Preached on 09-24-00

THE THRESHOLD OF HEAVEN

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore through his ear with his awl; and he shall serve him forever." (Exod. 21:5,6)

THOUGH IN THE LITERAL SENSE this law relating to Hebrew servants might seem barbaric, as well as irrelevant to modern life, in its internal sense it deals with a subject of the great spiritual importance. The Hebrew servant represents the kind of person who, after death, dwells only in the threshold of heaven. He is the man who might be described as the least perfect of the angels.

We are told in the Writings that there are different heavens, inhabited by different kinds of angels, some more perfect than others. What is it, though, that determines which of these heavens we will go to?

This is perhaps not the most pressing question on our minds when we think about eternal life. Most of us would consider ourselves blessed indeed simply to enter heaven. Which heaven we actually go to would seem an almost insignificant concern. Indeed, people in the church occasionally say that they would be grateful if they reached only the lowest of the heavens.

Is this good, though? Is it good to be content with the idea of going only to the lowest of the heavens? It might seem that modesty would require such an attitude. After all, it seems almost conceited to think that perhaps we might become celestial angels one day. And, if a person is interested simply in living the best he can, and leaving his final destination in the Lord's hands, then this perhaps is well.

But being content with entering just the lowest heaven might, on the other hand, reflect a spiritual laziness. What if a person is interested in making the least effort necessary to be saved? If someone feels that he can be lazy about living a good life, with the hope that perhaps by being just good enough he will earn a place in heaven, then he is on dangerous ground indeed. He is displaying a dismal ignorance of just what is involved in crossing the threshold of heaven.

The lowest parts of heaven are not, as we might imagine, at the boundary between heaven and hell. Heaven and hell are completely separate. As we read in our second lesson, there is a great gulf between them (Lk. 16:26). Therefore the angels in the ultimate or lowest heaven are in no sense just above the borders of hell. They are not people who would have gone to hell except for being "just good enough" for heaven. There is a complete and total difference between the state of those in heaven, even those in the lowest heaven, and those in hell. As we read in the work Heaven & Hell, "all in hell were, while they were living in the world, in the mere delights of the body and of the flesh from the love of self and of the world; while all that are in the heavens were, while they lived in the world, in the delights of the soul and spirit from love to the Lord and love to the neighbor" (HH 400).

This is not apparent in people while they are living in the world. Hardly ever do we meet somebody we would regard as either completely angelic or completely diabolical. People seem to be partly good and partly evil. Almost everybody at times does what is right, and at other times does what is wrong. Even the best of us make mistakes, and even the worst of us seem to have certain redeeming characteristics. This is why it seems logical to assume that an angel is simply somebody who has done more good than evil, whereas a devil is somebody who has done more evil than good. Furthermore, we might assume that an angel of the lowest heaven is somebody who has done only a little more good than he has done evil.

Such a view, though, overlooks the fact that during the course of a person's life, he develops a ruling love, a love that is either good or evil. A good person, though he may have occasional unintentional lapses, gradually comes more and more into a love of doing what is right. An evil person, though he may on the surface appear at times to be good, nevertheless descends more and more, in his inner mind, into a selfish or worldly love. A person goes to heaven, therefore, not because he has done more good than evil, but because he has learnt to desist from those evils he has committed, and has come to love what is good.

It is important to realize that this is the case with all angels. Even the lowest angels have learnt to shun evil, and have acquired a love of doing what is good. Somebody doesn't just "scrape by" when it comes to getting into heaven. Neither does someone go to hell simply because he wasn't quite good enough for heaven. He goes to heaven if he has acquired a love of doing good. He goes to hell if he has confirmed within himself a love for doing evil. There are no in-between cases -- no borderline cases.

So it is that the angels of the natural heaven, the lowest heaven -- the least perfect of the angels -- are still angels. They, like all the angels, have a desire to do what is good, and abhor the doing of evil. The reason they are only in the threshold of heaven, in the first or lowest heaven, is not because they lack the desire to do good: rather, it is because of the kind of good which they do. The good which is done by a natural angel lacks certain qualities possessed by that of the higher angels.

There are two basic attributes of the natural or lowest angel which must be borne in mind is we are to understand him. First of all, because he is an angel, he obeys the Lord's commandments. Second, as a natural angel, he mostly acts only from obedience. And so, though he is an angel, he is an angel only of the lowest heaven.

It is because he is primarily in the love of being obedient that such an angel is portrayed, in the literal sense of our text, as a Hebrew servant. As a Hebrew, he was part of the Israelitish nation, which represented heaven. As a servant, though, he did not exercise a full part in the life of that nation, but simply did what he was told, with no real thought.

So it is with a natural angel. Such a person, we are taught, is someone who is in the doctrine of truth, but not in a life according to that doctrine. He does nevertheless live a life of good. In other words, he is somebody who learns the truths of doctrine because he has heard that he must know the truth if he is to be saved. He also lives a life of general obedience to the Lord's commandments, because he believes that he must. He does what he does, not from a real love for what is spiritual, not from thoughtful application of the truth, but from a sense of necessity. As we read in the Arcana: "The men of the external church, who were represented by the Hebrew servants, are they who learn truth from no delight, but solely for the reason that it is the truth of the church, by means of which they believe that they can be saved. It is this necessity which enjoins them to learn and to know it" (AC 8977). Having no real affection for truth, they can have no real affection for living this truth, but simply live a generally good life in externals -- in other words, a moral life. As we read in the work Heaven & Hell: "those who live morally, and who believe in a Divine, and who care very little about being taught, are in the outmost or first heaven" (HH 33).

The spiritual progression of such a person during his life in this world is described by the six years of service of the Hebrew servant. With a truly spiritual man, spiritual progression is usually represented by war and combat. From an affection of living the truth he knows, he comes gradually to see and resist deeper and deeper evils within himself. He thus undergoes and conquers in deep temptations, and receives spiritual life in greater and great depth. But the relatively external man cannot be admitted into such temptations, for he would succumb. His temptations are relatively shallow, and are represented by service, rather than by combat.

The spiritual progress he makes is also relatively shallow. This can be seen from the laws which applied to his eventual release from service. The Hebrew servant received no real profit from his service. The law was that he would be released from service in a similar condition to that in which he entered. If he entered service alone, he was released alone. If he entered service with a wife, he was released with his wife. If he was given a wife during his six years of service, and his wife bore him children, his wife and children remained with his master when he left. He gained virtually nothing. And it is similar with the service, or shallow temptation, of someone who learns truth and does good merely from obedience, so that he can be saved.

He has no real love of spiritual good itself, for he is not really aware of what spiritual good essentially is. He has a shallow appreciation of the truth. All that his temptation can accomplish is to strengthen his relatively shallow belief. This belief, this faith, is what is represented by his body. And so we read of the Hebrew servant: "If in his body he shall come in, in his body he shall go out." If the external man has some delight in good, represented by a woman, this delight is only a delight in doing what must be done to be saved. After temptation, his delight in good is still of the same external nature that it was before. And so we read: "If he is master of a woman, then his woman shall go out with him."

We must not think that such a person never appreciates spiritual good. By believing the truth, and by doing what is good, he comes into association with angels of the higher heavens. At times, especially when sickness or misfortunes lull his proprium, he can catch a glimpse of spiritual truth, and experience a love of spiritual good itself. But this is only temporary. Though this deeper vision of spiritual things delights him and sustains him in temptation, once he returns to normal life he returns to the way of living he has learned to love: a fairly natural and worldly life, with only a shallow interest in the truths and goods of the church. He then loses this temporary deeper state, just as the Hebrew servant lost any woman he may have been given during service by his master. "If his master shall give him a woman, and she bear him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall be his master's and he shall go out with his body."

It seemed unfortunate that the Hebrew servant had to leave his wife and children. Even more unfortunate is it that a person who cares only externally for the truth and for the life of good, should acquire no permanent deeper appreciation for what is spiritual.

For this very reason, provision was made for the Hebrew servant to remain with his family. If he loved his wife and children, it is said that the servant could be brought to a door or doorpost by his master, and have his ear bored through with his awl. Thereafter he would remain in service forever.

So too, there is, for someone who merely obeys the truth a provision for him to enter heaven. Because he believes the truth, even though he does so only in a shallow way, and because he does what is good, even though only from obedience . . . because he does these things, he is saved. Nobody who believes the truth and lives a good life will go to hell. Only those go to hell who reject and despise the truth within themselves, and who nurture selfishness and evil within their hearts.

Someone in simple obedience will go to heaven. In the lowest heaven, in the threshold, he is associated by influx with angels from the higher or interior heavens. Though not in the same kind of good as they are, still, from the influx of their good, he experiences delight. This communication with the higher heavens is represented by the door to which the Hebrew servant was taken. As for the ear, it represents obedience, and it is in obedience, in doing what he is taught, that an external man takes delight, even though he does not fully appreciate the reasons for what he is doing. It is, then, through obedience that such a person is joined to the doing of good. And so it was through his ear that the servant was attached to the door or doorpost by the awl. The awl was a symbol of the service he performs through obedience.

In the threshold of heaven such a person serves the Lord to eternity, as the Hebrew servant was henceforth to serve his master forever. Such an angel is happy, for he delights in, and indeed has chosen, to serve the Lord in this way. His usefulness and his joy are limited compared to the angels of the higher heavens. But in his own way he is happy. The Lord has been merciful to him.

What then of us? What is the import of such teachings in our own lives? First of all, it is apparent that if we are going to go to heaven, then we must at the very least learn the truth and do what is right. Even the lowest angels do this, if only as a duty. On the other hand, if the doing of good and the learning of truth appear more a duty than something delightful, we need not despair. Even if we do these things, as New Church people, only from a sense of duty, we will not go to hell, for we can then be raised into the first heaven.

At the same time, we should realize that we can, as it were, aim higher, and can do so without a sense of pride. We can make an extra effort to learn the truth and to reflect upon it, and to strive to make this truth a part of our lives. We can remain humbly aware of the fact that if we so desire, we may be given a deeper love for spiritual things as time progresses. If we so desire, we may be led by the Lord into the more interior heavens. He wants us to go to the highest heaven which we will allow ourselves to enter. It is not a question of pride. The degrees of the heavens are not degrees of rank or degrees through which we are promoted. They are degrees of humility, and degrees of service. The higher angels are more keenly aware of the fact that without the Lord's help they would be in miserable evils. The higher angels are in greater humility, and therefore can be of greater use. From this comes their greater happiness and greater sense of freedom.

We should therefore strive to do our very best in spiritual things, not simply for our own sakes, but for the sake of those we will then be able to serve better. The higher the heaven to which we go, the greater use we can be. We cannot, while on earth, know the degree we may have reached within our spirits. It is questionable whether we can know with certainty even that we are on the road to heaven, let alone which heaven we are going to. But this we can know: that it is important to do our very best to follow the Lord, in order that we might be of the greatest possible service in the life to come.

If we live a life of good, and if we learn from the Word, then the Lord will most certainly bring us into heaven. But if we do more, if we truly strive to learn and to apply to our lives, the truths of His Word, then the Lord can lead us even higher into His kingdom. He can give us deeper uses to perform. He can lead us closer to Himself.

Amen.

Lessons: Exod. 21:1-6; Lk. 16:19-31; HH 33

© 2000 by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose