Sermon: 9th May 21

The Father

Gospel Reading: John 4:1-31

Dear Community of Christians,

For all beings, from plants to humans, it is a prerequisite of being on earth that there is the need of a fatherly, and a motherly element.

And as human beings we can consciously experience the example our own father in different ways. We could discover the whole range of thoughts, feelings and emotions. And this experience has shaped our idea and our ideal of a father as someone who feels responsible for the family.

In the moment when Christ speaks of the Father, we get confused. Especially when Christ says to his disciples: “Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father in me.” This means, the father was permanently present in Christ, but the Father is also present in another realm when Christ goes to the Father.

When we try to understand Christ’s word, we have to go back to the Creative Spirit of the heavens and of the earth. The father is the original essence of all being and becoming, and is also in the elemental world, and beyond, with the hierarchies.

The magnitude of the Father God is thus present in our physicality, but also in our soul substance and in all other earthly realms. The Father spirit ever works in the body and soul. Therefore, in our Creed is the sentence: “An almighty divine being spiritual-physical is the ground of existence of the heaven and of the earth who goes before his creatures like a Father.” This has its validity to this day and for eternity.
Admittedly, the adversarial powers distorted this image of the Father spirit and death is identified with the Father God today.  Does it mean that we do not have a truthful image of the working of the divine Father today?

We can also ask ourselves whether our view of illness and death has its origin in the distorted image of the Father God? A central question! Every human being faces the fact that he or she will die at some point.  However, the awareness of being able to reconnect with the original creative forces of the cosmos means connecting with the creative light and power that originally lay at the root of creation. Would dying not take on another quality? A new view on Death and illness can lead to life or death, and take on a completely new aspect. After death we will become part of this creative power and in this way, it becomes an important responsibility how we die. To have no truthful image of the Father is a tragedy for mankind.

Rudolf Steiner said:
“not to recognize the Father God is illness. As a result, we also don’t recognize Christ in the right way and that means misfortune, and not recognizing the Holy Spirit means blindness of the soul.”

Rev. Ute Koenig