n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 5
I chose to look now at the kidneys first because we know they are essential
to the health of the body since they are a filter for our blood. They separate out
toxins, regulate electrolytes, and help to stabilise our blood pressure. When
our kidneys fail our bodies cannot go on living.
The second reason why I want to look at kidneys is because in the
functioning of the Church, they would represent some of the least popular
people and uses. No one enjoys being criticized, yet we must be critical in
determining what is true and what is false. No one likes to have his or her life
examined by another person or group, and yet without those who care about
the purity of the truth our church teaches, we would spiral downward into a
false sense of morality which would lead us to harm others, not help them.
We must have people in the Church who love to examine the way our church
functions, making sure that the collective life we lead together adheres to the
Lord’s Word.
There has to be a balance to the critical processes of the kidneys in our
church body. If all we heard were criticisms of the way we live and love, few
people would be happy, and few people would act in useful ways because they
would be too depressed about their current state to do so.
The balance in the body comes from hormones excreted from the
hypothalamus and pituitary gland in the brain. The primary hormone which
brings this balance to critical examination is oxytocin. Oxytocin, as well as
dopamine, increase our sense of happiness and empathy.
So we can imagine that the people in a church body associated with the
hypothalamus would be the people who pay attention to the needs and loves of
other people. They notice who is hurting, who is depressed, and who is in need
of inspiration. They work to balance the harsh feelings brought on by honest
self-examination by showing the happiness and benefits to come in the future.
Now we could spend all day looking at the various parts of the human body
and the uses they serve to the whole, and how each part is interdependently
necessary to the whole. But let just one more example help to round out our
understanding, and inspire a sense of unity among all of us brothers and sisters
in the Church.
In a rather obscure passage from the Spiritual Diary Swedenborg relates
a story about meeting someone he had known in his lifetime who had since
passed into the other world. He described this man as someone who would get
very angry when he would pray for something and not get it. And yet he says
that when this man came out of his state of anger he would return to a simple
state of obedience to the Lord. Swedenborg tells us that this man in heaven was
a part of the Grand Man’s earlobe.
Think about this. The earlobe seems relatively useless, doesn’t it? What
does it do? Maybe it is just a place to put a beautiful earring. But it is a part of
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