The Precursor
February 2002
The Newsletter of the Cincinnati Society
of the General Church of the New Jerusalem
Excuses
PEOPLE -- MANY PEOPLE -- feel uncomfortable about taking the blame, taking the responsibility, for their mistakes and failures. Some people are worse than others in this regard, but surely all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, will sometimes seek to escape disfavor in the eyes of others by making sure they realize that the mistake we made was not really our own fault. We have an excuse -- a reason why the blame for our failure must not be placed solely upon our own shoulders.
The driver may have gone through a red light, but it was not really his fault, because he had been distracted by something. The child may have knocked over and broken a precious vase, but it was not his fault -- he hadn't seen it was there while he was swinging a baseball bat around in the living-room. The husband may have been excessively short tempered with his wife (or vice versa), but his irritableness is not really his fault -- and each one of us can think of many external factors, beyond our control, for which we can blame our bad moods.
Some of the excuses people make are, of course, genuine, and it would not be charitable to dismiss outright the excuses of others, refusing to listen to them, seeking only to blame them and to find fault with them. We should try to see the good in others. We should try to excuse and overlook their faults as far as is reasonable and useful. We should, however, be careful when it comes to applying the same principle to ourselves. All too often, those same people who are unwilling to excuse the faults of others, are exceedingly creative when it comes to defending their own failures.
To make excuses for our own failures can be a dangerous thing. Especially is this the case when it comes to those excuses we make, not just to others, but to ourselves as well. To make excuses to others can imply something of cowardice; it may perhaps also involve something of deceit; if we thereby seek to blame others for our mistakes, it can even express a spirit of malice. To make excuses to ourselves though, can involve something even more serious: it can be a way of avoiding completely the need for change.
It is one thing to love what is evil; it is quite another to seek to remain in this evil. The whole of the Lord's Word offers hope, wonderful hope, to those who love evil, but who desire to change. If, though, a person loves evil, and does not wish to change, then, as long as such an obstinate state prevails, there is no hope for him.
Such is the danger of making excuses to ourselves, excuses by which we seek to confirm ourselves in those evils which we love. It is so easy, within our own minds, to deny either the need, or the possibility, for change; yet without change there is no hope.
We need to remind ourselves of, and we must never forget, two things. First of all, change (or repentance) is necessary. Second, such change is possible.
Change, in this world, is always possible. It may be that, in our darker moments, the very reason we try so hard to overlook our sins is because we fear that we are too weak to change our ways. We may convince ourselves that the reason we do what is wrong is because we cannot help it.
To think in this way, though, is, as it were, to place ourselves in hell before we get there. At the very end of the chapter on Repentance in True Christian Religion, there is a Memorable Relation in which, there is described, amongst other things, a discussion with three devils (TCR 570). These devils were asked why they insisted on infesting those in good. "We could not help it," they said. For these devils this was not so much an excuse as a description of their state -- a state they had freely chosen while in this world. They had chosen to give themselves up to the rule of evil delights. As a consequence, these delights, after death, would lead them to attempt all manner of evil against those in good. They could not help it because they did not want to help it. They had chosen, in this world, to become slaves to evil passions, and this was now their eternal lot -- a lot freely chosen, freely desired, but one in which they were nothing more than vile slaves to the prompting of their evil desires.
It is a sad description of a sad and wretched state. It also serves, though, by way of contrast, as a reminder of something happy, something which should lift our hearts: we are not devils; we are not in hell; we can help our evil actions.
Repentance, and the process of change which it initiates, is not easy, at least to begin with. When it comes to seeing, and fighting, and so facing up to our deepest failings, our hearts can feel heavy, and our spirits can feel weak (cf. TCR 567:7). But the task is by no means impossible. We, unlike the devils, can help what we do. To say that we cannot help what we do and think and desire is a fallacy, a lie, and, indeed, a blasphemous excuse. We can change, for the Lord Himself gives us the power to do so. Who are we to deny His power? Indeed, all we need to do is overcome the initial inertia, and we find the task is by no means as daunting as it might at first seem from afar.
Unlike the devils of hell, we can help what we do. We cannot become perfect overnight. Neither is the process of repentance always easy. At times the fight can indeed be hard. But still, with the Lord's help, we can change. If we do our part, then the Lord can lead us, day by day, and year by year, away from what is weak, what is false, and what is selfish and malicious, and bring us closer and closer to the gates of heaven itself.
A primary mission of the church is to serve in this process -- to be a means by which the Lord leads us away from what is evil and false, towards what is good and true. Indeed, the church is founded upon the belief and sure knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He has called us, and continues to call us, to become angels in His heavenly kingdom.
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UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, all events are at the church building. If you are scheduled for a specific job and are unable to be there, please could you find a substitute, and, if possible, notify the pastor in advance. Thank you.
Sun. Feb. 3 Lay service. 11:00am. Meeting room. Lay Leader: Don Latta.
Sat. Feb. 9 General Doctrinal Class. 7:30pm. Subject: "Time." Suggested reading: TCR 31 [True Christian Religion].
Sun. Feb. 10 Regular service. 11:00am. Usher: To be decided. Sunday School: To be decided. Sunday School Subject: To be decided. Flowers: To be decided.
Mon. Feb. 11 Swedenborg Reading Group. 7:30 pm. Books and Co. 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering, Ohio. Contact Jane Blair, (937) 859-4466, or the bookstore, at (937) 298-6540.
Tues. Feb. 12 Reading Discussion Group. 7:30pm. 1 Tim. 2ff. Bring along a Bible.
Sat. Feb. 16 Homeopathic Study Group. 10:00am. Meeting room. Privately sponsored event. All welcome.
Sun. Feb. 17 Lay service. 11:00am. Meeting room. Lay Leader: To be decided.
Sat. Feb. 23 General Doctrinal Class. 7:30pm. Subject: "Touched by God." Suggested reading: DLW 55-60 [Divine Love and Wisdom].
Sun. Feb. 24 Regular service. 11:00am. Usher: To be decided. Sunday School: To be decided. Sunday School Subject: To be decided. Flowers: To be decided.
Mon. Feb. 25 Swedenborg Reading Group. 7:30 pm. Books and Co. 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering, Ohio. Contact Jane Blair, (937) 859-4466, or the bookstore, at (937) 298-6540.
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Thank You
Our thanks to the Society for your generous gift of the Christmas offering. We deeply appreciate your support in so many ways.
Patrick and Dinah.
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Yetta Agronin
Yetta Agronin, mother of Shirley Reischman, passed away Tuesday, January 1, 2002. Shirley and James traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, where she was buried next to her husband. There will be a memorial service at the Cedar Village Retirement Home in Mason, OH at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, February 3rd, 2002. No flowers, please. Contributions may be made to Cedar Village or a charity of one's choice.
We extend our condolences to Shirley and James.
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Our Condolences
We extend to Tamar Clifford and to the rest of her family our sympathy and love on the passing of her grandmother, Lynn Birchman, to the other world, on the morning of January 16, 2002.
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