The Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Descent of the New Jerusalem

Establishing the Foundation for Our Future Becoming: The Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Descent of the New Jerusalem by Rev. Michaël Merle at Whitsun 2024

by John-Peter Gernaat

At Whitsun we celebrate the descent of the Spirit in what appears like flames above the heads of the apostles. The title of the talk also refers to the descent of the New Jerusalem. We are concerned with what descends from the heavens.

Were we to turn to the Old Testament, one of the clearest images of something descending from heaven is in the Frist Book of Kings when Elijah, the prophet, calls to the heavens and fire descends from the heavens. Elijah is challenged by the priests of Baal. Baal literally means ‘Lord’, he is the lord of the people to whom Elijah has been sent as a prophet. The priests of Baal build an altar and upon this altar they place a heifer as a sacrifice, and they call upon Baal to accept their sacrifice by consuming it with fire. Their earnest prayers and ceremonial appeals are all ignored. Elijah then builds his altar. He does not use the altar of the priests of Baal. Instead, he builds a new altar with twelve stones. This is a picture that prefigures the New Jerusalem which is built with twelve foundation stones. Each of the stones of Elijah’s altar represents one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the case of the New Jerusalem the foundation stones represent the twelve apostles. The foundation of the New Jerusalem goes beyond the tribes of Israel as the apostles are sent to all the peoples of the world.

Elijah digs a trench around his altar that is twice the size of a standard furrow for planting crops. He asks the people who have come to witness the event to wet the altar with water. Three times he asks that the altar to be soaked with water until the trench is also filled with water. He does this to prove that there is no secret fire hidden within the altar. When Elijah prays to YHWH (Yahweh of the Elohim), fire rains down from heaven consuming the offering. A heavenly fire rains down.

This story establishes a picture that there is a fire in heaven that can be rained down upon the earth. This story corresponds to the idea of descending the elemental ladder of fire, air, water and earth. In his preparation of the altar Elijah has employed three of the elements: air in the movement of the work, water that he asked to be poured on the altar of offering, and earth in the digging of the trench that he dug around the altar. Only fire is missing, and this comes down from heaven. This is a pure fire, a fire that purifies, and a holy fire. These are elements that link the fire with the Divine. This is part of an understanding of connecting with the essence of the Divine.

Then, in the Old Testament, there is the prophet Ezekiel, the prophet of great vision. Along with Daniel, the visions of Ezekiel are a source for the imagery that John can reference in his Revelation. When he says that it is “like a lion”, or “like a bull”, or “a roaring thunder” or “many eyes”, he is making reference to the visions of Ezekiel and Daniel.

Ezekiel 40: In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, fourteen years after Jerusalem had been taken, the hand of Yahweh was upon me. In a divine vision he took me away, to the land of Israel; and put me down on a very high mountain, on the south of which there seemed to be built a city. He took me to it; and there, I saw a man who seemed to be made of bronze. He had a flax cord and a measuring rod in his hand, and was standing in the gateway. The man said to me, “Son of man (the human being), look carefully, listen closely, and pay attention to everything I show you, since they brought you here, for me to show it to you. Tell the people of Israel everything that you see.” The house was surrounded with a wall; and the man was holding a measuring rod that was six great cubits. He measured the thickness of this construction—one rod; and its height—one rod.

The construction measures one rod by one rod by one rod; it is a cube. In the Book of Kings, the Holy of Holies is described. It is a cube. The idea of a cube being perfection is one by one by one. This is the root for the number 1000. The number 10 represents completion. A perfect completion is therefore 10 by 10 by 10. This is 1000. This 1000 added to any other number completes that number perfectly. Thus, twelve by twelve is the full picture of community. The repetition of a number confirms the number that has been established. Thus, twelve by twelve confirms the number twelve. By adding 1000 the number is completed perfectly. Thus, 144 000 is the full community confirmed and perfectly completed. Nothing falls outside of this number.

As the man continues measuring, he measures a complete temple of the future. However, when the angel measures the New Jerusalem there is no longer a temple. God is with His people and therefore communication with God is direct and no temple is needed.

Our future becoming is essential. In the descent of the Holy Spirit there is a direction, a direction from the heavens to the earth; this is not accidental. The descent of the Holy Spirit is an input from the heavenly world because the earthly world was dying under our guardianship. When we listen to the Act of Consecration, we hear the proclamation of apostles in the upper room hearing what is like a rushing wind, and then seeing the flames above the heads of the other apostles. The flames are drawn into the apostles and then we hear that the flames stream heavenward. The flame must stream forth from human hearts. This changes the direction. The descent of the Holy Spirit to the human being is also an ascent of the Spirit from the human being back to the heavenly world; what it means to be Spirit-filled on earth.

This is what makes the descent of the New Jerusalem interesting. What descends from the heavens is in the form of a human creation. It is a city. It is not a garden. It is co-created. We have participated in the creation of the New Jerusalem through the Spirit streaming from our hearts. We inform the spiritual world and provide the picture that can be created spiritually and descend. It is a marriage between heaven and earth according to the Book of Revelation. This is where we make a difference. The future is shaped here on earth through what we do, here.

The city that descends from heaven is a perfect city: it is a cube. It has a wall around it (rather than a trench). It has twelve foundation stones that are silicates. These are the stones that make up the crust of the earth. They are gifts of the zodiac and represent the twelve apostles, but they are from the earth. They represent the apostles because, like the gateways of the New Jerusalem, the apostles open up to the whole world and all the peoples of the world. It is a city without a temple because the Divine lives in the city. The Lamb is at the centre of the city. The people are described as trees of life. They fruit twelve times a year. They fruit in every zodiacal cycle. There is no summer or winter. The season is always summer because the light is central to the city. Therefore, the human being, as the tree of life, fruits all the time and we bear leaves that heal. An angel comes and measures the New Jerusalem. It is the image from the visions of Ezekiel that instruct us in the importance of a measuring rod.

We enter into the place that we have co-created as an inner reality. Without the descent of the Holy Spirit there cannot be the descent of the New Jerusalem. It is only through the descent of the Holy Spirit that we have become co-creators in the new creation. The New Jerusalem cannot descend without something first having ascended. Not Christ and his Ascension; his Ascension was necessary for the Holy Spirit to descend. After the descent of the Holy Spirit something of our activity must ascend to the heavens.

This is what we are offering when we come to the altar. We are offering ourselves: “Take me” we hear in the ritual. We offer the work that we have undertaken through the Spirit in us on the substance of our being, which is from the Father, back to the Father. This can only be offered if we are involved. It cannot happen without us and places us in a position of great responsibility. We live between the descent of the Holy Spirit and the descent of the New Jerusalem. Only though our work will the New Jerusalem come into being. We are people of Whitsun, no matter how we perceive the world around us. The Spirit is in us, and we have the capacity to engage with the Spirit and do something, which is to let the flame stream forth from the human heart.

We need to take responsibility for what is happening in the world through whom we follow. We should support only leaders who work for the good of humanity. Refer to the contemplation in this newsletter to see what our work in human life is. If we all engaged and lived a life of engagement it would make a difference in the world. When we abdicate our responsibility, this essential work will not be done. Without the work the descent of the New Jerusalem is delayed. The descent of the Holy Spirit must become a reality in our ongoing activity. Whitsun/Pentecost is not a past event that we celebrate in memory thereof, it is a reminder of the continuous engagement that we have with this reality of the Spirit in us.