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MIND THE GAP
A Christmas message by Lars-Erik Wiberg
for Sunday, December 25, 2005
If you consult Potts Concordance for the word "Pastor" you are instructed "see Shepherd". When you follow that instruction, you are given information such as we heard this morning. Shepherds and pastors do provide leadership that combines goods and truths through their works with the goods of the church, the goods of charity playing the leading role.
So it is no surprise that the shepherds were the first to whom the Lord's angels brought the news that the Lord had arrived on this planet. The shepherds signify good, the Love side of the Divine Love and Wisdom relationship. As we Swedenborgians know, it is Love that takes the lead in animating Wisdom, and Wisdom that responds by educating Love. The good shepherds were told first; the Wise Men came upon the scene somewhat later. Love preceded Wisdom; all was in order.
But it was not always so. Love and Wisdom were not separated in the Most Ancient Church in which the mind consisted of Love and Wisdom, expressed in will and understanding as one, with no discontinuity, with no gap. Men and women of the Most Ancient Church were able to communicate directly with angels whose minds were of a similar nature. It was only through a succession of churches leading up to the First Ancient Church that the will and understanding were gradually separated in response to accumulated evils. Thus the celestial Most Ancient Church was replaced by the spiritual First Ancient Church.
Of course such a separation, in response to conditions as he saw them, could take place only by the hand of the Lord, and we are now left with the natural conditions with which we are all so familiar; these being the dualities deriving from the Divine Love and Wisdom namely: good and truth; charity and faith; will and understanding; feeling and thought. Each of these dualities operates in precisely the same way with the Love-derived animating the Wisdom-derived and the Wisdom-derived educating the Love-derived. This is the holy engine of life.
It is of natural interest to us all to be aware of and take an interest in opposites. And when we do we find that true opposites can be defined in terms of each other. For example; peace can be defined in terms of war (its absence), and war can be defined in terms of peace (its absence). These kinds of opposites are commensurables. Now by recognizing commensurables, do we not suggest the likelihood of incommensurables? Of course we do, and we find a perfect example of such in Love and Wisdom. There is no way to define one by means of the other; they are utterly distinct. On the other hand each is so vitally affected by the other that both have a special relationship, an exclusive one suggesting a kind of wholeness. This relationship is a complementarity which the OED (Concise) defines as "a situation in which two or more different things enhance each other to form a balanced whole." Divine Love and Wisdom are such in their both being part of the proceeding divine.
But there is a gap between them that we seldom, if ever, focus on, a discontinuity that preserves their separate identities. My mind was drawn to this gap last month by reading in a sermon by Rev. Buteux the following in regard to Mahatma Gandhi, "He believed that life's meaning is not found in the selfish pursuit of words that can guarantee eternal salvation, but in the attempt to lay words aside that we might help save one another." Upon reflection we see that Gandhi was unique in the way he repeatedly placed his essence in service to solve problems that could not be handled through talk, his fasting being a great example. This brought to mind the true extent of that gap and, with it, the impulse to pay more attention to it.
One homely example of "the gap", the discontinuity as it is experienced at the feeling and thought level, involves music critics describing music. The gap between the words and the notes is unfathomable. Describe Bruckner's seventh. Are you kidding? You have to hear it and feel it. Describe through thought and in words any work of art, and that gap emerges large, and it is never bridged without the immediate experience that only the feelings can grasp, and although it may be bridged, it is never closed.
I e-mailed Rev. Buteux about my observation on the gap and asked what she thought of it from her side, thinking (the exact word) that her feeling (the exact word) might round out the complementarity. I received an extraordinary reponse.
In a singular example of pastor as shepherd, she wrote, "I often ascend into the pulpit with the sense that what I am about to offer is not nearly enough and then a curious thing happens, (and the less I feel I have to offer the more this curious thing takes over) the little I have stretches to fill the space, the gap, whatever you want to call it, between my mouth and the minds/ hearts/ souls of those assembled. I compare it to the time when Jesus asked the twelve what they were going to feed the multitude. They came up with only 12 loaves and two fishes, but they gave what they had and the Lord made that work out to be enough. When it comes to the experience of preaching, I think of the power of this strange alchemy of presence that you describe as the Holy Spirit, so it's not so much my presence as it is the presence of the Spirit that is generated when two or more are gathered in the Lord's name. When the Spirit is present strongly, preaching becomes something of an out of body experience in that I reside somewhere apart from myself as I am speaking and hear and partake of the sermon simultaneously as I preach it."
I thanked Sarah, and noted that while I was talking about a gap, she was responding more in terms of a link. I observed by return e-mail, "When you enter the pulpit taking whatever it is you have and really and truly wanting to do the best with it that you can; when Jesus asked "the Twelve" what they were going to eat and they came up with the best they could find; when anyone, taking what he or she knows and can do, tries to fill a given need with the best will in the world, something happens. The Lord steps in. You have experienced this, and so have I. How can the link over the gap be anything other than use?" Use being the containant of love and wisdom, it is through use that their complementarity merges into a balanced whole and the link is created.
Since it was the Lord alone who separated Divine Love from Divine Wisdom, it is through him alone that the gap can be bridged. With use as that bridge or link, and mindful of Sarah's experience when what she has becomes enough, we have a lovely illustration of how the Lord is present in each and every use. We also have a strong affirmation that the value of the use is in its intent and not its renown. The Lord is never just partly present, so any use, supported by intentions that combine good and truth, is just as valuable as any other as far as the Lord is concerned.
We here in this Chapel have experienced this presence of the Lord through use in a vital way. We set out some years ago now to preserve this holy place for holy, rather than secular, use. Can it be any surprise that we received the Lord's help in our quest to
continue to serve him as best we knew how, armed with good and truth as best we understood them? It was probably an unfair contest from the start what with the Lord
helping our honest efforts. But when you are in the middle of a muddle, it's hard to make long-term sense out of the problems that are arising day to day even though you are trying your best to deal with them with what you have to offer.
Now with a bit of hindsight to aid us with our foresight, we can see that we are on safe ground if we follow the Lord's teachings and precepts in whichever uses underpin our endeavors for our Society and this Chapel. At the close of this Advent Season and beyond we will be able to continue in useful service if, as in the past, we continue to pray for guidance, embrace the opportunities that ensue, give thanks for the chance to be useful in this holy place, and respect each other. Proceeding thus we will continue to merit the Lord's attention and help, not only now, but also in perpetuity. If we mind the gap, the Lord will, as in the past, see to it that our uses fill it, and the God-given complementarities of good and truth will form a whole and continue to have a home in this Chapel.
Amen
Copyright 2005 by Lars-Erik Wiberg
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