THE LORD'S PRAYER
AND
THE CREATION WEEK
By The Rev. Erik Sandstrom, Sr.
(Lesson 3)
III. The Lord: The Name of God in the New Church
There are in the New Church two
essentials which are defined as follows in the Apocalypse Revealed: "The
confession and acknowledgment from the heart that the Lord is the God of heaven
and earth and His Human is Divine, and conjunction with Him by means of a life
according to the precepts of the Decalogue" (nos. 490, 491). These are stated
also in briefer form, when the essence of charity, which is the regenerate love
in the spiritual church, is described; for its first essential is said to be
"looking to the Lord and shunning evil as sin" (Char. 1).
When the two statements are
viewed together it is manifest that looking to the Lord consists in confessing
and acknowledging from the heart that He is the God of angels and men, and that
the Human that we may see which He assumed and glorified in the world is
altogether Divine, and that shunning evil as sin is to obey all the Ten
Commandments and thus to be conjoined to the Lord.
These two embrace all things
whatsoever that pertain to religion and to life. We say, "to religion and to
life," because "all religion is of life" (Life 1), and there is no aspect of
life, no matter how trivial it may appear, which ought not to be of religion.
For a true religion is not piety alone, or theology or thought alone; it is
piety, thought, and every action of life alike. True religion is too great to be
treated lightly. It cannot suffer a man to relegate it to a shadowy corner of
his heart, to be fetched out only when the spirit so moves him; nor can it allow
him to use it on his lips or in his folded hands if it does not at the same time
fill also his heart. True religion must have the whole man, or nothing.
Such also is the case, in a
sense, if man humbles himself and desires that the Lord may gradually lead him
in all things of life; for even if the desire is essentially prophetic in the
beginning, and the fulfillment is a matter of a lifetime, yet such a humble
desire-if really meant, if really genuine constitutes the man's ruling love,
which touches and affects all things of his mind.
That desire is like a constant
prayer, which is constantly and increasingly heard, until the six days of his
spiritual creation have been fulfilled, or until all the six petitions in the
Lord's Prayer have completed their work with the man. With such a man religion
is of life, and there is nothing in his habits or his efforts that he would wish
to hide away and keep secret from his religion; nor need he feel undue anxiety
because his evils are not overcome at once.
It might be said that looking
to the Lord is the inmost and generating force in true religion, and that
shunning evil as sin is the ultimate effect thereof. All other things are
contained within this first and last of religion. For instance, the acquisition
of knowledges is to be found within their scope, for knowledges both glorify the
Lord and guide man in his life. So also true social life is embraced by these
two things, for it cultivates the spirit of charity and is infilled with
gratitude to the Lord. And so it is with other things as well.
Now these two things, these two
essentials of the New Church, are also the first and the last petitions in the
Lord's Prayer. The first the confession and acknowledgment from the heart that
the Lord is the God of heaven and earth and that His Human is Divine-is humbly
voiced in the opening words: "Our Father, who art in the heavens, hallowed be
Thy name." And the last, which is a life of conjunction with the Lord by
obedience to His precepts, finds expression particularly in the cry, "deliver us
from evil"; or in the full petition: "lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil." The pulse and breath of these two leading ideas in the prayer are
present in every single part of it, and give to every part spirit and life. The
ascription at the end "for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory
" signifies the resulting state when the temptations and struggles of life have
subsided, and the Lord has peace with man, and man with the Lord.
In fact, these two things take
on their first garments in the very first two words of the prayer, "Our Father."
For in the "our" is contained the principle of charity, which is the wish not to
do evil to the neighbor. It is by no means a coincidence that we are not taught
to say, "My Father."
Thus, in using the prescribed
opening of the prayer we should be mindful of all our brethren, wherever they
may be, who join with us in turning to the Lord as their only Father; for such
is the meaning of the word "Father" here. For even as the angel declared to
certain spirits, "we think of God in His Divine Human, because in this He is
visible; and in this He is called Christ by you, but Lord by us, and thus the
Lord is our Father in heaven" (AR 839), so also all men whose heart and soul
would have a father must turn to the Lord alone, or else they will find none.
This is indeed the very first idea in the prayer; for in the original language,
as also in some other languages, "Father" is the first word and "our" is the
second-"Father of us (our)."
It matters little, however,
that it cannot be so well said in the English language as long as the Lord Jesus
Christ, as He is revealed and known among us, is the fullness of our thought and
love when we turn to Him as our Father in the heavens.
This is paramount. The entire
prayer becomes empty and void if we do not think of the Lord as we know Him when
we pray; for none of its petitions can be fulfilled if we seek fulfillment from
an unknown source. For instance, how could we obtain our daily bread for the
life of our spirit if we did not know where to find it? if we did not know that
it is the things we have understood from His Word, and which have thence
affected our love, that feed us. If it is indeed true that a "man shall live by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4: 4), how can this
be if we do not know who is the God that speaks? Hence there is nothing
fortuitous about the prescription in the Writings (AC 14) that our God is to be
called principally "the Lord," as is the habit in the New Church. There must be
in all teaching, and in all private thinking, an insistence as it were-if need
be by self-compulsion on bending our minds to our God as we know Him, thus to
the Lord. Otherwise our Father in the heavens cannot be God-with-us; neither can
the promise to the New Jerusalem be fulfilled: "And they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21: 3). It is
a sin in the world that men have not heeded the Lord's words to Philip: "Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me? He that hath seen Me
hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou, Show us the Father?" (John 14: 9).
Also, did He not command us to eat of His flesh, and drink of His blood; thus
that we must be fed by Him and live from Him? And who else is the father of our
life if we do so live?
Nevertheless, it is true that
the first Christian Church was not prepared to turn fully, and with full
awareness, to the Lord as Father. He Himself said: "I have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. . . . But the time cometh when I
shall show you plainly of the Father" (John 16: 12, 25). Therefore it is for the
New Christian Church to search the depths of the Lord's Prayer, and to enter
interiorly into its spirit and life. It is distinctly said that "the whole of
the Lord's Prayer, from beginning to end, regards the present time, namely, when
God the Father may be worshiped in the human form" (Inv. 37). That this may now
be done is because the Lord has plainly shown of Himself as the Father.
It might have been understood
in the former Christian Church that the Lord alone is meant by "our Father in
the heavens"; for the invisible God, that is to say, the Lord as He is in His
own self, is above the heavens, and as such is not approachable.
Only in His forthstanding in
His Divine Human do the angels know Him; and only thus are they able to approach
Him, worship Him, and hallow His name. These words also, which are the first to
assume the form of a petition, "Hallowed be Thy name," signify the Lord as He
has revealed Himself; for by the "name" of God throughout the Word is meant
nothing but the Divine Human. That is why the Divine name and the glorified
Human are spoken of in the Word as identical, as in John: "Jesus said, Father,
glorify Thy name; then came there a voice from heaven, I have both glorified,
and will glorify again" (John 12: 28); and in Isaiah: "This is My name, and My
glory will I not give to another" (Isaiah 42: 8; cf. AC 6887).
To confess and acknowledge this
Divine Human from the heart is to hallow the Divine name; for to "hallow" is to
render supreme honor, thus to worship. It is known also that by a name, any
name, in the Word is meant quality; for a name obviously represents the person
having it, thus his quality or nature. Therefore the Divine name can mean
nothing but the Divine quality, which, of course, is known to us only in the
Divine Human.
But how the Lord manifests
Himself as our Father, thus how His name is to be adored, is further apparent if
we search into the words, "who art in the heavens." It is not said,
incidentally, as in the rendering of the Authorized [King James] Version, "who
art in heaven," but, "who art in the heavens." For by the "heavens" are meant
all those Divine things that proceed from the Lord with the angels, and make all
the innumerable heavenly societies. These things are the goods and truths from
the Lord that are revealed to the angels and are known to them, and are
increasingly becoming known to them to eternity. In these things that the angels
understand and love, and by means of which they may live from the Lord and work
with Him, in these things alone do they see and worship their Father in the
heavens; for love to the Lord and charity are matters of life with angels.
Therefore we read that "loving the Lord, in heaven, does not mean loving Him as
to His person, but loving the good which is from Him; and to love good is to
will and do good from love" (HH 15); and that neither does loving the neighbor
there mean loving a companion as to his person, but "loving the truth which is
from the Word, and to love truth is to will and do it" (ibid.).
There are, as we know, three
distinct and discrete heavens. In these heavens the goods and truths from the
Lord manifest themselves differently: in the celestial heaven in one way, in the
spiritual heaven in another way, and in the natural heaven in yet another. The
proceeding Divine, however, is within these goods and truths; or rather, these
goods and truths themselves are the proceeding Divine from the Divine Human.
In the highest heaven they
present the Lord in greater glory than anywhere else, for there the Divinely
Human love itself thrusts aside all bounds or coverings and presents itself to
view. This is possible because the angels there, through their regeneration,
have been prepared to love the Lord inmostly. But in the middle heaven the goods
and truths that are known from the Lord present Him in less glory; for the
angels there turn to the Divine methods, or modes, of operation, and not to the
Divine ends themselves, except as they see them reflected in the methods. Hence
it is that the angels in this heaven also love the Lord's love, that is, His
ends, but more remotely. And in the lowest heaven the goods and truths from the
Lord as known by the angels who are there portray the Lord in even lesser glory;
for they cannot enter into even the Divine modes of operation, but are satisfied
to see the effects of those operations, and to cooperate with the Lord in them
through obedience. Such are the general distinctions among the three heavens,
and such, therefore, the distinctions among the Lord's manifestations in them.
But in addition, there is indefinite variety in all the societies of each
heaven. For, as we read: "When the Lord manifests Himself in any society, He
appears there according to the quality of the good in which the society is, and
thus not the same in one society as in another. Not that this dissimilitude is
in the Lord, but in those who see Him from their own good, thus according to it.
The angels are affected also at the sight of the Lord according to the quality
of their love; for they who love Him most interiorly are most interiorly
affected, and they who love Him less are less affected" (HH 55).
At this day the goods and
truths in the heavens, known by angels from their Word, or Divine doctrine, are
revealed in the world. Hence that Revelation is called the Heavenly Doctrine. It
is couched in human language, in rational terms. But the whole of it is
described, ready for man to enter in with his heart and mind according to the
degree of his love. Thus men, too, are invited to pray truly to their Father who
is in the heavens, and to hallow His name.
TO CONTINUE :
Beginning -
Lesson - 2 -
Lesson - 4 -
Lesson - 5 -
Lesson - 6 -
Lesson - 7 -
Lesson - 8 -
Lesson - 9 -
Lesson 10 -
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