The Adoramus: Our Faith in the Glorified Lord

by the Rev. Dave Sonmor

Psalm 62, John 1:1-14

The Adoramus is the New Church's "Statement of Faith." It is stated by the congregation in most of our church services as it is a clear and concise statement of the essence of what the New Church doctrine is. For the purpose of clarity I will divide it into four separate units.

"We worship the Lord God, our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Creator, Redeemer and Regenerator who brings us into being, frees us from evils and, as we struggle to overcome them as sins against Him and do good, gives us the full humanity for which He created us."

This is an affirmation that we believe there to be only one God and that He revealed Himself to us as Jesus Christ. He is the same God that created the world and is given a different name only because He is the aspect of God that reveals itself to His creation, His people. We are so limited in our ability to perceive what is spiritual that we could not possibly see God and relate to Him in His Divine form. This is also why John called Him the Word because it is through the Word that we can continue to relate to God. It is also through Jesus life that mankind was shown the kind of life we should live if we too would become one with the Lord. When Peter, James and John saw Him transfigured they saw Him as he appears in the world of spirit but even that was not His Divine form but only the form that humans in the spiritual (angels) world can tolerate.

It is as Redeemer that the Lord frees us from evils. While in the world Jesus overcame every human sin and temptation and in so doing He made it possible for us to overcome them too. He showed us the way and if we trust Him we will follow His way and so have power over evils that would lead us away from Him. As we become more and more involved in living a Christ guided life we become more truly human. We think and act as God intended us to think and act, and our life becomes more enriched and blessed. He created us to become angels in heaven; To develop to the full measure of a man which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.)

There is no great change in us when we die and enter into the spiritual world. We are basically the same character and personality which we develop and become while we are here in this world.

Some people confuse this teaching with the idea that we are only what we are at the moment of death, but that is not so. You might say we are a composite of all we have been during our lifetime some of it good and some of it bad, some of it loving and some of it hateful. But somewhere in our complex life we always have a prevailing love, a dominant will, that is present, which underlies all that we think and do. If we follow the Lord's way then we develop to the fullness of our human capabilities, a state in which we put God and others ahead of our own needs. Jesus said it so clearly: "Love the Lord and love your neighbor."

"Today He comes to us anew. In the spirit and truth of His holy Word He discloses Himself to us in His Divine Humanity and seeks to unite us with Himself. This disclosure, with it's enlightenment and renewal of life, is His Second Coming."

This suggests that something has changed in the way we now receive the Lord into our lives. Something is different than it was in the first Christian Church. When the Lord appeared to Swedenborg back in 1745 the vision was accompanied with an image of a door above which was written "Now it is permitted to look with understanding into the mysteries of faith." People no longer have to accept matters of religion from blind faith. New light has been provided by the Lord so that we can know the spiritual meaning underlying the literal sense of the Word. Also we can begin to understand the nature of our own spiritual life which can enhance our natural life with a new wonderful dimension. This second coming is not just for a small select group of individuals but for everyone in the human race. His love and His grace is for all. As more people come to understand the real nature of the spiritual world they will come to realize that it is not a world outside of ourselves but that we are already in it as to our soul, which is the part of us that gives us life. We also come to see that there is no need to desire an eternal life in this physical world, but that we can have a much higher form of life unhindered by all the limitations that a physical world places on us. How nice it is to be able to go through this life and not be worried about dying, and knowing that our loved ones who have died have really only entered into a fuller and richer life than they ever had here.

"This makes possible a new and larger life, which becomes ours as we love Him and love the good which comes from him in all people. All this is the neighbor who is to be loved, both individually and in our group relationships. Thus the larger the group and the larger the good it serves, the greater our obligation to it."

We have a real responsibility to live the Christ-like life. Our life does make a difference in the overall amount and quality of Christian love that is being shared throughout the world. It is vitally important for us to love one-another as He has loved us. And the beautiful part is that the more we share God's love with others the more His love comes into our own life.

"Our family, our Community, our country, and the nations of the world are larger neighbors. Our church, other churches, all religions making up the Lord's kingdom on earth, are still larger neighbors."

We sometimes become very critical of our communities and our country and pessimistically see everything as being wrong and about to fall apart. This brings on feelings of being cheated or abused or hard-done-by. When we rank high in the United Nations surveys of the most desirable countries to live in, do we appreciate it? Do we contribute willing to those things that make our communities loving/nurturing places in which to live? Yes we do because it is the people who make the country a good place in which to live. We do so by living according to the laws of our communities and by acting towards others in loving ways. We live for the good of the majority even if we do not always agree with all the rules.

Our church community is a neighbor to which we are all devoted and we try to meet our obligations to it both locally and internationally. But we have a wider obligation than just our own denomination, which includes all churches and all people who are attempting to live according to their religion as they understand it. In loving them we have to first of all acknowledge their right to be different from us. We do not need to make them be like us or believe like us but allow them to love God in their own way.

The Lord is, of course, the neighbor in the highest sense. How are we to understand this? A neighbor in the common sense is one who we come into regular contact with in some way. One with whom we have a relationship and some form of communication. The Lord is one with whom we develop a very special and unique relationship. It is on an entirely different level than our human relationships but still it can be extremely personal. Essentially it is the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom that we are relating to. We receive it as good and truth at our level and find it in even the most basic physical things of our life. We find His truth in the Word and we find it on the lips of little children and grandparents. We find His love in the warmth of the sun and in the joy of loving relationships with family and friends. All that is required of us is that we acknowledge that He is the source of all good and all truth and be thankful to Him for providing all that we have. "So long as we approach Him in worship and life as the visible God in whom is the invisible, we walk in the light of the Holy City New Jerusalem."

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