SERMON XXXV

At the Dedication of a Church

The First Sermon

Points to a renewal of the outer and inner man, and shows how man must deny himself and die to all to which he cleaves and is attached by nature; and how God will then make His dwelling-place in him. A Parable of the three kinds of Wings on which God flies and hovers over us; and of the wish to see God in the most noble way, both in time and in Eternity.

In domu tua oportet me manere.

“This day I must abide in thy house.”

Dear children, this is the consecration-day of this House of God; and all the ceremonial of the Holy Christian Church directs us all, spiritually, to the inner man, in whom, verily, consecration and a true godly reconciliation should always find place. Therefore this outward ceremonial should call and admonish us to prepare ourselves in sincerity and truth, that God may truly and perfectly take up His abode with us. The consecration of a church means much the same as a renewal; and this renewal ought always to be taking place in the inner man. The man who truly receives it must renounce all his natural tendencies, and repress and give up all to whom he may cleave, whether friends or relations. All must be given up, whatever it may be, that comes to him naturally from without, and also all in which nature finds joy, comfort or delight, in thought, word, or deed. Bodily discipline is also helpful and good, such as fasting and watching, if man’s nature is able to bear it. But this I say unto you, the wickedness of our nature is so concealed, and is always seeking its own so secretly, that we often take pleasure, in that which we imagine we are only doing because it is absolutely necessary. Therefore man must always seek most diligently to be master of his outer animal nature. He must do this with the utmost diligence, though it is very hard to nature to die to all excessive delight in eating and drinking, in seeing and hearing, in coming and going, in words and works. I say unto you that if all their excesses, we should be as sweet-smelling incense unto God, as it is written: “We are the good odour of Christ.” When all these natural hindrances are quite done away, then that which is written in the Psalter takes place in man: “Who makest the clouds thy chariot: who walkest upon the wings of the wind.” This means, that when man has quite killed all earthly desires in himself, then the Eternal God makes His abode in him. What then do we find written of the three kings of wings on which our Lord walks? The first is on the wings of a dove; the second on eagle’s wings; the third on the wings of the wind.

The wings of a dove are those upright men, who walk in holy innocence, without any gall, bitterness, jealousy, or intercourse with other men; therefore these simple-minded men are quiet, gentle, and good, and follow the meek and gentle Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, our Lord. Therefore our Lord is with them in all their ascents, in their desires, their love and their intentions. Secondly, our Lord walks on the wings of the eagle; for the eagle flies so high that none can see him. The eagle is the pure man, formed in the Image of God, who flies up with all his strength, both outwardly and inwardly, to the secret places of God. When man strives with all his might and main, in the inner and outer man, he flies up so high in knowledge and love, that no merely human sensual power can attain to him. Our dear Lord also soars on these noble wings. Thirdly, our Lord walks on the wings of the wind; for the wind is so swift and fast that ye know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. Children, this wind is the most interior and sublime man, moulded and formed in the Image of God. This pure man is so far above all knowledge, that all man’s reason and all his works cannot attain nor reach up to Him, because He is so far above the mind of man. This interior God-man, formed in the Image of God, flies back to His Divine Source and to His first condition before the Creation; and there the pure spirit becomes the Light of Lights. To some extent all other lights are extinguished in this Light, for all natural and all imparted light that ever lighted man becomes darkness. The sun obscures the light of all the stars in heaven when it is shining most brightly; and so, when the Divine Light shines into the depths of the soul, it obscures all the created lights that have ever shone in man. Then the Spirit, which is in the Form of God, shines so brightly into man’s soul, that He is like darkness unto the spirit into which He shines, from the excessive brightness of the Divine Light. For the understanding of all creatures, as compared with this Divine Light, is like the eyes of swallows compared with the pure, bright sunshine. For, if thou desirest, with weak eyes, to gaze on the disk of the sun, the sun will seem like darkness to thy gaze because of the surpassing brightness of the sun, and also because of the weakness of thine eyes. Therefore a heathen teacher has said: “After other lights God seems like darkness to the soul, because we acknowledge Him in the ignorance of our minds.” It is a great disgrace to us Christian men, that a heathen should have understood this! What are we poor men about?

We read about consecration in the Gospel account of Zacharias (Zacchaeus). He would gladly have seen our Lord, only he was too little of stature. But what did he do? He climbed up a barren fig tree. This is what a devout man does who desires to see Him, Who has done all these wonders in him; but he is too short and too small. What must he do then? He must climb up into the high and barren fig tree; and that is all that is written for us. It is a constant dying to the outward parts of man’s nature, and living wholly in the inner man in which God the Lord walks, as ye have already heard. Therefore this is looked upon as the greatest folly by the wise men of the world; and it even comes to pass that famous priests may be found who have two hundred florins worth of books, and are so pleased with them, that they read them most diligently; and yet these wise men of the world imagine that the life and being of these whole men is nothing but mockery and folly. No, I say unto you, the life of these good men is a noble and blessed folly; for they are the chosen of our merciful God, as the Eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ has said: “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.”

Amongst many other things, these secret hidden things were revealed to St Hildegarde; and therefore two little pictures were painted in her book. One figure is clad in a blue dress; and it has no eyes; but its blue dress is full of eyes, which signify the holy fear of God. This is not the fear that ye call fear, but it is that uncertain, diligent examination of self, which the noble, pure spirit of the man, formed in the Image of God, should carry on in all places, and in all his ways, words and deeds. Therefore this noble image, formed like unto God, is without a face, and without eyes; for it wholly forgets itself, and knows not whether it is loved or hated, praised or blamed. Then it has no hands; for it stands there bare and empty of all kinds of delight, in true and humble resignation.

The other image, placed by the side of this one, is in a light dress and has uplifted hands; both are barefoot. This image has no head; and the Godhead, in pure bright gold, is above this image. It has no face; all is pure gold; and this signifies the unknown pure Godhead, which is poured forth over the image in the place of the head; for the pure Godhead is its head. This picture signifies poverty of spirit. The head of this picture is God Himself; and the whiteness of the clothing signifies innocency of conduct, insusceptibility, and pure bare resignation. These figures are both barefoot; and this signifies an absolute imitation of the true likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blue dress signifies constancy; which means that man must not discipline himself to-day and sleep to-morrow; but that he must persevere unto the end, and with outstretched hands be ready always to do the Will of God in working and suffering.²⁹²⁹    These pictures can scarcely have been taken from any other Codex but the smaller one, now in the Ducal Library at Wiesbaden. It was brought from the monastery at Eybingen, where St Hildegarde lived.

I say unto you, this is the withered fig tree that all men must climb who wish to serve God, both in time and eternity, in the noblest way. For our Lord said to Zacchaeus: “Make haste to come down, for of all that thou hast thou mayest keep nothing, but thou must return again empty and bare into thine own nothingness; which means that thou must do nothing and be nothing; and then God will come into thine own house, and this must need be.” When, however, thou hast got up into the fig tree, and Eternal Truth has enlightened thee in some measure, but thou hast not yet quite laid hold of it, nor it of thee, because thou still cleavest to something, then nature and the Grace of God are still contending within thee; and thou hast not yet attained to real and true resignation. Therefore, learn, that whatever nature does has always some flaws, and is therefore not quite perfect and pure, so that human nature in the man in the tree cries unto God; this is absolute self-surrender, and a constant casting off of nature, in all the ways in which man still clings to some possession of self. For bodie, which means “to-day,” God must needs enter into thy house. Children, to-day salvation is come to this noble and holy house of God. That it may also come to us, may the eternal and blessed God grant. Amen.