States Preceding Repentance
A Sermon by the Rev. Scott I. Frazier
Lessons: Leviticus 16 (portions); John 13:3-10; Arcana Coelestia 10208
Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for Jehovah and the other lot for
Azazel. (Leviticus 16:8)
There are three states that precede yearly repentance:
1. Humility through external truth
2. A strong desire to replace our love with the Lord’s love
3. Behavior based on our understanding of the Lord’s Word
By intentionally seeking these states, we can participate in the repentance,
reformation and regeneration that the Lord is constantly endeavoring to bring
to us.
The Lord describes this progression of states in the ritual given to Moses
called the Day of Atonement. Our reading from Leviticus is a description of
this process: we dress in the simple linens of servitude; we fill the Holy of Holies
with incense; and then we paint the altar of burnt offering with the blood of
sacrifice. After this the Lord will help us banish the goat that symbolizes the
evils from which we are trying to flee.
This ritual serves as the most holy and powerful description of repentance
in the Old Testament, presages the power of the Divine Human of the Lord,
and offers us a model of how we cooperate with the Lord to join Him in His
heavenly kingdom.
Because the Israelitish church was a representation of a church, a kind of
Divine reenactment of a true church, all of their rituals are symbols and pictures
of the spiritual processes that are vital for the church. (Arcana Coelestia 3147)
The Day of Atonement was the time of the year when the Israelites, in the
person of the high priest, cleansed the Tabernacle of all the residual sin of the
Children of Israel, much as we might periodically clean out our closet or have
a weekend of spring cleaning once a year. Our spiritual life operates the same
way – things build up, and a larger examination and cleaning is sometimes in
order.
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