What is the New Church doing? Are there quantifiable results to support all of the claims? Stephen uses direct language, simplifies the playing field, and centers it in the heart. -Editor
This article will look at the question: How can the New Church transform itself from what it is now, into an entity that works for the benefit of the human race and the planet?
Many people today want to “make a difference.” A difference for the good of humanity, for the good of the planet, and for the good of their immediate surroundings and friends.
If “making a difference” sounds like an empty cliché to you, try replacing it with: doing good, living a life that matters, solving world problems, awakening to your true purpose and creating a new and better world. Making a difference covers all of that.
In the New Church we entertain the outrageous claim that we hold a new revelation of teachings that has been given as the Second Coming of the Lord. We also claim that the New Church, with its teachings, is the high point of God’s salvation plan for humanity. The best religion. The crown of all churches. The highest and last revelation.
I am going to ask you something I am not sure you can do. For the sake of this article try to step back from these claims, and hold them lightly. Have another look.
The claims are unrealized if the New Church, through its people, does not make a difference in the world. A practical difference. A difference that is measurable, visible, and absolutely certain.
Are we making such a difference? No, I don’t think we are. Those claims are unrealized. I want them to become realized, and maybe you want that too.
Let’s backtrack for a moment…
The New Church is described as coming down out of heaven to earth (Revelation 21:10). It comes from what we cannot see into what we can see. Earth in the internal sense (The Last Judgment 3) is the congregation of people that are receiving the New Church. For them it turns up first inside their lives. Further, it turns up in the world through them. In the literal sense the word is earth. This is not ambiguous. It is the earth we stand on, the world, the planet.
Therefore, the effects and benefits of the New Church cannot just be taking place in the hidden private sphere of a person’s mind. Nor can they be put off indeterminately in the name of a regeneration process that lasts a whole life time. These effects must be felt and be visible, in actions, in events, and in the world around us, today. Otherwise, who are we fooling?
What does it mean to make a difference, in more concrete terms?
A difference is made when the New Church that comes down out of heaven improves the life, quality, and happiness of all people that receive it. Through these people the life, quality, and harmony of the earth itself is increased. So, anything that does this is the New Church.
How can the New Church transform itself from what it is now, into an entity that works for the benefit of the human race and the planet?
The core statement of Christianity and of the New Church is: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself” (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18). Notice the emphasis added by the repeating words: heart, soul, strength. Notice the equivalent word used by Jesus: “Out of your heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). It is the heart that does the loving, not the intellect.
There is a reason that we need to include the heart part of ourselves in our religion. The heart creates a coherent field of radiation when the feelings of love, gratitude, appreciation, joy, fun, or warmth are filling it.
This field is measurable, even in a scientific way (see also: www.heartmath.org).
This field is what makes the difference.
That is the simple answer. Be in the heart, in the steady, supported, strong sphere of energy that emanates from a heart in the process of appreciation and love. That is all.
For clarity, let’s detail it out a little more.
The first difference effect of a more coherent wave of energy in the heart is on the rest of the body itself. Well-being, balance, health, immunity, emotional resilience… these all follow.
The second difference is received by the people who are in our immediate surroundings, who are in the shared electro-magnetic sphere of influence, e.g. in the same room. Their own heart field becomes more coherent by being in the presence of one that is. Even if they don’t know about it or believe in it.
The third difference is on the planetary energy field. That too becomes more coherent when even one person is in love or gratitude. One person can affect the entire planet that way.
There are plenty of people who did exactly that. Take Jesus Christ as an example.
Note that the planetary energy field has many other names in various traditions: the Christ Consciousness grid, the Astral Light, or the general term, 'the Spiritual World' as described in Swedenborg.
Now this article reaches a conclusion. People want to make a difference. In the New Church that ought to express itself by worship, prayer, reading, group work, community actions: all for the purpose of increasing the coherent love radiation of our own hearts, that of others, and that of the entire planet.
If that is not what is going on, then we do not make a difference. If a church service does not on purpose set out to achieve a greater state of coherent heart radiation, it is not making a difference. If a prayer does not open the heart even a little bit, it is not making a difference. If the music we perform or sing does not come from the heart, it is not making a difference. If the Word of God, the way it is presented and taught, puts people into a catatonic sleep state, it is not making a difference.
When something comes from the heart, it can be felt. There is no doubt about it. It is not subject to intellectual discussion. When something is felt, it makes a difference.
Claim free will to walk in beauty and love.
IT is all there is as long as it is where we dwell.
Practice respect on your path and stay in your heart.
(Paula Helena Bringner)