n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 5
see in a way that makes sense. In other words our eyes rely on the brain to
make sense of what is seen, and only a correct understanding of what we see
could possibly be useful to us.
In a way, we all have come here this morning having used our mind’s eye
to see the life we have lived so far, and the circumstances we have to work
from, and not everything that we have seen makes sense. In fact, if left to our
own understanding of life, the image we have taken in would stay upside down
and inverted from a correct understanding of the life the Lord wants us to live.
So we have come here this morning in the hope that turning to the Lord in
His Word will bring us some clarity, and help us to understand our lives from
a view that is right side up. We cannot see life right side up on our own, just
as our eyes cannot see anything without our minds to receive and interpret.
There is an interdependence between our eyes and our brain, and between
our spiritual sight and the Lord’s Word. Psalm 119 reminds us of this: “Your
Word [the Lord’s Word] is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
The eye and the brain are not the only parts of our bodies which rely on
other parts for proper functioning. In fact, every part of our body serves some
use to the whole, and the whole cannot perform well or with health without
the individual functioning of each part.
The Lord in the Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church tells us that this
is not only true of our individual bodies, but is also true of the Church, as well
as being true for every heavenly community, and on the broadest level is true
for heaven as a whole.
Heaven as a whole is in the human form, and when we speak about the
entire complex of heaven we use the term the “Grand Man of Heaven.” What
this means is that heaven has different parts, and organs, and that each part or
organ serves a specific use to the whole, just like the eye serves the specific use
of filling the body with light.
There is a great passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in which Paul is
pleading with the church in Corinth to function better together. We can
imagine the circumstances they might have been dealing with: the people of
that church were struggling with all of the cultural influences infiltrating their
lives and worship from the surrounding pagan society in Greece. Because of
those circumstances, the people were at odds with each other, probably arguing
over how the church should be, and what practices were most important, and
what influences were harmful. When a church is faced with these issues it is
very easy for one group to think that the church would be better off without
the voice of their opposition! But in chapter 12 Paul reminds the Corinthians
that they are all a part of one body, and that they cannot succeed without one
another:
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