Innocence & Wisdom

Preached on 05-13-01

INNOCENCE & WISDOM IN JERUSALEM

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.'" (Zech. 8:4-5)

THE PROPHET ZECHARIAH LIVED and taught at the end of the Babylonian captivity, at the time when the Jews were returning to their homeland. It had been more than a hundred years since the army of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had captured Jerusalem. After this initial conquest, Jewish kings had continued to rule with the permission of Nebuchadnezzar, but these kings proved rebellious, and finally the last of them was removed. This last king, King Zedekiah, was first made to witness the execution of his sons, and then they put out his eyes. They carried him off to Babylon bound in fetters of bronze (2 Ki. 25:7). Then the temple, and all the other buildings in Jerusalem, were burned, and the walls of the city were broken down. All able-bodied and skilled people were taken captive to Babylon.

Jerusalem was thus in ruins, populated only by the unskilled and the poor of the Jews, together with other peoples the Babylonians then moved into the land. Meanwhile, the Jews in Babylon were made to live in servitude along the banks of the river Chebar. It was a miserable life.

Eventually, however, their descendants were allowed to return to Jerusalem. After the Medes and Persians had conquered the Babylonians, Cyrus became the ruler. His policy was to try to gain the loyalty of his subjects, and therefore he granted them religious freedom. Since the Jewish religion only allowed them to sacrifice to the Lord in Jerusalem, they were allowed, under this new policy, to return home.

It was hardly a joyful homecoming. Indeed, not all the Jews in Babylon even bothered to return. The land they had loved was in ruins. Those Jews who had been left behind had intermarried with other peoples, and had established their center of worship toward the north in Samaria. These Samaritans, as they became known, were bitterly hated, for they were regarded as traitors by the returning Jews.

A long and difficult task of rebuilding lay ahead for those who returned. It was only at the insistence and the urging of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai that the temple itself was finally rebuilt.

The book of Zechariah addresses, in part, this state of despair felt by the Jews as they returned to live once more in their homeland. Our text, specifically, tries to inspire the Jews with a vision of what Jerusalem might once more become. It speaks of a day when once more children would be playing in the streets, and when old men and women would be living there. It presents a picture of peace, a picture of a time when once more it would be safe for children to play in the streets, and when people, instead of being killed or dying of oppression, would actually survive into old age.

With this and other visions of peace and hope, Zechariah encouraged the people to return to Jerusalem if they had not yet done so, and to begin the task of rebuilding the temple and the city.

THE TASK WHICH THE JEWS faced is similar to the work which lies before us. We also must do our part in building a temple and a city. The temple at Jerusalem represented the worship of the Lord, and we must do our part in helping to establish the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. As for the city, the city which we must help build is the holy city, the New Jerusalem. What is more, we also must do this work at the end of a long period of captivity, a spiritual captivity, which still enslaves many people in the Christian world.

Babylon, in the Word, represents the love of self and the love of dominating over others, and of being admired and worshiped by them. It was at Babel -- which represents the same as Babylon -- that men wanted to make a name for themselves, and so built a tower which was to reach up to heaven. It was Darius the Mede who, after taking over the throne of Babylon, decreed that he should be treated as a God. And it was the king of Babylon whom Isaiah calls Lucifer, Lucifer who aspired to ascend into heaven to be like the Most High, and yet fell. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground" (Isa. 14:12).

This is the way it is when a pereson loves himself above others. He thinks of himself in everything. He looks out for himself alone, and does not mind causing others to suffer for his own sake. If externally he appears good, it is only so that he might be respected and admired by others.

Life, for such a person, has one simple purpose: himself! And what a miserable life! For one thing, love of self is never satisfied. Once a selfish person attains one thing, he wants another. If unchecked, he would in the end seek to have his way over all the earth, and indeed, over the whole universe. He always aspires to greater heights, for a selfish man thinks of himself as the center of the universe. Such a love always brings misery, because it involves a dismal ignorance. What could be more ignorant, insane and foolish than to think of oneself as more important than other people. And what could be more short-sighted than to think of the purpose of life as self-satisfaction.

A person in the love of self does not really believe in God or in a life after death. He may think that he believes, but his belief is not sincere. He lives for himself and for this world alone, and he looks only to his own prosperity and honor in the world. He ignores the fact that one day he will die, that one day all he has strived for will be useless. Yet at the same time, because he knows that he will die, he strives with unceasing restlessness to get what he wants while he still can. Life for him is a deadly serious thing. There is no real joy, no real delight. He is a slave to Babylon, just as surely were the Jews after they had been carried away into captivity.

Think again of that picture of peace, prosperity and safety -- of children playing and old people dwelling in the streets of Jerusalem -- something that the Jews never knew during their long years of captivity in Babylon.

It is noteworthy that the person captivated by love for himself doesn't want to know about children playing -- unless they are his own children -- and he certainly doesn't want to know about old age.

Childhood is alien to him. Anything of the playfulness he knew as a child is long since destroyed. Life for him is in deadly earnest. He can't play when he must forever work for his own betterment. And if he does play, he doesn't really relax. If he has children of his own, he tries to raise them to his own perverted viewpoint. His children must succeed. They must succeed in every worldly sense. He will push them and bully them along the paths he thinks will bring them worldly success, and he is too impatient to allow them the innocence and playfulness with which children are blessed.

As for old age, the really selfish person cannot bear to think of it. He can never grow old gracefully. Old age is followed by death, and death signals the end of all his ambitions.

To despise both childhood and old age are, thus, symptoms of an evil and twisted mind. Sadly, these symptoms are all too obvious in the world around us. We can see people getting on in years trying desperately to deny this fact before themselves and others. We can see older people trying artificially to adopt youthful mannerisms, dress and customs. Perhaps the saddest effect of such an attitude is the way in which older men will sometimes divorce their wives in order to court the attentions of younger women. They seem completely oblivious to the fact that older women can have an inner beauty that younger women can only dream of. Old age is often rejected by younger people too. Some younger people wish to have nothing to do with those in old age. They don't seem to want to listen to them, talk to them, help them, or even know them.

At the same time, there is a tendency to reject childhood. Little children are often forced to grow up prematurely in many ways. Their innocence is destroyed by the things they see and hear, and all too soon little children, as teenagers, learn the mean ways of the world. Here is one of the most crucial roles to be played by a mother: to protect her children from what will harm their souls, to nurture them, so that when they do go forth on their own, they go forth with minds and spirits that are healthy and strong.

Now all these trends in society are symptoms. They are symptoms of the deeper effects of the love of self. On a deeper level, the love of self is utterly opposed to those spiritual virtues which are represented by childhood and old age -- the spiritual virtues of innocence and wisdom.

Innocence is, of course, a quality portrayed by children, and especially by little children. As children are relatively ignorant, innocence is often equated with ignorance or inexperience. But innocence is deeper than this. Innocence is something dwelling within this ignorance. Because a child knows comparatively very little, he cannot enter fully into what is evil. To be in evil is to knowingly and with full responsibility do what is harmful and wrong. A young child is not yet capable of committing evil in this way. He may be bad, but not evil. In such a state he is immune to the full forces of the hells, and therefore angels can be present with him in a special way. It is the sphere of these angels which make a child especially responsive to the teaching and leading of his parents. He usually believes what he is told, and though he may sometimes be obstinate, he will follow, in general, the guidance and example of his father and mother. A little child is thus willing to learn and to be led. This is what innocence really is. It is a willingness to be led. Especially is it a willingness to be led by the Lord. Such innocence is present in a special way with little children, who enthusiastically and with eagerness learn the stories and teachings of the Word.

Wisdom, on the other hand, is especially portrayed in old men and women. Wisdom is, of course, associated with the intellect, and many people would say that a man who knows a lot is therefore wise. Older people, having lived a long time, have had the opportunity to learn many things, and they therefore can display this type of wisdom -- the wisdom of experience. But wisdom is more than a matter of knowledge. Wisdom is not so much the opposite of ignorance as it is the opposite of foolishness. A man who knows many things may still be foolish. If he does not live according to what he knows, he is not wise, but a fool. To be truly wise, a man must not only know a lot of things, things about both this world and about religion, but he must also live what he knows.

This is, or can be, the blessing of old age. If a person has tried and struggled during his life to live the truths he knows, then gradually these truths are written in his every action. His life is in harmony with his religion, and he is then gifted by the Lord with a deep perception of what is good and what is not good. Light from heaven shines into his mind, adding a special insight to all the things he knows. And it is because of this that the wise man and the wise woman, unlike others, have the insight, the perception and the conviction that what they know is as nothing. Those were are wise know that they are ignorant of many things. It is because of this that they turn in humility to the Word, to learn with an open mind. Doing this, they can then be gifted with a multitude of truths.

Now it is obvious that somebody who is in captivity to Babylon, a person who is enslaved by self-love and conceit, can never experience innocence and wisdom. He is not willing to be led by the Lord in innocence. As for wisdom, and the humility which wisdom brings, a selfish man is one of the most foolish and, at the same time, arrogant creatures alive. He is totally opposed to both innocence and wisdom.

Yet these two spiritual virtues, innocence and wisdom, are absolute essentials of the New Church. In fact, the promise that one day children would play in the streets, and that old men and women would dwell there, was not really a promise for the city of Jerusalem at all. It is a promise for the New Jerusalem. This is obvious from the fact that immediately preceding our text it is said: "Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth" (Zech. 8:3). The New Church is such a city. It is a city consisting, not of stone and mortar, but of truth. And the streets of this city do not lead from house to house, but from one good to another. The streets of the New Jerusalem are teachings, teachings given by the Lord to direct our paths through life.

It is in these streets, these teachings, that there are boys and girls playing, and in which old people dwell with their staffs or walking sticks. These streets are full of innocence and wisdom, for the teachings of the New Church are followed only by those in innocence, and these teachings lead all who follow them into wisdom. As children we were willing to be led by our parents. It is only if we retain this willingness to be led that we can follow the teachings of the New Church. Only those willing to be led by the Lord will obey the precepts of the Writings. Such people are not enslaved by Babylon. They don't slavishly seek their own interests in everything. Instead, their joy is to follow the Lord and to obey Him. And this is a joy. Even though they may undergo temptations and trials, still, deep within is a joy and cheerfulness which comes only to those who walk the Lord's path. This is the joy pictured by children playing in the streets of the city.

It is those in such innocence that the Lord leads into wisdom. As they progress through their lives, they come more and more into the light of heaven, as their lives become more and more an image of heaven itself. From innocence, and by means of innocence, they are led through the truth, until in old age they are blessed fully with wisdom from the Lord. In this wisdom is the humility which comes from knowing how little they really know. And so they are content to place their trust fully in the truth of the Lord's Word. They rest content upon His truth, just as the old men and old women in Jerusalem carried staffs in their hands for support, staffs which represented the power of Divine truth.

Such are the streets of the New Jerusalem. Such are the teachings we have been given by the Lord. In these teachings we can come to forget the overpowering oppression of Babylon. We can forget ourselves, and follow the Lord for the rest of our worldly lives, until we come at length into the golden contentment and wisdom of old age. And then, finally, when life on earth is done, we can grow younger, wiser and more innocent to all eternity.

Amen.