Bishop Kline, the head bishop of our denomination, was here this weekend for the marriage seminar. He preached this morning, using the first section of Swedenborg's Conjugal Love for his text. In that chapter, there are imaginary heavens. Some people imagine they will be happy just to get to heaven. Some people imagine heaven will be a chance to talk and laugh forever. Others imagine heaven will be a place of sensual delights (here represented by grapes and a box of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins), and others imagine they will be on a throne, ruling others. All are dissatisfied with their heaven after a few days. The analogy to various false (or optimistic) beliefs about what marriage is about is clear.
Appropriate props had been set up and the Bishop asked for 5 volunteers. Mark was the man happy just to get into heaven. Malcolm and Erik pantomined talking. A woman I didn't know sat on the throne. There was one spot open, so I was left with the sensual delights of grapes and donut holes.
I thought I should act the part, so I occasionally ate some grapes while the bishop when on with his sermon. Then, for reasons I don't fully understand, I wondered whether I could fit an entire Dunkin Donuts Munchkin into my mouth whole and then eat it. I opened wide and popped that Munchkin right in. Unfortunately, the bishop walks around during his sermon and evidently this was visible to most of the congregation. A wave of laughter ensued. The bishop turned around and caught me in mid-chew, but I figured this was an event best explained later, rather than right on the spot.
I didn't eat any moreMunchkins during the service.
Lightning did not strike. Nor did the bishop, known to tell a good joke himself, seem particularly concerned afterward.
We'll see how long it is before I'm asked to volunteer again.
Background texts for the sermon:
The text, from Conjugal Love section 3, doesn't actually mention donuts: "What else is heaven but a paradise, stretching from east to west and from south to north-- a paradise wherein are fruit trees and delightful flowers, and in the center the magnificent Tree of Life, around which the blessed will sit, eating fruits of delicate flavor, and adorned with wreaths of the most fragrant flowers.
And since, by reason of the breathing of perpetual spring, these fruits and flowers are born and reborn daily and with infinite variety; and since, by their perpetual birth and blossom, and by the constant vernal temperature, the mind is continually renewed; the blessed must needs attract and breathe out new joys from day to day, and thus be restored to the flower of their age, and thereby to the primitive state into which Adam and his wife were created, and so be led back into their paradise which has been transferred from earth to heaven....
[But this heaven, like the others, isn't enough: ] "It is now the seventh day since we came into this paradise. When we entered, our minds seemed as though elevated into heaven and admitted to the inmost enjoyment of its joys. But after three days, this happiness began to grow dull and to be diminished in our minds and become imperceptible, and so to become null."
The point is that while it may help to imagine what heaven -- or an ideal marriage -- is like, these ideas ultimately aren't enough. It is only love (in being useful to others) that creates a true bond.
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