3rd Advent Sunday

Man as a Material Spiritual Being

Gospel Reading: Phillipe 4: 4-9

Dear Community of Christians,

We all know the great, expectant joy when we wait for the visit of a loved one. 

Adventus domini, Advent – is the expectation of the coming of the Lord. We celebrate this time of Advent weeks before Christmas in this spiritual mood of anticipation. In our time, the question may be asked, do we really feel this joyful expectation? 

I think, what we can perhaps feel is this expectation of the Lord, but it is more than our loving look at the little child in the stable. Each of us has an image in our soul of what “Lord” means and we come quickly to the answer: “God”, but it is not the only interpretation, it contains also: “Man”. Can we also say, God in Man? First, we must clarify our thoughts, what kind of image of God and of man do we carry in our selves? For example, is the image of man only a bringing together of a physical-material mass - or can we come to an image of man that becomes the temple for divinity? The human being’s fulfillment lies in the future, but the goal is rooted and contained in us all.  

It seems to be ever more obvious that today's science sees man as an apparatus in need of repair, a science which is geared towards the machine repair workshop of modern medicine. This modern medicine of the machine is greased by corporate interests and the political powers funded by them. If we leave science to follow this train of thought, then the further development, or even the continued existence of mankind stands at the abyss of nothing.  
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What concrete help is available to us during the festive periods of Advent and Christmas? We can turn to the grandiose masterpiece of the Messiah that Georg Fredric Handel gave us containing the knowledge "I know that my redeemer lives". And He wants to live in us as His temple. We can always make this newly alive in these weeks of our festive season.

Rev. Ute Koenig