I preached this sermon at the Carmel New Church in Kitchener, Ontario, on July 18, 2010.<\/p>\n
BRINGING THE ARK TO JERUSALEM<\/p>\n
A Sermon by Rev. Coleman S. Glenn<\/p>\n
This morning we read the story of David taking the ark to Jerusalem, and the sad story of Uzzah touching the ark.\u00a0 But the story actually begins long before our reading takes place, before David was king, before his predecessor Saul was king, when Samuel had just become the leader over Israel \u2013 decades before the story in our reading took place.\u00a0 In those days, the ark was captured by the Philistines, but it brought curses on them, and so they returned it to the people of Israel.\u00a0 The people of Israel took it and brought it to the house of Abinidab on the hill.\u00a0 There the ark stayed for decades.\u00a0 Samuel grew old while the ark was there.\u00a0 Saul was anointed king, and then after him, David was anointed king, and all the while, the ark was in the care of Abinadab and his household.<\/p>\n
It stayed there for seven even after David had become king, while he was ruling Israel from the city of Hebron.\u00a0 It was not until David finally conquered Jerusalem in the seventh year of his reign that he called for them to bring the ark to Mount Zion, the site of Jerusalem, which was then called the city of David.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This story is a literal history of the movement of the ark.\u00a0 But like all the stories in the Word, it contains an internal sense that is about our spiritual lives.\u00a0 The progression of the ark represents our spiritual progression \u2013 our progression from being merely natural, to being spiritual, to finally being celestial.\u00a0 The ark represents the Lord\u2019s presence with us along the entire journey, and especially His Divine Truth, or His Word, because the ark contained the Ten Commandments, which are the heart of the Word.<\/p>\n
In our story, the ark began in the home of Abinidab in Baale-Judah, in Gibeah, where it had been for decades.\u00a0 This represents the most external things of the church in a person.\u00a0 This is where we all begin.\u00a0 Here we view the Ten Commandments mostly as rules to be obeyed.\u00a0 This is where we spend our childhood, growing up and learning about the Lord.\u00a0 We act according to a sense of obedience rather than charity or love.<\/p>\n
As we follow the teachings of the commandments on a natural level, we begin to move.\u00a0 The ark leaves the house of Abinidab towards the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.\u00a0 We progress from mere obedience toward acting from love toward our neighbour \u2013 from the natural to the spiritual.\u00a0 The home of Obed-Edom represents the spiritual with us, when we are acting from charity toward the neighbour.\u00a0 And the final destination is Mount Zion, which represents celestial love \u2013 acting not only from obedience, not only from charity toward the neighbour, but from a deep and abiding love for the Lord.<\/p>\n
In this summary, it sounds like a simple progression.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not always as simple as that.\u00a0 The journey was far from straightforward, and it contained both joy and heartbreak.\u00a0 When the ark first left the house of Abinadab, it was placed on a new cart drawn by oxen, and driven by the sons of Abinadab, Uzzah and Ahio.\u00a0 From the outset of the journey, there was music and rejoicing.\u00a0 We read, \u201cThen David and all the house of Israel played music before Jehovah on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.\u201d\u00a0 The book Apocalypse Explained<\/em> tells us that the playing on these instruments represents \u201cthe gladness and joy that result from the affection of truth and good from the Lord through the influx of Divine truth.\u201d\u00a0 They represent the gladness that comes along with enjoying the truth on a natural level and on a spiritual level.\u00a0 From the very beginning of our journey, we experience satisfaction in learning truth from the letter of the Word, and as we progress, we experience the pleasure that comes from living by the Word and treating our neighbour with charity.\u00a0 That is the music of the instruments that accompanies the ark.<\/p>\n When we start to follow the Word \u2013 when the ark starts to move \u2013 we usually notice that it just works for our lives.\u00a0 Our interactions with other people start to become more pleasant.\u00a0 Right from the beginning, there is pleasure and happiness associated with learning and doing the truth.\u00a0 If there weren\u2019t, it would be impossible to motivate ourselves to continue \u2013 the ark couldn\u2019t move by itself.\u00a0 The oxen that were pulling the ark represent natural good \u2013 that is, the pleasure and enjoyment that come from following the literal sense of the Word.\u00a0 For example, if you decide to start being more honest \u2013 from the first day you start, there\u2019s just a natural sense of peace from the fact that you don\u2019t have to worry <\/em>so much about thinking of lies.\u00a0 Even though you\u2019ve just started your journey, you already start to see some benefits. Remember, the oxen represent that natural good.\u00a0 At first, following the Word just seems to work, and it makes you happy.\u00a0 But as time goes by, you might find that it\u2019s not making you as happy as before.\u00a0 Even though you were excited about reading the Word, and it gave you pleasure, now you\u2019re starting to come across things that are hard to understand, or that are hard to accept.\u00a0 It seems that the oxen are stumbling \u2013 something just seems wrong.<\/p>\n Recall what happens in the story.\u00a0 At the threshing floor of Nachon, the oxen stumble, and the ark begins to slip.\u00a0 Abinidab\u2019s son Uzzah, who has been accompanying the ark, puts out his hand to touch it \u2013 and he is immediately struck down dead.\u00a0 In the historical sense, this happened because Uzzah was breaking a commandment, that only a consecrated priest could touch the holy things.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also a picture of the way we can do ourselves harm by trying to \u201csteady the ark\u201d \u2013 trying to \u201cfix\u201d what the Word says if it doesn\u2019t seem to match up with what we\u2019d like it to say.<\/p>\n Think about Uzzah\u2019s life.\u00a0 He was the son of Abinadab, in whose house the ark had been stored for so many years.\u00a0 He had grown up with the ark in his house.\u00a0 And he and his brother were charged with taking care of it as it made its way from their home to its new home in Jerusalem.\u00a0 He probably felt a special sense of closeness with it.\u00a0 And all of this so far is good<\/em>.\u00a0 Uzzah, for the most part, seems to represent something good in us.\u00a0 David wept for him when he died.\u00a0 And Arcana Coelestia<\/em> says that he represents, \u201cthe truth that ministers to good.\u201d\u00a0 He seems to represent our understanding of truth.\u00a0 He represents something good \u2013 but he makes one mistake \u2013 he touched the ark and tried to steady it.\u00a0 If we put ourselves in his place, it\u2019s easy to understand why he would do so.\u00a0 If the ark fell, he might have been embarrassed.\u00a0 He was used to having it around \u2013 although he knew it was holy, it was also a familiar thing.\u00a0 It seemed perfectly natural to try to steady it, to keep it from falling.<\/p>\n But in doing so, he put his faith in his own abilities, rather than trusting that the Lord\u2019s Word could take care of itself.\u00a0 And we can find ourselves in a very similar position.\u00a0 We have the Lord\u2019s Word with us always.\u00a0 We know that it is holy and true.\u00a0 And yet there are times when we \u201cput out our hand to steady it\u201d \u2013 and in doing so we put our faith in ourselves, rather than in the Word.<\/p>\n Remember, when the oxen stumble, it is a time when the Word suddenly seems to stop being so enjoyable, or it seems to have something wrong \u2013 it\u2019s about to fall over.\u00a0 Maybe it makes a statement about the difference between men and women that makes us cringe a little.\u00a0 Maybe it says something about love-of-self that seems to contradict what psychology says.\u00a0 And in cases like that, we might be tempted to put out our hands to steady it.\u00a0 We might say, \u201cOh, it doesn\u2019t really mean that.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re a little embarrassed for it \u2013 we don\u2019t want other people to know what it says, and we\u2019re quick to explain it away.\u00a0 And we can explain away things that don\u2019t seem to be working in our lives.\u00a0 We\u2019ve decided to stop lying, for instance, and we\u2019re finding that telling the truth, while rewarding at first, is just getting us into trouble.\u00a0 We might tell ourselves, \u201cWell, there must be some exceptions \u2013 the Word can\u2019t really mean we\u2019re supposed to be honest all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n This tendency comes from a fundamental error.\u00a0 When we live with the Word for a long time \u2013 and especially for us in the New Church, when we are familiar with a revelation that is unknown to most people \u2013 we can start to feel like it belongs to us.\u00a0 If there is something a little off-putting about it, we feel embarrassed about it, because we feel like we\u2019re somehow responsible for it \u2013 that it is a reflection of us, rather than the other way around.\u00a0 This may have been a little how Uzzah felt \u2013 remember, the ark had been in his family\u2019s possession for years and years and years.\u00a0 The Writings tell us that Uzzah reaching out with his hand represents trying to approach the Word from our own power, what is our own, from our proprium \u2013 which is closely related to a sense of ownership.<\/p>\n We usually talk about a sense of ownership as a positive thing when it comes to religion.\u00a0 And it\u2019s true that we have to have a sense that our religion is our own rather than someone else\u2019s.\u00a0 But we<\/em> belong to the Lord \u2013 the Lord does not belong to us.\u00a0 We have discovered the Writings, and they have touched us, and they speak to us \u2013 but they do not belong to us, any more than the ark belonged to Uzzah.\u00a0 And we cannot \u201csteady\u201d them \u2013 we cannot try to \u201cfix\u201d what they say \u2013 without doing ourselves serious harm.\u00a0 The end of the book of Revelation forbids anyone to add or take away anything from the words of that book \u2013 it is specifically talking about the book of Revelation, but the truth applies to the entire Word.<\/p>\n We cannot change the Word to make it more palatable.\u00a0 But this does not mean that Uzzah does not have his place.\u00a0 We need to have an understanding of truth to carry the ark, to lead us in following the Lord.\u00a0 And sometimes this understanding of truth does<\/em> involve resolving seeming contradictions in the Word.\u00a0 Some people have accused the Writings of doing precisely what is forbidden in the story of Uzzah and at the end of Revelation, of denying the hard truths in the literal sense of the Word.\u00a0 For example, the Writings say that the Lord is never angry \u2013 despite clear statements to the contrary in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Are the Writings just trying to \u201csteady the ark,\u201d to make an unpleasant truth more palatable?\u00a0 Now, the Writings are a new revelation, so their interpretation of the Old and New Testaments is not really the same as a person doing it on his own.\u00a0 They are not a human hand but a Divine hand touching the ark.<\/p>\n But the Writings indicate that even without a new revelation, the Christian church could<\/em> have known that God was never angry.\u00a0 How would coming to this conclusion be different from reaching out to touch the ark?\u00a0 The big difference is that the conclusion that God is never angry is itself drawn from the Word, rather than from a person\u2019s own intelligence, or from a desire to \u201cfit in\u201d with the cultural mores.\u00a0 A person needs to use their understanding and enlightenment to see the governing truths in the Word, and to see other statements as appearances of truth.\u00a0 So, for example, the truth is clearly expressed in the Old and New Testament that the Lord loves the world; that the Lord does not desire the death of anyone; and in short, that God is love.\u00a0 A person can use reason to say, \u201cAnger as I know it contains hatred within it; and so when it says God is angry, it must mean a different kind of anger from human anger \u2013 a kind of anger that is completely free from a desire to hurt anyone.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0This kind of thinking is<\/em> permitted, because it is from the Word, and not from one\u2019s own power.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s easier, when we come across a difficult teaching in the Word, to start <\/em>from the assumption that it\u2019s wrong, and try to make it fit what we already believe \u2013 rather than allowing it to change <\/em>what we believe.\u00a0 When we start to do that \u2013 to guide ourselves from our own intelligence, rather than from the Word \u2013 we seriously harm something inside of ourselves.\u00a0 Uzzah represents our understanding of truth.\u00a0 And as soon as we believe that we are able to know truth of ourselves without the Word, we die.\u00a0 When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, the Lord forbade them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil \u2013 and told them that if they ate of it, they would die.\u00a0 Why would He forbid them from eating of a tree of knowledge?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t knowledge good?\u00a0 The reason is that tree did not really represent knowledge \u2013 it represented the attitude that a person has knowledge and wisdom from himself, that he can figure things out on his own, without needing the Word. And it\u2019s this kind of attitude that leads to death.\u00a0 And it\u2019s this kind of attitude that leads us to try to \u201csteady the ark\u201d \u2013 to say to ourselves, however subtly, \u201cWell, the Word doesn\u2019t really know what it\u2019s talking about here \u2013 it\u2019s not going to work to do it that way, so I\u2019ll do it my own way.\u201d\u00a0 If we follow that path, we put ourselves above the Word.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to do.\u00a0 And that\u2019s scary.\u00a0 How do we know when we\u2019re \u201ccorrecting the Word\u201d from our own intelligence versus re-examining it from the Lord?\u00a0 There\u2019s not an easy solution.\u00a0 It involves a lot of prayer, a lot of self-examination and reflection, and above all honesty with oneself.<\/p>\n David was frightened by the power of the ark after it killed Uzzah, and he stopped its journey.\u00a0 When we are reminded what is at stake in religion \u2013 that it is eternal life or an eternity in hell \u2013 religion can be so frightening that we stop in our tracks.\u00a0 It seems too big for us.\u00a0 It can make us afraid to even go to the Word \u2013 it\u2019s too painful, or it would be too painful, to honestly look at all the ways we ignore what it says.\u00a0 It is no wonder that David no longer wanted the ark to come to him.<\/p>\n But while the ark is with Obed-Edom, it does not curse him.\u00a0 It blesses him!\u00a0 And this encourages David.\u00a0 In the same way, we can call to mind that the Word is NOT there to condemn us.\u00a0 The Lord said He did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world from its sins.\u00a0 And so we can continue on our spiritual journey.\u00a0 It takes a lot of courage \u2013 when we believe all the things the Word says about heaven and hell, about the possibility of backsliding \u2013 it can be scary.\u00a0 But when we remember that it is there to give us life, and give it to us more abundantly, we can set out again.\u00a0 We can rededicate ourselves to our mission, and continue to try bring the Word into our lives.\u00a0 David went before the ark dancing and shouting.\u00a0 The Word can give us greater joy than anything else in the world.\u00a0 We may still carry fear, but our fear is transformed into a holy fear \u2013 not a fear that we will be condemned, but a fear of doing any harm to the things that are of the Lord.\u00a0 We can follow the ark, and let it lead us, and trust that it will bring us further and further into heaven \u2013 that is, further and further into charity toward our neighbour and love toward the Lord. \u201cSo David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.\u201d<\/p>\n Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n Lessons: 2 Samuel 6:1-15; Revelation 22:12-19; Arcana Coelestia<\/em> 8944<\/p>\n AC 8944. It is believed in the world that a person is able to know from the light of nature, thus without revelation, many things that belong to religion; as that there is a God, that He is to be worshipped, and also that He is to be loved, likewise that a person will live after death, and many other things that depend upon these; and yet these things being such as are from self-intelligence. But I have been instructed by much experience that of himself, and without revelation, a person knows nothing whatever about Divine things, and about the things that belong to heavenly and spiritual life. For a person is born into the evils of the love of self and of the world, which are of such a nature that they shut out the influx from the heavens, and open influx from the hells; thus such as make a person blind, and incline him to deny that there is a Divine, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death. This is very manifest from the learned in the world, who by means of knowledges have carried the light of their nature above the light of others; for it is known that these deny the Divine, and acknowledge nature in place of the Divine, more than others; and also that when they speak from the heart, and not from doctrine, they deny the life after death, likewise heaven and hell, consequently all things of faith, which they call bonds for the common people. From this it is plain what is the quality of the light of nature without revelation. It has also been shown that many who have written upon natural theology, and from the light of their nature have skillfully confirmed those things which belonged to the doctrine of their church, in the other life at heart deny these same things more than others do; and also deny the Word itself, which they attempt utterly to destroy; for in the other life hearts speak. It has also been shown that the same can receive nothing of influx out of heaven, but only from the hells. Hence it was plain what is the quality of the light of nature without revelation; consequently what is the quality of that which comes from a person\u2019s own intelligence.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I preached this sermon at the Carmel New Church in Kitchener, Ontario, on July 18, 2010. BRINGING THE ARK TO JERUSALEM A Sermon by Rev. Coleman S. Glenn This morning we read the story of David taking the ark to Jerusalem, and the sad story of Uzzah touching the ark.\u00a0 But the story actually begins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[24,178,189,194,203,208,217],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-ark-of-the-covenant","tag-self-intelligence","tag-swedenborg","tag-ten-commandments","tag-the-new-church","tag-the-word","tag-uzzah"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAt the beginning of the ark\u2019s journey, everything went smoothly.\u00a0 But after some time, something seemed to go wrong: the oxen that were drawing the ark stumbled.<\/p>\n