 Readings
Genesis
28:10-13
A
stairway
from
earth
to
heaven
Jacob
left
Beersheba
and
set
out
for
Haran.
When
he
reached
a
certain
place,
he
stopped
for
the
night
because
the
sun
had
set.
Taking
one
of
the
stones
there,
he
put
it
under
his
head
and
lay
down
to
sleep.
He
had
a
dream
in
which
he
saw
a
stairway
resting
on
the
earth,
with
its
top
reaching
to
heaven,
and
the
angels
of
God
were
ascending
and
descending
on
it.
There
above
it
stood
the
Lord.
Matthew
6:7-13
The
Lord's
Prayer
When
you
are
praying,
do
not
heap
up
empty
phrases
as
the
Gentiles
do;
for
they
think
that
they
will
be
heard
because
of
their
many
words.
Do
not
be
like
them,
for
your
Father
knows
what
you
need
before
you
ask
him.
Pray
then
in
this
way:
"Our
Father
in
heaven,
hallowed
be
your
name.
Your
kingdom
come.
Your
will
be
done,
on
earth
as
it
is
in
heaven.
Give
us
this
day
our
daily
bread.
And
forgive
us
our
debts,
as
we
forgive
our
debtors.
And
do
not
bring
us
to
the
time
of
trial,
but
rescue
us
from
evil.
For
the
kingdom
and
the
power
and
the
glory
are
yours
forever.
Amen."
Arcana
Coelestia
#1285.3
On
earth
as
it
is
in
heaven
In
the
first
Ancient
Church,
though
there
were
many
forms
of
inner
and
outer
worship, . . .
still
they
all
had
"one
language"
and
"their
words
were
one."
In
other
words
they
all
shared
one
doctrine
in
general
and
in
detail.
Doctrine
is
one
when
all
have
mutual
love,
or
kindness.
Mutual
love
or
kindness
causes
things,
though
varied,
to
be
one,
since
it
makes
one
out
of
many
different
things.
If
all
the
people,
no
matter
how
many
there
are--even
ten
thousand
times
ten
thousand--are
governed
by
kindness
and
mutual
love,
they
have
only
one
goal
in
view,
namely,
the
common
good,
the
Lord's
kingdom,
and
the
Lord
Himself.
Differences
in
matters
of
doctrine
and
in
forms
of
worship
are
like
the
differences
among
the
physical
senses
and
among
the
inner
organs
of
the
human
body,
which
all
contribute
to
the
perfection
of
the
whole.
The
Lord
flows
in
and
works
by
way
of
kindness,
though
in
different
ways
according
to
the
character
of
each
individual.
In
so
doing
he
arranges
every
single
person
into
a
proper
order,
on
earth
as
in
heaven.
In
this
way
the
Lord's
will
is
done,
as
he
himself
teaches,
"on
earth
as
it
is
in
heaven."
Sermon
Your
kingdom
come.
Your
will
be
done,
on
earth
as
it
is
in
heaven.
(Matthew
6:10)
Here
we
are,
back
in
the
sanctuary
at
the
beginning
of
another
church
year.
With
our
summer
pianist,
playing
our
service
for
us
today,
it
feels
a
little
like
a
continuation
of
our
summer
services.
And
as
another
way
of
easing
you
into
our
regular
church
year,
my
remarks
today
will
be
a
bit
shorter
than
is
usual
for
our
services
here
in
the
sanctuary.
In
fact,
what
I
mostly
want
to
do
this
morning
is
introduce
the
theme
that
we
will
be
following
in
our
services
and
sermons
this
fall.
For
the
past
few
years,
since
we
integrated
our
Sunday
School
with
the
adult
worship
service,
I
have
been
following
the
readings
in
our
Sunday
School
lesson
schedule
from
the
Bible
Study
Notes
by
Anita
S.
Dole.
This
has
had
the
beneficial
effect
of
coordinating
the
adult
sermon
with
the
children's
Sunday
School
class,
so
that
parents
and
their
children
would
usually
be
following
common
themes.
This
year,
as
we
re-start
the
four
year
cycle
of
the
Dole
Notes
from
the
beginning,
I
have
decided
to
"fly
free"
from
the
Sunday
School
lesson
schedule,
and
instead
follow
various
themes
throughout
the
church
year.
Not
every
sermon
will
necessarily
be
on
the
theme.
There
will
be
holidays
and
special
occasions
when
we
will
focus
on
something
else.
But
for
the
regular
services,
we
will
follow
our
own
series
as
the
children
progress
through
the
Bible
story
from
beginning
to
end
throughout
the
year.
Once
I
decided
to
follow
themes,
the
obvious
next
question
was
what
theme
to
start
with.
To
make
a
long
story
short,
Heaven
and
Hell
has
always
been
Swedenborg's
most
popular
book--and
for
good
reason;
so
I
decided
that
it
would
be
hard
to
go
wrong
using
heaven
as
our
theme
for
this
fall.
And
yet,
here
we
all
are,
living
on
earth,
not
in
heaven.
What
good
is
talking
about
heaven
going
to
do
us
if
it
doesn't
make
a
difference
for
our
lives
here
on
earth?
As
I
was
mulling
these
things
over,
the
theme
for
our
fall
sermon
series
came
to
me:
"On
Earth
as
it
Is
in
Heaven."
We
say
these
words
each
week
in
church.
And
you
can
think
of
the
upcoming
sermons
as
one
great
big
commentary
on
that
one
line
from
the
Lord's
Prayer.
What
does
it
mean
for
God's
will
to
be
done
on
earth
as
it
is
in
heaven?
What
is
God's
will,
anyway?
And
how
do
we
do
it
here
on
earth?
Another
way
of
asking
this
question
is,
"How
do
we
make
earth
more
like
heaven?"
Of
course,
Swedenborg
wasn't
the
first
person
to
realize
that
heaven
was
a
popular
topic.
Many
centuries
earlier,
Jesus
spoke
about
the
kingdom
of
heaven
over
and
over
again.
But
instead
of
writing
voluminously
as
Swedenborg
did,
he
condensed
his
teachings
about
heaven
into
short,
pithy
parables.
Each
one
of
them
provides
a
memorable
image
that
we
can
unpack
to
learn
something
about
what
heaven
is
all
about--and
how
we
can
make
things
more
like
heaven
here
on
earth.
My
plan
is
to
spend
the
next
few
months
with
you
unpacking
some
of
the
Lord's
parables
of
the
kingdom
of
heaven
one
at
a
time,
using
other
Bible
passages
as
well
as
Swedenborg's
book
Heaven
and
Hell
to
shed
light
on
each
one.
And
along
the
way,
I
hope
we
will
all
discover
some
hidden
treasures
that
will
help
us
to
make
life
better
both
for
ourselves
and
for
the
people
around
us.
In
doing
this,
we
build
a
heaven
within
and
around
ourselves
right
here
on
earth.
Though
the
relationship
between
heaven
and
earth
has
not
always
been
clear
to
humans
on
earth,
that
relationship
has
always
been
there.
The
very
first
words
in
the
Bible
are,
"In
the
beginning
God
created
the
heavens
and
the
earth"
(Genesis
1:1)
And
though
to
get
the
visual
picture,
this
should
probably
have
been
translated
"the
sky
and
the
earth,"
humankind
has
since
time
immemorial
taken
the
sky
as
a
symbol
and
a
reminder
of
heaven.
Ever
since
the
beginning,
the
earth
has
also
started
out
"formless
and
empty,"
and
in
need
of
light
shining
into
it
from
God
and
heaven,
to
bring
order
and
harmony
into
the
chaos
of
material
reality.
The
lights
in
the
expanse
of
the
sky
are
needed
to
separate
day
from
night,
to
mark
seasons
and
days
and
years,
and
to
govern
all
things
below.
Even
when
humankind
had
fallen
away
from
the
primeval
closeness
to
God
depicted
in
the
second
chapter
of
Genesis--in
the
Garden
of
Eden
story,
when
God
walked
with
Adam
and
Eve
in
the
garden--there
were
still
glimpses
of
that
ancient
relationship
between
heaven
and
earth.
Jacob,
son
of
Isaac
and
grandson
of
Abraham,
got
such
a
glimpse
during
a
time
of
great
personal
struggle,
and
it
gave
him
the
strength
to
continue
on
his
journey
toward
becoming
a
great
nation.
At
the
time
of
his
famous
dream
of
a
stairway
reaching
from
earth
to
heaven,
Jacob
was
fleeing
his
home
and
family
in
fear
for
his
life
after
tricking
his
father
and
cheating
his
brother
Esau
out
of
the
blessing
that
was
due
to
the
elder
brother.
Just
when
Jacob's
life
seemed
to
have
reached
its
low
point,
God
gave
him,
in
his
dreams,
that
wonderful
vision
of
angels
ascending
from
earth
to
heaven,
and
descending
from
heaven
to
earth,
with
the
Lord
himself
standing
above
it.
And
Jacob
knew
then
and
there
that
his
life
here
on
earth
had
a
higher
meaning
than
anything
he
had
conceived
of
before.
God
had
put
him
on
earth
for
a
greater
purpose--and
his
job
was
to
follow
God's
will
for
his
life
by
continually
working
toward
that
greater
purpose.
Heaven
had
been
opened
to
him,
and
his
life
would
never
be
the
same
again.
In
the
New
Testament
also,
the
Lord
reminds
us
over
and
over
again
that
we
are
not
living
for
this
earth
only;
that
our
life
has
meaning
only
when
we
are
seeking
the
kingdom
of
heaven
in
our
life
here
on
earth.
And
he
reminds
us
in
the
prayer
we
use
every
week
that
we
are
to
seek
out
God's
will
as
it
is
done
in
heaven,
and
carry
it
out
on
earth.
That
is
why
each
one
of
us
was
placed
here:
to
be
an
angel-being,
first
ascending
to
heaven
in
our
spirits
to
discover
the
true
and
deeper
realities
of
eternal
life,
and
then
descending
back
to
earth
to
put
those
higher
lessons
into
practice
in
our
everyday
lives.
"Your
kingdom
come.
Your
will
be
done,
on
earth
as
it
is
in
heaven."
What
will
the
earth
look
like
when
God's
will
is
done
here
as
it
is
in
heaven?
Swedenborg
gives
us
a
glimpse
of
it
in
the
passage
we
read
from
Arcana
Coelestia.
Heaven
on
earth
does
not
mean
everyone
thinks
and
acts
the
same
way.
Far
from
it!
In
fact,
in
heavenly
society
there
is
a
great
variety
of
beliefs,
a
great
variety
of
worship
styles,
and
a
great
variety
of
personalities.
Heaven
on
earth
does
not
mean
a
boring
sameness!
What
it
does
mean
is
that
people
of
different
beliefs,
different
churches,
different
worship
styles,
different
personalities
do
not
clash
with
one
another,
but
instead
work
together
in
a
harmonious
whole.
The
differences
do
not
divide;
instead,
they
add
to
the
perfection
of
the
whole.
This
is
the
thought
I
will
leave
you
with
today.
Over
the
coming
weeks,
we
will
discover
many
more
pearls
of
wisdom
about
the
kingdom
of
heaven.
Amen.
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