"And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

And he replied, 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.'

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East."

by Minnie Louise Haskins

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From a sermon by Rev. Emily Jane Lemole:

Readings:

• Isaiah 26:1-4, 42:5-8
• Matthew 7:7-14
• Revelation 22:14
• Arcana Coelestia 2851

We are standing at the Gate of the Year, a threshold to the unknown in many ways. “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

We read many passages from the Word and the Writings about gates. Gates provide a connection between what is inside and what is outside. They suggest a choice – whether to open or shut it – whether to come in or stay out.

A closed gate makes us hesitate and stop. In this Sufi saying the gates provide thoughtfulness and reflection about what we say:

Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates.

1. At the first gate, ask yourself, “is it true?”

2. At the second ask, “is it necessary?”

3. At the third gate ask “is it kind?”

How best to begin this New Year? There are the usual resolutions – to lose weight, be healthier, be more organized, and spend more time with loved ones. But there are deeper resolutions or intentions that are crying out for a new start, a fresh beginning.

Number 1: Putting God in the center of our lives – seeing the Lord Jesus Christ as the beginning, middle and end of our day. A good habit is to pray – a lifting up of our perspective – of our priorities – several times a day. Even the physical action of looking up and pausing can shift an annoyed, resentful mood into a moment of correction – a turnaround of most of what we fuss about.

"Sub specie aeternitatis" is a great reminder. Under the auspices of eternity – what matters? Not most of what worries and upsets us. In the long view, with God at the center, what really matters becomes evident and what doesn’t diminishes.

So how do we put our hand into the hand of God? How do we open the gates of our minds and hearts to all that is good and true, wise, kind and peaceful? How do we shut the door to selfishness, unkindness, resentfulness, ingratitude and violence? By what we do every day.

“The way we do anything is the way we do everything,” says Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan priest.

What do we pay attention to and give our time to? What do we love?

A New Year seems a good time to take inventory, a reflection on last year, not so much what we have accomplished as who we are becoming. What matters most to us? What are our priorities? Or as Swedenborg would ask, What do we love? For we are what we love!

We learn that there are two gates that are in each of us:

1. The Gate to Heaven, surrounded by angels, leads to what is good and what is true.

2. And the Gate to Hell, surrounded by evil spirits, leads to what is evil and false.

These gates are in us. We get to choose, and what determines our choice? What we love!

Every year, every week, every day, every moment we have the freedom to choose who we are, what brings us pleasure, how we spend our precious time – what we love and how we love.

And let’s remember that if we don’t honestly like what we see in our inventory, we can repent! Turn around! Change our direction! Change our minds! Change our loves!

Swedenborg describes what we cannot see – our spiritual companions – the company we keep and are for the most part unaware of. Like guests, they come by invitation.

We are surrounded by spiritual guests, invited by our states of mind and heart: Through the Heavenly Gates come the angels and good spirits; from the Hellish Gates come the evil or bad spirits. My high school Latin teacher used to refer to these as the “Basement Boys”.

It is out of fashion today to speak of evil, guilt, repentance or hell. These terms have become obsolete, uncomfortable and ones we really don’t want to be reminded of. But from everything Swedenborg teaches, these are spiritual realities.

Evil is very much alive and well in our world (if one reads the papers and watches TV) and in each one of us, recognized with some introspection! When we honestly become aware of our own intentions and emotions, we know this!

Evil, with its twin, falsity, is everything that is against God, that is selfish, dishonest, greedy, mean and cruel. But evil can also appear with a deceptive face – we can justify our resentments, our ingratitude, our unforgiving stance. Sin means missing the mark, the mark being God. All that draws us away from God makes us miss that mark!

Guilt – a very necessary emotion that makes us want to repent – not to wallow in, but to lead us to repentance – to persuade us to change course!

And evil spirits – these are the very real spiritual companions that we are told are fighting for our attention, and in the end, for our spiritual life. We are in the balance. We are between two gates.

An ancient Buddhist proverb teaches: Everyone is given the key to the Gates of Heaven; the same key opens the Gates of Hell.” The key is what we love.

Every decision we make feeds either our proprium (our unregenerate will) or feeds our "remains" – that inviolate treasure, a storehouse of all the good and true things we have experienced since before birth. Remains are our birthright, and we draw from it and add to it forever with true thoughts and good deeds.

Since the number one focus of most New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight (and I’m not against that, if needed) let’s try to use that concept for a spiritual weight loss – losing the burden of negative emotion, the bad habits of criticism, complaint, gossip, irritation, annoyance, being easily offended, anger – the list we know goes on and on. The diet for this weight loss is good thoughts, honest behavior, truthful intentions. Turning off the bad news, turning on the good news. Supporting a hopeful optimism that encourages others; kind acts that look for no return.

Think on these things, Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians.

“Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things.” Philippians 4:8.

And the exercise required for this transformation of the soul’s health is spiritual practice – the exercise that brings the abstract into the real, the doing of what we say we believe. Perhaps this year we can embrace a spiritual exercise:

- Meditation

- Prayer

- Lectio Devina – slow, purposeful reading of Scripture and other Holy Books.

A dear friend of mine makes a habit of thinking about which type of spirits are influencing her, and then asking the Lord to send away the harmful influences, when there. Also, she has developed a practice of thanking the Lord for all good things when they happen.

We can open the Gates of Heaven. Angels can rush in at any time that we cause the gates to swing open by loving what is good, what is true, the Lord and one another. These choices open those gates.

We all need reminders to help us make the right choices. We forget so quickly and are distracted by the loud noise of our times. We are plugged into T.V., radio, our computers, phones and i-pads -- a secular culture that is immersed in what is natural, not spiritual. But it is not natural for us to turn away and turn toward God and the Heavenly gates. It is unnatural. It is spiritual. Here are a few reminders that I have found helpful.

SET A TIME FOR AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE LORD: Every morning and before bedtime are two commonly used times to reserve for the Lord. When feeling angry, raise your thoughts and vision upward, and ask for the angels at the gate for assistance. Try a phrase learned from one of our daughter’s friends: Bless and release! Work toward seeing God in everyone and in all things.

Let ugly states pass – bless your enemies, remembering that those who disagree or dislike us are likely our best spiritual teachers. We can see our response to them, usually a response that mirrors the behavior that irritates us. Love our enemies, we are told, as well as our neighbor.

We need to watch our thoughts.

From the Ancient Vedas:

"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

Most important is to detect what we love, for that will determine which gate we hang around, and later, enter.

How auspicious it is that we have Holy Communion as we enter the New Year. What better way to begin, seeking first the kingdom of Heaven – putting what matters most into the forefront?

This is a beautiful prayer by Sister Joyce Rupp:

SACRED MYSTERY,

Waiting on the threshold

of this new year,

you open the gates

And beckon to me:

(You say) “Come! Come!

Be not wary of what awaits you

as you enter the unknown terrain,

be not doubtful of your ability

to grow from its joys and sorrows.

For I am with you,

I will be your Guide.

I will be your Protector,

You will never be alone.”

Guardian of this new year,

I set aside my fears, worries, concerns,

I open my life to mystery, to beauty,

to hospitality to questions,

to the endless opportunity

of discovering you in my relationships,

and to all the silent wisps of wonder

that will draw me to your heart.

I welcome your unfailing Presence

And walk with hope into this New Year.

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“Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.”

It really matters as we stand at the Gate of the New Year whose hand we will take – whose inspiration we will follow and whose influence may determine who we are becoming.

From Psalm 118:19-20:

“Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I will go through them,

And I will praise the Lord.

This is the gate of the Lord,

By which the righteous shall enter.”

Amen!

(Referenties: Arcana Coelestia 2851 [1-15])

What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? Luke 15:8

(Additional readings: Deuteronomy 30, Psalm 119:105-128)

This parable is one of a series of three — the lost sheep, the lost piece of silver, and the prodigal son — which teach of the Lord's love and care for all of us. They teach us that not one human being ever gets beyond the Savior's care. No one, however far from the paths of civilized, life and Christian teaching, but will have access, if he wishes, to the tree of life. All three of these parables illustrate first of all the infinite love and mercy of God.

But within this clear and evident meaning there lies a spiritual meaning not so apparent, a meaning applicable to us all; for, as the Lord took on our humanity, whatever is true of Him in the highest degree is also true of us in the lowest. If the Lord came, as He said, "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), His command to us also is "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew 7:7).

In the parable of the lost piece of silver we have the picture of a woman seeking for a treasure which she once had but which she has lost. She knows that it is in the house somewhere, and she knows too that if she searches diligently, she will find it.

It is a common experience of our human nature that we dislike losing something which we once had. It may be a very small loss, but it disturbs us. If we had given it away, we should probably have scarcely missed it—even perhaps felt better because someone else is enjoying it. But when we lose it without knowing how, the loss irks us; and sometimes the effort we make to recover the lost article is out of all proportion to the value of the thing itself.

So, too, when, as spiritual beings, we are conscious that our mind or soul has lost some attribute which it once had, there is in all true men and women the instinctive desire to regain what has been lost. Silver in the Word represents truth or beliefs. Belief in a good and wise God, in heaven and life there after death is very real to us when we are taught it in childhood. But as we grow older, doubts come into the mind. One says, "I wish I could believe, but I cannot." There is still some remainder of desire left, even if the reason seems to deny. There is the feeling that something has been lost.

We speak of money and material wealth as treasure. But there are other treasures more valuable. If there were not, God would be unjust, for many can never attain material riches. There are treasures of the mind and soul which anyone may possess who really desires them. These are the true wealth and they cannot be bestowed or taken away like the shifting fortunes of the world.

In this light we should all from time to time ask ourselves, "Have I lost anything of value that I once possessed? Have I lost that condition of implicit faith and trustful confidence in my Heavenly Father which I once had?" This confidence in the wisdom and love that is always guarding us was no less real because we were too young to express it; it was a state of faith the quality of which was unknown to ourselves and at the time unappreciated—the confident trust of childhood. We say that we have "grown out of it." No, we have not. We have mislaid it, lost it for a time. But the Lord wishes that we find it again. He says: “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). We lose truth only when we do not practice it. The loss of any good principle or any truth from our practical daily life lessens our happiness and the happiness of the world. We cannot afford to lose any heavenly principle from our minds and lives, for such a loss is a start on the downward path. And this is especially true of the principle of implicit belief and trust in the Lord.

The ten pieces of silver represent all the truths necessary for our spiritual life and development. One of these truths is the truth that all knowledge of God and of spiritual things is from revelation, and not from any ability in ourselves to discover it. When we look out upon the world and see the foolish things that men do from trust in themselves—the rivalries and discord—we ought to have little confidence in our own wisdom. Yet some regard those days of simple trust when there was faith and reverence as foolishness, and these days, these clever days when we know that the things of this world are the only things worth striving for, when we care for nothing except ourselves, they regard as days of wisdoms.

Today the souls of men possess many treasures, but this cue seems to a great extent to be lost. We have learning, education, reason, and many delights. We may have all the treasures but this one which is represented in the parable by the piece of silver which was lost — a full, perfect belief and trust familiar to early childhood and fortunately still enjoyed by some adults also.

The lost coin is still in the house. God, in His infinite wisdom, has so ordered it that nothing which we have once attained is ever completely destroyed. The state of childhood trust remains somewhere within us. We have lost sight of it, but it has not gone. It is still lying hidden in the soul, It is still in the house. And it is the Divine purpose that we attain that state again in a fuller degree. So the Lord commands, "Seek, and ye shall find."

And our parable tells us just what to do to find it. First light a candle and sweep the house. The house is our mind or soul in which are all our treasures. Our mind is a dwelling place in which we manage to store many things, and also to lose many things. The candle that lights our search is truth from the Lord. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet" (Psalm 119:105). From Him proceeds all truth. He is the light of the world. Everyone who receives and understands anything of the truth is lighting a candle, and by its light he is able to guide himself from youth through manhood and old age. The little child in the Sunday School learning the first lessons of the Lord's commandments and precepts is lighting a candle sufficient to illuminate his little mental home. The wisest scholar in the universe in learning the deeper truths of the Word is but lighting a candle obtained from Him who is the light of the world.

But our instruction goes further. Every one of us when he learns the truth lights a candle. But the question is, For what purpose are we lighting it? Is it to sweep the house and find what we have lost, or merely to show how clever we are and how superior to others? Are we learning the truth, as we should, in order that by its light we may purify our own souls and be better instruments cf the Lord in helping others? No lesson is really of use to us if it does not help us to advance further in regeneration.

The lesson of the parable to each one of us is simply this: when once we have been thoroughly convinced of any truth, let us immediately make use of that knowledge to get rid of whatever is foolish, false, or wrong in our own hearts and minds. If we do this, we shall regain the lost treasure. We shall regain the state we once had and have lost.

That condition of trustful confidence in the Lord to which we have alluded was never really lost. It was submerged by the things of the world, buried beneath the dust of worldliness, folly, and pride. When the mind has been cleared of our wrong ideas and ambitions, we shall find the lost piece of silver, the true faith which seemed lost. And when we find it, we shall have new delight, as is represented in the parable by the woman's calling together her friends and neighbors and saying, "Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."

In the parable it is a woman who is said to seek the lost piece of silver. This is because a woman represents the affections, and it is in the affections, in the will, that there is the initiative. If we do seek to regain the treasure which was lost, it is our will or affection that impels us to find it. Intellectual powers can gain for us many things, but they cannot regain for us the lost treasure. We must have the will to attain regeneration, rebirth. If either in this world or in the next we reach again the state of trustful confident happiness which we had in childhood, it will be because we have exercised our will, our love or affection as our Heavenly Father has recommended in this simple parable. "What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?"