THE AFFIRMATIVE APPROACH
A Sermon by Rev. Geoffrey H. Howard
"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope...The Lord is
my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him... It
is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:21, 24, 26).
The authorship of the book of Lamentations is commonly
assigned to Jeremiah the Prophet. The book bears the title
"Lamentations" because in it the Prophet is lamenting the
fearful tragedy that had befallen his people. It was composed
at the time of the Babylonian invasion, when the mighty armies
of Nebuchadnezzar laid waste to the city of Jerusalem, leaving
it totally desolate. In this inspired prophecy Jeremiah
lamented over the wayward course of his people. Truly this was
a sorry time to live. The sins of his people had weakened
their moral fibre and they stood an easy prey in the face of
the Babylonian onslaught.
The book also registers some of the reflections of the
prophet himself, some of the issues he faced as a prophet. He
looked back upon the long life of suffering which he had been
called upon to endure, the scorn and the derision which his
people had sometimes leveled against him. He felt dejected, as
one drunken with wormwood. Although he lamented over some of
his personal tragedies, yet he refused to allow the spirit of
darkness and despair to prevail over him.
Within his words we also find a message of hope for the
weary, of encouragement for the heavy-laden. He furnished us
with a powerful example of a trust that could not be shaken.
He manifested a trust in the mercy and righteousness of
Jehovah. He expressed it in these words: "The mercies of the
Lord are new every morning. He is good to them that wait for
Him... It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth,
good that he should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord" (Text).
What a powerful example of trust those words manifest. It
could not have been easy for the prophet to sit upon the ruins
of Jerusalem and not succumb to despondency and utter despair.
Yet that was not in his character. Something had happened to
him that caused him to be able to utter words of hope and
encouragement, words which we all need to hear when our hopes
and our expectations suddenly become dashed.
What was it that enabled Jeremiah to dispel any sense of
despondency and gloom as he sat upon the ruins of Jerusalem?
What was it that brought him to this state in which he could
look beyond and foresee a day oF promise?
Throughout the years of his personal suffering the
prophet had come to learn how to trust in the Lord and how to
trust in those eternal values which the Lord promises to
bestow, not in this world but in heaven. That is the kingdom
where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, a kingdom where
thieves may not break through and steal. To discover such
trust is to discover the one pearl of great price for which we
are prepared to sell all else. Once we bring ourselves into a
real state of belief, into a deep and abiding trust in these
promises of the Lord, no earthly tragedy can shake that trust.
That is a state of true faith.
How important it is to realize that this is not simply a
faith that comes through understanding the Lord's teachings.
It is a quality of faith which has entered far more deeply and
has become ingrained in the very will itself. Such faith can
never be established apart from temptation, apart from bearing
our fair share of personal sorrow and tragedy. Our old life,
our old will, which is centered in self and in the values of
this world, must be changed. It can be changed only through
our endurance of many temptations, some of which may sometimes
be accompanied by personal tragedy and personal misfortune. A
spiritual faith in which heavenly values become accepted and
confirmed can begin to dawn only as those former temporal
values become tested and tried. It is within the realm of the
hardships of life that this sure and abiding spiritual trust
is born and nurtured.
What must we do in order to set our thoughts and our
affections in order so that the Lord may implant this living
spiritual faith which is strong and unshakable? Many have
said, how wonderful it would be if only I could believe as the
Word says I should believe. It is important to know that the
implantation of faith of such a quality is possible with each
of us. There are certain things, certain attitudes of mind,
which we need to adopt, which we need to cultivate if the Lord
is to work within and establish such a faith.
The Word of the Lord supplies the answer. The powerful
words of the twenty-third psalm declare something of that
answer. "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want; He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures" (Psalm 23:1). What fear need
the sheep have if the shepherd is present? What fear need we
have if the Lord as our Shepherd is present, as He always is?
Indeed the Lord is constantly present with us. Without His
presence no man could live. He is always there, but do we
always turn our minds in such a way that we are able to enter
into His presence and feel the comfort which that presence
sustains?
There are certain ways of thinking about life that can
have the effect, after a period of time, of allowing us to
feel and perceive that Divine presence. When we feel lonely,
when we feel anxious or concerned, the belief of our mind is
at that time remote from the presence of the Lord. It is not
the Lord who has withdrawn; it is we who have withdrawn
ourselves from the Lord by holding a preponderance of concern
for ourselves and for our own ability to solve our own
problems. When we seek after temporal values or set our heart
on temporal concerns, then we can so easily worry about things
over which we have little or no control. How fruitless that
course is.
How different it is if we relax and for a moment shed our
worries, and say as did the prophet, "The Lord is my portion,
saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him." Whatever the
cause of our worry, concern, or anxiety may be, the anguish
can become lifted through hope in the Lord. Now what is hope?
The Writings tell us that hope is to see the effect of love in
the thought "not in the present but in the future" (DP 178).
Hope is to see the good things that we love fulfilled. That
attitude of the imagination actually makes one with the
operations of the Lord's Providence.
The Word of the Lord can give us nothing but hope. It
promises us rest from all of our labors one day. It promises
a blessed life to those who face the adversities of this life
with a cheerful and enduring spirit. What more powerful words
of hope do we find than those spoken by the Lord Himself?
"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My
sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your
reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets who were
before you" (Matt. 5:11, 12). Those are the Lord's words. If
we truly believe in them, then nothing can assail us internal-
ly, not forever. Let us remember that no one is born with a
spontaneous trust in the promises of the Lord. That trust
becomes built through our learning to handle the anxieties of
life in a certain way, through inwardly confessing within
ourselves that without the Lord's help, we can do nothing. It
is that kind of innocent helplessness, together with a patient
endurance, quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord, that
will see us through, that will gift us with a new attitude
towards life.
The Writings warn us that one of the things which tends
to break our trust in the Lord, and which leads to a sense of
utter despondency, is a negative attitude. The Writings reveal
the source of such attitudes. When we look at life as though
there is no hope, when we regard things around us, or even
about ourselves, as if there were no hope, then at the heart
of that state, it is revealed, there is "doubt in regard to
the Lord's presence and mercy, and also in regard to salva-
tion. The evil spirits who are then with the man and induce
the temptation strongly inspire negation, but the good spirits
and angels from the Lord in every possible way dispel this
state of doubt and keep man in a state of hope, and at last
confirm him in what is affirmative. The result is that a man
who is in temptation hangs between what is negative and what
is affirmative. One who yields in temptation remains in a
state of doubt, and falls into what is negative; but one who
overcomes is indeed in doubt, but still, if he suffers himself
to be cheered by hope, he stands fast in what is affirmative"
(AC 2338).
That teaching reveals the source of all negative states
which seek to banish hope and prevent any trust in the Lord's
Providence from ever developing. It reveals that the source of
these negative states is the evil spirits of hell. When we
feel we are in a negative state, we have been attacked. The
attitude of our mind has been swayed not by the angels who
love the Lord but by those who wish to blot out His name, by
the evil spirits of hell. When we feel that way, we have been
attacked and we should feel indignant about that invasion. Of
course there is a Lord. We all know that. We all profess to
believe in Him. Let us therefore cast off such invasion with
the militancy of the Lord's fighting truth. If we learn to do
that, then gradually and with persistence the whole of life
begins to take upon itself a completely new outlook. Instead
of magnifying the disorders that we see everywhere around us,
instead of brooding on the ills of ourselves or of other
people, we begin to look for what is good, and there is much
that is good that can always be found. It is simply an
attitude of mind, a way of looking at life with an abiding
hope, an abiding confidence and trust that the world and all
things within it, including ourselves, are really subject to
the laws of the Divine government, to the laws of the Divine
Providence.
Let us not live our lives allowing the spirit of gloom
and despondency to prevail. If the Lord really is in charge of
this universe, then we may hope, and within the span of that
hope we may work affirmatively for the establishment of His
reign and the extension of His kingdom, His Church upon this
earth. If we believe in the Word, there is real cause for
hope. Did not the Lord Himself say unto us, to each one of us
personally, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom"? (Luke 12:32). Amen.
Lessons: Lamentations 3:1-3, 13-36; Luke 12:22-40; DP 178:1,
179:1
Preached in Bryn Athyn January 7, 1990
Divine Providence 178 and 179
A knowledge of future events is not granted to man for
the same reason, namely, that he may have the ability to act
from freedom in accordance with reason; for it is known that
any thing that a man loves he wills to possess in effect, and
he leads himself thereto by means of his reason; also that
every thing that a man contemplates in his reason is from a
love for it to come into effect by means of his thought. If,
therefore, he knew the effect or event by Divine prediction
his reason would cease to act, and with it his love; for the
love rests with the reason in the effect, and from the effect
then begins anew. It is reason's essential delight to see from
love the effect in the thought, not after but before the
effect is reached, that is, not in the present but in the
future. This is the source of what is called hope, which
increases and decreases in the reason as man sees or antici-
pates the event. The delight is made complete in the event,
and thereafter fades away with the thought belonging to it.
Thus would it be if the event were foreknown. The mind of
man is continually in these three things, called end, cause,
and effect. If one of these is lacking, the human mind is not
in its life. The affection of the will is the end from which;
the thought of the understanding is the cause by which; and
the action of the body or the speech of the lips, or the
external sensation, is the effect of the end by means of the
thought. That the human mind is not in its life when it is in
the affection of the will alone and nothing follows, or when
it is likewise merely in the effect, must be clear to any one.
Thus the mind has no life from one of these separately, but
from the three conjointly. This life of the mind would be
diminished and pass away if the event were foretold.
As a knowledge of future events takes away the human
itself, which is to act from freedom in accordance with
reason, a knowledge of the future is granted to no one;
nevertheless, every one is permitted to form conclusions about
the future from the reason; and in this the reason with all
that pertains to it is in its proper life. This is why a man
is not permitted to know what his lot will be after death, or
to know about any event until he is in it; for if he knew this
he would cease to think from his interior self how he must act
or live in order to come into it; but he would simply think
from his exterior self that he was coming into it; and such a
state closes the interiors of his mind, in which the two
faculties of his life, liberty and rationality, have their
chief seat. A longing to know things future is innate with
most people; but this longing has its origin in a love of
evil, and is therefore taken away from those who believe in
the Divine providence; and there is given them a trust that
the Lord is directing their lot, and consequently they have no
wish to know beforehand what it will be, lest they should in
some way interfere with the Divine providence. This is taught
by the Lord in a variety of ways in Luke (xii.14-48).
That this is a law of the Divine providence can be shown
by many things in the spiritual world. Most persons when they
enter that world after death wish to know their lot; but they
are told that if they have lived well their lot is in heaven;
if they have lived wickedly it is in hell. But as every one
fears hell, even the evil, they ask what they must do and what
they must believe to gain entrance to heaven; and the answer
is that while they can do and believe as they will, they may
be sure that in hell good is not done or truth believed, but
only in heaven. "If you are able, seek to know what is good
and what is true, and think the truth, and do the good." Thus
in the spiritual world as in the natural world all are left to
act from freedom in accordance with reason; but as they have
acted in this world so do they in that; for every one's life
awaits him, and from this is his lot; for the lot is in
accordance with the life.