The Book of Eli

The April edition of the Chaplain's Corner by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain

I just saw an interesting movie called "The Book of Eli." The movie takes place in the world after a great, probably nuclear, war. It is about a special book that Morgan Freeman carries with him and reads from every night. The evil ruler of a city wants that book desperately. He knows its power. He knows that if he has the words from that book, he can control people and find more cities for him to rule. We soon realize that the book is the Bible.

The Bible is unlike any other book. It is God's word. And words from the Bible have founded civilizations. Moses founded the kingdom of Israel with words in that book. Christianity was founded by words Jesus taught in that Book. The words of the Bible have power.

Swedenborg tells us that when we read the Bible, angels and God Himself becomes present. Our heart warms and our mind becomes clear. But the Bible was written so that people could relate to it. It is written in some places in "appearances." That means God "appears" however the people thought God was like when the Bible was written. So the Bible says that God is angry, vengeful, and harsh in places. But God actually is none of these things. God is infinite love, and can't even look upon the human race with a stern countenance. He "appeared" that way to a harsh, vengeful people.

The Bible is also written in "correspondences." Correspondences are a symbolic language like poetic metaphors. Water means truth. The Sun means God and God's love. Mild animals like sheep mean good feelings. We don't need to think about these correspondences when we read the Bible. We need only read the story the way we would read any story, and the angels with us will understand the correspondences and fill us with love and enlightenment.

The Bible is just as powerful as the movie makes it. It would be good for everyone to take some time out of every day and read some of it, like Eli did.

Nina and Holly

collage by Holly

Hallelujah

Fryeburg Youth Group Spring Sleepover

Izzy on the Sax!

The Fryeburg Youth Group hosted it's Spring Sleepover last weekend. Teens gathered at the Fryeburg church on Saturday at 4 pm for a big, exciting overnight. We had a surprise teen guest (Cody) come all the way from Indiana to join us! It was fun to watch the reactions of everyone who saw him. I'm sorry that teens that couldn't attend youth group and everyone out here in Maine didn't get a chance to visit with him (but he'll be back for Memorial Day). It was a nice sunny day, so we started by going to the Snow School park to play Frisbee, swing and climb. People keep showing up and there ended up being 14 teens! Then we went back to the church for dinner and to practice music for Sunday worship. Izzy went upstairs to practice the Sax for the prelude and postlude while the rest of the teens gathered around Nina and her guitar to practice "Hallelujah" and listen to her solo of "I'll Stand By You". After a pasta dinner, we went over to see Rev. Sage at the Parsonage for dessert. She had a giant peanut butter cake for us and Nina brought and made her own brownie batter that was "Nina safe". Around 9 pm we went back to the church to for a spiritual session where we watched and discussed YouTube videos "God as a DJ" and "I've Converted to Every Religion (Just in Case)". After a bit more music rehearsal we played a games of "Sardines" and "Mafia". We all went to bed around 2 am, but I heard the girls up until the wee hours of the morning telling stories and giggling. We woke Sunday morning with just enough time to take a walk up to "On the Run" for coffee and snacks then back to the church for a bagel breakfast before worship. Some of the teens colored the little kids Sunday School page (I love that Celie enjoys this!). Then at we went upstairs for worship. All of the teen music was wonderful and I am happy to be able to share the videos for everyone to see and hear (more on the way!). Many teens commented that this one the best sleepover ever. Almost as good as a retreat. I thought so too. I left feeling positive and happy. No small part due to your teenage energy, discussions, music and beautiful creative spirit. Thank you! What a great lead in to the upcoming Memorial retreat.

Former League President Rev. Sage Serene Currie

We continue our profile on former SCYL Presidents ~ Where are they now?

This month's featured former League President:

Rev. Sage Serene Currie
Served 1995

It was a sunny day in May when I naively hopped into a car headed for the Blairhaven retreat center with Rev. Jim Lawrence and three teens from Fryeburg, Maine. A few weeks earlier my mom had seen a flyer for an SCYL Memorial Day retreat and asked me if I'd wanted to go. The only teen in the Portland New Church at the time it must have been an angelic influence that led me to say "Sure," and to get into that car with that strange bunch of characters I'd never met before in my life. I should have been scared, or at least tentative about the whole thing but somehow I wasn't, and I went, and my life has never been the same since.

I spent that first retreat mostly as a quiet observer, watching the kids around me, and the ministers, and the way they all related to each other. Everyone was so loving towards each other, and open with how they felt, this was so different from the way my friends at school seemed to relate with each other. People were odd, and creative, and fun, and I fell in love with them all.

Now this is perhaps where my story gets a little weird. After I returned from that first retreat my parents got a call from my homeroom teacher at school. "Mr. and Mrs. Currie, um, I don't know exactly how to ask this but, did something happen to Sage? She's going around and telling all of her classmates that she loves them?"

It was true. I returned home from that retreat in a kind of blissful state and tried to spread that joy and love to my school community. I have memories of that week and they're pretty funny now. I remember my joy was a bit contagious to some of my classmates and we all got a little bit closer, and some people thought I was a freak. Maybe I was a freak, and maybe I was just doing my best to share the Good News of Swedenborgian Community to my 7th grade classmates!

Well, I'm still sharing that Good News 20 years later, as a minister in the Swedenborgian Church, and pastor now in Fryeburg, Maine. Funny how that circle has some how become complete as it was those Fryeburg teens so long ago that first introduced me to this church that I love.

I went on to go to every Memorial Day and Winter Retreat that happened between my 13th and 18th birthday, attended every session of the Fryeburg New Church Assembly, Convention in St. Louis and San Francisco, and at 18 served as the President of the SCYL.

When I was 23 I was hired by Convention to serve as the SCYL Coordinator and organized and led teen retreats until entering seminary in 2002. Being a part of the SCYL has had a huge impact on my life. Having a place where I could be fully myself, where there were adults who cared about and respected me, and being in an environment where I could ask big questions about why we are here and what God is all about gave me a grounding that helped me through the challenges of coming of age, and finding my place in the world.

My biggest learning from the SCYL, was that there was a place for me that would always be there, that I was loved, by God and by the church. And that the angels would keep guiding me along the path, just as they did that sunny day in May.

Easter

The Easter Sunday edition of the Chaplain's Corner by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain

An angry mob could not keep Jesus down. Death itself, could not conquer the Divine Human. On Easter Day, God and Man became one being as Jesus rose from the grave.

This is a very difficult idea to believe in. I know many people who respect Jesus as a prophet, and a teacher; and who follow His teachings. But they find it too difficult to believe that Jesus was the Divine Human and that Jesus rose from the grave.

God became a human when Jesus was born. And all through Jesus’ life, God and human came closer and closer. It wasn’t until the final temptation on the cross and the death of Jesus, that God and Human became one Being. Now God can come close to each one of us because He is Human like we are. Jesus rose body and soul, like no human can do. This means that God came down to the physical level, and now God is a physical presence with everyone.

God is now no longer a mystery. We can understand God by looking at Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). God came to earth to bring His presence to humans in a way that humans could understand God. In the New testament, we have stories of Jesus, and by reading them, we can learn about God. With the full union of God and Man in the risen Jesus Christ, we now know God and God can come to us wherever we are, however we feel. For God is a human.

Good Friday

The Good Friday edition of the Chaplain's Corner by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain

Jesus was crucified on Good Friday as the result of mob violence. People will do things in a mob or in a gang that they wouldn’t dream of doing on their own. The same mob that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday turned against Him and called for His death one week later.

We see mob behavior everywhere. People get together and gossip in groups against a school mate, a neighbor, or a teacher or work supervisor. It is similar with political parties, who band together against the other party. Sometimes the party itself becomes the most important thing, and the issues or the people’s welfare are forgotten. We see mob behavior in street gangs, where drive-by shootings happen for vengeance or control of a neighborhood or drug trade. We see it in riots, where people loot and destroy with reckless abandon. How many of these actions would be committed one-on-one, or person to person?

Pilate found no cause to convict Jesus. He handed Him over to the mob because he feared a riot. We learn one lesson from Good Friday: do not follow a crowd in doing wrong. Stand alone, if need be to do the next right thing.