BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY
A Sermon by Rev. Brian W. Keith
"Then God blessed them, and God said to them, `Be fruitful and
multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the
fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every
living thing that moves on the earth'" (Genesis 1:28).
After God made mankind, the first thing He told them to
do was to be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply
how vital that is! Like the first people we all have a tremen-
dous desire to be fruitful, to increase. We are builders by
nature. We want to be useful, productive in our jobs. Married
couples desire children. We all want to have a sense that our
life here has made a difference, that the world is at least a
little bit better off because of us.
Spiritually we also feel this drive to be fruitful and
multiply. Regeneration implies improvement and the development
of spiritual life. We want to build a spiritual home in
heaven. We want to be fruitful and multiply.
And what happens to us when we feel we have not been
productive, when we have not been fruitful and multiplied?
What if we feel that our work has been pointless, that the
labor of our hands has been trivial and of no lasting value?
Can we then invest anything in our jobs? Can we find any
satisfaction in what we are doing regardless of how much we
are paid for it? Or how do we feel when our children do not
seem to care for the things that we do, when they rebel or
just seem to drift aimlessly? Do we not feel as if we have
failed, that all our efforts were in vain? And in our spiritu-
al lives, what if we feel we are not making progress? What if
we feel that we are no more regenerate today than we were five
years ago? Does it not give us a sense of failure, a sense of
hopelessness?
Have we then been fruitful, multiplied? Perhaps that is
the wrong question. Is not the real issue whether or not we
can see the harvest? In other words, should we expect to see
the fruit of our efforts in this world?
In one sense, yes, we should. The Lord said that any tree
that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into
the fire. If our lives produce nothing of value, if they have
not brought about any good, then there has been a self-
centeredness, which is a description of hell. We should expect
to see some fruits from our labors here.
Yet if we expect a significant return in this world, if
we expect to see boundless fruit and success for most of our
endeavors here, we are going to be extremely disappointed, for
each of us has started much that will never be finished here.
Think of all the hobbies we have begun and let fall by the
wayside. Think of the piano lessons we had as a child. Think
of the sports that we used to be involved in. Think of all the
projects we envisioned around our home. How many of these have
produced fruit? Of course, each one of those had a value in
its own right. But it would be very easy to describe the
course of our natural lives as a limiting of possibilities, a
narrowing down of activities and interests. The appearance may
be that we are very confined in what we do, in what we are
producing.
The Writings of the New Church give a perspective that is
designed to bring us comfort and to spur us on. They declare
that most of our fruitfulness and multiplication will not
happen in this world but in the next. They note this multipli-
cation of good "does not happen during a person's lifetime,
but in the next life this does so to an astonishing extent"
(AC 43). There it is "unbelievably increased" (AC 1941). In
Isaiah the Lord says, "And I have put My words in your mouth;
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may
plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say
to Zion, you are My peace" (Isaiah 51:6).
The Lord lays the foundations on this earth that He may
plant the heavens. Everything that occurs in this world is
directed toward that end. Mankind was created not to enjoy a
happy life on this earth, not to erect great civilizations,
but to populate the heavens. The purpose of creation looks to
heaven, not to this world, except as a means that the primary
goal might be achieved. Because of this there is minimal
harvest to be reaped in this world compared to what will be
harvested in heaven.
Another reason for the small amount of spiritual harvest
in this world is the nature of this world to focus our
attention on fairly natural and external things. We have to
spend a tremendous amount of time providing for ourselves and
our homes. Even in our families how much time is given to
taking care of the physical needs of our children as opposed
to their spiritual needs? The focus tends to be on taking care
of business. Also, there are many worries or troubles that
beset us here, demanding our attention. The grass needs to be
cut. Cars break down. Our parents or friends need to be cared
for. These and numerous other factors lead us to concentrate
on what is occurring in the here and now. For this reason we
do not notice much of what is taking place in our spirit.
This can lead to discouragement thinking we are not being
fruitful. But to accept such discouragement is to belittle all
that the Lord is accomplishing. For every day, each moment of
the day, the Lord is planting seeds in our lives which will
bear fruit. The purpose of this world is not to complete all
things but to begin all things.
The Writings say, ". . . when a person enters the next
world, the seed is set free from natural things and starts to
grow, just like the seed of a tree, which when it comes out of
the ground, grows into a small tree, then into a large tree,
and is after that multiplied into a garden of trees, for all
knowledge's and wisdom and the forms of delight that go with
them are in a similar way made fruitful and multiplied, and
are thereby forever increased" (AC 1941). For "everything that
has life in it from the Lord is fruitful and multiplies
without limit" (AC 43). Whatever is good, what we have from
the Lord, has eternal value. It cannot be lost or become
unimportant. The seeds planted here will grow in the next
life.
Examples abound. In the New Church we speak of remains
knowledge's of truth and feelings of good that a person has
received from earliest infancy. All these are stored up in a
person's life, without one ever being lost, and thereafter
provide a means by which the Lord can reach down, touching us,
leading us. These remains enable us to take delight in learn-
ing what is true and to recognize what is good in adult life.
When we are in a self-centered, hellish state, it is through
remains that the Lord can be near to us and gradually lead us
through them. These remains are like seeds that were planted
at a very tender age and often have lain dormant very many
years before being activated by the Lord. They are stored up
within and protected that they may be there when needed.
Other seeds are implanted in our adult lives. Every time
we read the Word, seeds of truth are being planted in our
minds. Although we may only be aware of the literal stories,
our spiritual mind is seeded with deeper truths. This happens
unknown to us, but those seeds are harvested in the spiritual
world (see AC 4280:2).
The parable of the mustard seed shows another facet of
this. The Lord likened the kingdom of heaven to the smallest
seed there is, which when planted becomes a huge tree able to
provide shade and a resting place for birds. There are many
things that to us appear to be inconsequential or very, very
small. Our striving to be good is at times like the mustard
seed it seems so puny and ineffective that nothing much could
come from it. But we are taught that "if only a little spir-
itual good takes root with a person, it grows like a seed in
the ground" (AC 1100:8). Also, "If a person by means of combat
against evils and sins has acquired anything spiritual in the
world, be it ever so small, he is saved, and afterwards his
uses grow like a grain of mustard seed into a tree" (D. Love
XVIIe).
How much is necessary that we might be fruitful and
multiply in heaven? In one sense not very much at all. We
simply need those very small seeds planted in our lives. The
more that are planted here the more that will grow to fruition
in the next world; for nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever
lost. Many of the things that we have started here may take a
long time to develop, but they remain with us and are seeds
that will bear fruit forever.
So what does this mean? For one thing it means that we
should be careful how we evaluate our worth, our spiritual
state. Yes, we should see some harvest, some good fruit, in
this world. But we should also recognize that most of the good
with us is like a seed, the very small mustard seeds that are
planted and are dormant. They are there merely awaiting a
springtime in the spiritual world.
We should also look at our lives and all that we do here
not as an end in itself but as a process of planting seeds
that can then multiply. The Lord quoted an old saying that,
"One sows and another reaps" (John 4:37). Often our role is to
sow the seeds that will be reaped in the next world. In a real
sense that's what we are doing with the raising of our chil-
dren. We are not controlling their destiny. We are not forcing
them to be this or that. We are planting seeds in their lives
that will bear fruit throughout their adult lives and in the
other world forever. So it is with every truth we learn and
every good intention or action we have. They are seeds in our
lives that will bear fruit forever. The spiritual things we
have, and those we give to others, are eternal seeds. Regard-
less of appearances, not the least seed is ever lost or point-
less.
So while we at time may be discouraged by an apparent
lack of success or harvest, we should recognize that our
desire to be fruitful and multiply can be temporarily frus-
trated or lie dormant, but where there is good it cannot be
stopped. The Lord assures us that everything good multiplies
forever. Nothing good is ever pointless or lost. Every little
seed, even though it appears to be the smallest, planted in
our life or the lives of those around us, will lead to reaping
good fruit that multiplies forever. This is the promise of the
Lord. This is the assurance that will be fruitful and multi-
ply. Amen.
Lessons: Genesis 1:24-31; Matthew 13:31,32; AC 1941
Preached in Glenview, Illinois February 12, 1989
Arcana Coelestia 1941
And it shall not be numbered for multitude [Gen. 1:10].
That this signifies multiplication beyond measure is evident
without explication. By these words is signified the truth
that, from good, will thus grow multitudinously. In the case
of the Lord who in the internal sense is here treated of
these things cannot be fully expressed in words, because in
Him all things are Divine and Infinite, and therefore in order
that we may form some idea of how the case is with the multi-
plication of truth from good, we must speak concerning man.
With a man who is in good, that is, in love and charity, the
seed that comes from the Lord is made fruitful and multiplied
to such an extent that it cannot be numbered for multitude,
not so much while he is living in the body but in the other
life to an incredible degree; for so long as a man is living
in the body the seed is in corporeal ground, and is there in
the midst of jungles and thickets, which are memory-knowledges
and pleasures, and also cares and anxieties; but when these
are put off, which is done when he passes into the other life,
the seed is freed from them and grows, just as the seed of a
tree uprising from the ground grows into a sapling, then into
a great tree, which is afterwards multiplied into a garden of
trees. For all knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, together
with their delights and happiness, are thus made fruitful and
multiplied, and thereby increase to eternity, and this from
the smallest seed, as the Lord teaches respecting the grain of
mustard seed (Matt. 13:31). This may be seen very clearly from
the knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom of the angels, which
while they were men had been to them unutterable.