new church life: march/april 2015
others as you love yourself is to learn to love the differences.
We need to trust in an all-loving God in all things of life, Thane said. To
love God is to love what He loves and to follow His commandments. And
at the heart of what God cherishes is our freedom; we are created to act in
freedom according to reason – according to our “reading of the law.” (Divine
Providence 70-99)
God is One and God creates variety. Similarly, we are all created differently
and for unity. We all act and think differently from our understanding, but
perhaps we find more unity as we learn to hold those differences lightly and
in charity.
We are called upon in the Sermon on the Mount to “be perfect, just as your
Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) The perfection alluded to here is
God making the sun to rise on the evil as well as the good, bringing rain to the
just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) God is the model of perfection, and our
being “perfect” is allowing for imperfections in others – holding them lightly.
The promise in Revelation, amid a new heaven and earth and the New
Jerusalem descending, is: “Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)
This is the covenant of the New Church. God’s continual creation from His
infinity means that there will be a continual unfolding of variety – in ideas, in
loves, in forms. (Compare Divine Love and Wisdom 318 and Arcana Coelestia
9160)
Does the New Church come more into being, Thane asked, as we learn to
love our differences?
Asked about the apparent lack of charity within the Church on some
issues, he said we are challenged to see that out of conflict comes a higher
vision. As we go through our own temptations and regeneration, we need to
hold the differences lightly, to let go of the love of dominion and having to
have our own way, and to pray – for ourselves and for the Church: “Thy will
be done.”
(Contact: [email protected])
Dr. D. Gregory Rose
Culture and Politics: Arab and American
Greg Rose in Egypt
Just as our impressions of the Arab world
are formed from media and stereotypes,
so are their concepts of us formed by such
popular TV shows as Dallas and Baywatch
– cowboys, tycoons and a decadent culture.
While our culture can be summarized in the
acronym W.E.I.R.D. – Western, Educated,
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