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him, He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds.
Thank you to Lance Mansfield for being our Lay Preacher
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord’s forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him, He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds.
Thank you to Lance Mansfield for being our Lay Preacher
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord’s forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him, He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds.
Thank you to Lance Mansfield for being our Lay Preacher
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord’s forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him, He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds.
Thank you to Lance Mansfield for being our Lay Preacher
A person’s heritage is the practices and customs that have been handed down from the past and that in many ways define the group they are part of. To celebrate heritage is to celebrate where a person or group has come from and to appreciate the variety among other cultures. Within all these cultures though there is a uniting thread that holds us all together, that of a heavenly heritage, a heavenly way of life, passed down to us from the Lord.
A person’s heritage is the practices and customs that have been handed down from the past and that in many ways define the group they are part of. To celebrate heritage is to celebrate where a person or group has come from and to appreciate the variety among other cultures. Within all these cultures though there is a uniting thread that holds us all together, that of a heavenly heritage, a heavenly way of life, passed down to us from the Lord.
A person’s heritage is the practices and customs that have been handed down from the past and that in many ways define the group they are part of. To celebrate heritage is to celebrate where a person or group has come from and to appreciate the variety among other cultures. Within all these cultures though there is a uniting thread that holds us all together, that of a heavenly heritage, a heavenly way of life, passed down to us from the Lord.
A person’s heritage is the practices and customs that have been handed down from the past and that in many ways define the group they are part of. To celebrate heritage is to celebrate where a person or group has come from and to appreciate the variety among other cultures. Within all these cultures though there is a uniting thread that holds us all together, that of a heavenly heritage, a heavenly way of life, passed down to us from the Lord.
John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the Lord. Without this preparation the people would not have been able to recognize the Lord’s innocence and love. Likewise, if we do not prepare through living a good life we will miss the presence of the Lord’s innocence and love. The way we prepare is through repentance. This week, take the time to think about how you would like the Lord to show up in your life: in love? In peace? In friendship? In integrity? Then take the steps that will allow you to receive the Lord in this way. The hard work of preparation will have been worth it when it brings the joy of the Lord’s presence.
John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the Lord. Without this preparation the people would not have been able to recognize the Lord’s innocence and love. Likewise, if we do not prepare through living a good life we will miss the presence of the Lord’s innocence and love. The way we prepare is through repentance. This week, take the time to think about how you would like the Lord to show up in your life: in love? In peace? In friendship? In integrity? Then take the steps that will allow you to receive the Lord in this way. The hard work of preparation will have been worth it when it brings the joy of the Lord’s presence.
John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the Lord. Without this preparation the people would not have been able to recognize the Lord’s innocence and love. Likewise, if we do not prepare through living a good life we will miss the presence of the Lord’s innocence and love. The way we prepare is through repentance. This week, take the time to think about how you would like the Lord to show up in your life: in love? In peace? In friendship? In integrity? Then take the steps that will allow you to receive the Lord in this way. The hard work of preparation will have been worth it when it brings the joy of the Lord’s presence.
John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the Lord. Without this preparation the people would not have been able to recognize the Lord’s innocence and love. Likewise, if we do not prepare through living a good life we will miss the presence of the Lord’s innocence and love. The way we prepare is through repentance. This week, take the time to think about how you would like the Lord to show up in your life: in love? In peace? In friendship? In integrity? Then take the steps that will allow you to receive the Lord in this way. The hard work of preparation will have been worth it when it brings the joy of the Lord’s presence.
We talk of organizations as if they have a life of their own: "The company made some good decisions last years;" "The rugby team is making good progress." But of course, no organization does anything apart from the individual choices of its members. The church is no different. We may talk of the church as a separate entity that does things; the reality is that the church only exists insofar as the individual members are living and being the church. Each of us is a part of the greater whole, and the quality of the church will be determined by the quality of our lives. Rev. J. Bheki Dube also reads a lesson.
We talk of organizations as if they have a life of their own: "The company made some good decisions last years;" "The rugby team is making good progress." But of course, no organization does anything apart from the individual choices of its members. The church is no different. We may talk of the church as a separate entity that does things; the reality is that the church only exists insofar as the individual members are living and being the church. Each of us is a part of the greater whole, and the quality of the church will be determined by the quality of our lives. Rev. J. Bheki Dube also reads a lesson.
We talk of organizations as if they have a life of their own: "The company made some good decisions last years;" "The rugby team is making good progress." But of course, no organization does anything apart from the individual choices of its members. The church is no different. We may talk of the church as a separate entity that does things; the reality is that the church only exists insofar as the individual members are living and being the church. Each of us is a part of the greater whole, and the quality of the church will be determined by the quality of our lives. Rev. J. Bheki Dube also reads a lesson.
We talk of organizations as if they have a life of their own: "The company made some good decisions last years;" "The rugby team is making good progress." But of course, no organization does anything apart from the individual choices of its members. The church is no different. We may talk of the church as a separate entity that does things; the reality is that the church only exists insofar as the individual members are living and being the church. Each of us is a part of the greater whole, and the quality of the church will be determined by the quality of our lives. Rev. J. Bheki Dube also reads a lesson.
We all break rules from time to time. We speed. We tell a little lie. We browse Instagram at work when no one is around. We always tell ourselves that it is justified. But then someone else does the same, and our righteous indignation bristles: well if they speed, I can cut them off! They lied, so I can bad mouth them to others! They slack off at work, so I can too! What we fail to see is that we are using the technicality of breaking a rule to justify us harming someone else. The Lord calls us to something greater: to look beyond just the letter of the law and focus on the spirit, and from there to have compassion on those who perhaps don't stay within bounds as much as we might hope.
We all break rules from time to time. We speed. We tell a little lie. We browse Instagram at work when no one is around. We always tell ourselves that it is justified. But then someone else does the same, and our righteous indignation bristles: well if they speed, I can cut them off! They lied, so I can bad mouth them to others! They slack off at work, so I can too! What we fail to see is that we are using the technicality of breaking a rule to justify us harming someone else. The Lord calls us to something greater: to look beyond just the letter of the law and focus on the spirit, and from there to have compassion on those who perhaps don't stay within bounds as much as we might hope.
We all break rules from time to time. We speed. We tell a little lie. We browse Instagram at work when no one is around. We always tell ourselves that it is justified. But then someone else does the same, and our righteous indignation bristles: well if they speed, I can cut them off! They lied, so I can bad mouth them to others! They slack off at work, so I can too! What we fail to see is that we are using the technicality of breaking a rule to justify us harming someone else. The Lord calls us to something greater: to look beyond just the letter of the law and focus on the spirit, and from there to have compassion on those who perhaps don't stay within bounds as much as we might hope.
We all break rules from time to time. We speed. We tell a little lie. We browse Instagram at work when no one is around. We always tell ourselves that it is justified. But then someone else does the same, and our righteous indignation bristles: well if they speed, I can cut them off! They lied, so I can bad mouth them to others! They slack off at work, so I can too! What we fail to see is that we are using the technicality of breaking a rule to justify us harming someone else. The Lord calls us to something greater: to look beyond just the letter of the law and focus on the spirit, and from there to have compassion on those who perhaps don't stay within bounds as much as we might hope.
This week we are going to talk about being in the middle of the flood, coping with the challenges as we experience them. In the midst of struggle we suffer from doubt but the Lord’s promise is that He has prepared you and that He will bring you through alive, to find a new beginning. There is no challenge that you cannot overcome.
We all want a nice home in which we can feel safe and loved. This doesn’t just come with a nice house: we are home among the people who care for us and love us. We are also home when we rest in the Lord and His Divine care for us. We all have a spiritual home. This Sunday we’ll look at ways to find this home for ourselves.
The Teachings of the New Church assert that "People are not born for their own sake; they are born for the sake of others." Our lives are intricately tied up in the lives of those around us, and in fact, for better or worse, we cannot help but be defined by the people we come into contact with. No one can truly live isolated from others.
What does it feel like to have your freedom taken away? We all crave freedom. We all want to be able to act with no restrictions. But freedom isn’t actually about being allowed to do anything and everything; it is about being allowed to do the things that you love. Regardless of what other restrictions may be imposed on us, if we can find what we love, and find a way to act on it, then we will be truly free.
At the Last Supper, having shared bread and wine with His disciples, the Lord commanded, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Holy Supper is an opportunity to remember the Lord: to remember what He did for us in giving His life; to remember the Divine Love that He shares with us; to remember the Divine Wisdom that inspires us. But remembering the Lord is not just a matter of thought; it is a matter of doing what He commands us. The best way to “remember” the Lord is to actively follow His teachings.
When Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, the Children of Israel were left to wonder what had become of him. As the days dragged into weeks, they lost trust in both him and the Lord, and so turned to worship a golden idol. When we feel abandoned by the Lord, with no sense of His deep presence, we also turn to our own idols, idols of pleasure or comfort. This Sunday we’ll look at how to notice this tendency in ourselves and push to reconnect with the Lord when He seems absent.
When you were born you knew nothing about the world and how it worked; nor did you know anything about the Lord or spiritual life. These were things that had to be taught to you, from a young age, both through education and through the examples set by the people around you. As you matured your faith became your own. No longer did you have to rely on others: you could enter into an adult relationship with the Lord and an adult understanding of spiritual life. Yet as simple as that sounds, we can all stand to reflect on how much of our faith is really our own, and how much work still needs to be done to move past what we were taught and live our faith for ourselves.
What is the Lord’s? In a broad sense all things are the Lord’s: He created and sustains everything in the universe. Yet we also feel as if we are our own masters. There is an innate sense that what goes on in our minds and hearts is ours and ours alone. Yet even here all that is good and true belongs to the Lord. Miraculously, when we acknowledge that truth and live it, we can actually feel more, not less, ourselves.
The Gospel of John tells a story of the disciples struggling all night fishing and catching nothing. In the morning the Lord appeared and told them to cast the night on the right side of the boat; the result is an incredible intake of fish. Fishing off the one side represents coming from a a purely intellectual viewpoint; switching to the other side represents switching to a more loving viewpoint. When we get stuck in our heads, life just doesn't work as well. Even if we know all the "right" things to say and do, pure knowledge only gets us so far. When we find ourselves struggling like this, the Lord urges us to shift gears and draw not only on the head but also the heart. It is when we come from love that life begins to work in new and amazing ways.
Our service this Sunday will be led by Warwick Schuurman. Many thanks to Warwick!
Friendship is one of the core experiences of being human. We all need, and hopefully have, friends. But how often do we think of our friendship with the Lord? It is an important part of our relationship with Him, and can also inform the many friendships we have with others. Our service this Sunday will be led by Lance Mansfield. Many thanks to Lance!
Every 19th of June we celebrate the birthday of the New Church. If you were to ask any individual member of the church what the New Church means to them, you would get a great variety of answers; and this variety reflects the beautiful scope and breadth of what the Lord offers through His Church. One common theme however might be gratitude for how much the Teachings of the New Church simply make sense; gratitude that we can enter with understanding into what otherwise would remain mysteries of faith. Our focus this Sunday will be on the strength of the New Church in revealing truth clearly to the understanding.
“The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” We use this blessing at special times—baptisms, weddings, Holy Supper. This Sunday we will go through it phrase by phrase and reflect on how we can be most receptive of the Lord’s blessings and how we can be a part of sharing His blessings with others.
June is the month in which we celebrate the New Church. If we look to the Lord’s Word there are two particular images of what the New Church is, or is supposed to be, like: one image is a woman, clothed with the sun, the other, a holy city shining with gold. Each image speaks to the characteristics that make the New Church what it is. This Sunday we will look deeper to understand how these two pictures help us better understand both the Love and the Wisdom that should be present in everything that the Church is and does.
When confronted with hard choices the easiest thing to do is to make no choice at all. Yet this choice is often the worst choice of all: in trying to keep our options open we lose out on all of them. The Lord is adamant that we make a committed choice: He sets before us life and death and urges us to choose life. Commitment to a choice is the only way to succeed spiritually.
In the New Church we love the idea that people of any religion can go to heaven. But, if we don’t understand this idea fully, then it can seem like it doesn’t matter at all what you believe. And it can be hard to figure out why it matters if we believe in the Lord. Let’s talk about what it means to believe in the Lord and why our beliefs matter.
When we pray we are often asking for something. There is nothing wrong with this; in fact the Lord encourages us to do this. But we should give careful thought to what we ask for. This principle is illustrated in the story of King Solomon. When the Lord gave him the opportunity to ask for anything he wished, Solomon’s answer reflects a true understanding of what we need from the Lord and the kinds of things we should seek from Him. This Sunday we will explore what we can learn from Solomon’s request.
It’s Mothers Day this Sunday and so we’re going to be reflecting on a topic that comes into all parent-child relationships—approval. We all want to be approved of. But do your parents approve of you? Do you approve of your parents? The giving or withholding of approval is a strong force in relationships; let’s talk about how the Lord would like us to navigate the interpersonal dynamics around approval.
Whenever something goes wrong in the world, there seems to be an outpouring of compassion. We almost get excited at the chance to leap into action and help. But as time passes the energy wanes. We can become fatigued; not just fatigued physically, but fatigued emotionally. It is impossible to keep up that initial level of care and energy. Above even the emotional there is the spiritual fatigue: we face exhaustion with ourselves and our own spiritual growth, and can push ourselves to the breaking point. We need to be able to truly address the issues, but to do so in a way that is sustainable.
In the Gospel of John there are a number of intriguing stories about what Jesus and the disciples did after the Lord’s resurrection. When I preached about this four years ago I focused on the role and significance of Peter (read or listen to that here); this year I want to focus on John. John is called “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and he played a crucial role in the development of the Christian Church. In us he represents a crucial part of our spiritual development as Christians. What does he represent? Come and see.
Easter is of course about the Lord’s Resurrection after His Crucifixion. But just because the Lord rose and lived again does not mean that we ourselves feel His living presence within ourselves. There is a process of being led to Him; it is a process that involves both the head and the heart, a process that involves grief and joy, faith and doubt. This Easter Sunday we will explore what the Gospel of John has to tell us about finding the Risen Lord in our own lives.
In the Gospel of John, Palm Sunday is described in the context of the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. There were those who knew of this miracle and hated the Lord for it; there were those who knew of it but kept quiet from fear; and there were those who knew of it and so joyfully confessed the Lord as their king. It was this last group that welcomed Jesus with palm branches. This Sunday we will explore how we too can bear witness to the Lord and rejoice in His coming.
We see so much abuse of power in the world—countless examples of people using their influence on other people in harmful ways. But what does legitimate authority look like? What sort of claims to authority by other people should we reject and resist and what ones should we comply with? And what kind of authority over other people should we aspire to? Let’s see what we can learn about this from the One who is all-powerful.
The disciples once found themselves in the midst of a terrible storm, out on the water in a little boat. The boat was sinking and they thought they were going to die until Jesus stood up and rebuked the wind and the sea and suddenly there was calm. This Sunday we will reflect on this story and what it can teach us about how the Lord can help us to find peace in the midst of the storms that we encounter in our lives.
Why don’t you care about people? That’s a harsh accusation, and hopefully it’s not true. But in one sense it could be: with over 7 billion people on this planet, we simply cannot actively care about everyone. Thankfully, the Lord does not ask us to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into every cause that crosses our paths. He gives us ways to care for mankind even us we pick and choose which causes we will invest in.
With the conflict in Ukraine on so many people’s minds at the moment it feels like it could be useful for us to reflect on teachings from the Lord’s Word about war and providence. There are big picture questions to consider like, why does our loving God allow something as terrible as war? And there are also more day-to-day questions to consider like, how much time should we spend thinking about conflicts in other parts of the world and what, if anything, can we do to try to make things better?
The Gospel of John tells of how after the Last Supper Jesus washed His Disciples’ feet. In this act of humility Jesus showed us the nature of His love: that it extends to all, without exception, and that it lives to serve. This Sunday we will explore how we can better invite this love into our lives, as well as how we can pass it on to others.
This week’s sermon is about one of the most fundamental topics from the Teachings of the New Church. This week we will explore the role that repentance plays in our lives. Specifically, we will be exploring the necessity of making changes in our actions and not just our words. Repentance is literally the difference between spiritual life and spiritual death.
This Sunday, as preparation for taking the Lord’s Holy Supper, we will be talking about the significance of breaking bread and sharing it. Particularly in Western culture there can be a lot of emphasis on individuality and working on our individual lives but the Lord’s goal for us is to be part of a larger whole in which we give and receive freely. How can we work towards that goal?
For all of us, life will end in death. But it won’t really end there: after the body dies the spirit continues to live. This Sunday we will look at the journey of self-discovery that awaits us on the other side, and give some thought to how it might shape how we live in the her and now.
In the Old Testament the Lord told Moses that no one can see God and live. This is true: if we were to be exposed to the full Divinity of God it would be like being consumed by the sun. Yet God’s purpose in creation is to grow closer to humanity and to bless them. So while we cannot see God directly, there are ways that we can come to see Him more and more truly, and so develop a deeper and deeper relationship with Him.
How often do you talk to the Lord? Is it often enough? Communication is a crucial aspect of any relationship and our relationship with the Lord is no different. If, for example, we only communicate with the Lord when we’re desperate and can’t think of anything else to try, that will severely limit our relationship with the Lord. If, on the other hand, we have a relationship with the Lord in which we’re talking to Him several times a day, that can be part of us having a real, active, and meaningful relationship with Him. Let’s talk about what prayer on a day-to-day basis looks like and how we can make progress in our regular communication with the Lord.
The last couple of sermons have dealt with how we address our own evils. In essence this is repentance: admit you did something wrong, stop doing it, and live a better life. Repentance happens on a grand scale when we have done something egregious or when we are battling a lifelong tendency. But repentance can also be something that we are working on in little ways every single day. That might sound daunting: repent every day?! But when we understand what it means we can embrace it as both a possibility and a blessing.
Last week Joel preached about admitting you were wrong and it got me thinking about how important the time after we’ve done something is. How we think about what we’ve done—whether it was good or bad—really matters. When we’ve done something wrong, do we acknowledge it or try to justify it? When we’ve done something good, what do we think about the action or ourselves afterward? Each day we’re going to do a whole bunch of different things and likely some of those things will be somewhat good and some will be somewhat selfish. We need the Lord’s help to sort out what in all of that is OK and what is not OK.
How do you respond when the Word tells you something that you don’t like? What if a way you see the world doesn’t fit with how the Word describes the world? How do you respond when you find out that something you’ve been doing for years and thought was fine is condemned in the Word? It’s a difficult question to answer. So today we are going to wrestle with how to listen to the Word and deal with the fear, sadness and embarrassment of admitting that you were wrong.
As we start a new year, it’s useful to reflect on the questions that the angel of the Lord asks Hagar in the desert: Where are you coming from? Where are you going? And what’s the matter?
There will be a worship service on this day, even though it’s just the day after Christmas. It will be a simple family service, offered in-person and online.
What's in a name? When a child is born there are a nearly infinite number of possibilities for what they could be called. Yet as they grow and develop their name reflects more and more of their personality, until you cannot hear the name without thinking of the person. The name summarizes who they are. In the case of the Lord, Joseph was told quite directly that the child's name must be "Jesus;" and he was told this because Jesus, meaning "Jehovah Saves," perfectly summed up the nature or character of the Lord. This Christmas we will look at what this and other names tell us about who He was born to be.
Jesus’ birth is described as the light shining in the darkness. One of the purposes for which Jesus came was to shine the light of truth into the world. But this truth was not just cold, hard, knowledge. It was truth that could show and lead to real love and goodness. In Him was life, and that life is the light of men.
Every year we focus on the Christmas story as told in one of the four Gospel. This year we will focus on the Gospel of John. This presents a certain difficulty: John does not speak of any of the familiar elements of the Christmas story. There are no shepherds or wise men in John, no messages from angels, no journey to Bethlehem or manger in a stable. John looks beyond the historical story to the meaning or purpose of Christmas. In our first Christmas sermon this season we will explore what it means that “In the beginning was the Word,” and what it tells us about the meaning of Christmas.
As another year draws to a close and as many people are dealing with the stress of a manic time of year, let’s turn to the Lord’s Word this Sunday for passages about the Lord’s eternal perspective. Let’s zoom out for a few minutes on Sunday and think about what will still matter in a hundred years or a thousand years and then see if we can bring some of that perspective back into all that we’re trying to do before the end of the year.
Periodically, it is useful to reflect on the importance of New Church education and ask why we put so much time and energy into New Church schools. They generally aren’t money makers for the Church. Teaching and upholding new Church values is difficult. So why do we bother? Because of VESSELS! New Church education is all about providing appropriate vessels for our children so that they can learn most effectively. Also, children themselves are vessels and designed to receive input. Their minds are like dry sponges waiting to soak up anything that they hear. And that is why New Church education becomes so vitally important.
Jesus teaches that the first will be last, and the last first. He also teaches that he who would be great must become a servant. To be meek and mild therefore seems like the goal we should all aspire to. And this is true! But sometimes our very pursuit of humility can be hijacked by pride and turned into just one more means of gratifying our pride. Humility can be falsified, and true humility may look far more boisterous and assertive than we imagine.
One of the main things we do as part of our weekly worship services is have a sermon. But why? What is the purpose of a sermon? What makes a sermon good or not so good? How can you get the most out of even a mediocre sermon? Come on Sunday for a sermon about sermons.
It’s often taken as a given that politicians will be self-serving, corrupt, incompetent, or all of the above. They seem to rank just below lawyers as the butt of jokes. Yet the position of being a government official is in itself, or at least ought to be, a sacred one. Anytime someone enters into leadership they take on the responsibility to serve, and the higher the position, the greater the responsibility. This Sunday we will look at how leadership works in heaven (and by contrast, in hell) and see what we can learn both about our own governments and our own roles as leaders.
We don’t often talk about politics in church and with good reason. It can be done wrong in so many ways. And maybe it is better for there to be a “separation between church and state” in society. However, it’s not good for there to be that separation within an individual—it’s not good for there to be a separation between church and state in you. What can we do to try to better integrate our spiritual beliefs and our political beliefs?
Are optimists better than pessimists? Are pessimists just realistic while optimists are naive? What about the Lord? Is He optimistic about our potential, or does He bemoan the woeful nature of humanity? We have those two broad categories of people that conflict with each other. And at times they may be useful. But this Sunday we will look a little beyond these two categories to try to find a more spiritual view of society, humanity, and our future.
The last sense we’re going to cover in our series on the five senses is touch. Touch is a powerful sense and a big part of that is because of its role in relationships. Touch is one of the most powerful ways that we communicate and experience affection, comfort, and love; touch is also one of the most powerful ways that we communicate and experience anger, pain, and coercion. The Lord healed people through laying His hands on them. This Sunday we will reflect on touch and ask the Lord to bring us healing in this area of our lives too.
We are in the middle of a series on the five senses. Each one of these physical ways of experiencing the physical world around us corresponds to the spiritual ways that we engage with spiritual reality. Last week Malcolm talked about how our senses of smell and taste reflect our ability to detect what is good or evil and choose to take in that which is good. This week we turn to sight and hearing, and we will explore what they teach us about learning and obeying what is true.
Have you ever thought about why the Lord gave you a sense of smell or why He gave you a sense of taste? This Sunday we’re beginning a sermon series on the five senses and we will be focusing on taste and smell. We will look at some stories from the Lord’s Word that involve taste and smell and reflect on the spiritual significance of these senses in our lives. How can we become more sensitive to the things that the Lord wants us to notice?
We are continuing to follow threads of meaning through the many stories of the Word. This Sunday we will follow the idea of the Covenant, the special agreement between God and mankind. On the surface it appears that this agreement changes drastically from the very contractual, blind-faith based one of the Old Testament to the loving, caring relationship presented in the New Testament. In reality, these covenants are one and the same, seen from different points of view. We’ll look at how we can change how we see our own agreements with the Lord so that we can form a relationship that inspires and transforms our lives.
This Sunday we are going to look at another strand that runs through scripture from beginning to end: the imagery of precipitation. We might think of weather in the Bible as something going on in the background while the real story plays out between the human beings in the story but we can learn a lot about what’s going on in different stories by paying attention to the atmospheric conditions. We’ll look at the symbolism of the whole water cycle and also touch on things like dew, snow, and hail.
The Word is written in such a way that every word and concept has a deeper spiritual meaning. These meanings are threaded through the entirety of the Word, tying together disparate and varied stories into one story with one message. This Sunday we will follow one of these threads by exploring sleep and wakefulness. In this theme we learn about the need to be vigilant and awake spiritually, as well as the need to rest and sleep in the Lord.
There are many ideas of God in the world. Over the history of the human race and in all the different religions around the world there is a huge variety of ideas about what God is like. So what God do you believe in? This Sunday we are going to look at a number of the different ways God is depicted and described in the Bible as an opportunity for you to reflect on your relationship with God. We’re also going to look at some common ways in which people’s beliefs about God can be hurting them.