Sermon

With no irreverent intent, we might echo the words of Jesus¡¯s first sermon--¡±This day this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.¡± Thanks to advances in medical technology, more and more people are ¡°rising from the dead,¡± and others who do not want to believe their reports are struggling mightily to explain them away. If a patient reports having seen what the doctors were doing after her vital signs ceased, they point to the known fact that comatose patients have heard and remembered conversations that went on around them while they were apparently unconscious. To draw this parallel, though, they have to overlook the fact that there is really a rather significant difference between a coma and the cessation of vital signs, as well as the fact that comatose patients do not report seeing what happened. For experiences of the spiritual world, materialistic skeptics draw on an abundance of accounts of hallucinatory experiences brought about by oxygen deprivation or drugs, ignoring the fact that hallucinations tend to be incoherent and confusing as well as the fact that the perceptions of the operating room regularly check out as accurate. Virtually all physical explanations break down in the face of cases of consciousness during a period of flat EEG--a period of no measurable brain activity whatever.

We could go on through a list of psychological and medical rationalizations--the point is that there is a growing body of evidence of our spiritual reality, of our existence as conscious persons apart from our physical bodies, and that it is perfectly possible for people who are supposedly committed to a rational and unbiased search for the truth to remain convinced that we are exclusively physical beings.

This is just one example of something that has been going on throughout human history, just one instance of our extraordinary freedom to interpret the world in whatever way we want. Religious philosophers have tried time and again to come up with proofs of the existence of God, and some brilliant minds have claimed to have succeeded; while other equally brilliant minds have come up with proofs of the non-existence of God, and no one really seems particularly impressed by the whole enterprise.

Ultimately, our theology says, we will wind up believing what we choose to believe. This is the principle underlying our text--¡±They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.¡± The guidance is there. They can pay attention to it if they want to, but nothing will compel them to do so. It may sound harsh, but it is quite true to life. Different people see differently.

But what about people who do not have ¡°Moses and the prophets¡±? This is itself an issue on which different people see differently. There are versions of Christianity which claim that salvation comes only through conscious acceptance of the Gospel, that those whom the Gospel has not reached are, through no fault of their own, damned. There have been and are groups who take an even narrower position, claiming that only their own members are saved, that ¡°outside the church (meaning my church) there is no salvation.¡±

It is possible to find Scriptural support for this kind of position. It is also possible to find Scriptural contradiction of it, my own favorite being in the second chapter of Paul¡¯s letter to the Romans which promises ¡°glory, honor, and peace to everyone who does good works, first to the Jew and also to the Gentile¡± (Romans 2:10). Or we might simply take Psalm 145:9 literally: ¡°The Lord is good to all.¡±

This means, our theology tells us, that the Lord provides everyone with some equivalent of ¡°Moses and the prophets.¡± The irreducible minimum of religion, belief in the Divine, acceptance of some communication of the Divine will, and obedience to that will, is available everywhere. Perhaps the most secular form it can take is simply the belief that there is a difference between good and evil, a difference which we do not invent and which is constant through all kinds of cultural variations and local moralities. This serves the essential function of making us accountable to principles whose source is beyond ourselves, the crucial function of preventing us from deifying ourselves.

If we turn back then to our text, it seems that a great deal of meaning must be contained in the little word, ¡°hear.¡± When the parable assumes that some people who have Moses and the prophets ¡°hear¡± what they are saying, while others do not, it is not talking about physical hearing. That hearing, in a way, is assumed in saying that they ¡°have¡± the Scriptures. No, this kind of ¡°hearing¡± involves a special kind of attention.

Contemporary theology likes to talk about the ¡°hermeneutical circle,¡± a circle with which Swedenborg was thoroughly familiar. He wrote,

Let it be known that all the doctrine of the church must be from the Word, (Arcana Coelestia 9424),

and then later (Arcana Coelestia 104003)

Think also whether anyone can know the Divine truths which are in the sense of the letter except by means of doctrine thence derived; and that if we do not have doctrine as a lamp, we are carried away into errors.

We are to draw our doctrine from ¡°Moses and the prophets,¡± so to speak, but we cannot understand Moses and the prophets except in the light of the doctrine we derive.

This is not a weakness to be swept under the rug or rationalized away. It is a realism, a strength. The weak position is that of the believers who claim to have broken out of that circle and who must therefore erect massive defenses against anything that would cast doubt at their certainties. They cannot ¡°hear¡± because they cannot afford to ¡°listen.¡± This is very much the position of the devoted materialists who cannot admit the possibility that near death experiences are authentic, that there is more to reality than matter.

But the ¡°hermeneutical circle¡± is not the end of the story. It is, if you will, a way of visualizing the freedom that is essential to our humanity, and once we see it as a freedom instead of as a trap, it is not hard to believe that there is a kind of way out of it. More precisely, it is not a single circle, but a set of circles. Luther was pointing to this when he insisted that if we read the Gospels simply to find out what they say, not to prove what we want to believe, they tell us very clearly the kind of life we are to live. Swedenborg said the same thing in his own distinctive way, saying that we are to read the Word ¡°from the affection of truth for the sake of the good of life¡± (Arcana Coelestia 9039). That leads us into a healthy circle.

Actually, though, the circle image is a bit misleading. It would be more true to experience to talk about a ¡°hermeneutical spiral.¡± Dedicated materialists do not keep coming back to the same place, but learn more and more about matter and become more and more convinced of the truth of their views. On the other hand, consistent attention to values that are higher than material ones leads to deeper mutual understanding and healthier community. It is heartening these days to see the number of people in theology and in psychology who are exploring stages of human growth--growth in intellectual skills, in moral judgment, in psychological well-being, and in spiritual health. There is a reaction against intellectual relativism which would say that no belief or attitude can be regarded as superior to another, a reaction based not on defensive dogmatism but on a recognition of the phenomenon of transcendence.

That is, if we look honestly at human growth, it is clear that higher stages can comprehend and nurture lower ones in a way that is not reversible. Children cannot understand and care for parents in a way that parents can understand and care for children. People who have learned from experience can offer light and support to people who are ¡°behind them¡± in this process of learning. Of course we can still learn from everyone, including children. In fact, the further along in the process we are, the more we can learn. That is part of what makes the later stages better than the earlier ones.

There is an intriguing assumption underlying all this that may serve to tie things together and wrap them up. It is that the hermeneutical circle or spiral applies not only to our understanding of the Word, but also to our understanding of our own experience. If we are open to learning, if we have an affection for truth for the sake of the good of life, we will carry that attitude into our interpretation of Scripture and our interpretation of the events of our daily lives. We have the same freedom to interpret in both, because that freedom is a constant divine gift to us. There will be the same lessons to be learned from both, because the Lord is present in both.

If we stop to think about it, there is far too much going on around us for us to perceive, let alone to comprehend. We cannot listen to everything that is said, read everything that is written, see everything that is done. We are aware of only the tiniest of fragments of all that, and our own selectivity has a lot to do with what fragment that is. Surely it is in our own interests to ¡°take heed what we hear¡± (Luke 8:18), and to listen especially for the voice of the only One who is good to all.

Amen.