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Cleansed by Blood?

New Church, New York

Feb. 6

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2011 Genesis 9:3-6

Matthew 5:21-24

Arcana Clestia 1001 [2-3]

The last hymn1may have struck you as rather un-Swedenborgian. Or anyway, Ihope it did.

The truth is, I was impelled by its appearance in James Spillings Swedenborgian

novel Our Society (available onswedenborg .org), where one of the protagonistsfrustratingly tries to explain to a nave Methodist the New Church view of the theologyexpressed.

The scene came back to me after the request I received for today. The Bible has alot of references to blood the blood of the Lord, the blood of the sacrifices, the blood of

martyrs mingled with the sacrifices, the blood crying out from the earth. A recent

speaker reminded us of the occasions when the priests would sprinkle blood over thecongregation. When movie audiences heard Captain Kirk ask, What would God want

with a spaceship?2, I could only think, What would God want with blood offerings?

And with references to the blood of the offerings, there are also warnings against

eating it, not only in the Old Testament, but the New.3

Perhaps a key to all these concepts may be found in the image, repeatedthroughout the writings of the New Church, of Heaven, and the church, and the humanrace as the Greatest Man, wherein all the organs and functions of the body are found by

correspondence. Central, we are told, are the spiritual heart and lungs, as the centers of

love and wisdom. And the loves and affections coming forth from the heart are conveyedto all other regions by the circulation of the blood everywhere and about.

(Indeed, Apocalypse Explained4 has a fascinating section on how the aeration of

blood in the lungs corresponds to the cleansing of impure loves issuing from the will by

means of the understanding; which not only purge[s] the blood of its feculent particlesbut nourish[es] it from the air.)

Therefore, as has been explained in our reading today, blood is said to correspondto charity, which is love of God and love of the neighbor, and is associated with the holy

and sacred in the Mosaic rites. And we can easily connect this with the blood of the

paschal sacrifice, which in scripture turned away death from the house.

1Cowper, The Cleansing Fountain

2Star Trek Whatever. There is the pop culture reference out of the way.

3That is Acts 15:29, for those who thought such prohibitions were only in the ritual law.

4Sections 120-121

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swedenborg.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEiNVonaYa9BVFIB5NlpuRnpClPaAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swedenborg.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEiNVonaYa9BVFIB5NlpuRnpClPaAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swedenborg.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEiNVonaYa9BVFIB5NlpuRnpClPaAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swedenborg.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEiNVonaYa9BVFIB5NlpuRnpClPaAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swedenborg.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEiNVonaYa9BVFIB5NlpuRnpClPaA

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But one might be confused by the many places where blood appears in a negative

connection, with violence, killing, and defilement To follow this, we must bear inmind that correspondences are frequently said to be, according to context, in the

opposite sense. I can not resist referring to a passage where, although horses

commonly are said to correspond to the understanding of truth, those withoutunderstanding of truth appear to be dead horses.5 (This casts a new light on beating a

dead horse.)

This is an explanation of how blood, which elsewhere stands for charity and

holiness, can also signify any kind of sin, and especially hatred; for whosoever bears

hatred toward his brother, kills him in his heart.6 When Cain, who is faith without

charity, has committed the first murder, the voice of the blood is heard, meaning thatthis is an expression of hatred and violence against charity.

Some of us probably spend considerable time thinking about the state of our

circulatory systems. Let us also remember to think of which sense our spiritualcirculation is full of; for as we love, so we ARE.

Will Linden

5True Christian Religion 623

6AC 374