Gospel Reading: ​Luke 21 :25- 36

Dear Community of Christians,

Adventus in Latin is translated Arrival. Could it be also said: the coming? Coming could mean a new day, a new chance, a new guest arriving, because it is expected.

But it could also mean bad news, an uninvited guest, or even trouble is coming our way. Of the first we have a clear knowledge; the second we suspect, or are fearful of. Both have to do with the certainty it will come towards us. Who puts the obscuring veil over the unexpected part of what is coming? Is it our consciousness itself that is not ready to see the reality of the world or fails to take seriously enough?

Our Gospel reading in Advent has an apocalyptic character. The text points to the signs that should make us aware of the apocalyptic character of our time. Do we have a clear awareness of these signs by now?

Within the human being, the fear of death is a clear sign of our distance and our lack of understanding of the working of the cosmos.

Within society, we find the sign of unquestioning followers to material laws; that ignore the working of the spiritual. These facts must be accepted.

What remains as a task is to connect with the spiritual world again and again on a personal level. To find where the spirituality shines in small things, and in the community between people, and thus gives strength and security. And everything that than comes towards us, bad or good, can be welcomed.

Dear Community of Christians,

Adding to or taking away from something whole or perfect, as we have heard in Revelations, has consequences.

In telling the story of an event we all know our little weakness: to embellish a little, to add something that doesn't quite correspond to the reality. It may be the joy of telling a story, but it may also be our pride, which like a story bigger than exists.

We also know another weakness, to describe an event where we leave some things out, making it not quite truthful. What we want to hide through this omission usually lives unconsciously in our soul. On the human level, these are weaknesses of character, dark spots on our soul. We can work on it; we can even try to ignore it; or we can begin to transform it.

But what does it mean in view of Christian, ethical and moral qualities, when the soul of society allows something that is not fully true? What does it mean when man adds half-truths to such deeply human qualities; does it inhibit society’s necessary development? Is there anything that we could call the dark spot, the shadow in the humanized soul of society?

Are we in the process of losing the Christian spiritual values of human society, and shall we be deprived of that decisive quality of self-determination? The last words in the book of revelation, are the words of the Christ Impulse for mankind:

“Whoever adds anything extra to these words, to him God will also add trials which are described in this book. And if anyone takes anything away from the prophetic words of this book, from him will God take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city.”

The sacrificial power of the Christ, born of love for humanity, now needs faithful following, perhaps even new human sacrificial power, so that the impulse of the love of Christ is not lost for humanity. Everybody can bring love, empathy and gratitude as sacrificial power to the soul of human society; to hinder the addition of falsehoods and the removal of rights.

Dear Community of Christians,

To evoke such grandiose pictures and to find a glimpse of heart understanding of these images, could leave us feeling helpless.

It could be a real help to cross this abyss of understanding to consider pictures, images of fairy tales. Mostly, the fairy tale images encompass past and future and what happens in between is the struggle to attain the given goal by individuals. Admittedly not everyone who sets out reaches the goal. It is often the arrogance, the presumption, the weakness of will of those failed aspirants, that become stones, insurmountable hurdles that can no longer be overcome.

The fairy tale of “Sleeping Beauty” shows archetypal pictures. In the beginning with the birth of the little girl, the beautiful human soul, the world was whole. The twelve wonderful offerings were nearly fulfilled, when a necessary hurdle to further development, a curse, broke into the whole as confusion, as sleep, as darkness. But there was still the twelfth fairy blessing, and with her word the chance was offered to redeem the work of wholeness.
 
The impenetrable hedge of thorns, which enclosed the ideal world we know as the intellect. This intellect does not allow anything that widens the view of man to what exists behind the hedge of thorns, as a true spiritual world. Only when the time is ripe, the strengthened ego forces have gained the insurmountable courage and the transformed human soul becomes visible in its inexpressible beauty. Then the world can arise anew and transformed.

Perhaps in these archetypal pictures we may catch a glimpse of the New Jerusalem.

Gospel Reading: Revelations 14: 1-20

Dear Community of Christians,

The Book of Revelations tells us that the figure of the Son of Man can be seen standing on a cloud, wearing a golden crown on his head, with a sickle in his hand. With a loud voice an angel calls "Strike with your sickle and reap -- for the time of harvest has come.”

A few years ago we might have said this is certainly a dramatic picture, but it belongs to a distant future.

Today however, after two years of a global crisis, freedom of expression a thing of the past, without the right to determine what happens with our own bodies, we might look at these apocalyptic images with a different awareness.

We can no longer ignore the fact that opposing forces want to steer world development in a different direction.

The sickle in the hand of the Son of Man, Christ, is swung to reap the harvest. But with the good harvest, the chaff is also destroyed. This chaff is useless in view of developments that stand in the way of the spiritual progress of humanity.

If we as humans want to be part of the good harvest, it is important to develop spiritual thoughts and feelings during our life on earth and not to perceive them as irrelevant.

In order to avoid being manipulated by the dark forces, we can aspire to become free-thinking individuals willing to take on responsibility for our own actions and be guided by our heart-centred connection to the spirit. This mighty task can only truly be tackled out of a common Christ consciousness.

​If we direct our attention to this path, we will cultivate Christian capacities and an abundant harvest gathered by the sickle in the hand of the Son of Man.