California Digest 2017

CALIFORNIA DIGEST 2017

A Newsletter for New Church residents and friends of California www.californiadigest.org June

The Practice of Forgiveness

by Rev. Chuck Blair

Taken from www.newchurch.org

Brother, sister, mother, father, husband, wife, son, daughter, friend, colleague, neighbor....our relationships contain many people with the potential to hurt us, very often in small ongoing ways. Sometimes in trying to be good people, we brush these hurts aside, thinking "I am not a vindictive or overly sensitive person, these things shouldn't bother me." But they do. They do because our egos are like magnets, and resentments are attracted to them. What is the impact of holding onto these resentments? Do we hold back in our lives? Do we argue with people? Do we gossip? What does the Bible teach about this?

Jesus taught the art of forgiveness. “’Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22.) Does this mean we are to forgive 539 times exactly? Yes. And more. The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg explore depth in the biblical message and say that “By this [Matthew 18:21-22] He meant that they were to forgive as often as he sinned. Their forgiveness was to know no limits, that is, was to be eternal and timeless, which is holy” (Secrets of Heaven 433).

Patience with the process

The Lord promises that forgiveness is possible. Even when hurt seems too great to repair, God tells us “I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). We experience a heart of stone when we are too angry, too selfish, or too frozen by the pain others have caused us. A heart of flesh, while it may be vulnerable, is compassionate. A heart of flesh sees that while we are feeling pain, the other person may also be hurting for that pain they caused us. We can get so caught up in ourselves that we do not even notice another is struggling from the offense. It is true that people need to be held accountable for their actions, but these people also need patience from us. As it was said: “Be patient with me” (Matthew 18:26). Practicing patience with another, holding onto the hope and vision for our relationship with them, is a true act of compassion. We need to invite the Lord into the journey and ask for the courage it takes for us to be patient with another and the understanding needed to see that they too are working through the pain that needs forgiveness.

Resentments and a faulty worldview

The idea that forgiveness means that sins are washed away is one of the reasons why we sometime shy away from forgiveness. We sometimes think that forgiveness means forgetting and that feels wrong. Sometimes we feel we need our resentments to educate us about the people in the world around us and guide us in the ways we should act towards them. We feel like we need our memory of past hurts so that we can maintain boundaries with people. But the Lord is all-knowing and mercy itself—therefore there must be a way for knowing and forgiveness to exist together, a clear-headed forgiveness that forgets nothing and forgives all. Here’s one way of thinking about it: how might it feel to look at someone who has hurt us and not feel anger? Is this even possible? This is how the angels are described “those who have charity hardly notice the evil in another person, but instead notice all the goods and truths that are his; and on his evils and falsities they place a good interpretation. Of such a nature are all angels, it being something they have from the Lord, who bends everything evil into good” (Secrets of Heaven 1079).

Now this doesn't negate the fact that we do need to protect ourselves from people who make a habit of hurting us. The key is to invite the Lord in to the process. It is the Lord who will keep us separated from our resentments, if we let him. We must be rigorous and disciplined in our endeavors to forgive. We must get used to naming each hurt and then putting it away and asking the Lord to keep the resentment from us. He is the only one with the power to do this. And it must be done 70 x 7 times, which means all the time, without limit.

The power of forgiveness

When we forgive others there is a freedom where we are no longer shackled by our own anger. It moves us from our selfish illusions to a beautiful reality. It is hard work, but letting go of the fantasies that we can change the past, that we can change others, or even that we are the ones who can change ourselves opens room for God to help us ward off the resentment we feel. Each time we forgive, it paves the way for the next time we need to forgive. Practicing the courage and patience, and letting the Lord into the process of forgiveness becomes like exercising a muscle. It grows stronger and stronger. Together with Him we can come to a point where forgiveness is intuitive, a blessed way to live!

Reflections for when you find yourself unwilling to forgive:

*Do I believe that forgiving requires something of the other person first?

*Has this wrongdoing and resentment become part of my identity?

*What are the pleasures of this anger and resentment?

*Is there a part of me that wants to entertain the anger?

*Is withholding forgiveness about my ego?

*What would forgiveness look like?

*Is this where I want to stay?

When you notice anger and resentments:

*Name the wound.

*Name the trigger.

*Name the person.

*Prayerfully let it go.

Misconceptions About Forgiveness

by Rev. John Odhner

Taken from www.newchurch.org

Forgiveness is very hard, and one of the things that makes it harder is our misconceptions about forgiveness.

Here are a few thoughts that may be helpful.

1. Some people think that forgiveness happens quickly, that we decide to forgive and then it’s done. Most people, though, need to forgive because they have been hurt, sometimes very deeply, and it takes a long time to heal. That’s one reason why Jesus said to forgive up to seventy times seven.

Suppose someone makes your leg break. For many weeks you struggle with a cast and crutches, and you can’t do many things you are used to. Long after the pain you feel in the moment that your leg broke, you feel the pain, inconvenience, disability and expense of a slow healing process. So it is as if each day is a new experience of hurt that you must forgive. You can begin the healing process just by deciding that you are going to forgive, but that decision leads to weeks, months, years or of even decades of healing and spiritual work. Growing in forgiveness is an organic process, like growing a tree. The moment you decide to forgive, a seed is planted, and then it may be many days before the first sprout pushes through the soil, and years before the new tree actually bears fruit. Forgiving others is a skill that gets better with practice, like playing a piano. You can’t play a piano just by deciding to play. After deciding, you have to practice for months and years to be able to play beautiful music. So if the sister who hurt you asks if you forgive her, just say, “I’m working on it. I’m trying.”

2. Another thing that makes forgiveness hard is fear that if we forgive we won’t get justice–the other person will get away with it. We think that if we forgive them, they might do it again. Or we think that to make it right with the victim the person who cause the hurt should suffer just as much as their victim did. We imagine that we are protecting ourselves from further hurt by not forgiving the hurt we experienced. To forgive we have to let go of resentment, resentment and hatred, but that doesn’t mean we have to pretend they didn’t hurt us, or act as if it didn’t happen.

3. We can forgive someone and at the same time challenge them, confront them, or even put them in jail. Forgiveness sometimes opens the door for reconciliation. Other times it may be impossible to reconcile or become friends again, but even when we can’t reconcile we should still forgive. Forgiveness involves not wanting to hurt the person back,

4. Sometimes we have a hard time forgiving because the other person doesn’t apologize sincerely, or won’t acknowledge how much hurt has been done. But you can forgive regardless of the other person’s attitude. You can even forgive someone who is dead. It may be impossible to reestablish friendship with the offender, and perhaps you will never reconcile, but still you can forgive, because your own heart can change ever if the other person’s does not.

5. Ultimately only the Lord can forgive our sins, or change our heart. For us to forgive others, we have to call on the Lord’s power to change us. There is a connection between forgiving others and being forgiven by the Lord. When we have recognized our own faults and asked for the Lord’s forgiveness, it will be much easier to forgive others.

General Church Annual Goal

Dear New Church supporters, Please consider a gift to help the General Church meet its annual giving goals as our fiscal year wraps up this June. Every donation, large or small, will help us achieve the mission to help people live a heavenly life through the teachings of the Lord God Jesus Christ in His Second Coming. It is a message of hope and love for all people who turn to Him in a life of service and sacrifice. Your donation to your society and the General

Church matters and it makes a difference. To donate to the General Church go to www.newchurch.org/donate or you can send a check payable to: General Church mailed to Advancement, PO Box 708, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.

With gratitude, Mark Wyncoll

Registration is nowopen for Laurel Camp 2017. This year’s camp takes placeJuly 30th – August 5th.

Laurel’s mission is to build spiritual community based on the Lord’s Word. Our camp is a chance to spend a week out in the beautiful woods of Laurel Hill State Park, and experience a unique kind of spiritual community with friends of all ages.

Each day contains worship, small groups, shared meals, and lots of music. Come sleep in a cabin, swim in the lake, and spend time by the campfire.

This year’s theme is “The Middle”

The Pastoral staff of 2017:

Solomon Keal

CalvinOdhner

Elmo Acton

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the middle of them.” (Matthew 18:20)

-Pastor-Director Solomon Keal

Sketches of a Swedenborgian World View

by John S Haller, Jr

with a Foreword by Devin Zuber

Format:hardback
Pages: 396
Publisher:The Swedenborg Society
Language:English
Author:John S Haller, Jr
Foreword:Devin Zuber
Place of publication:London, UK
Date of publication:2017

The legacy of the Enlightenment philosopher, scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) is vast, but still underappreciated. Swedenborg’s thought permeated 19th-century literature, art and social reform movements, and his work was a common influence amongst a disparate array of pioneering scholars, theologians and writers who sought to reveal the congruencies between the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, and the prevailing Christian ideology of the West.

In Distant Voices: Sketches of a Swedenborgian World View, John Haller goes a long way towards redressing the balance, highlighting Swedenborg’s discreet and dignified presence in the lives and works of some dozen charismatic thinkers whose own impact has been significant and far-reaching (even if they themselves have sometimes drifted out of the public consciousness). In a series of well-crafted chapters and a retrospective, Haller takes us from the mid-19th-century worlds of Henry James, Sr, R W Emerson and Charles Fourier through to the 1960s era of counterculture that D T Suzuki helped shape and saw out his life in.

Each chapter can be read as a self-contained essay; together they form a group of biographical and critical appraisals (and reappraisals) in which the subjects are linked together by their use of Swedenborg, their interest in Oriental beliefs and their desire for the betterment of society.

Key Selling Points:

*New research and insight on the lives of major 19th and 20th century intellects

*Examination of the synthesis between Easter and Western thought

*Highlights, for the first time, Swedenborg’s influence on social reform movements.

You can buy it on amazon.com.

Philippines News

An Angel Among Us

By Franklin Rogers