The Passiontide Epistle - a talk by Rev. Bridgette Siepker on Sunday, 15 March

by John-Peter Gernaat

​On Sunday, 15 March, Rev. Bridgette Siepker spoke about the Passiontide Epistle. What can we learn from the letter from the world of spirit about our relationship to the spiritual world and the spiritual world to us?

Before Christ came to the earth, human beings felt themselves to be separated from the spiritual world. The desire to connect with the spiritual world led people to attempt to purify themselves as a way of reconnecting. Through a long process of purification, an initiate could raise himself out of life into the spiritual world for a short period of time. The writings of the Hebrews share that they had to remove sins before they were worthy to enter the Temple.

When John the Baptist was able to proclaim, “There goes the Lamb of God”, it signified that Jesus had become the scapegoat for human sin. The divine united with human sin. The divine entered into the realm of sin and took this realm upon himself.

Through this deed, we can now live with sin and with God at the same time. The need for purity to approach the divine is past. The One bearing our sins lives in us!

Although we have this new knowledge, we have continued to live from the old mysteries. We no longer have to ascend to God; God has come down to humanity. In the Movement for Religious Renewal, we are working from this new Mystery.

In 2 Corinthians 4,

​We are not proclaiming ourselves, we proclaim Christ Jesus, the Lord. In the service of Jesus, we serve you. God Himself, who spoke the word:

​Out of the darkness let the light shine forth!

​He has lit the light in our hearts. It leads us to illumination through insight into the world of lights of the divine revelation which streams towards us from the countenance of Christ.

​we hear that God Himself spoke the word, “Out of the darkness let the light shine forth!” He has lit the light in our hearts. This tells us that although we may live in the place of death, death will not overcome us: the life of Christ is in us. Our heart may feel empty, yet Christ is the seed within our core.

We experience earthly life as if we are asleep because the spirit of awakening is difficult to access. It is in our blood that we experience the place of our life where longing arises. We share the air we breathe with every other living being. It is here that we may experience hope arising. Our consciousness experiences the separation from the divine, and we may become aware of a mournful lamenting within our consciousness that is seeking to reunite with the divine. We recognise the sting of evil within us and ask only for it to be overlooked. We can overcome the tempting power of weakness within ourselves. We, who should be upright in this world experience ourselves as being flat on the ground. The spirit that lives in us and brings us to Christ Consciousness can raise us. The “I” is accessible to us through the spirit.

We are never alone in earthly life; our work is met with grace. Hope is the doorway for grace.