Preached on 02-28-99

THE RAINBOW

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." (Gen. 9:16)

RELIGION, IN ITS VERY ESSENCE, is the conjunction of the Lord with human beings. Divine revelation, Divine worship, and a life of obedience to His Divine will, all look to this end -- that the Lord might reach down to us, lift us up in His arms, and bring us close to Himself in heaven, that we might be conjoined to Him in an eternal covenant of love.

This is not only the purpose of religion, but the very purpose of creation itself. All that the Lord has created, all the myriads of things within the universe, have been made so that they might, in one way or another, serve this ultimate purpose of a heaven from the human race. This is why the world is, in its essence, a happy and a beautiful world. And this is why the life that the Lord has given us is a wonderful thing, something most precious and sacred. The world is not cold and mechanical, devoid of purpose. It was created from and is held together by Divine love itself. And life in this world is not to be seen as a hard, arduous and depressing journey, for it has as its purpose conjunction with the Lord Himself. It leads to heaven and to a happiness that is beyond description. There is an "everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" (Gen.9:16). Each one of us, each human being upon the face of this earth, has been created for heaven.

Sometimes, though, we forget this. Sometimes the world around us does not seem beautiful. It can seem at times ugly, cold, and filled with evil and cruelty. And life itself can at times seem to be, not wonderful, beautiful and full of happiness, but tiring, dreary, depressing and meaningless. We can forget why we are here. We can forget that the purpose of life is a happy purpose. Indeed, at times we can get so weighted down with worldly concerns, and so absorbed by thoughts of self, that in our hearts we deny the very beauty of life itself. How, we ask ourselves, can it be said that life is wonderful when there is so much ugliness and evil both around us and, indeed, within us?

Now we cannot ignore or deny the existence of what is evil. To do so would be both naïve and foolish. And yet despite this, despite the existence of evil, the underlying purpose of life remains the same. The Lord has created us to go to heaven. What is more, His love, His love for our salvation, will, if we allow it, triumph over what is dark and evil.

The sign of the Lord's covenant is the rainbow: "The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" (Gen.9:16). A rainbow is a thing of great beauty -- a perfect arc of pure colors stretching across the heavens. And it is wonderful, not just because of its beauty, but because of the fact that this beauty can appear, suddenly, against a background of dark, menacing clouds. It is the perfect symbol of the Lord's covenant, of the way in which His love and salvation can triumph over what is evil and false. Indeed, it is more than a symbol. What is said concerning rainbows in the Writings can actually help us understand more clearly the way in which the Lord can save us from evil and falsity.

It is very important that we understand something of this process, because otherwise religion becomes a puzzling, indeed almost an impossible thing. Religion teaches us that the Lord loves us and wants to save us. It also teaches us that our nature is such that we have within us inclinations to evils of every kind. There is, in fact, far more evil in us than we could ever imagine. As we read in Jeremiah: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9).

If this, though, be the case, how can we ever go to heaven? And if we are indeed created for heaven, why are we born into hereditary evils? And if these evils be so great, how is it possible for us to enter the Lord's Kingdom?

This is not a theoretical question. It goes to the very heart of our deepest hopes and aspirations. We want to go to heaven. We want the Lord to save us from the power of evil. And yet, at the same time, we wonder. We look within ourselves and see that we are weak, very weak indeed. We are not perfect. We do things and think things that we know to be wrong. We wonder whether we will indeed go to heaven. The Lord wants to save us. This we know. But we also know that we must cooperate with the Lord. We must live a life of good. How good, though, must this life be? How much cooperation does the Lord require of us?

Now the Lord does not expect perfection. If He did, nobody would go to heaven. As is said in the 130th Psalm: "If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (Ps. 130:3). Indeed the fact that the beautiful rainbow can appear amongst dark clouds testifies to the covenant -- that the Lord can save us despite our sins. This does not mean, of course, that we can feel free to do evil, trusting in the Lord to save us. This would be to close ourselves off to the Lord and to His light, and without light from the Lord there can be no rainbow, and thus no salvation.

It is the Lord who saves us. It is His Divine light which shines upon the dark clouds of the human mind, producing the regenerate state represented by the rainbow. And this the Lord will accomplish, despite our imperfections, provided only that our minds are not so dark that His light cannot penetrate. Indeed, our part in the process of regeneration is to shun those very evils which produce thick darkness -- a darkness so dense that it shuts out the light of heaven.

Such thick darkness is a devastating consequence of evil. When somebody does evil, and comes to love that evil, he completely closes his mind to the light. He does not want to see that he should change. He does not want to see the truth that what he does is wrong. And so it is by means of falsity, falsity which justifies evil, that evil gains permanent root in the mind.

This was the consequence of the evil which arose in the Most Ancient Church, the church represented in the Word by Adam and Eve. The people of that church -- the people of the Golden Age -- knew no evil at first. Once they turned from the Lord, though, and began to do what was wrong, they began to love this evil, and to justify it within their minds. Their minds were so swamped by falsities that they shut themselves off completely from the light of truth. They refused to see that what they were doing was wrong. They refused to see anything that contradicted their own evil desires.

This was the flood of falsity which completely devastated the Most Ancient Church. But where people still had some desire to follow the Lord, where they were still willing to listen to the Lord and obey His commandments, they could still be saved, despite all their imperfections, and despite all their inherited tendencies towards evil. So it was that Noah survived the flood. He represents those who could be saved by the Lord -- those who would constitute the Ancient Church, that church which would follow and replace the Most Ancient Church.

Those who survived this flood of falsity, and indeed, everybody saved since that time, are, we are told in the Writings, saved by the Lord through the formation of a new will, or conscience, within the understanding, or intellectual part, of the mind (AC 1043:4). And if a person is to be given this new will, then the influence of the native hereditary will has to be tempered, because it is that will which darkens the mind, and closes it against the light flowing in from the Lord.

The process of regeneration depends, then, upon a person being separated, to some degree, from the influence of his native will, so that the cloud within his mind becomes less dark, and he becomes more receptive to light from the Lord. This is why the Lord works unceasingly to separate us from the effects of our own selfish desires.

This separation has its beginnings in infancy and childhood. Here it is especially easy to see the working of the Lord. We are taught that infants are born with tendencies towards evils of every kind. Some find this a very hard teaching to accept. How can this be said of little babies babies who are so innocent, and so very sweet? What we see in little babies, though, is the power of the Lord to temper what is of evil, and to flow in with what is beautiful and angelic. Babies have inherited tendencies towards evil, but this evil is not actual. They themselves have done no actual wrong. The darkening influence of hereditary evil is therefore inactive. Thus the minds of little babies are open to the Lord. He flows into their states of innocence and tempers those evils they have inherited. In the Spiritual Diary it is said that the Lord's influx into their inactive hereditary evils produces beautiful colors in the other world, just as the shining of the sun into the raindrops of a cloud produces a rainbow. His influx into their tendency to the love of self produces a black color; with the love of the world, it is a yellow color; and with the love of earthly things it is a green color (SD 1311).

What is truly amazing is that even the faults of little infants can be beautiful. A little child, on his first birthday, is very proud. He is delighted in the special attention he gets. His mind is focussed upon himself, and upon pleasure. Nevertheless it is delightful to watch him. He does not have active evil. The Lord is flowing into his little innocent and open mind, causing even his imperfections to appear angelic and beautiful. This is why little babies who die are not condemned on account of hereditary tendencies to evil. It is not their fault they inherited them. Rather, because of the marvellous way in which the Lord can temper their evils, babies are taken up immediately to live with and be brought up by the highest angels.

In little infants we can so clearly see the Lord's love at work. We can see His covenant, symbolized by the rainbow. Indeed, it is in infancy that the Lord implants in us those very things which can serve to keep our minds open to the Lord later in life. States of innocence, charity and mercy are planted in us (AC 1050), and these three things later serve, if a person be willing, to dispel the darkness of hereditary evil.

As the child grows, his evils begin to grow ugly. As he begins to consciously act from his native will, he is gradually removed from the sphere of angels. Indeed, if his behaviour is unchecked, the sweet baby becomes a spoiled brat. Finally, in adult life, a person is capable of turning consciously against the Lord. He may give in completely to the influence of his native will, to the influence of evil.

But there still survive remains of earlier states -- states of innocence, charity and mercy. And it is through these, especially, that the Lord can hold a person's mind open to heaven. It is through such states of love that the darkness of the cloud within the mind can be lessened, so that the Lord's light can shine in.

A person's proprial selfish will can cause him many problems. His tendency to love himself above everything else, and his inordinate love of worldly things, can cloud the mind, darken it, and so cut out the light of heaven. But if there is still something of innocence, and by this is meant a willingness to follow the Lord, and if there is something of charity, and by this is meant a desire to live the truth, live by the laws that have to do with charity; and if there is mercy, if the person actually cares about others, then, despite his evils, despite the fact that he is not perfect, he can be led by the Lord from evil, and the Lord can temper those evils which remain.

There will be alternations of state. At times the influence of selfishness increases. The cloud will darken. But there will not be a complete and absolutely devastating flood. When the Lord brings "a cloud over the earth," then "the bow shall be seen in the cloud." If the person looks to the Lord, light can once more shine into the mind, tempering what is of evil, and producing what is heavenly. This can happen, if only the cloud is not one of thick darkness. We must especially beware those things which allow evil and thick darkness, to possess the mind. Just as there are three things especially which open the mind to the Lord, namely, innocence, charity and mercy, so there are three things, especially, which open the mind up to what is evil. These three are the profanation of what is sacred, hatred, and treachery (SD 2347). If a man turns against what is holy, he is no longer in innocence, no longer willing to be led by the Lord. If he allows himself to be overcome by hatred, charity is then banished from his mind. And if he becomes treacherous -- cunningly seeking to bring harm to others -- then mercy is far from his mind. These are the things which especially, flood the mind with evil and falsity, and shut out all light from heaven. Of such things, especially, we should beware.

But if we are willing to follow the Lord, if we try not to harm others, if we care about others besides ourselves, then the Lord can save us. Then, even if we fail at times because of weakness, even if we occasionally lapse into what is wrong, we need not be overly despondent. The Lord can still save us. The Lord has already saved millions upon millions of people just as weak as ourselves. Certainly we should not give up in despair.

We need to remember that it is a beautiful world and a beautiful life. The Lord created us to go to heaven. His love for us knows no bounds. From love He created us, and from love He created the very world in which we live. His love is like the fire of a sun, from which shines forth the most incredibly brilliant light, a light which shines into all but the darkest minds, bathing them with spiritual sunshine.

There will be cloudy times -- times of darkness. Indeed, if the truth be known, the minds of human beings are far darker than they realize. But at the same time, the Lord's light is far brighter than any earthly light. It penetrates the deep obscurities and the darkest shadows of the mind, tempering what is of evil and falsity, producing beautiful states of kindness and love.
The Lord's love and truth can triumph over evil and falsity, and shining into the midst of a cloud, it can produce the incredible beauty of a shining, sparkling, spiritual rainbow.

Amen.

Lessons: Gen. 9:8-17; AR 566:6 {part}; AC 1042:2.

© 1999 by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose