Sermon: 23rd May '21

Pentecost and Inner Leadership

Gospel Reading: John 14: 23-31

Dear Community of Christians,

In the Christian world there are many different customs for celebrating the various festivals in the home and in church communities. It is an attempt to approach a deeper understanding of the respective festival with external markings. Such customs arose at a time when the spiritual life warmed the souls of men. For example, at Pentecost, white doves were released into the heavens, or the Whitsun fires were lit on the mountains. Such customs have disappeared more and more from social life. One can also feel this as a loss, especially if they were meaningful customs.

On the other hand, the disappearance of such customs shows the progress of human consciousness. And so today the question arises: what has taken the place of meaningful heart-warming customs? Certainly, there is a loss of understanding of the deeper meaning of Christianity itself. And related to this is the loss of the sense of each Christian festival.

The soul distress of many people points to a loss of which people are not aware of in their souls. It is the loss of the Christ Being as our soul guide. No heavenly being has ever inhabited a human body and then led a purely human life, with the necessity of also having to eat and drink.

​The being we call Christ has taken this step with all its consequences in order to no longer be at home in heaven, in the spiritual-divine world, but in the realm of earth, in living together with human beings. And now, with the event of Pentecost, it is possible for every single human soul to experience this leadership inwardly, perhaps also recognizing its significance in one's own destiny. This can then perhaps be experienced as a flame of realization in our consciousness.

Rev. Ute Koenig