Be Love

Be Love & Be Honest

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As a part of the initiative of the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, founder Rev. Sage Cole interviews fellow workers in the field of love to ask "How does love flourish? What get's in the way?" A mix of one-one personal interviews, topical conversations and direct sharing we aim to get honest about love! worshipislife.substack.com

1d ago

Altar Space: Helen Keller

Greetings, friends, and welcome back to my altar. This morning I want to share this picture, which some of you probably recognize — a picture of the great Helen Keller, namesake of the new collaborative I’m in the process of forming and bringing into being. She’s a really important person to me, and to so many — not because she was a saint, perfect in every way, but because she was who she was. She accepted her limitations, she expressed her strengths, and she shared her inner experience, both in the many books she wrote and in the relationships and friendships she made. Helen Keller was a global celebrity in her time. People all around the planet knew her story. A big part of why that story was so remarkable is that most people believed someone who was deaf and blind couldn’t have a robust inner life — couldn’t build relationships, couldn’t travel, couldn’t hold perspectives on geopolitics, religion, faith, and what it means to be a human being. She dashed all of those expectations by having and living all of those things. Another reason Helen is so important to me is that, as a Swedenborgian minister seeking to live into the life of the new church, I am deeply inspired by how she embraced that vision. Helen was sixteen when she was introduced to the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg through a friend and mentor named John Hitz, and she would say she was a devotee of Swedenborg’s writings for the rest of her life. That devotion didn’t manifest the way it might for the rest of us. She didn’t join a church. She didn’t direct the choir or teach Sunday school. She lived the vision of the new church through her political action, through her embrace of relationship and connection and love, and through her following of her own unique calling. She understood that vision to be connected to a larger vision of a new world — a new paradigm of life in which we could be in relationship and connection with people incredibly different from ourselves. It seems quite likely that Swedenborg’s vision of heaven — of the diversity of the heavenly community — helped Helen move through so many diverse circles and stay in deep relationship with people of different cultures, different religions, different perspectives. She walked, almost seamlessly, through these different scopes of humanity. It’s interesting to be speaking of her at a time when many of us are grieving the loss of Dolly Parton. It might seem strange to compare the two, but I think in similar ways, much of what’s being said about Dolly as we bid her farewell and she makes her transition into the spiritual world is that she walked between the worlds. She was loved by people on both sides of the political aisle, by people of low economic status and people wealthy beyond measure. She bridged divides we sometimes believe separate us, and showed there was no real separation there. Helen did the same. She walked between many different worlds. And this work I’m doing right now — inviting in a new community of people who are also seeking to live into the vision of the new church in their own unique way, finding ways to coexist and support and nurture one another — is all about walking between the worlds. It’s about looking for the divine center that exists in each of us, so that we can feel our unity, and then honor and stay curious about our diversity. For all of these reasons, I keep Helen on my altar — not because I worship her, or want to mimic her life, but because I see her as an example of a full, vibrant, creative life that informs my own. She’s part of this new church collaborative life I’m bringing into being. It’s so helpful to have Helen on my altar, especially in moments of challenge, confusion, or feeling misunderstood and alone. She reminds me that she’s on my team, even though she’s no longer here in the flesh. One of the things Helen remarked on before she died was a belief that after death, she would actually be more effective in helping to bring new church life into the world than she had even been during her lifetime. I find that incredibly moving, because obviously she was quite effective during her lifetime. So how might she be affecting us now, if that effect is even greater? I have a feeling she’s part of the shift happening on our planet right now — a movement to really grow up, to remember our divine core, to let go of the childish assumptions that we’re not worthy, or that we need to compete or earn our worth. To let go of the distractions that have kept us from living into the life of the new church, so that we can embrace who we are just as she embraced who she was — and in that embrace, discover what in our inner life wants to step forward, just as she did. I’m so grateful for Helen, and for all that she’s calling into being through me and through so many others. This is going to be a year of thinking about and celebrating her. Our exhibition team is gathering in September to begin the practical work of developing a vision we’ve held for a long time: building an exhibit in Helen Keller’s name that can travel around the globe, bringing people together to celebrate her spiritual life — and to reflect on and consider their own. I’m excited to bring together many people who might also have Helen on their altar, who look to her as an example in their own way, and to find ways to work together in love, in honesty, and in usefulness. So there’s my offering from the altar this morning. I wonder — what are you discovering on your altar? What people, images, pictures, and words are grounding you as you discover your divine nature and become more grounded in it? Blessings, friends. Share images and stories from your altar in the comments! I’d love to see what spaces you are creating ❤️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Aug 30

Altar Space: The Painting from Holy Hill

For my altar space offering today, I want to speak a bit about this painting right here behind my chair. This was painted by a seminary classmate of mine, a longtime friend of mine from my teenage years in the Swedenborgian Church Youth League who’s taken a different direction. This is a beautiful scene of what it looks like from Holy Hill in Berkeley, California, where the Pacific School of Religion lives. This is where I went to seminary, where we went to seminary together. And it just has the most beautiful views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and these really incredible sunsets, which I think she did just such a great job of depicting here. She painted this and gave it to me for my 40th birthday. I’ll be 50 next year. So I’ve had it for a while, and I like having it on my wall for several reasons. First, of course, it’s what I saw when I was in seminary, during those really special years where I got to steep in theology and questions of what it takes to build spiritual community, what it is to be a spiritual leader, what it is to understand these spiritual traditions that have been passed down to us. Seminary was a rich time for me of reflection and learning and growing in my understanding of faith and myself. And it was a bit set apart, right? We were up on Holy Hill. I didn’t have children and a husband and all of the stuff of life that I currently am navigating and moving through. I was able to really just devote my time to these considerations, to these deeper ideas about things. It feels fitting that this altarpiece reminds me of that. And then it also brings up this hurt of this broken relationship that I’ve had to release and let go of. It feels fitting that this painting kind of brings up these two dimensions of our human experience. One, that experience of really being set apart, of, you know, steeping in these beautiful high ideals, these beautiful sunsets atop Holy Hill, outside of the bounds of actual, you know, rubber-meets-the-road life. And that this painting represents and reminds me of that time, but it also reminds me of this hurt that I carry about this ended relationship, and the inability to kind of navigate the changes of life and navigate different courses and still maintain care and connection. That tension between those two realities is so much at the heart of this work that I’m seeking to do — this work of making all of life an act of worship, and holding space for love and honesty and usefulness. Because it’s just true that these higher ideals that we steep in, the purpose of them is that they might come into the world. And part of coming into the world is coming into heartbreak, to brokenness, to broken relationships, to paths that are not what we would wish and what we would expect. It’s not about higher ideals coming in and then demanding and forcing their will upon us so that we won’t experience heartbreak and broken relationships and hurt. It’s that these higher ideals might come in and infuse the ups and downs of life with sacred meaning and sacred possibility. It’s taken me some time, but as I’ve sat with this hurt and the sadness about this ended relationship, as I’ve sat with the hurt and sadness I carry about other relationships that have come and then had to pass — people have had to make different choices — I’ve come to recognize more of the season of things, right? That everything ends. And what’s more important is how we allow those endings and beginnings. Can I come to a sense of appreciation for the time I did get to have with this person, and then let them go on their way, right? I think Sting says it best, right? If you love someone, set them free, right? Set them free. We need to be free on this path. And it’s very interesting, being a part of a spiritual tradition, or a community, a church community. Sometimes you feel like you’re always going to have those people, right? That’s sort of part of why we join churches or we join communities — we have this sense of maybe an illusion of stability. And a higher truth is that people are going to come and go as they need to, right? And sometimes that’s going to mean leaving those spiritual communities to step into other spiritual communities or other work. And we’ve got to allow that flow. Ultimately, church shouldn’t be about keeping everybody together so that we’re always together, so we always have that expectation filled. But instead, it should be a place where love lives, right? And love sets everybody free. And I think the mystery and the question I’m holding is: can we be a spiritual community that sets people free and also kind of bids them farewell with love and with care, with appreciation, and maybe even with continued communication? What is it that causes us to have to shut doors so tightly and so completely? It feels like when that’s happening, when it is either “I’m with you” or “I’m not with you,” that there’s something else going on that’s maybe not the most healthy way to live. Because truthfully, all of us humans on this planet are all together. We’re all one family, right? One life, one community of beingness that has to get along together, right? And it doesn’t mean we have to always be together in every instance. It doesn’t mean that friendships have to always last forever, right? There are times and there are seasons for connection. And how can we more graciously enter into those connections and exit them? This is one of my really big questions that I’m holding as I form this new community. I really want to encourage people to come in and also leave honestly, with blessing as we receive them and blessing as we say goodbye, and then an open door for people to return. I would like to live in a community where there was more of that energy, and less of a feeling of “I love everything you’re doing and so I’m gonna come in,” and then “I reject everything you’re doing, and so I’m gonna leave.” It seems like we function that way a lot in our human family. We like something for a time, and then we become hurt or harmed by it, and then we reject it completely. And I don’t judge that — I think that’s what people have to do sometimes. I’m not saying it’s a bad choice for those who are making it. I’m just saying I would love to see possibilities for other ways of entering and exiting relationships that are more honest and that are more real, and that maybe continue to allow love and care to flow, with respecting of the boundaries that people need. So I’m reflecting on that right now as my vacation time comes to an end. I am recording this on August 30th ahead of posting it, so it’ll probably get posted a little bit late. I’m getting ready to open up my email again and look at my calendar and step back into all of the exciting programming that I have ahead of me this September and October and November — exciting opportunities to be in conversation with people, to be in community with people, and to be practicing this Be Love, Be Honest, Be Useful way of being. I’m really excited, and I’m excited for all the people who’ve said yes to stepping into this. And I’m hopeful over this next year that if people feel the need to step out, they’ll be honest about it. And that we can grow together and move together, and not everyone has to always stay, but maybe we can leave with a little more grace and a little more freedom. Because I am excited to bring all of these ideals that I learned in seminary into being. I’m excited to explore this arena of truth and community and connection. I love doing that. And I love expanding all of the ways that I can do that. And that does require opening up to new relationships. And sometimes it requires a stepping away from others, right? This is definitely a time of choosing for me. In our third year of being the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, in this continued work of discerning who we are and what we’re doing, there will be things I’ll have to step away from, right? And I guess I speak this aloud for myself as much as for anyone else. I pray that I’ll be able to do that with grace and with love and with blessing and with honesty. That doesn’t have to mean rejection or broken relationships, but just further movement along the path, and gratitude for what has been, as we step into what is coming. So this is my other piece of my altar — this lovely little painting that I’m so grateful for, this friendship and collegial relationship that I’m so grateful for having had. And who knows, maybe it will have a new life in the future. I’m going to stay open to that possibility. And also allow for the grief that is there too, because God is in all of it, and it is holy. All right, friends, I’m looking forward to getting back to my email in a couple of days and hearing what’s been emerging with all of you. And I hope you’ll join me this fall for some of what is coming into being — for some of our Be Honest conversations about topics of faith and justice, and for some of the other cohorts that are starting to gather and emerge around creativity, around leadership, around the feminine. There’s a lot in the works right now, and I’m excited about all of it. And I hope you are too. All right, blessings friends. Share images and stories from your altar in the comments! I’d love to see what spaces you are creating ❤️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Aug 23

Altar Space: Carrying the flame of Rev. Dorothea Harvey.

Continuing this series on what's on my altar and why: this week, a candle handed down to me by a lineage of women leaders. Welcome to my altar space. This morning I’m going to share with you a little bit of the backstory of this angel — the one you see situated at the center of my altar. It’s actually a candle, and it was given to me by the Reverend Renee Machiniak, who received it from the Reverend Dorothea Harvey. Within my denominational body, Dorothea Harvey was the first woman ordained into the ministry of the Swedenborgian Church of North America. She holds a very distinguished position within our tradition as the first woman to inhabit this ministerial role. Receiving this candle from Renee was really special. She gave it to me during a worship service she was leading at the end of one of the first Be Love retreats I facilitated out at the Almont New Church Assembly in Michigan. So there I was, embodying this new ministry — this new way of being church that I call Be Love, Be Honest, Be Useful. We’d had a great retreat together, and then she led this worship service and gave me the candle as a gift. Renee has given me a lot of gifts in my life. I shared last week about the wood carving of the Ascension, which was also from Renee. She was my first mentor as a new seminary student. For her to honor this legacy of women in the church — to name that I’m part of this lineage — is deeply healing and deeply meaningful to me. I am doing things differently than those who came before me, and that doesn’t mean I’m disconnected from them. It’s quite possible that if Dorothea were alive today, she’d have different ideas about how to be church than I do. And we’re still connected. I find it really important to honor lineage — to honor the past, to honor what has formed me and how I’ve come into being — and to recognize that choosing to do things differently, seeking to be different from the ones who came before me, doesn’t mean I’m rejecting them. It doesn’t mean I’m severing ties or cutting off a relationship. It’s actually my attempt to be faithful to what they gave me: to receive it, and then to live it in my own way. That’s one of my deep hopes — for my life, and for the world in general. There’s often a habit of believing that to be different from our forebearers is to reject who they were, to discount or disparage their legacy or their name. But my suggestion is that the healthiest lineages, the healthiest transmissions of life, are ones that change and grow. Our forebearers don’t want us to do it exactly as they did. They want us to do it our way, but to continue carrying the legacy — the tradition, the treasure — which I believe, in the New Church, is beyond form. It’s beyond form, and so it can inhabit many forms. It inhabits my life today. So I share this piece of my altar to share that legacy, to celebrate Dorothea. And I wonder: when you look at the things in your space, what items remind you of your legacy — of the people who nurtured you into being, the traditions you carry and hold? How are you carrying that tradition in a way that honors those who came before you, and honors who you are and what you’re calling into being — something that will serve those who have yet to come? I hope that’s useful to reflect on. Thank you, Renee. Thank you, Dorothea. And thank you all for listening. Share images and stories from your altar in the comments! I’d love to see what spaces you are creating ❤️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Aug 16

Altar Space: The Ascension

Hello friends, happy Sunday. Welcome to Altar Space. This week I am pleased to be sharing this wood carving that I have hanging in my altar area, next to my working space. I think I’ll share this wood carving and then also this painting, because they’re kind of similar, aren’t they? They’re both these beautiful images of embodied women — I seek to be an embodied woman. This wood carving was a gift given to me by one of my mentors, the Reverend Renée Machiniak, not long after I had my profound spiritual experience in 2021, when I was setting off on this journey of trying new things — declaring a new church jubilee, imagining new ways of being church in the world. I was at the Almont New Church Assembly. I believe I gave a lecture that year on dancing, and I invited everybody to dance afterward. And she gave me this wood carving. She found it at a garage sale, I believe. At the bottom of it, it says The Ascension. It’s an image of a woman eliciting this idea of ascending, of ascension — which, within Christianity, is about when Jesus returns to heaven. And there are a lot of people who speak about ascension as another word for regeneration, for growing, for reconnecting to the spiritual level of our being and changing — changing, getting out of the mire, out of the heaviness of life, releasing all of the negative voices of our inner critics that run so much of this earthly show. Releasing that low-vibration survival mentality and way of being, and stepping into the thriving of the spirit — the trust in the eternal, the sense of our oneness and our wholeness. That’s what I’m about. And Renée is about that too. She saw that in me, and she gave me this gift. I’m so grateful — grateful for her friendship. Interestingly, Renée was also my mentor when I was in seminary. I had my first internship with her, and she was the one who taught me to preach without notes — to step away from the script and speak from the heart. She’s been on my journey for a long time, helping me to ascend, to claim my inner knowing and bring it into being in the world. I don’t know if I’d still be walking this walk if it weren’t for her. She has been so encouraging. So I keep this in my altar space, and it’s an interesting complement to this piece over here: a beautiful drawing made by a friend of mine in my first year of college, which I believe I spoke about recently when I was talking about my mandala. I didn’t last that first year of college — I was in a deep existential crisis. In the midst of that crisis, I did have a couple of really good friends, and one of them gave me this when I left college, hoping I would return. I didn’t, sadly, but it’s a beautiful image of a woman. When I think back to myself at eighteen, nineteen years old, I had no idea that I would be considering ascension one day — that there was any way to escape, or transcend, or overcome some of those messages of heaviness and survival. I was deep in survival that first year of college. Deep in not feeling good enough, not feeling like I had anything to offer, having this sense that everybody else knew what was going on with life and I didn’t. And yet there was beauty. This was a beautiful gift from a beautiful friend. Again — how would I have made it through that first year of college had I not had my wonderful friends, Jee and Mildred, if you’re watching? So I keep this picture in my altar area to remember that time and that space — to remember the beauty that came even through the heaviness of my first year of college, and to remember how far I’ve come, and how far I still have to go. So those are today’s altar pieces. I hope you have enjoyed the sharing. Alright — blessings, friends. Share images and stories from your altar in the comments! I’d love to see what spaces you are creating ❤️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Aug 13

Episode 9: The Church

Join me, Reverend Sage Cole, founder of the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, each week as I share different doctrinal truths of the New Church — truths that ground my life, that inspired the life of the great Helen Keller, and that create a portal for the new life so many of us long for. This week’s Note from the New Heaven is about the topic of church. I debated driving over to my husband’s church to film this, or over to the Jehovah’s Witness meeting house just a couple of streets away from me. But I decided to film here, on my hammock — because while there are lots of places we call church, and those places certainly are places where church happens (I’m not disputing that in any way), at the core of the invitation to be church, as far as I can tell, is the invitation to honor the Sabbath: to honor God’s activity in our life, to rest from our labors, and to recognize all that God is doing that we might be here, that we might be alive. So it felt like my hammock was a good place to record this message. This is a place I come to rest and to remember all that is being done around me and in me right now — without my efforts, without my management — all that God is doing. Emanuel Swedenborg really blows open our understanding of church. He says that while church does happen in organized capacities, in buildings and denominations, at its core it’s something that needs to happen in us as individuals — that church is within us insofar as we are recognizing and acknowledging all that God is doing to sustain our lives and guide our lives, and insofar as we’re taking the time to stop our incessant doing and managing. So whether we do that on a hammock or in a kingdom hall, in a church, in a synagogue, or in a river — wherever we do it — to be church, to honor and manifest church in the world, is to give our attention to that Divine life. Another way Swedenborg describes the church is as the meeting point between heaven and earth. It’s where heaven and earth come together, and where the Word is acknowledged and celebrated. (You can go back and look at the video I released a few weeks ago about the Word, if you want to sit with what that might mean.) Whether we live into this invitation through forms like traditional churches, or whether we take the time to be the church in our own unique way, the invitation — and the importance of church — is that we take the time to listen to God, to make space, to remember all that God is doing beyond all the things we think we’re doing, and to align ourselves with that Divine activity. To be a bridge. I like to think of the church as a bridge between heaven and earth, and I want to be close to that bridge. I want my earthly life to be infused with the Divine life, and I want that Divine life to come into this earthly life. I don’t want to just float away into some transcendent state, and I don’t want to toil away here thinking that’s everything life is about. I want to hold both at the same time. And insofar as I hold both at the same time, I am the church. And when I get together with other people who are also holding both of those things at the same time, then we get to be church together — and this is how the church manifests in the world in larger and larger ways. Perhaps this is a good moment to say what I mean when I talk about the new church, for those of you for whom this is all still new. The new church is what Swedenborg saw the church growing into. Remember, he was writing in the 1700s, in the years after the Reformation — the church was the Catholic Church, and then it was these new Protestant churches. He perceived that the branches of the church that existed at the time were focused on outward form: on doctrine and practice as the measure of true religion, rather than on the deeper transformation of who we really are. Swedenborg saw that church had to go much deeper than that. It wasn’t about outward observance — it was about who we were becoming on the inside. He foresaw a new church coming into being in the world, where human beings would come to understand that it was this inner reality of who we are — more than the ways we practice together — where God met us. So when I say you can be church on your hammock, or in a building, or taking care of your kids, or in the river, I’m speaking of that new church. And even though we’re all sometimes doing it in very different ways, there’s a unity that connects us — a spiritual connection where this new church is coming into being, where we are recognizing the Divine life, honoring it, resting in it, making space for it, receiving it, and bringing it into our external lives. We’re seeking to do that individually, and we’re seeking to do that with others. I hope that makes some sense. I hope wherever you are, you might take some time today to remember and give thanks for all that God is doing to make life possible in this given moment. So I hope you get to church today. Blessings, friends. Thanks for tuning in — and if any of these truths particularly speak to you, I hope you’ll join us this fall for some larger conversations I want to hold. I’d love to hear your experience with them. These truths are only true insofar as we live them, and I’m so excited to hear about yours. Many blessings, friends. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Aug 9

Altar Space: Swedenborg's Rules of Life

This week: Swedenborg’s Rules of Life For my next installment, I’m taking you to a different part of my room — right next to my bed, by my bedside table. This is Swedenborg’s Rules of Life. I purchased it many years ago on a visit to Bryn Athyn — it was actually a coloring page, and I colored in the designs myself and framed it. I’ve had it in my workspace, in my room, for probably over a decade now. I like keeping it close. There’s some debate I’ve heard over the years about whether these were actually Swedenborg’s rules of life. He certainly didn’t publish and distribute them, saying, “Everybody, keep this by your bedside.” But I believe he had them sketched somewhere in his writings — so they were rules for him, at least for a time. Perhaps they shifted over his lifetime. There are four of them, and I’ll read each one to you and talk about it a bit. First: To diligently read and meditate on the Word of God This is what I mentioned in my last video, and I’ve spoken about it again recently. There’s a very literal meaning here — read your scripture, read your Bible every day, meditate on what Word of God is coming through that scripture, on the inner sense. But if we consider the Word of God as speaking in many forms, I’d suggest you can diligently read and meditate on the Word of God by observing nature, by observing life, by considering and meditating on what word — what meaning — is coming through. This was essential to Swedenborg’s life and certainly his spiritual life. He spent time deep in the scriptures, and that was what he brought to the world through all of his writings about the inner sense — the deeper meaning of the scriptural story. Second: To be content under the dispensations of God’s providence I resonate with this one — finding contentment wherever we happen to be along this journey of life, trusting that providence is moving through us in this moment, in this experience. And finding some contentment — not passivity, not “this is just what God is doing and I have no power or control.” Obviously that’s not true. God gave us agency, the ability to think and act and imagine. So to trust in the dispensations of Divine providence is to trust where we are, and to trust our inner faculties — our inspirations, our dreams, our visions — and to carry them out, to act with the trust that providence is in us and with us, helping us move toward heaven. This has been so helpful, so important to me, especially when I reflect on falling into loops of self-condemnation, fear, depression, anxiety — that whole experience of not trusting, of not having that trust. But Swedenborg wrote this as a rule: to be content under the dispensations of Divine providence, to trust where we are and the resources at our disposal. It feels very significant and important, and it has comforted me to have this in my space, to be reminded of it. Third: To observe propriety of behavior and to keep the conscience clear So much of the spiritual life we reflect on as this deeply inner process — and a lot of it is. But it’s equally relevant to our relationships, to how we act in the world and with each other. When we get caught up in cycles of isolation and separation, that often brings out the worst in us, and we cause harm to people. I’m sure if you sit quietly for a minute, you can think of moments when you’ve caused harm, or been part of a system where harm was at play. I love that this is the third one, because I think every day reflecting on where I’ve caused harm, where I can bring repair, where I can offer forgiveness, where I can offer restoration, where I can repent and change — that’s really speaking to the necessity of humility along the way. Just knowing that in these physical forms, oh my gosh, we’re going to bump up against each other. Part of this rule of life is recognizing that and doing something about it — keeping the conscience clear not by being perfect and somehow avoiding harm, because that’s not a possibility, but by acknowledging that it will happen and making it right. Fourth: To obey what is ordered, to attend faithfully to one’s office and other duties, and to make oneself useful to society in general We all have a role to play. In Swedenborg’s time, those roles were quite clear; he was the surveyor of mines, and he had particular tasks within the government at different times. Those roles were very clear, and it’s great to know what your role is and to be able to perform it. I’d say right now, in the world, roles are getting very mixed up and challenged. It’s not always clear — just because it’s our role, sometimes we need to question it and wonder if this is the role we’re meant to play. Sometimes in my ministry I’ve had a very particular role that I’ve taken great pride in fulfilling. As I am now off in this new territory, building something new, I’m having to listen to the role that God is giving me, and it’s not always clear what it means to fulfill it. This fourth rule — as much as we need to be conscientious of how we fulfill our role — is also just a reminder that we’re part of something larger. We’re not just here for ourselves, and we likely do have a very important role to play in society at large. I’m a mother — that’s a very important role. I’m a citizen of this country — that’s an important role. I’m a member of my community, and I’m a minister in the Swedenborgian Church of North America, and I take that role seriously in how I’m called to support my colleagues in this community and help it grow. So those are Swedenborg’s Rules of Life. They’re on my altar, in my altar space. I wonder if they’re in yours — I’m sure I’m not the only one who purchased this in Bryn Athyn one day, decades ago. If you have this on your wall, I’d love to see a picture, and maybe hear something about how Swedenborg’s Rules of Life have informed your life. Take care, friends. Follow this link if you’d like to print a copy of your own Rules of Life from the New Church Vineyard! Share images and stories from your altar in the comments! I’d love to see what spaces you are creating❤️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Aug 6

Episode 8: Jesus & The Divine Humanity

Join me, Reverend Sage Cole, founder of the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, each week as I share different doctrinal truths of the New Church — truths that ground my life, that inspired the life of the great Helen Keller, and that create a portal to the new life so many of us long for. This week: Jesus and the Divine Humanity. I decided to offer my reflections on Jesus and the Divine Humanity here in my kitchen sink, here in the heart of my home — to ground me in the heart of my humanity, which is at the heart of what I want to share about who Jesus was and is, and what it means to consider and live into a divine humanity. The New Church that I’m part of, and that inspires these videos, is also understood as a new Christianity. One of the books Emanuel Swedenborg wrote was called True Christianity. He saw his insights and wisdom as seeking to bring the world a renewed understanding of what it means to be Christian. And I don’t know about you, but I’m guessing you may also feel that the world needs a renewed understanding of what it means to be Christian — and that this renewed understanding is actually coming into being. I certainly see so many signs of it: really beautiful people doing good work to transform and shift what it means to be Christian. Because so far on the planet, after a couple thousand years of people attempting to be Christian, we’ve seen a lot of poor execution. We’ve seen the church become indulgent and materialistic. We’ve seen the church become violent and oppressive. We’ve seen simplistic understandings of Christianity — that it means saying the right words and appearing the right way and then finding salvation. We’ve seen the church be, at times, a deeply oppressive entity in the world on huge scales. I know in my own time on this planet that naming myself as a Christian has sometimes been a hard thing to do, because people immediately assume things about that, given the way Christianity has played out thus far. What I want to share in this message is that when we really read the scriptures — when we really listen to what Jesus said, how Jesus lived, and what message Jesus was seeking to convey — and when we add to that the insights of Emanuel Swedenborg and others who have embodied the Christian message, we see that all of the ways the Christian church has harmed humanity are really the antithesis of the message Jesus was seeking to bring. This was on Swedenborg’s mind when he had his revelation and sought to share and renew. And it’s still on our minds right now: how can we renew and create a true Christianity? I want to share a few points that are meaningful to me as I seek to live a true Christianity. The Divine in us. One is to really get the message that Jesus embodied and lived in pretty much every teaching he offered: that he had come from the Divine, and that we come from the Divine too. Much of the long perversion of the church has been setting Jesus apart from humanity, and then lifting up an elevated class of priests and officials who mediate the love of God through the church. This is a distortion. Jesus in communion, in the washing of his disciples’ feet — so much of Jesus’ message was him embodying Divine life and seeking to wake up those around him to recognize that they, too, carry this Divine life within them. And that’s really important. So for me, to have faith in Jesus, to have faith in the Divine humanity he manifested in the world, is to love my own Divine humanity — to honor the sacredness of my participation in life. I find that deeply profound and meaningful. It’s helpful to have the embodied life of Christ as an example of what that Divine humanity looks and feels like — not that my Divine humanity needs to look just like his, but that I, too, can live into the fullness of who I am called to be, in the same way Jesus lived into the fullness of who he was called to be. That is what it looks like to be a faithful Christian. Humanity as sacred. I’m also deeply moved by the understanding that humanity itself is a sacred, Divine thing. Right now in the world — let alone the perversions of the Christian church — humans have been causing a lot of trouble. I spoke about that in a previous video on heaven and hell. Sometimes it’s suggested that we should be eradicated, that we’re a scourge upon this earth. But the example of Jesus offers an incredible, beautiful depiction of what the human can be: the powerful, transformative ability to see our connection to the whole, and to live from that in ways that are peaceful, loving, caring, compassionate, and justice-oriented. That feels really important right now, when we’re seeing a lot of our faults. Jesus showed us that there is something very, very good about the embodied human being who loves others — that this simple act of loving one another has profound effects. I’m inspired by that. It makes me feel good about my own ability to love, and to know that love is not for nothing — that it’s incredibly important, alive, real, and something uniquely human. Crucifixion and resurrection. Lastly, there is something so profound about Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus walked this walk, embodied this love, manifested this love in the world, showed us that we too can manifest this love — and was killed for it. Through his crucifixion, there’s a profound invitation for all of us to recognize that part of embracing the Christ life, part of embracing our full humanity, is to experience our own crucifixion. It is to die before we die — to realize that the selfish impulses he showed us we can transform will, in fact, need to be transformed. There’s no way around it. The Divine life is in us just as much as it was in Christ, and for it to be fully realized, it must go through that same transformation. Jesus went through so many things — wandering in the desert, his baptism, his persecution and death — and did not abandon that love, did not abandon that Divine life, even as he faced all these externalities. Our own Divine life isn’t secured by avoiding suffering, avoiding the challenges of being human, avoiding pain — it’s secured by walking through it, by facing it with our minds and hearts fixed on this higher life. So those are just a few of my reflections on Christ and the Divine Humanity. I look forward to diving more deeply into this conversation in the fall, and I’m curious what reflections you have on Jesus. Many blessings, friends. Thanks for tuning in. And if any of these truths particularly speak to you, I hope you’ll join us this fall for some larger conversations I want to hold, because I’d love to hear your experience with them. These truths are only true insofar as we live them. I’m so excited to hear about your experience. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com
Jul 30

Episode 7: The Word

Join me, Reverend Sage Cole, founder of the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, each week as I share different doctrinal truths of the New Church that ground my life, that inspired the life of the great Helen Keller, and that create a portal for the new life that so many of us long for. This week: The Word Well, I’ve found the perfect corner of the world to speak about the Word — the Word of God. People involved in the church, people interested and concerned with the spiritual life, people yearning for truth, for reality, for love, have long been concerned with this question of the Word of God: what it is to dwell with the Word of God, to be faithful to it, to listen for it, to live by it. Within the New Church, we speak about the Word of God as being the inner sense we find told in the story of the Bible, and also in the story of the natural world — the ways of nature that we perceive and experience: the birdsong, the trees, the green, the cycles of life that move through death and decay to rebirth and germination, to blossoming and sprouting. The Word of God, as the inner sense of the Bible, moves through the stories of the Garden of Eden, through the tumult of all the inner books of the Bible — the ups and the downs, the slavery, the freedom — all the way to the image of the Holy City, where again the tree of life is found, where the rivers flow, where there is life now within the containment of a jeweled city full of people of diverse origins and diverse pursuits. The Word of God seems to be telling a story of evolution, of growth, of cycles of change — cycles of being bound and then freed again. And in the New Church, this Word is called to become flesh, to come into us, so that we observe it, we hear it, we read it, we study it. We look to the incredible insights Emanuel Swedenborg brought to understanding the scriptures, so that all that understanding, all that perceiving, then becomes embodied in our own stories. Because truth be told, each one of us as a being is also on a journey of evolution and expansion. Each one of us is going through phases of enslavement and freedom. Each one of us is on a journey to the Holy City. So in that way, when I consider contemplating the Word of God, meditating on the Word of God, there are so many ways to do that. We can do it in a sanctuary, listening to someone read the scripture and share its inner meaning through a sermon. We can do it in our own private study, reading and meditating. We can do it with others. We can also do it by walking through the forest, noticing, appreciating, and coming to connect with the life — the Word — that is being expressed right here and right now. We can do it by paying close attention to our day-to-day lives, and the messages, the insights, the growing awareness that is beckoning us every moment. The Word of God is constantly speaking. It’s up to us to listen. I have, by my bedside, Swedenborg’s four rules of life, and the first one is to daily contemplate on the Word of God. I believe that’s so important for each one of us, whether it be through the scriptures or through just deep noticing of the events and experiences of your own life. There’s something powerful about remembering that God is constantly speaking to us through these many different holy portals he has offered us — portals that have been expanding and growing all the time, to the point where now we have these portals of YouTube videos, where we can speak and share the Word we receive and feel called to express. This Word is the Logos. It is truth being revealed, and it is accessible to all of us. It is the inner meaning — the deepest inner meaning — of all of life’s experiences. And it is beautiful, and it is good, and it is moving in this direction of expansion and wholeness. Perhaps at this time more than ever, it’s important for us to expand and declare this wider, deeper understanding of how God speaks to us — especially when so many forces seem to want to take biblical stories at the most literal level and twist and turn them in oppressive ways. Let’s not be tricked into thinking that any of this is about the Word of God. The Word of God speaks truth. It speaks life. It speaks freedom. And it’s speaking right now. I pray that we are listening. Thanks for tuning in. And if any of these truths particularly speak to you, I hope you’ll join us this fall for some larger conversations that I want to hold, because I’d love to hear your experience with them. These truths only are true insofar as we live them, and I’m so excited to hear about your experience. Many blessings, friends. Sage This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit worshipislife.substack.com

As a part of the initiative of the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, founder Rev. Sage Cole interviews fellow workers in the field of love to ask "How does love flourish? What get's in the way?" A mix of one-one personal interviews, topical conversations and direct sharing we aim to get honest about love! worshipislife.substack.com

Creator

Be Love & Be Honest
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

105
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Sage Cole
Show Website

Be Love