Cut from the Sermon: Better than Everyone Else

This week I preached on the final chapter of the Book of Amos. From the first draft to the final draft I cut the sermon in half, so there was plenty to choose from for this week’s “Cut from the Sermon” entry, but I was saddest to cut a passage from Arcana Coelestia that I love (mostly because it convicts me every time I read it). In the original sermon I spent more time focusing on the primary sin that Amos was calling out: an attitude of superiority, both in Israel’s attitude toward the nations around her, and in the attitude of the rich toward the poor. The passage that I ended up cutting is one where Swedenborg describes seeing “societies of interior friendship” in the life after death, which sound like a nice thing until you find out what they  are:

There are  societies of interior friendship which take away a person’s internal delight or blessedness, arising from the affection of spiritual things. I have several times conversed [with some of them]. In the life of the body their nature was such that they loved from the heart those who were within their common fellowship, and also embraced one another with brotherly affection. They had believed that they only were living and in the light, and that those who were outside of their society were comparatively not living and not in the light; and because they were of such a quality they also thought that the Lord’s heaven consists solely of those few.  But it was given to tell them that the Lord’s heaven is immense, and that it consists of every people and tongue, and that all are there who have been in the good of love and of faith; and it was shown that there are those in heaven who relate to all the provinces of the body both as to its exteriors and as to its interiors; but that if they aspired beyond the things which correspond to their life, especially if they condemned others who were outside of their society, they could not have heaven; and that in this case their society is a society of interior friendship, which as before said is of such a nature that when they approach others they deprive them of the blessedness of spiritual affection; for they regard them as not being the elect, and as not living; and when this thought is communicated, it induces sadness, which however according to the law of order in the other life returns to themselves. (Arcana Coelestia §4805)

I hope I’m getting better, but whew – that passage still makes me squirm.

Image: Amos-prophet” by 18 cen. icon painter – Iconostasis of Kizhi Monastery, Russia. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons