Letting Love Be Our
Spiritual Clothing
The Rev. Jared J. Buss
Readings: Revelation 12:1-9; Apocalypse Explained 707; Arcana
Coelestia 5248.1
(This was the third sermon in a series on the core teachings of the New Church, in
preparation for New Church Day.)
In the Book of Revelation the Lord gives us an astonishing picture of
what He wants us to become: the image of a woman clothed with the sun.
(Revelation 12:1) This image is incredible, even on the most basic level. Imagine
seeing someone actually clothed with the sun, someone covered up with and
radiating that golden fire. The Greek word for “clothed” comes from the root
idea “thrown around,” so we can picture someone wrapped up in sunlight,
enveloped in a sphere of the sun.
This image is contrasted with an equally intense image – of a great, fiery
red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns. (Ibid. 12:3) The
dragon, like the woman, is blazing; the word describing its color comes from
the Greek word for fire. So think of an enormous serpent, the deep red color of
glowing embers. This whole picture is one of two fires and the forms they take
– two fires representing diametrically opposite loves and ways of life.
Our focus here is on the way of life that is portrayed by the woman clothed
with the sun. The woman clothed with the sun represents the New Church,
and particularly the life of the New Church. This is the life that we are invited
to – the life that the Lord wants for us.
The sun represents love to the Lord (Apocalypse Explained 707; cf.
Apocalypse Revealed 533), and the woman in this vision is said to be “clothed
with the sun” because she represents people who live from that love. As we
are told in Apocalypse Revealed: “The woman here appeared clothed with the
sun because the [New] Church is governed by love toward the Lord; for it
acknowledges Him and keeps His commandments, and that is loving Him.”
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