Serving the Thirsty

A sermon by Rev. Dan Calvo

Pittsburgh New Church

September 14th, 2025

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There are currently 2 billion people who lack access to safe drinking water. That is one in four human beings who do not have access to safe water to drink. Over 1 million people die every year from lack of access to safe drinking water, and it is estimated that every two minutes a child dies from an illness due to contaminated water. These are horrifying statistics from the year 2025, after centuries of technological development and sanitation efforts, and it is truly painful to imagine what life would have been like 2000 years ago, in the times when Jesus was ministering to the people of Israel. Dying of thirst or diseases from drinking contaminated water would have been a common experience in the lives of the people of Israel. So when the Lord is telling us to serve the thirsty, at the time when He was saying that He wasn't just referring to someone who is coming home from a hot day and could really use a glass of water. Thirst, both 2000 years ago and in our modern world, was an all too prevalent life-or-death situation.

There are millions of people in the world who can only get water from sources that are hours away from their homes who can only get water once every few days.  And even for many of these people who have some access to water when that water is contaminated it can lead to multiple deadly illnesses. Now thankfully we live in a part of the world in which this is not as much of a problem. Most of us have not dealt with extreme thirst nor have we ever dealt with lack of immediate access to safe drinking water but nevertheless this is still a massive problem that is affecting millions of people around the world, and if the Lord is telling us to help the thirsty, how do we help the people who are dealing with these terrible conditions? Fortunately, there are many organizations that provide clean drinking water and water treatment equipment in many affected communities and households around the world, and there are many opportunities for us to donate to those organizations and volunteer to help in making sure that every human being around the world can have access to clean drinking water.

However, in the New Church we not only focus on serving others in a natural way, but we are also called by the Lord to serve others in a spiritual way. Last week we talked about how serving the hungry does not only mean to serve people who are suffering from food insecurity but also serving people who are lacking good and charity in their life. Water provides the other side of that coin. Serving the thirsty in the natural sense means to help provide clean drinking water for people who need it, but in the spiritual sense it means helping those who are struggling to find truth and meaning and hope in their lives.

This is because just as food in the Word is a symbol for good, water in the Word is a symbol for truth. Now these truths aren't just factual knowledge from science and philosophy, but these are deeper spiritual truths that we can find in the Word. These are truths such as that there is a God who created us and who wants us to be happy; that there is goodness within every single one of us; and that there is an eternal life. These are all truths that we can find in the Word, and they can help us fulfill a very important need within ourselves: the need for meaning. Because we all struggle with these universal questions about meaning and faith, like “why are we here? What is our purpose? Is there any hope for the future?” And when we struggle to find answers to these questions there can be a lot of suffering in our hearts. And that's suffering that comes from a lack of truth, which is represented in the Word by thirst.

A passage from the book Secrets of Heaven, which you can find in the back of your pamphlet, explains this idea further, by saying that:

'Thirst' represents a craving and desiring, and it has a reference to truth just as 'hunger' has reference to good; and this from the meaning of 'water' as the truth of faith. (…) When a person enters temptation because of a lack of truth he is gripped by an intense desire for it, and at the same time by despair of eternal salvation on account of this. These feelings are responsible for the grief at that time and for the complaining. (AC 8568)

When we lack truth, we can end up suffering in ways that spiritually can be very similar to the pain that we experience when we don't have access to water. You may have heard this fact before, but while we can survive without eating any food for as long as a month, we cannot survive without drinking water for more than three days. In the same way, when we are going through really hard challenges in our lives, there may be times in which we can make it through those difficult challenges for a longer period of time even when we lack good or kindness around us, if we have some truths to hold on to. But if we do not have truths to hold onto, if we lack meaning, if we lack hope, if we lack faith, our chances of making it through those challenges become much lower.

There is a story from the book “Man's search for meaning” that was written by psychologist Viktor Frankl about his experience as a prisoner in a concentration camp during World War 2. In his book Frankl mentioned that from Christmas time in 1944 to New Years in 1945, the death rate among the prisoners in the concentration camp skyrocketed. And while trying to figure out why this happened, they arrived at the conclusion that the main reason why these victims passed in this time period was not necessarily because the conditions in the camp became harder than they already were, but because they lost hope. These prisoners had been told that they would be out of the concentration camp by Christmas time and when they realized that this was not going to happen, when that hope was taken away from them, they lost their faith, and their will to live. Meanwhile, prisoners who were able to hold on to the hope that they would make it out of that terrible situation were able to survive longer. And when reflecting on these experiences in his book, Viktor Frankl said this:

“Any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. (…) Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence.”

In these terrible conditions, where these prisoners were surrounded by hatred, anger, death and violence, all they had to hold on to in order to survive was their faith, and once they lost that faith, they weren't able to make it. This is a horrifying example from a very dark time in history, but it serves to illustrate the idea that we are talking about. When we don’t have truth or faith to hold onto, we may go through a crisis and suffering that can be very difficult to overcome.

Spiritual thirst can take many forms, and chances are that we know people who are struggling with it right now. There may be people in our lives who are struggling with things like low self-esteem, where they aren’t able to see anything good about themselves, or perhaps we know people who are struggling with anxiety about the news, or even people who are struggling to find any hope that there will ever be a good future for them in this world.

Now it is very important to recognize that in the natural level of the problem of lacking access to clean drinking water, one of the most important aspects of that problem it's not only the access to water, but the access to water that is safe and clean to consume. If those who are spiritually thirsty find bad answers to the problems that they are struggling with, it would be like someone who is dying of thirst drinking contaminated water in the hopes of surviving. People in that situation are already struggling so they will drink whatever they have available to them even if it is contaminated and unfortunately that is something that happens a lot when dealing with spiritual thirst in our world. A lot of people who are struggling with these spiritual problems will find answers to their problems in very unhealthy places that will lead them down a path of hatred, ignorance, materialism or selfishness. For example, when someone is struggling with self esteem if they watch a YouTube video that tells them that it’s true, they are worthless and nobody will ever love them, that is a terrible falsity but it is the only idea that a lot of people receive when they are suffering from spiritual thirst, and this happens quite often. So how can we as people of the New Church, who are trying to help others who are struggling with spiritual thirst, provide good clean spiritual water? How can we support these people who are suffering? Thankfully we have access to the original source of endless clean spiritual water: the Word.

The Lord has told us that whoever drinks the water that He provides will never be thirsty again, because the water that He will give us will become a fountain of water springing up to eternal life. This is a very powerful spiritual concept because the Lord is telling us that when we are suffering from spiritual thirst, we can go to the Word to look for the truth. The Lord is telling us where we can find the truth that can satisfy that spiritual thirst. When we are serving people who are suffering from spiritual thirst, we can share with them the ideas and the truths and the doctrines that we learn from the Word and the Writings. That can have a massive impact on someone's life. For example, when someone is struggling with finding worth in themselves, we can tell them that they are a miniature heaven, and that the Lord created them to bring something to the world that is unique and special. When we find someone who is struggling with the question of “why are we here?” we can answer “you are here because the Lord loves you and wanted you to exist so that He could share good and loving things with you.” When someone is wondering “what is the purpose of life?” We can answer the purpose of life is to become an angel and that means acting in such a way that will emulate what an Angel is by treating others with kindness and following the commandments of the Lord. When someone wonders if there is ever going to be a good future, we can answer “yes, the Lord is constantly working to lead all of us to a good result not only on this natural world, but also in the spiritual world, even to eternity.”

There is endless clean spiritual water from the Word that we can share with the people who are struggling in our lives. And while we ourselves as individuals may not be able to completely change that person's perspective or completely satisfy that spiritual thirst maybe we can help at the very least by guiding the people in our lives who are struggling with spiritual thirst towards a good direction. Perhaps we can point them to a story from the Word that may apply to them, or a verse from the book of Psalms that may offer some comfort, or a number from Divine Providence that may bring them some hope. And the Lord will take it from there. So we can minister not only in sharing our own understandings of what the Word has to say to make someone’s life richer and fuller and healthier but more importantly, we can share the original source of those truths with them, and when we go to the original source of that truth which is the Word there will never be any end to the spiritual water and sustenance that we can share with others from it.

Just as we can do with those who are struggling with natural thirst, we can serve the people who are struggling with spiritual thirst by helping to connect them with a source of sustenance. We can connect others with the original source of clean spiritual water and sustenance: the Word. When we do this, we will be serving the thirsty in the way that the Lord wants us to do. Amen.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

A sermon by Rev. Dan Calvo

August 31, 2025.

Pittsburgh New Church

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When we choose to live a life in which we are trying to follow the Lord, sometimes we may feel that we’re not doing enough. The Lord tells us that we need to follow His commandments, that we need to live by this higher standard of morality and that to live a real spiritual life we need to practice charity. We may look at ourselves and the flaws in our personality, or we may look at the world around us and all the people that are hurting that we could be helping, and see that there is a lot more that we could be doing to improve ourselves and the lives of those around us. Maybe we start thinking, “I should be out there saving the world, I should donate all my money to charity, and I should spend every waking moment working really hard to make the world a better place and I should become a perfect human being.” And it's easy to feel this way because as religious people we do have a responsibility to each other and to society at large to become the best version of ourselves and to share the goodness of the Lord with other people, and sometimes when we still say or do bad things, or when we are not doing massive acts of service every day, or even when we do great acts of service like volunteering, we may think that we are not doing enough, that we should be having a much bigger impact in society at large, and that can be very frustrating. This can bring a lot of feelings of disappointment in ourselves and perhaps it may make us feel that we are failing at following the Lord the way that He wants us to follow Him.

The Lord knows that we can worry about our impact and about how much we are doing on an everyday basis. Luckily for us He taught us through His parables how to deal with this problem, and the Lord did this by teaching us the parable of the mustard seed. When the Lord was describing what the Kingdom of heaven is like he said this:

And He was saying, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.” (Mark 4:30-32)

When we think of the Kingdom of heaven we think of this massive, glorious universe, we think of angels, light, beauty, and love, and we think of this infinity of goodness that comes from the Lord and being close to Him. When we hear the phrase “kingdom of Heaven” we don't think of a seed. And yet in this story the Lord tells us that the beginning of the Kingdom of heaven is in a seed, a seed which can then grow into a large tree.

When we plant a seed, we are helping in the growth of new life, we are setting the basis for the creation of a new crop or a tree. The Lord is teaching us in this story that when we have a little bit of faith, and when we take small steps to follow Him that is the beginning of bringing the Kingdom of heaven into our own lives and the lives of others, just how a small seed can grow into a massive tree.

What are some seeds that the Lord is telling us to plant? Well, for example, if we believe in the simple idea that the Lord is constantly guiding us to a good result, that can have a massive impact in the way that we live our lives. It can bring us so much peace to believe that the Lord is bringing us to a good result even though that can be a very simple idea but just that very small simple idea can change the way that we deal with life as a whole. To give another example, not saying something mean or rude to another person, can have massive consequences in other people's lives because just in the same way that us saying something mean to somebody else can have a huge impact in that person, not doing something bad can also have a massive impact in the lives of other people. Another example, preparing a meal for somebody who is struggling with grief or something like food insecurity can bring so much support and comfort to that person’s life. And those are all such small ideas, those are all such seemingly small actions, like little seeds but then they end up having a massive impact in the world.

It's very interesting that the Lord used the example of a mustard seed in the parable. The Lord could have used any tree for this example, and yet He specifically used the idea of a mustard seed. There are many reasons for that. A mustard seed is extremely small. I couldn't find mustard seeds to bring today but even if I was holding one up right now you wouldn't be able to see it unless you had a really good camera. A mustard seed is about 1 to 2 millimeters, or 0.07 inches long. That’s about 1/12th of an inch. So, it is barely noticeable, it's one of the smallest seeds in all of nature. and yet that seed when it is planted, grows into a tree that can be as big as 20 feet tall. It is a massive tree with huge branches and leaves, and it all comes from this very tiny seed. In this story the Lord is telling us that every small action that we can take today, whether it is to believe in a very simple idea like trusting that there is good from the Lord in the world we live in, or doing small acts of service like taking over a chore when somebody else is tired, doing the dishes or taking out the trash, or taking the time to visit someone who is sick, even if these are all such simple, small actions, can grow into such a massive wonderful thing that can change someone's day and not only does it change the world around us in a massive way, it also changes us.

There is a passage in the book Apocalypse Explained that describes the spiritual meaning of this parable, and it says that:

"A tree from a grain of mustard seed" symbolizes a person of the church, and also a church beginning from a very little spiritual good by means of truth; for if only a very little spiritual good takes root with a person it grows like a seed in good ground. And as a "tree" thus symbolizes a person of the church, it follows that "the birds of the sky" that made nests in its branches symbolize the knowledges of truth and thoughts from them. (AE 1100)

Now I have a quick question for you: when you plant a seed and you water it and you sit down and you look at it for a little bit, does it grow into a tree right away? How about if you wait for an hour? How about the next day? The next week? Next month? No! More often than not it takes a really long time for a tree to grow. In fact, it takes 90 to 95 days for a mustard seed to grow fully into a mustard tree, sometimes even longer. That's around 3 months, or close to 100 days, it's a long time. However, in the grand scheme of things mustard trees are actually known for growing much faster than other kinds of plants. So even though it takes a long time the effects start happening immediately even if we can't see them in the moment. So, the Lord is telling us to take the small step, to plant the little seed and even if we can't see the results right away, that seed is growing into a beautiful, massive tree. If we keep affirming truths from the Word, and practicing small acts of service, and supporting our neighbors when they need it, we’re starting a chain of events that can lead to immense positive change in our own lives and the lives of those around us, even if we can’t see it right now. If we just keep planting the seeds the Lord will make them grow.

And that's another very important thing to remember is that we don't make trees grow. If trees needed human beings to grow, the world would have a lot less trees, we would be in a very bad situation. We can help by planting the seed but ultimately it is only the Lord who can make the tree grow. The Lord is the one who provides the sun, the Lord is the one who provides the water, the only one who provides the soil and nutrients for the plant to grow. To take it even further, the Lord is the one who created the seed in the first place! The Lord is the one that makes it so that seeds can grow and become a full tree. In the same way in our own lives, we can believe all of these wonderful things, we can plant the seeds of choosing to believe truths from the Word, we can plant the seed of following the 10 commandments, we can plant the seeds of doing acts of service for other people around us but it is ultimately the Lord who takes those seeds and turns them into something greater and much more impactful in the lives of people. The Lord takes that seed that we plant, and He takes it from there. Our job is not necessarily to focus on taking the seed and following it as it grows, our job is to keep planting the seeds and as we do this the Lord will take over, and He will make those seeds grow.

So here is an exercise that I would like us to do. We are going to plant some spiritual seeds today. I am going to read some ideas that all come from the Heavenly Doctrines and from the Word, and I would like to invite you to repeat them after me. This is something that is known as affirmations, and there are a lot of studies that say that when we repeat positive affirmations it can have a massive impact in the way that we look at the world, and it can change our mental health and even our physical health. So, we are going to say some New Church affirmations today and plant some seeds. Are you ready?

1.       The Lord loves me.

2.       I was created to become an angel.

3.       The Lord is always guiding me to a good result.

4.       There is a place in Heaven for me.

5.       There is good all over the world.

6.       The Lord does not need me to be perfect.

7.       The Lord is always with me.

Now after saying these affirmations whether we realize it or not we just planted some seeds in our hearts and in our minds, and if we keep repeating those ideas and we keep affirming them in our lives, and we keep putting them to practice, those ideas can take root and they can grow and they can change our whole life. Whenever we think that we are not doing enough that we should be doing more to change the world the Lord is telling us that we don't need to save the world in one day. We're individuals, we're limited, we're just human beings. And yes, we are called to become the best version of ourselves, and to love our neighbor and to serve others and to do as much good as possible in society, all of that is absolutely true and extremely important, they are at the core of a religious life. But we're not called to change the world in one day, we're not called to change ourselves entirely into a perfect being overnight. That's an unfair expectation and the Lord would never have that kind of unfair expectation of us because the Lord is incapable of being unfair. But the Lord tells us to plant the seeds, and He will take it from there, and if we keep planting seeds every day as small as they may seem, the Lord will take those seeds and He will make them grow into something beautiful. Amen.

The Vineyard Worker's Reward

A sermon by Rev. Dan Calvo

Pittsburgh New Church

August 3rd, 2025

AR 650: A vineyard symbolizes the church which has the Word and where the Lord is thereby known, thus in this case the Christian Church, [which] can be seen from (…) Jesus' likening the kingdom of heaven to a landowner who hired "laborers for his vineyard" (Matthew 20:1-8).

AC 9210: Anyone who does not know what Christian charity is may think that it consists not only in giving to the needy and poor but also in doing good to his fellow citizen, country, or Church for any reason whatever, that is, with no matter what end in view. But he should recognize that the end is what gives all of a person's deeds their true character. If the end or intention is to do good for the sake of reputation, in order to acquire important positions or else monetary gain, the good that he does is not good because it is done for the sake of self and thus also originates in self. But if the end is to do good for his fellow citizen's, country's, or Church's sake, thus for his neighbour's sake, the good he does is good since it is done for the sake of good itself, which in general is the real neighbour, and so is also done for the Lord's sake since such good does not have its origin in the person but in the Lord, and what originates in the Lord is the Lord's.

The Lord has promised us a lot of wonderful rewards for following Him. The Lord has promised us that if we follow Him we will be much happier and much more fulfilled in our natural life, and He also has told us that we will go to Heaven if we follow His commandments honestly and keep His love in our heart. But sometimes we can get too caught up on the idea of the reward, and we start to think that based on how many good things we do, we’ll get better rewards from the Lord. For example, if we help enough old ladies to cross the street or if we memorize enough doctrines, maybe we’ll get a really nice car, or maybe we’ll live in a castle when we get to heaven. This can create the false idea in us that we can somehow accumulate points on a scorecard to get an even bigger and better reward from the Lord!

This was something that the disciples of the Lord were struggling with. One day, the disciples of the Lord were talking to Him and they told Him, “Lord, we have left so many things behind! We have left our jobs, our family, and our homes, in order to follow you. What are we going to get in return? What will be our reward?” And then, the Lord told them a parable. As you may know, a parable is a story that is meant to teach us something, and the Lord taught His disciples and most of the people around Him by using parables. The parable that the Lord told His disciples, which we are going to read today, is the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard, and this parable talks about what kind of reward we can expect for following the Lord. The story goes like this:

 (Matthew 20:1-16)

The Lord told His disciples this story because He was trying to teach them what kind of reward they would get for following Him. The disciples were expecting a great reward for leaving everything behind and sacrificing so much for following the Lord, but the Lord was teaching us in this story that every single person who decides to follow the Lord and work in His vineyard gets the same reward of being welcome in the Lord's Kingdom, even those who in our view may not have worked as hard or sacrificed so much to get there.

Every single person in this world is invited to work at the Lord’s vineyard, which is a symbol for His church. Some people are blessed to arrive at the Lord's vineyard a little earlier in their life. Maybe they were raised in a religious belief in the Lord, or maybe they encountered religion very early in their life, and they have remained in it faithfully since then. Other people arrive at the vineyard a little later in their life, and they had a different journey of how they got there, but they are still invited to work at the Lord's vineyard. And there are some people who have gone through a lot of very different paths in their life, and haven’t been able to find a place they can call their spiritual home, like workers who have not been hired, but in the end they make it to the Lord's vineyard and they accept that invitation to work there. All these different people are invited by the Lord to come work at the vineyard and all of those who accept the invitation are welcomed by the Lord and they all receive the same reward.

Now what does it look like to work at the Lord's vineyard? What is the kind of work that the Lord is asking us to do in His church? Well, first and foremost, the Lord is asking us to follow His Ten Commandments. He tells us to respect our parents, to not hurt other people, to respect our marriage, to not steal, to not lie in order to get ahead in life, and overall He tells us to respect His church and the dignity and wellbeing of our neighbors. When we avoid doing evil things to others, and actively do good things for the people around us, we are working at the Lord’s vineyard as members of His church, and whether we arrived here a little earlier or whether we arrived there a little later our reward is going to be the same: a happier, healthier life by following the Lord, and an invitation to the Kingdom of heaven.

But sometimes that might seem a little bit unfair, because if we arrived earlier into the church shouldn't we have a bigger reward? Shouldn't we get special treatment from the Lord if we made it to the vineyard and worked there for longer than people who got there later? When we start to think that way we can get into some false unhealthy ideas because what the Lord is trying to teach us in this story is that the important thing is not the reward, but the work itself.

The rewards are wonderful: there’s nothing greater than the promise of heavenly peace and joy for those who follow the Lord, but the rewards of goodness and truth belong to the Lord and the Lord alone, and it is His choice to extend that same reward to everyone who accepts the invitation to work at His vineyard, just like the owner of the vineyard paid all his workers equally as it was his right because it was his money. Everybody gets the same blessing, nobody gets special treatment for being here longer or for doing more good works than others, in the same way that nobody gets special treatment for arriving to the vineyard later than others, because the Lord doesn't want us to work only for the sake of the reward of going to Heaven. The Lord wants us to work at His vineyard to be useful, and to be useful not only to the Lord's purpose which is a heaven for humanity, but to be useful for the purpose of making other people happier and making our world right now a better place to live in.

A Gentle Voice

A sermon by Rev. Dan Calvo

Pittsburgh New Church

June 29th, 2025

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(1 Kings 19:9-18)

SECRETS OF HEAVEN 219: The voice of Jehovah in the Word is taken to mean the Word itself, teachings about faith, conscience (or an alertness to what is inside us), and every reproof of conscience.

Elijah was looking for God because he had nowhere else to go.

He ran away to save his life through the desert for forty days and forty nights, facing the blazing sun by day and the dangerous animals and deadly cold by night, with the threat of queen Jezebel’s soldiers looming over his head. One night, Elijah found a cave to protect himself and hid there. This wasn’t just any cave, however: this cave was in Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the ten commandments several generations ago, the same ten commandments that Elijah had tried to uphold against the heresy of queen Jezebel and her evil priests. And yet, Elijah was now in fear for his life because he had tried to uphold these commandments of the Lord.

It's easy to feel like Elijah sometimes. While we may not encounter ourselves in life-and-death situations in our everyday lives, we can become overwhelmed with the evils of the world just how Elijah did. We watch the news and see how the world is falling to evil, how wars break out causing suffering to innocent victims, how love for our neighbor is replaced by hatred, selfishness and greed in almost every conceivable way. It seems that there is no end to these evils, and sometimes we want to run away from them and hide away in a cave! We are trying to save ourselves from that evil, and we are looking for God to save us from them.

Elijah felt powerless in this story, and with good reason. Elijah was hiding away in the cave after he did everything right! He obeyed the Lord’s commandments, and when he defeated the evil priests, he did it all under the guidance of God. Yet, he was now in danger of being murdered. It was as if all his faith and work were meaningless in an evil world. Because unfortunately, after everything that Elijah tried to do, the world didn’t change all that much. Queen Jezebel was still ruling over in her kingdom, she had killed the priests of the Lord, she was continuing her heresy, and she was getting ready to kill Elijah. And now, Elijah was looking for some sign from God that he could overcome this, that change could actually happen, that evil could finally be defeated. He was looking for a sign from God that the world could change for the better.

We can feel like this sometimes when we are hiding in our caves, so to speak, thinking that we need some kind of extreme change because it seems to us that what we are doing in our lives is meaningless in the bigger picture. There are many ways in which people look for that change in the world, and these different approaches are represented by the signs of power in the story. The wind, earthquake, and fire all have deeper spiritual meanings that reveal in what ways people look for change in an evil world.

The first sign that Elijah saw was a powerful wind that was so mighty that it could even destroy rocks. In the Word, wind can represent many different things, but we can interpret it in this story as an agent of destruction (AC 7679). Broken rocks can represent false ideas about religion, or more specifically, the false ideas that come from thinking about the Word in purely literal terms (AC 10582). If people only interpret the Word based on its external meaning, without trying to go deeper, then many false ideas can come from this, and these may lead to evil. For example, if we were to take “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” literally, we would end up looking for revenge against every person that has ever wronged us or done something evil. In our own lives, we may want the Lord to come down and destroy every one of these false ideas in the world, so that only pure truth prevails.

However, we are told that God is not in this destructive wind! If God was to destroy all these false ideas in people, He would remove our freedom to think more deeply about the Word ourselves. People must be free to think about religion in whatever way they are able, even if it leads to something that we do not agree with or that is false. Eliminating this freedom of thought would not destroy evil in the world but would remove the very thing that makes faith and charity valuable: freedom of choice.

The second sign that Elijah saw, the earthquake, has a similar spiritual meaning. In the Word, an earthquake represents changes in the church, or more specifically, changes of good and truth, which are the things that make the church (AC 3355). When looking at all the evil in the world, and particularly the way that the literal sense of the Word is used by some institutions to cause division and hatred amongst people, we may think that it would be best to just destroy all organized religion. Either that, or we think that it would be best to change it completely to fit our own view of what religion should be, removing everything we disagree with. Yet, we’re told that God is not in the earthquake either. Change cannot happen without any kind of guidance, design, or order. When we think about the ways we can change the world for the better, we must always do so using the Word as our foundation, instead of our own perceptions of what good and truth are.

If we were to create a world based only on what we think is good and true, then it would be a world that excludes everybody else’s view, and we would never be able to move beyond our own limited, biased understanding of what the world should be like. Looking at the Word for guidance provides us with an objective universal foundation that tries to accommodate as many people as possible, while still maintaining order, and it helps us keep love for the Lord and for our neighbor as the most important part of any changes that may take place.

After the wind and the earthquake, the third sign that Elijah saw was a powerful fire. In the Word, fire is often a symbol for a destructive kind of selfishness (AC 934). It is easy to see why God wouldn’t be present in this kind of fire! When we see the evil in the world, we may often think that if everybody was to listen to what we say, and start doing things OUR WAY, then everything would be changed for the better. We may think that our own desires and ideas should guide people’s lives, not religion or faith or other people’s thoughts, but our own. After all, we have all the answers, right? Yet, that would lead to all sorts of problems. When we seek to dominate over others, we are no longer living life with love in our hearts, but with hatred. Removing freedom from others and looking to bend them to our will is always evil, regardless of whether we think we are in the right or not.

So, we just saw that the wind that could break rocks symbolizes destruction, the earthquake symbolizes extreme changes of good and truth, and the fire symbolizes the kind of selfishness that can lead to a desire to dominate over others. We can fall into any of these things very easily when thinking about how to eliminate the evils in the world. Yet, we find that God isn’t in any of these big, extreme changes.

So, where is God?

God was not present in the powerful signs, but He WAS PRESENT in a small, gentle voice, which led Elijah out of the cave. Elijah went looking for the Lord and may have been expecting Him to be in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire, but ultimately, he was able to find God in a more intimate way. God is not found in extreme, destructive changes, but He is found in the still moments when we turn to Him with a humble heart. When we become overwhelmed with evil, and we want change, oftentimes we forget that positive change can begin with the small gesture of reading the Word for comfort and guidance. This seemingly small action can bring the Lord into our lives, so we are not creating change without guidance. That’s how we can hear the gentle voice of the Lord.

We may not have the power to change the world at large by ourselves, but we can change ourselves and how we interact with the world. And we can find the voice of God telling us how to change ourselves in the truths that we read in the Word. Like the Ten Commandments, which show us the things we must not do to others in order to live a spiritual life. The golden rule, treating others as we want to be treated. The Lord’s commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. The doctrines found in the Writings that teach us that every single person around us is the neighbor, and we must always look for the good in others.

The act of reading the Word, as simple as it is, as seemingly small as it may be at a first glance, can be life-changing. Not only that, the truths that we find in the Word can legitimately change the world, even if it’s just our immediate surroundings. Every single one of our actions guided by the truths of the Word can have an impact that goes further beyond what we can imagine.

Secrets of Heaven number 6490 says that: “every moment of life holds a chain of consequences stretching into eternity.” If we believe in this teaching, we can rest in the knowledge, that even if it might not seem like it, changing ourselves by going to the Word, reading its teachings, and following them, can have a chain reaction of consequences that affect the world at large, even to infinity. Because when we follow the Word, and allow it to make us happier, more fulfilled, and more connected with a greater good, the world becomes a better place. But that tremendous change starts with listening to that small, gentle voice that we find in the Word.

That is what happened to Elijah in the story. After he heard God’s gentle voice, Elijah received a new command from the Lord. Elijah was to go to Syria and Israel, to anoint new kings that would fight against the corruption of Jezebel and her evil priests. Not only that, Elijah was supposed to anoint a new prophet, Elisha, who would join him in upholding the Word of God. There was hope. The gentle voice of God promised that the world would change for the better and it delivered.

When we are overwhelmed with the evils of the world, and we want things to change, we cannot bring about that change by destroying other people’s beliefs, drastically changing religion altogether, or imposing our own desires upon others. But we can make changes in our life, small as they might be, by looking at the truths of the Word for guidance. Without the faith we get from the Word, any changes we want to do in the world will only bring about even more evil and grief for others. If we listen to the gentle voice of God found in the Word, and use the truths found there to lead our efforts for change, we will be able to change ourselves and the world in the best way possible. Instead of looking for God in the great powerful signs, let us look for God in the most powerful sign of all: His small, gentle voice, speaking to us from the Word.

The People were called to Serve

The Hungry

Rev. Jared Buss

Pittsburgh New Church; September 7, 2025

Readings: Matthew 25:31-46; Secrets of Heaven §4955

Video:

 Text:

            In the teachings of the New Church we’re told that we’re not born for our own sake, but for the sake of others; that is, we’re not born to live for ourselves alone, but for others (TCR §406). That is a clear message. A challenging message, at times—because everybody sometimes wants life to be all about themselves. But the truth of this teaching is self-evident.

            And of course, this teaching is an exact echo of what the Lord said in the reading from Matthew 25: that He wants us to serve His people, and that those who choose not to serve have chosen the path of unhappiness. So if we’re serious about living a Godly life, the question isn’t whether or not we’ll serve somebody other than ourselves; the question is how will we serve?

            We’re told that the Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses,[1] and also that the variety in His kingdom is endless.[2] It follows that the uses we can serve—or the ways that we can choose to answer the Lord’s call—are pretty much endless. In other words, you get to decide for yourself how you’re going to answer that call: the church and the priesthood aren’t here to tell you how to serve. The thing that will unite those who worship here and make them one church isn’t serving the same uses but going to the Lord together, asking for wisdom and the strength to serve.

            But there are principles from the Word that should lead and shape all of our efforts to serve. One of those principles is that the Lord really wants us to minister to our neighbors’ spiritual needs as well as to their natural needs. If you look at what the teachings of the New Church have to say about that story from Matthew 25, that principle comes up over and over again. The conditions that the Lord names, the needs that He asks us to meet, are real, visible needs that people have; and these words that the Lord says also have a deeper meaning, and on that deeper level He’s teaching us how we can minister to people’s interior needs, with the goal of supporting them on a journey towards heaven. This deeper level is very much something that we should bear in mind when we go to the Lord, to ask Him what He’s calling us to do.

            With all that said, we’ll turn to the reading that’s on the back of the worship handout, which is taken from the book Secrets of Heaven. This reading is all about the levels of meaning within the acts of service that the Lord names in Matthew 25. We read: [from §4955.] Something to be clear on, at this point, is that this passage is not saying that the Lord wants us to serve in deeper ways instead of ministering to people’s physical needs. The point is simply that there are layers to what the Lord says to us. To really listen to Him is to listen to all the layers of His commandments. The reading continues: [conclude reading].

            So all of the different needs named in the Word describe an external need, and they symbolize an internal need. And understanding those internal needs, and how they’re different from one another, and how they’re related to the physical needs that represent them, is really useful—because, as the reading says, then we know “what to do for one person, and what for another.” A hungry person and a person who lacks clothing are alike, in that they both need something; but the things they need are different, and if we want to be helpful we need to understand that difference. You can’t eat clothing and you can’t wear food.

            Internal needs work the same way. Loneliness and ignorance need to be addressed differently. Everybody knows that you don’t want advice when all you want is a hug, and vice versa. If we’re willing to pay attention to what the Lord says about these internal needs, then we can enter this arena equipped with wisdom—and wisdom gives us an ability to really help people. It should go without saying that ministering to people’s internal needs can have a profound effect on their happiness. The world sometimes speaks as though external needs are all that matter. External needs do matter—it’s hard to feel truly happy if you’re starving. But it’s also true that people can have all of their external needs met, they can lead physically comfortable lives, and still be unhappy. And when all’s said and done, happiness comes from within. Internal peace can triumph over a bad external situation, but that isn’t true the other way around. So, again, the point is that ministering to people’s hearts and minds and spirits is powerful. The point is that because we have the Word we have the opportunity to learn how to minister that way, and that opportunity is worth some thought.

            Today’s sermon is the first in a series of six sermons on the “classes of the neighbor” that the Lord names in Matthew 25: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. Each sermon is going to focus on one of these needs, and on what it means in its deeper sense, and on what we can do to minister to that need.

So we are going to spend a little bit of time today talking specifically about the hungry, but not that much time—partly because we don’t have that much time, and partly because hunger is probably the easiest of these needs to understand on a deeper level. We kind of already know what spiritual hunger is: in everyday speech we already talk about being hungry for affection. The teachings of the New Church say that spiritual food is love and charity, [3] and the hungry, in the spiritual sense, are those who want spiritual food. Secrets of Heaven says that the hungry mean “those led by affection to desire good” (§4956). The hungry are people who want goodness, and goodness is love and charity. It’s worth noting that people sometimes want to be loved in unhealthy ways: they want to be put first, or they want to be validated whether they do right or wrong. Those are hungers, but not hungers that we’re called to feed. They’re like cravings for junk food, or maybe even cravings for addictive substances. The Lord wants us to feed people with things that are good for them. One teaching says, “To hunger and thirst therefore signifies to hunger and thirst for such things as pertain to eternal life or give that life, and these, in general, have reference to the good of love and the truth of faith” (AE §386.27). Good spiritual food is food that leads or contributes in some way to eternal life. It’s food that sustains a person on the road to eternal life.

How to meet the needs of the hungry is, for the most part, something that we already know—or at least know the basics of. The only thing to say about feeding those who are physically hungry is that it’s important, even though in this sermon we’re focusing on spiritual hunger. This is most obvious if you imagine telling someone who’s physically starving, “I love you, but you can’t have any of my food.” That doesn’t ring true. Physical hunger is a real need, and it is present in our neighborhoods, and if you feel called to minister to that need the pastors will gladly direct you to some resources. There are lots of organizations out there doing good work.

When it comes to ministering to spiritual hunger, again we already know the basics of what we need to do: those who need love should be loved. And if the Lord is with us, loving people is something we can do. It does take wisdom to figure out the best way to love somebody in a specific situation: Does this person want my friendship? Do they want to be comforted? Do they just want to be treated with respect? But it’s also generally true that making an effort to show somebody that you care about them is a good thing to do, even if you don’t get the details just right. It is important to bear in mind that good spiritual food is food that sustains a person on the road to eternal life. How do we make sure that that’s the kind of food we’re sharing? Here are three more observations about feeding the hungry:

1.       We can’t expect the love that we show people to sustain them forever. It’s the same as it is with feeding physical hunger: giving a physically hungry person a meal won’t keep them full forever. It won’t fix all of their problems. But it’s still a good thing to do.

2.       The second observation is closely related to the first: we can’t feed everybody. Sometimes giving food to a needy person can kick off a little crisis of conscience, because we immediately becomes aware of all the other needy people that we aren’t ministering to. But if you follow that thought, what comes to light is that there are way more hungry people in this world than we could ever feed. Even if you spent every cent you have on food and gave it all away, hunger would still exist. What this means is that it can’t be our job to feed everybody. We can’t do everything, but we need to do something. God will be the one who holds everything; we need to serve somehow. It’s okay to focus on a specific ministry; we can’t dedicate our lives to every good cause. But we should keep our eyes open, because sometimes the Lord will put people in our paths and call us to serve them in ways that take us outside our comfort zone.

3.       The third observation is that if we want to feed those who are spiritually hungry, one of the best things we can do is work through the process of repentance. Repentance is all about uprooting selfishness and getting rid of it, so that love from the Lord can flow in. How can we share good love if we aren’t receiving good love? To repent is to go over the shelves in our spirits and clean out all of the expired food, all the moldy vegetables. Then the Lord can stock our shelves with good things.

After we sing our next hymn, the sacrament of the Lord’s Holy Supper will be celebrated. All adults here are invited to participate in the sacrament, if they feel called to do so. We’ve been talking about feeding the hungry, and that’s exactly what the Holy Supper is all about. The bread and the wine of the sacrament symbolize the Lord’s love and wisdom, or His willingness and His ability to save. If we want to become useful servants of the Lord, then going to Him and asking Him to save us from the evils that we find within, and to feed us with heavenly food, is perhaps the most powerful thing that we can do. Ultimately, the bread that sustains on the road to heaven is His alone to give. He says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

Amen.

[1] E.g. SH §997; HH §387; DP §26

[2] E.g. SH §§3744, 7236, 9002; ML §35

[3] E.g. SH §§680, 3478, 4217

How To Survive in the Desert

Rev. Dan Calvo

Pittsburgh New Church: Sunday, July 27, 2025

Text:

To people who are not regenerating, it is all the same whether they do or do not know truth, and whether what they know is true or not, as long as they can pass something off as truth. In contrast, people who are regenerating spend a lot of time thinking about [doctrine] and life, because they spend a lot of time thinking about their eternal salvation. So if their supply of truth runs out, they grieve to the core, because truth is dear to their minds and hearts. (AC 2682)

Thousands of years ago a woman named Hagar wandered into the desert with her only child, Ishmael, and all they had to survive was some bread and a skin of water. Hagar walked under the blazing sun, feeling the painful burns on her skin, with no water or food to be seen for miles besides the pitiful amount of bread and water she had with her, and she kept hearing the cries of her only child echoing through the endless desert.

More than ever before in her life, Hagar was hopeless.

We all have gone through something similar to what Hagar was going through in this story. When we go out into the world we see evil all around us: spouses cheating, people becoming wealthy and powerful by stealing and lying, people being violent and hateful towards each other. It can be really easy to lose our hope that there is any good left in the world, as if we were wandering through an unforgiving desert with only a little bit of water and some bread to keep us alive. How can we possibly survive this challenging world, keeping our hope alive? How can we survive the desert?

In this story, Hagar had a little bit of bread and a skin of water. In the Word, “bread” symbolizes good. It is the love in our heart, the love that we have for our neighbor, our family, our friends, and our community. That good can feed us just like bread does, and it can keep us alive through hard times. On the other hand, in the Word, “water” symbolizes truth, the knowledge of good things from the Lord that have a direct application to our life, and in this case they symbolize the more simple, basic truths that we carry with us when we first go out into the world, like the 10 Commandments. We can be nourished by those truths in the same way that water does.

So, we wander into the world, and we try and survive with that good and truth, and we try to keep our hope and values alive, just like Hagar was trying to keep her son Ishmael alive. Ishmael, being Hagar's child, was an extension of her. She loved him more than anything else in the world, and she was trying to keep him alive with the little bread and water they had. In that same way, when we go out into the world and we see all the hopelessness that surrounds us, we may try to keep our values and our hope alive by feeding it what little good and truth we have. When we encounter the difficult challenges of life, we may try to hold on to hope by doing good for others and practicing the simple truths that guide us.

However, this is not easy by any means. This is still the desert: unforgiving, difficult, and deadly. We may look out into the world and realize that even while working to keep our hope alive, the sheer amount of strength it takes to make it through these challenges is overwhelming. In fact, it may very well be impossible.

What seems to be the easiest thing to do in those situations is to just give up. To just let go of hope and our values and accept the inevitable. This is what happened with Hagar in the story. Hagar ran out of water in the desert, and she couldn't take it anymore. So, Hagar left her son Ishmael under a bush, and she moved away so that she wouldn't have to see her only child die in pain. Then she cried. She was completely defeated, unable to do anything to save her child from the deadly situation they were in. The only way she could cope at that moment was to move away so she wouldn’t see her son starve to death.

We’ve all felt it at some point, that feeling: despair. We feel that we are not going to survive the desert, that the good and the truth that we have won’t be enough, and we're overwhelmed by the sheer amount of hopelessness around us. Then we think to ourselves, “I'm just going to let go of hope. I’m not going to make it through this, so I am going to let go of hope, values, and faith so that I at least don't suffer seeing those things I love die. If I do that, life will be easier, and I’ll be able to at least get by.”

Like Hagar, who couldn’t bear to watch the death of her son, we may decide to turn away and let go of hope and surrender to the inevitable. In this state of hopelessness, we think that there's no way out… Except that there always is.

In the story, the angel of the Lord came down and saw Hagar and talked to her. He said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is” (Genesis 21:17). Whenever we feel that we're alone and that there is no hope, and that we're not going to survive the challenge ahead of us, there is always someone who is taking care of us: The Lord. He's never gone, and He's never ignoring us – in fact he knows every single thing that goes on in our life at every second of every day. We will not be left in the desert alone, there is always hope even in the hardest times.

What’s interesting is that a few years ago, Hagar was in a situation that was almost exactly like this one. When Hagar was still a servant and she was tasked with giving a child to Abraham, there was a point at which she really feared for her life. She was scared for her own safety because Sarah, Abraham's wife, was not happy with Hagar and there was a lot of tension between them. So, Hagar left the house of Abraham and wandered into the desert to try to escape and protect herself. After this happened, she was crying in the desert, and then the Lord said to her, “do not be afraid, go back to Abraham and his family, because your child will grow up and become a great nation. You will have too many descendants to even be able to count them. I will protect you and you will make it through this.” At that moment, the Lord made a promise to Hagar that He was going to take care of her, and that's a promise that the Lord has made with every single person in this room today. The Lord has already promised us that He'll take care of us, that He’ll get us through the desert. He’s promised us that there is always hope. Now, the Lord didn’t promise us that life will be easy, because that would be a lie, and the Lord would never lie to us. But He promised us that while there are going to be things that we can't handle, there is absolutely nothing in the universe that The Lord Himself can't handle.

When we are faced with the temptation to give up on hope, we sometimes forget that just like Hagar, we've made it through the desert before. We have already experienced temptation and challenges before, but we made it through. So whatever desert we are crossing right now, we can survive it again because the Lord is with us. In those moments it’s good to look back on the times where we thought that there was no hope, and look at our life now, and think to ourselves, “wow, I thought that I wouldn't make it, but I did. I thought that there was no hope and yet there it was, the Lord had my back.”

In the story, the Lord made a well of water appear for Hagar and Ishmael in the middle of the desert. As we mentioned earlier, “water” symbolizes truth. However, at this point in the story we are looking at a massive amount of water compared to what little water Hagar had with her. This is like the difference between the simple truths that we have memorized, and the truths that we can find in the Word. Whatever amount of truths that we can carry in our minds is almost nothing compared to all the powerful, universal truths that we can find in the source itself: the Word. When we turn to the Word and really look for those truths that will help us survive the desert, we will find a massive source of nourishment that will bring us back to life.

What are some of the deeper truths that can get us through the desert? Well, first and foremost, there’s the truth that there's nothing bad that happens in the world or in our life that the Lord can't bring something good out of. We have the truth that there is good within every single person in the world, whether we can see it or not. We have the truth that the Lord is guiding all things to a good result to eternity. Not just tomorrow, not just next month, not just next year: eternity. In times of temptation and hardship we can hold on to those truths that we find in the Word and the Writings, and we can bring them into our minds and hearts, and they can help us make it through the desert.

Not only that, but those things can keep our hope alive and bring it back to life when we think it’s gone. In the story, the Lord told Hagar, “Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him” (Genesis 21:18), and Hagar was able to give some water to Ishmael so he could survive. Ishmael was able to rise again, and they were able to make it through the desert. Our hope and our values can survive this desert, they can survive this hopelessness. We can do this by remembering the truths we were talking about, and by applying those truths in our lives. When we bring our hope and values back when we thought we weren't going to make it, in time we may realize that our hope and values become much stronger after we survive that challenge.

In the story, Ishmael didn't just survive the desert: he thrived in it. He continued to live in the wilderness, and he became an archer, a powerful warrior. He grew up and found a wife, and later on his descendants became a great nation just as the Lord promised. In our own lives, the more times we make it through the desert, the stronger we become. Overcoming those moments of despair and temptation holding on to the truths that the Lord gives us will make our hope stronger, it will make our faith stronger, it will make our values stronger. So that the next time that we are faced with the adversity and hopelessness of the world, not only can we survive, but we can also thrive. That's what the Lord wants for every single one of us.

When Hagar was left in the desert with nothing but a handful of bread and a bit of water, trying to keep herself and her only child alive, she lost hope. But she was not alone, she was able to survive and thrive in the desert thanks to the Lord. The Lord brought her hope back to life. We must always remember how we can make it through the desert as well, how we can hold on to hope in a world that doesn't want us to hold on to hope. We can hold on to hope by remembering those truths, by keeping the Lord in our mind and heart, and we will be nourished. When we think of the hope that we are trying to keep alive, let us remember that just like in the story, the Lord has told us to not be afraid, for He has heard our voice.

Amen.

Being Ourselves

Rev. Jared Buss

Pittsburgh New Church; July 20, 2025

Readings: Luke 22:54-62 (children’s talk); John 3:1-8; True Christian Religion §533.3

 Video:

Text:

The question we’re considering today is “should we pretend to be someone we’re not?” Another way to get at the same idea is to ask, “are we supposed to just be ourselves, or are we supposed to change ourselves?”

On the one hand we have the story of Peter denying that he was who he was. It wasn’t a good thing. When he realized what he’d done, he went out and “wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62). It’s such a good story for illustrating that sometimes we have to just be who we are, though other people might not like it. Or rather, sometimes we have to just stand for the things we say we stand for, though people might not like it. We can’t be who we want to be by pretending to be someone else. It seems so obvious: of course we shouldn’t pretend to be someone we’re not!

But if we come at the question from a different direction, that obvious answer might not seem so obvious anymore. Isn’t religion all about changing who we are? What if who we are isn’t who we want to be, or isn’t who we think we should be? Do we become the person we want to be by pretending to be that person? We say all the time that we should “just be ourselves;” but don’t we come to church to learn how to be better people, and isn’t that different from being ourselves?

That was a lot of confusing questions. There actually is a clear path through all of these ideas; there is a right answer. But it’s fair to say that people get tangled up and confused by these sorts of thoughts. “I know I’m supposed to change; but it also feels dishonest to not be who I am.” Let’s look at what the Lord says.

He doesn’t say that we need to become better people—He doesn’t use those words. What He does say is that we need to be born again. Our next reading for today is the story in which He presents this idea. We read from the Gospel of John: [3:1-8].

The Lord says that we need to be born again. That is, if we want to see the kingdom of God, we need to be born again (John 3:3; see SH §8548; NJHD §173). That sounds like a pretty total transformation. He goes on to say that, “what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (v. 6). In other words, the first birth, the one that we’ve already experienced, was the birth of our bodies, and it was completely different from the birth that we have yet to experience—the birth of the spirit. We were born fleshy or corporeal beings, and we need to be changed into spiritual beings. Again, that sounds like a total transformation.

This idea of being born again, or made new, is echoed in lots of different places in the Word. For example, in our recitation from Ezekiel the Lord says, “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you” (36:26). If our heart is made new, then we aren’t really the person that we used to be. And if we turn to the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church we find a lot of teachings that seem to be about the need for us to change ourselves. Our next reading is an example of such a teaching. This passage is from the chapter on repentance in the book True Christian Religion. This chapter has been explaining that when we repent we need to examine the intentions of our will—we need to look at what we want, or at our hearts—and repent of the evil that we find there, because our will is who we really are. We read: [§533.3].

So we’re supposed to examine our hearts, find the things that we want that are evil, and banish those things. Then, when we do that, the Lord will lift us up from the things that we were born with. He’ll give us a new will. In short, He’ll reform and regenerate “the whole person.” When we look at teachings like these, it sure seems that the Lord wants us to completely change ourselves—and that sure seems to be at odds with the idea that we should “just be ourselves.”

But being ourselves doesn’t have to be so bad—it depends on what you mean by that. One thing that these teachings definitely don’t support is using phrases like “it’s just the way I am” as excuses for our behavior. This is something that people do, not that uncommonly. It seems like this sort of excuse is mostly used for little foibles: “I’m an impulse shopper—it’s just the way I am.” But sometimes this line gets used to justify seriously problematic behavior. And of course people also use the inverse of this argument: “that’s just not who I am.” “I’m just not the kind of person who goes to church.” It’s an argument that can feel powerful, because we know that we don’t get to tell other people who they are—they get to decide that for themselves. Fair enough. But it’s also simply untrue that people cannot change their behavior. It isn’t too much of a stretch to say that the whole point of this book [the Word] is that we can grow and change and become spiritual. So sure, that’s just the way you are today. Who are you going to be tomorrow? Sure, the change might be hard. The work that’s involved in changing ourselves should be honored. But we can do it. The Lord, in His mercy, gives us that power. “It’s just the way I am” doesn’t cut it as an excuse for poor behavior.

But here’s the thing: changing ourselves and being who we are don’t have to be mutually exclusive. A simple way to put it is that there are many different versions of ourselves that we can be. When we repent, when we examine ourselves and banish the evil that we find, we are changing ourselves, but the change is that we’re becoming better versions of ourselves. We aren’t becoming someone else. We certainly aren’t pretending to be someone that we’re not. The bottom line is that who we are can change. When we choose to become a better version of ourselves, we’re growing spiritually and being who we really are at the same time. The simple idea that cuts through all that confusion is that we’re meant to be the best version of ourselves.

There’s a bit more to say about the idea that we should pretend to be someone we’re not. On the whole, this is an untrue and unhelpful idea. We might try to become a copy of someone that we admire or look up to… but we can’t be those people. People also pretend to be someone they’re not so that they can fit in with a crowd and persuade people to like them. The problem with that is that we know we’re pretending. So we might feel guilty, because we know we’re not being honest about who we are or what we value. And the connections that we’re forging might feel tainted, because we fear that the people we’re connecting with wouldn’t like us if they knew who we actually were. Again, think of Peter pretending that he wasn’t the Lord’s disciple: he didn’t feel good about it. Pretending to be someone we’re not is highly unlikely to make us happy in the long run.

And all that said, forcing ourselves to do the right thing when we really don’t want to sometimes feels like pretending. Forcing yourself to speak courteously to someone you’re angry with might feel fake, but it’s still the right thing to do. People say “fake it till you make it,” and there’s value in that idea. If doing the right thing feels like pretending… well, keep pretending for a while, and see what happens. But on the whole, “pretending” is an unhelpful word, because it suggests that we’re putting something on on the outside, rather than taking it to heart. We shouldn’t pretend to be the people that we want to be: we should become the people that we want to be.

Let’s go back to the idea that we should be ourselves. If we use it as an excuse for bad behavior, or as a justification for never growing, then it’s a problem. But if we hold it a little differently, then it’s a useful idea—because it’s true that there’s no one we can be besides ourselves. “Being ourselves” can suggest contentment: contentment with the way we were made and the things we’ve been given. And contentment is a blessed thing. The teachings of the New Church say that those who trust in the Divine are “content with their lot” (SH §8478.3). Being willing to “just be ourselves” overlaps a lot with making our peace with all of the things that aren’t ours to control. It isn’t our place to decide that we should have been born as somebody else or that we should have been given a different life. We are what we are, we have what we have; and one way or another the Lord is with us. In Luke He says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (12:6, 7). He doesn’t say that we would be of more value than many sparrows if we would just get rid of all those obnoxious habits. He knew what He was doing when He made us, and He gave gifts to each of us—maybe not the same gifts that He gave to other people, but gifts nonetheless. Those gifts give us value. It’s true that it’s on us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be, so that we don’t squander that God-given potential. It’s also good to simply remember that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14).

A related idea, from the teachings of the New Church, is that we’re each being prepared for our own place in the spiritual world. We’re told that heaven and hell each exist in a form that functions as a unit, and that “no one can be allotted any place in that form but his own” (DP §203). Whether we end up in heaven or in hell, our place—our home—will be our own and no one else’s. Our place in the spiritual world is determined by our ruling love, and no one else’s ruling love can ever be exactly like our own. Of course, the Lord created us for heaven, and He’s constantly leading us to our own place in heaven (DP §§27, 67, 68, 323)—and this suggests that He has a job for each of us in His kingdom that no one else can do. So maybe instead of trying to be ourselves, or a better version of ourselves, we should be trying to be the angel that the Lord made each of us to be—knowing that no one else can be that angel.

The last idea we’ll consider today is the statement in the book of Genesis that when the Lord made the first man and the first woman and brought them together, “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (2:25). The teachings of the New Church say that the nakedness of which they were not ashamed symbolizes innocence (SH §165)—the innocence that the Lord gave us at the beginning, and that He hopes we will return to. Being naked and unashamed suggests having nothing to hide. Evil, by its very nature, doesn’t want to be seen for what it is; it wants to cover itself up. The Lord’s hope is that we will grow and change until we reach a point where we’re willing to be seen for exactly who we are, because we know that we have nothing to be ashamed of—because we’re content with what we are. That’s the best version of “just being ourselves.”

Amen.

Holy Fear

Rev. Dan Calvo

Pittsburgh New Church; July 13, 2025

Text:

The fear of God means worship based on fear when those who are not regenerate are the subject. This is evident from the following places: In Moses, when the Law was delivered on Mount Sinai to the people (…) Here 'the fear of God before your faces, so that you do not sin' means worship based on fear attributable to them because they are by nature what they are. Indeed people whose worship is external, and not at all internal, are led through fear to respect the law and to obey it; but they do not enter into any internal worship, which is holy fear, unless the good of life is present in them, and they know what is internal, and believe it. (AC 2826)

Being afraid sometimes of the infinity and power of God may be as natural as being amazed at the beauty and immensity of the ocean while at the same time being afraid of its power and depth. This is something that we all may have felt at some point: this admiration for the unlimited strength and presence of God while at the same time feeling a certain fear of His power, a fear of what may happen if we stray from the path He tells us to walk. This Holy Fear is present throughout many of the stories of the Word and perhaps one of the most powerful illustrations of this Holy Fear is the story of when the Lord gave the 10 commandments to the people of Israel.

When the Lord gave the 10 commandments to the people of Israel He did it while showing His unlimited power: the voice of God came from the top of the mount Sinai surrounded by smoke, fire, thunder and lightning. And naturally, the people of Israel were terrified! They were so scared that they did not want the Lord to speak to them directly out of fear that they would die. And in this situation Moses replied in the strangest way. He said, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin.”

Let’s pause on that for a moment: “do not be afraid but also fear Him.” I'm getting some mixed signals here. What are we supposed to be doing? Because on the one hand, we are told we should not be afraid, and on the other hand, we're being told that the Lord wants us to have a fear of Him. So, what are you trying to teach us here Lord? How do you want us to fear you?

We are the Lord’s children, and like all children, it is very important for us to know about consequences. This sense of consequences often manifests itself in fear of what will happen if we step out of line and do something bad. This fear is an uncomfortable feeling, but it is a very important feeling for us to have. Children need to know that if they do something bad like hitting another kid or telling lies or stealing something that doesn't belong to them, there are going to be serious consequences for their behavior. If children know that there are consequences for their actions and they have a healthy fear of these consequences, they are less likely to hurt other people or themselves. Learning that there are consequences for our actions helps us be healthier, happier human beings who are more useful to society. And the way in which we learn what consequences are is from our relationship with our parents and the adults in our lives as we are growing up. Given that the Lord God is our heavenly father, our relationship with Him is very similar in that way. From the beginning of our relationship with the Lord, we are taught that if we do not obey the commandments, there are going to be consequences. Knowing and believing that we will face very serious consequences for not following the Lord’s commandments is the beginning of holy fear.

In fact, you may be surprised to learn that the beginning of all worship takes place in holy fear. Secrets of Heaven number 6071 says that:

All worship of God inevitably has its beginning in holy fear, which holds within it the belief that God rewards good people and punishes the bad. Although to begin with it is out of fear that people do not dare to do evil, love accompanied by good is gradually introduced, and then people start to know and perceive that nothing but good comes from God, and that evil comes from themselves; then at length that all evil comes from hell. (AC 6071)

Having that kind of Holy Fear early on is the beginning of all worship because whether we grew up in a particular religion or whether we came into it later in life one of the core reasons why we even approach religion is the desire for salvation. If at the beginning of our spiritual journey we do not learn that we need to avoid doing evil things in order to be saved, then we lose one of the most important foundations for worship and our relationship with God.

This is what was happening in the story. The Lord was trying to teach this Holy Fear to the people of Israel so that they would obey the commandments. The people of Israel were listening to the Lord give the 10 commandments from Mount Sinai, surrounded by smoke and lightning and fire. Of course they were terrified! And of course they listened and obeyed, because if a massive voice came from heaven surrounded by smoke and fire we would sure listen to it and do whatever it says!

Nevertheless, just because this kind of holy fear is the beginning of worship it does not mean that we need to remain in that initial state. There are many dangers related to remaining in this kind of holy fear. We may become so obsessed with never making any mistakes whatsoever that we may think that at the slightest mistake that the Lord is going to push us down into hell and punish us. Sometimes we may even start projecting that fear into other people, our spouse, our children, our neighbors, leading us to think that if others around us don’t start worshipping the same way we do or believe in the same things we do that they will be condemned to hell. Even more so, remaining in this kind of holy fear may even lead people to eventually reject religion altogether, rejecting this concept of a punishing God. This is a state of unhealthy holy fear that is very prevalent in traditional Christianity.

However, the New Church has a very different idea of what holy fear can be. The New Church believes that while this first kind of holy fear is very important, and it provides a foundation for our relationship with God, remaining in this first kind of holy fear is not a good idea, not only due to the problems we just mentioned, but mainly because it is a superficial state of holy fear. This first kind of holy fear is based on fear for our own wellbeing and there is even a certain element of selfishness in it: we avoid doing bad things not because we’re focused on helping others or being good human beings, but because we’re scared that something bad will happen to us if we don’t follow the rules. For example, this first kind of holy fear is like someone who does not kill another person only because they’re afraid of going to prison and losing social standing, rather than not killing someone because they know it would hurt others and it would be the wrong thing to do. That isn’t a healthy relationship with God and with religion. And just like our relationship with our parents needs to grow and develop as we grow older and become adults, so does our relationship with our heavenly father God needs to grow and develop beyond this first kind of holy fear.

For starters, that holy fear that is based on a fear of a punishing God gives us a false idea of who God is. It couldn't be further from the truth, because God does not punish anyone. Whenever we experience any kind of consequence for our own evil actions that is just what they are: the logical consequences of our actions.

Brief Exposition of New Church Doctrine number 62 says that:

Because evil carries its own punishment with it (just as goodness carries its own reward), when evil brings punishment on us it looks as though God is punishing us. This is the same, though, as criminals blaming the law for their own punishment, or our blaming the fire for burning us when we put our hand in it, or our blaming the drawn sword in the guard’s hand when we throw ourselves onto the tip of it. (TONC 62)

So if the Lord doesn't punish anyone, and we are not supposed to remain in this initial state of holy fear of God’s punishment, then what is it that we are supposed to feel? What does this adult, wiser, more spiritually elevated holy fear look like?

While it starts as a fear of consequences for ourselves, a healthy adult state of holy fear is a fear that anything bad whatsoever would ever happen to the Lord or to our neighbor.

Secrets of Heaven number 3718 says that:

Fear that is inspired [by holiness] fills those who are good. This fear is called holy fear and is that which accompanies reverential awe of the Divine and also love. (…) The fear that goes with love is a fear lest harm is done to the Lord in any way, or to the neighbor in any way, and so to good and truth in any way. Consequently it is a fear lest harm is done to the holiness present in love and faith, and so in worship. (…) In general the more love anyone has for what is good and true, the more fear he has lest what is good and true will suffer harm. (AC 3718)

In this more spiritual adult state of holy fear we are motivated by not wanting to hurt the Lord or the people around us rather than being motivated by a fear of consequences for ourselves. We obey the 10 commandments not because we are afraid of being sent into hell, but because it is the right thing to do so that we do not hurt our family and our community. And while some elements of the fear of consequences may be there which is completely normal and as we said it is the beginning of worship, that initial fear of consequences for ourselves is no longer the main reason why we follow the Lord and why we avoid doing evil things once we develop the more spiritual level of holy fear.

This is what the story of the people of Israel at Mount Sinai was getting at. The Lord in this story from the Old Testament is teaching us about the first kind of Holy Fear, but in the Heavenly Doctrines He teaches us that eventually we are supposed to grow out of that first fear into the adult, more spiritually developed holy fear. While the Lord may want us to be afraid that there are going to be consequences if we get out of line when we are children or when we are just beginning our journey of faith, what He truly wants us to be afraid of is that our evil actions will hurt the people around us and will push us further away from Him.

So far, we have used the idea of a child's relationship with their parents to illustrate what the first kind of holy fear is, but perhaps a better image to represent the adult kind of holy fear is the feeling of holding a newborn baby and being afraid that any kind of harm should come to that innocent child. That is the core feeling that the Lord wants us to have, that is a real spiritual holy fear. Not a fear that anything bad will happen to us if we do not follow the rules, but a fear that anything bad should ever happen to that which is loving and kind and innocent. Just like any good parent, the Lord doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him, and while He wants us to know that there are consequences for our actions, He also wants us to know that we can always reach out to Him with whatever troubles we are having. The Lord is asking us to look outward and fear the consequences of our actions for everybody else, instead of being afraid of the consequences for ourselves. If we learn how to do this, we will develop true Holy Fear.

Amen

What Should We Love About our Country

Rev. Jared Buss

Pittsburgh New Church; July 6, 2025

Readings: John 18:33-37; True Christian Religion §414 (children’s talk); True Christian Religion §305

Video:

Text:

The sermon today is about love of country. The teachings of the New Church make it pretty clear that we’re supposed to love our country—but what do they mean by that? What is it about our country that we’re supposed to love?

            We’ll begin by looking at what the Word says. In the book of Exodus we’re given the Ten Commandments, and the fourth commandment says: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (20:12). In the book True Christian Religion there’s a chapter on the layers of meaning within the Ten Commandments, and the section on the fourth commandment reads as follows (you can find this reading on the back of the worship handout): [read §305].

            That statement that one’s country is called one’s “fatherland” makes more sense in the original Latin of True Christian Religion than it does in English. This country is almost never called “a fatherland.” But in Latin, the word for country—patria—is closely related to the word for father, pater. So if you’re reading in Latin, the word “country” is going to make you think of the word “father.” And the teachings invite us to think along similar lines, even though we speak English and not Latin. Our country is like a parent to us.

            The fact that love of country is covered by the fourth commandment makes it pretty important. The Ten Commandments are kind of a big deal. The teachings of the New Church consistently say that the things we need to do in order to get to heaven are 1) acknowledge God and 2) keep the Ten Commandments. And that does mean all of the commandments. It’s obvious that murder and adultery and stealing are bad. But commandments like, “You shall have no other gods before My face; “remember the Sabbath;” and “honor your father and mother” are given the same weight as the commandments against murder and adultery and stealing (Ex. 20:1-17). If keeping the Ten Commandments is essential to the life of religion, and loving our country falls under the umbrella of the fourth commandment, then it sounds like we need to figure out how to love our country.

            This makes it important that we understand what it means to love our country. Because let’s be realistic: there’s probably nobody alive who loves everything about their country. It’s pretty obvious that the country we’re in—the United States of America—is imperfect; and some of the country’s imperfections are troubling. Different people are bothered by different aspects of the country’s imperfection, but surely all of us see something we would change. And we get our backs up if we feel like we’re asked to love things that bother us, things that we think are wrong. “Love of country” sometimes smacks of blind patriotism and jingoism, and those things are not good. That kind of love of country can’t be what the Lord wants. We don’t have to love things that we think are wrong. But the Word says that we should love our country. So how should we love it? Or what should we love about it?

            It seems likely that when we talk about “our country,” our minds are drawn towards thoughts of the government, or of national politics, or foreign policy—thoughts of America’s role on the world stage, or the impressions that she leaves with people from other countries. These things are part of the country: they contribute to the country’s identity. But they’re not what it is. A country is not a government—it’s a group of people. In America’s case, we’re talking about roughly 340 million people who share some sort of common identity. By the way, we’re talking specifically about America today, since that’s the country that we’re in right now, and since we just celebrated America’s Independence Day; but the teachings that we’re considering apply to every resident of every country in the world.

            The teachings of the New Church do talk about love of country in context of honoring father and mother; but most of the time when the teachings talk about love of country, the context is love for the neighbor. And that’s illuminating. Love of country is an extension of love for the neighbor, and love of the neighbor is about loving people—or the good in people. The general teaching is that there are degrees of the neighbor, and a large body of people is the neighbor in a higher degree than a small body of people. So a community is a higher degree of neighbor than an individual; a country is a still higher degree of neighbor; above our country is the church; and above the church is the Lord’s kingdom (SH §§6818-6824; NJHD §§91-96; TCR §§412-416; Charity §§72-89). To put it simply, loving a more people is more loving than loving less people. In True Christian Religion we read: “Love towards the neighbor can rise to ever more interior levels in a person; and as it rises it is directed towards the community rather than an individual, and towards the country rather than the community” (§413). As our love rises higher it looks further and encompasses more. It extends beyond our personal spheres to the bigger bodies that we’re part of. There are 340 million people who make up this nation, and there are a lot of things that we share with them; what do we share that’s worth loving? Those people, and the good things that we hold in common with them, are the country that we’re meant to love.

            But then, the planet holds about eight billion people, and that’s more than 340 million. Why don’t the teachings simply say that we should love everybody? Why don’t they say that we should love our fellow human beings regardless of their birthplace and their citizenship and so on? Well the Word does say this in lots of places. It says that love for the Lord is the highest love, because when we love Him we love all of His people (TCR §416; SH §2023). In The Doctrine of Charity we’re told that the human race is the neighbor in the widest sense (§87). We are supposed to love everybody—or, more accurately, we’re supposed to love the good in everybody. We mustn’t set our own country too high. The church is meant to be above our country, and the Lord’s kingdom above that, and the Lord above all (cf. SH §6819; NJHD §91). But love of country still gets its own moment. It falls under the umbrella of the fourth commandment, and we need to keep that commandment. There’s a particular space that we should hold in our hearts for the country that we happen to live in.

And why is that? One reason we should love our particular country is that our country has served us in a particular way. As the reading from True Christian Religion says, our country is like a parent to us: it has fed us and protected us (§305; cf. §414; SH §6821; NJHD §93). That’s true in a very literal way. If everyone in this country besides yourself were to disappear tomorrow, along with everything that those people have made or built, what would you have left? How would you feed yourself? Our country gives a lot to us, and it should be honored for what it gives. The same is true of our actual parents—our mom and our dad. They’re not the only people in our lives, and they’re certainly not the only people that we should love. But they play a special role, so they should be honored in a special way.

A slightly bigger principle that’s at play here is that it’s useful for us to work with what’s in front of us. Another way to put it is that you have to be God to hold the world in your hands. The Doctrine of Charity points out that the nations of this world don’t always want what’s best for each other (§85). We wish that it weren’t so, but it is so. In practice, doing things that appear to be in the best interests of other countries may well mean that we’re working against our own country. Because of this, we’re told that we have a duty or an obligation to do good to our own country, and that we don’t have the same duty to serve countries other than our own (ibid.) This is easiest to understand if we imagine being attacked by another country. In that situation America’s people would have an obligation to defend her; we wouldn’t say that they had an obligation to fight for the other side. It’s easy to say that we should just love everybody, but in practice, loving people means trying to do what’s good for them—and it’s hard to figure out how to do good to everybody all at once, especially when people are fighting with one another. Again, the principle here is that you really have to be God to hold all people in your hands. We’re limited; and if we want to actually be useful, we need to center ourselves on the things that are within our reach. This doesn’t’ mean that people from other countries don’t count—they’re still the Lord’s people. It’s just a general principle that the closer we are to home, the more power we have to do something that will actually be useful.

Here we are, for better or for worse, in this bucket, this category called “America.” At the end of the day, our options are to love what’s around us or to not love it. We don’t have to love everything about it—this is something that the Word makes very clear. The neighbor isn’t really other people so much as it is the good within other people (SH §§6706-6709; NJHD §§86-88; TCR §410; Charity §§46-54). The America that we’re supposed to serve is whatever it is that’s good that we share with other Americans. This means that we’re allowed to distance ourselves from the characteristics of this country that we don’t like (cf. Charity §86). We’re allowed to object to laws that we think are unjust—as long as we do so lawfully. But what good things bind together the people in this bucket? What do we share that’s worth loving?

A useful thought exercise is to picture this country as a single person. If America, with all of her different values and ideals and flaws, were to take physical form as an ordinary human being, what would that person be like? We’re actually told that this is something that happens in the spiritual world: whole countries or communities are seen as individual human beings (TCR §412; Charity §84). The characteristics and affections of those countries are represented in the face and in the behavior of the human form that they take. If America were to take human form, how would she behave? What would she value? She wouldn’t be flawless. But something that comes to light if we picture the country as an individual is that it’s both useless and unkind to look at any individual and note only what’s wrong with them. We shouldn’t love our country blindly or excuse her flaws, but sometimes it seems that it’s fashionable to look at the nation and observe only what’s wrong with it. We know that it would be unkind to treat an individual that way. Why treat a country that way?

What would this personification of America actually be like? The Word doesn’t say anything about this country, and we can’t see her the way that the Lord and the angels do. All we have is our own impressions. There are some national characteristics that are widely acknowledged and have contributed to a shared sense of the country’s identity: Americans value the individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans value freedom of thought; so this country has passed laws protecting freedom of speech and of religion. Paradoxically, America is a country in which slavery was once institutionalized. She’s also a country that has passed laws forbidding slavery

Heaven knows that this country isn’t perfect. But heaven also knows that it’s useless to look only for what’s wrong with something. For better or worse, here we are amidst millions of Americans—and those people are building on the work of millions more who have already come and gone. None of those people were (or are) perfect. But what good things do we share with them? What do we have to be grateful for? What potential do we share? That common good is bigger than any of us—and that’s why the Word says that we should honor it as we honor our father and our mother.

Amen.

Becoming Wise Children

Rev. Jared Buss

Pittsburgh New Church; June 15, 2025

Readings: Revelation 19:4-9 (children’s talk); John 21:1-8; Heaven and Hell §§277, 278 (portions)

 Video:

      Text:     

In this portion of the service we’re going to focus on one of the implications of the idea that the Lord is our Father: if He is our Father, then we are His children. And when I say “children” I don’t mean adult sons and daughters: the Word invites us to think of ourselves as little children who need their Father. This idea can be comforting, and it can also be challenging.

            In the Word the Lord addresses His disciples as children. This is something we see, for example, at the end of the gospel of John. We read: [21:1-8].[1]

            The Lord says to the disciples, “Children, have you any food” (v. 5). And the word that He uses to address them in the original Greek definitely doesn’t mean an adult son or daughter—it means a little child. It’s the same word that He uses when He says, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14)—and He then proceeds to lift those little children that He’s referring to into His arms (v. 16). So He addresses His disciples using a word for a child that’s small enough to be lifted into one’s arms.

            The story illustrates the challenge we might run into if we try to think of ourselves as children of the Lord. It says that the disciples didn’t recognize the Lord (v. 4). They just saw a man standing on the shore, and that man called them children. They could have chosen to be offended. The Lord looked like just another adult, same as themselves. He didn’t even look like He was much older than they were—His body was little more than thirty years old (cf. Luke 3:23). We don’t know exactly how old the disciples were, but they were all adults.

            We here are also adults. We’ve grown up—and growing up feels like a lot of work sometimes. There are, inevitably, some hard lessons. At a certain point our parents will no longer wash the clothes we leave on the floor. At a certain point we become the ones who have to pay for all of our own stuff. If we become parents ourselves, then we have to learn how to be the mom or the dad—we have to be the one who doesn’t fall apart, instead of being the kid who can fall apart because mom and dad will be there to hold the pieces. Growing up usually involves taking on way more responsibility than you ever imagined you would have to, when you were little, and that’s hard. And once we’ve done that work, we don’t want to have it invalidated by people who treat us like we haven’t done it. We don’t want to be treated like children. The disciples could have looked at the Lord standing there on the shore and said, “I’m not your child. I’m an adult.” And sometimes we might be inclined to say the same thing. We might be inclined to say, “Yes, You’re my God—but that doesn’t mean that I’m your little child.”

            Of course, the disciples didn’t say that to the Lord. At first they simply answered His question—no, they didn’t have any food (John 21:5). Maybe they were thinking about being offended. Or maybe they felt that there was more than met the eye within this man standing on the shore. Then, when they did recognize Him, they went to Him immediately. Peter actually dove into the water to go to the Lord, as though he couldn’t wait for the boat to get underway. He wasn’t ashamed to rush to the Lord—and there’s something childlike about that.

            In the Word the Lord makes it pretty clear that He is our Father (e.g. Matt. 23:9). And He makes it pretty clear that it would be good for us to take on, or lean into, the idea that we are His little children. For example He says, “Unless you are turned around and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). That particular statement isn’t even what you would call a suggestion—the Lord makes it clear that there’s something about this idea that we are His children that we need to accept, for the sake of our own happiness. In the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church, in the book Heaven and Hell, there’s a chapter on the innocence of the angels—and in that chapter we’re told that the highest angels, more than all others, “love to be led by the Lord as little children by their father” (§280). Those highest angels are the wisest of all the angels—surely their example is a good one to follow. What if we loved to be led by the Lord, as little children by their father?

            But the Word also makes it clear that we’re not meant to go backwards. We aren’t meant to unlearn all of the lessons we’ve learned that have made us into adults. The children that we’re meant to become aren’t the same as the children that we used to be. The Lord suggests this when He says that we need to be “born again” (John 3:3-8). We need to become “newborns” a second time—only the first birth was natural and the second is spiritual. These ideas are discussed in more detail in that chapter on the innocence of angels from Heaven and Hell. And now we’re going to turn to some passages from that chapter. We read: [§§277, 278].

            Innocence is the heart of this whole body of doctrine. In the Word a little child symbolizes someone who is innocent—so when the Lord says that we need to become as little children, the message is that we need to learn innocence. But those passages also said quite clearly that the innocence of little children isn’t the destination: it was only a preview of the destination. The Lord is calling us to grow into a new kind of innocence, innocence that is joined to wisdom. We were children, now we’re adults; and we’re called to become wise children—something like and yet unlike what we were.

            So what does this mean, in practice? First of all let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: the Lord doesn’t want us to behave altogether like we did when we were children. Children are sometimes very sweet. They also throw appalling tantrums, and can be oblivious to the needs of anyone but themselves. To one degree or another we’ve all grown out of those qualities—and that’s good. Don’t go back.

            So which of the qualities that we see in little children does the Lord want us to echo? The Heavenly Doctrine has quite a bit to say about this, and I encourage you to read the whole chapter on innocence from Heaven and Hell, but for now, for time’s sake, I’m going to suggest two qualities for us to focus on. The first quality is a willingness to accept help. Little children feel no shame at all in asking their parents for help. As we grow up we learn that there are things we can’t ask of other people—there are things that we’re responsible for. We often learn that lesson too well. We forget that we aren’t required to “do life” all by ourselves. The Lord in His Word makes it clear that we need Him. He says, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That’s not exactly a vague statement. We need Him—we depend on Him, like children depend on their parents to tie their shoes and keep them from getting lost on the way to the park. There’s nothing wrong with this—that we need Him isn’t because of some failure or inadequacy on our part. It’s just that we need our Father. Wisdom sees this, and innocence takes it to heart.

            The second quality that we see in children that I’d like to call attention to is their willingness to accept that their parents are in charge. Of course little children embody this quality quite imperfectly. Sometimes they decide to do anything but what their parents say. “You want me to wear clothes? I will not!” But when they aren’t being contrarians, little children can be content with the fact that they don’t make the rules. Of course mom and dad are in charge—they’re mom and dad. When we’re little children it’s inescapably obvious that our parents can do things we can’t: they’re bigger and stronger than we are. It’s inescapably obvious that they know more than we do. So little children tend to trust the answers that their parents give them. A lot of the time they’re content to follow where their parents lead. The truth is that the gap between what we knew when we were little and what our parents knew—or the gap between what we could do when we were little and what our parents could do—is tiny compared to the gap between our present capabilities and the Lord’s. He is bigger than we are. Of course He’s in charge. Wisdom sees this, and innocence takes it to heart.

            We don’t have to accept that He’s our Father. We are free to reject this. If we do accept it, then we’re going to go on a journey as we learn what it means. The reward, or the hope, at the end of this journey is that if the Lord is our Heavenly Father, then He can make all the world okay, the way that all the world was okay when we were little children in our parents’ arms.

Amen.

[1] See also Mark 10:24 and John 13:33