by Rev. Michaël Merle
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In Chapter 21 of The Revelation to John (The Book of the Apocalypse: Revelation) we read part of the description of the New Jerusalem, a picture of a mighty vision experienced by John in the Spiritual World: “The city has a great and high wall and twelve gates. And on the gates twelve angels, and names were written on them: the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.” (verse 12)
 
This year we hope to uncover an understanding of the twelve ways in which we can enter the New Jerusalem.

The way of Issachar 
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Issachar was a scholar. Scholarship provides wisdom in understanding, clarity of comprehension, and direction. Good scholarship is the foundation of any system. Issachar represents the inspiration to immerse in study and education.

The symbols associated with Issachar provide us with the two fundamental aspects of what he represents for us as one of the ways into our future unfolding. The first symbol associated with Issachar is an astronomical configuration: the sun surrounded by stars. Issachar was to give the whole of Israel’s family and descendants knowledge of the unfolding of time. This symbol speaks to the various great cycles of time that pass in the course of time: each star representing a constellation of time and development. It is not unusual for eight stars to be represented in a circle around the sun. These speak of an eight-fold path or steps on the way that remind us that the true understanding of development is not only an outer one but also an inner one. The second symbol of Issachar is that of the donkey: the strong, hard working, humble donkey. Here we understand that the inner attitude of humility, strength and hard work are the hallmarks of all true scholars.

Report by John-Peter Gernaat
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The purpose of this talk is to connect again with the ten pericopes, the ten passages carefully selected from the gospels, for the ten Sundays between St John’s and Michaelmas. In the event that there are only nine Sundays in this period of Trinity the first of the ten pericopes is read on the last Sunday of St.  John's. These pericopes are set for this period. These readings are carefully chosen to take us on a journey from the message of John the Baptist and what he is announcing through to what Michael is now able to do in our times.

The great task of John is to be a witness, to be the one who can see the Spirit descending from the heavens and uniting itself with this human being, Jesus of Nazareth. John is the witness, but prior to being the witness he was, one can truly say, the last prophet, because he is the one announcing that something is about to happen and that we must be prepared for it. The key message is that the Kingdom of God is close at hand, it's coming, so prepare for it now by changing your ways, “metanoia”: transform your heart, your mind, your whole way of being. Turn within to face what is coming, be ready. This is a really strong message. When John is asked: “Who are you? Are you a prophet?”, he takes a position of great humility and answers: “No”. “Are you Elijah?” “No” “Are you the Christ?” “No, He comes after me.” He then quotes the words of Isiaah: “I am the voice crying out in the desolation of the desert experience of being on earth. I am the voice that says, ‘make straight the way of the Lord’”. John really sets us on a way, on the way of an internal experience.

For the first five Sundays after St. John’s, we are still very much 'on the way', the way that St John has set for us. It is interesting that in the Gospel of John we hear that John recognises through his witnessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lamb of God. He wasn't the Lamb of God before the baptism, He is the Lamb of God as a consequence of the uniting of Christ with the human constitution of Jesus of Nazareth. John says to his disciples who are gathered with him, “there goes the Lamb of God”. Two of those disciples turn and follow the path that John has indicated: “there goes the Lamb of God”, and they follow Jesus on the path. As they follow Jesus He turns around and asks them the fundamental question: “What are you seeking?” The answer they give needs a little opening up of the translation that is normally given, which is: “Where do you live?” What they are asking is: “We want to know where your life is?”, “Where do we find you in life?”, “Where do you abide?”, “How do we find it and connect to it?”. Jesus says: “Come and see”, “Come on the journey and see”. For the first five weeks we are on a journey. For the purpose of this lecture these five weeks will be called ‘the way of St John’.

The second five weeks move from St John to Michaelmas. When we read the ten pericopes we see the second five mirror the first five, in reverse order, so that what we hear on the first Sunday we hear again on the tenth, and similarly the ninth mirrors the second, eight mirrors three, seven mirrors four, and six mirrors the pericope of week five.

It is interesting to note the gospels from which these ten pericopes, words, come. In the first five weeks one passage comes from Mark, one passage from Matthew and three passages from Luke. In the next five weeks one passage comes from Mark one from Matthew and three passages from Luke. The passages chosen for this time of the year are from Matthew, Mark and Luke. One begins to understand that John's Gospel stands the apart. We are not the only Christian movement to understand this and work with it. John is part of the whole experience of the gospel, but what he brings in his gospel really speaks to a different time of the year. Other churches recognise the same, and we need to ask what this means? This will be one of the things to be explored in our Tuesday evening exploration of the theology of the Act of Consecration of the Human Being.

In order to speak of a New Decalogue, the passages have been given a name. These names are not fixed, and everyone may find their own names for them. For the first five on the Way of St John:

1. ‘A confession on the way’. It is important to say this because the passage begins with the disciples being “on the way” with Christ when he asks: “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?”
2. The second Sunday introduces us to ‘The narrow way’. This is from the Sermon on the Mount. There is a wide, expansive way that everyone can go that does not take one anywhere and then there is the narrow way, the way that is hard, that way on which we face the challenges, but it is the way we need to go.
3. ‘The human way’. The human way as opposed to the way of nature. The human way takes us one step beyond the way of nature.
4. ‘The way of the apostles.’ This is the way of the disciples, the twelve who are sent and, in their sending, become apostles. We are all sent into earthly incarnation from the spiritual world. We are all apostles on the way.
5. ‘The way of the higher sight.’ In other words, to see the way, to see with a higher vision.

The next five are offered in a slightly different manner because they're looking forward towards Michaelmas.

1. ‘For the power of proclamation.’ This is something that we are all asked to undertake; through the actions of our lives, we are proclaiming that we are Christian.
2. ‘For peace.’ This is the sending of the seventy. We hear the word ‘peace’ over and over. We hear this in the Communion part of the Act of Consecration: “This peace that I stand with in the world I give to you”.
3. ‘For faith, gratitude, and certainty.’
4. ‘For acceptance.’ This is not a passive acceptance but a taking hold of – I accept what I have been given. It is for the acceptance of who we are and where we are.
5. ‘For the future human being.’ This is the raising of the young man of Nain.

The first Sunday: 'a confession on the way', comes to us from Mark 8; Peter being able to recognise and say: “You are the Christ”. Here comes the word, the first of the ten words of the New Decalogue that begins the Way of St John of transformation from St John’s-tide, now realised through Christ – it is the Way of Christ, of course: Mark 8:34 “If anyone desires to follow after me let them work on themselves and let them accept and carry their earthly destiny and follow me.” The translation given here is a more accurate translation of the original Greek. The words translated as “deny yourself” actually require that we do something with ourselves. It means that we can say “no” because we are able to say “yes”. This is the capacity to be able to work on oneself, to take on what it means to work with what we have. It means that we are able to put aside that which is unhelpful and embrace that which is. Then we have the Greek word that directly translates as ‘take up your beam’. Because the crossbeam is often seen as the crossbeam of the cross on which the bearer is crucified this has been translated as ‘take up your cross’. It was a common expression at the time that meant ‘to carry your burden’. The burden we all carry is to recognise a certain path of destiny. It is actually to do what is required of us. This is the beginning of being on the way. It expresses following, it expresses walking, taking it up, going forward into life.

The second Sunday: ‘the narrow way’ from Matthew 7. There are three things that we have to do to go on the narrow way. They are: ask, seek and knock. “Ask and it will be given to you.” “Seek and you will find.” “Knock and it shall be opened to you.” We will not be asking, seeking and knocking in vain, but it has to start with us. It is there to be given, there to be found, the door will be opened, but we have to ask, we have to seek, we have to knock. In other words, the way has to involve our engagement.

The third Sunday: ‘the human way’: “Father I have missed the mark in the presence of heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The father's response: “be swift, bring forth the stole – which is the prototype of the priestly and kingly garment – and carry out of the investiture”. Invest the young man and lift him to a new office, “and place a ring on his finger and sandals beneath his feet. Bear forth the cultivated, young shoot of grain and offer it up. Let us eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead and is risen to life again; was brought to naught, and has been found.” The word in koine Greek is for any young thing that one is preparing. Therefore, it could be a fatted calf, but the better translation of the Greek is to ‘cultivate the young thing that is growing’. It could very well be to cultivate the young grain that we're offering. Our offering is not an animal sacrifice, our offering is the offering of bread and wine. It is that young, cultivated shoot of grain or vine. What is interesting here is how the young man was found. He was found because he sought his own path back to the father. Therefore, not only seek and you will find, but seek and you will be found.

The fourth Sunday is where he read about the twelve disciples sent to become the twelve apostles. What is so interesting is once they have become the twelve apostles, they have a new capacity. They returned from their sending and the five thousand are fed. What is so interesting is that Christ says when the five thousand are there: “you give them to eat”. Christ recognises the new capacity that is within them and therefore does not offer to feed the multitude himself. Christ then asks what there is available: five loaves and two fish. “So having taken the five loaves and the two fish, having lifted his sight to the higher vision of heaven he blessed them, broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.” Christ gives the meal to the disciples to feed the crowd. There is something in this: we are given, through the power of Christ, to do the work of Christ. The disciples feed the five thousand, not Christ. At the end, it is the disciples who go and pick up the fragments and filled twelve baskets, each disciple filling one basket with fragments. The twelve are sent out and at the end there are twelve baskets left over. There is an abundance that is provided, more than is needed because the apostles can fill twelve baskets that are left over from five loaves and two fish. Christ demonstrates for the apostles what they will be able to do in the future without His direct presence.

The fifth Sunday is the reading of the healing of the blind man. Luke 18: 35-43. It is important to note that in the Greek the man could be blind but could also be of impaired vision. The Greek word is not definitive, it speaks of a spectrum of poor sight. If he is a man of impaired vision then, when asked what he wants, he will identify exactly what it is that he is seeking. So, when Christ asks: “What is it that you will that I do for you?” The man does not say “please give me sight”, he says “please give me upper sight or higher sight”. It is very clear he says please allow me to look up. What he was lacking was a higher vision, not the ability to look around him. This is what it says: “Lord that I might recover my higher sight”. Christ says: “Recover your higher spiritual vision, your faith has healed you”. Faith is the strength of the man's belief that Christ can do this for him. The healing was always available, but the man needed the faith that it would be real in a relationship with Christ.

Now we move to looking forward to Michaelmas.

If you know something of Rudolf Steiner’s explanation of the twelve sense system, you will know that the sense of sight is something that leads us to insight – inner vision – and comes before we establish a new way of hearing and a new way of speaking. Thus, first we must have our higher sight restored before we can have our higher hearing restored and our higher speech restored.

The sixth Sunday is the healing of the deaf mute. This is, one can truly say, a new word that can come from this man following a new way of hearing for, not only does he get to hear, he also gets to speak. Hearing and speech are very closely connected even in the development of the twelve senses. A real sense of hearing leads to speech. This happens in the teenager around the age of 15, when the teenager needs to hear for themselves. Up until this point the young person will repeat what they have heard others around them say. At the age of 10 or 11 the young person will happily repeat what their teacher has said and fully believe what they have heard. An example is that they will argue with their parents about how homework needs to be done, saying that it needs to be done exactly the way that the teacher said it needed to be done. As teenagers the young person will look around them at the world and realise that if adults had really understood the world, the world would not be in the mess in which it clearly is. It is now necessary for them to hear their parents and to hear their teachers in a new way, in a way that they can hear the whole of the world speaking out of an adult. For example: the teacher really does know what is going on. Once the teenager has truly heard the adult speak, they too can speak in a new way, having heard and listened. Mark 7:14: “Hear me, and properly understand the application of the whole of my words”. Then Jesus says the extraordinary word “Ephphatha!”, which does not mean 'be open', but ‘be opened completely’. “And his inner spiritual hearing was opened and immediately the bond of his tongue was unbound, and he spoke rightly without deviation. The crowd saying: ‘He has done all things well; he makes the dull of hearing to hear and those unable to speak proclaim’.” It is not just speaking, but it is the ability to proclaim; to be able to speak rightly from the place of the Christ-in-me.

The seventh Sunday is ‘for peace’. Christ says to the seventy which he sends out: “When you arrive at a house where you might stay first say ‘peace to this house’. If a son of peace is resting there your peace shall be transferred as a power upon him. And remember, the one hearing you hears me, the one rejecting you rejects me.” So, when as you come into contact with another it is peace that you bring with you and the one hearing you accepts this, not just any peace, but the peace of Christ. It is a new way of being together, moving forward in this peace. We can speak about the importance of numbers, if one is sending out 70 one is sending out a complete span of time. Ten is the number for completion seven is the number for time. By sending out 70 one is sending out a complete picture of time. This allows us to clearly comprehend that we are currently in an incredible span of time where we are being sent all the time by God; the complete picture of what it is to be sent out as a human being in time.

The eighth Sunday is ‘for faith, gratitude and certainty’. Luke 17:5: “Lord, increase our faith”, is the usual translation. It can also be accurately translated as “strengthen our faith”. Then we encounter the healing of the ten lepers. One of them discerns that he is healed. This is quite an extraordinary experience to recognise for oneself that one has been healed. Healing is a very important part of our understanding of this relationship. It is a word that comes up more than once in the Act of the Consecration of the Human Being – With Christ, the Father God creates, heals and ensouls. “One of them discerning that he was healed, turned back with a loud voice, recognising the real substance of God, fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving praise to him.” It is important to note that it is one of ten who discerns that he has been healed. Ten lepers were healed, the complete experience of leprosy was healed, one tenth is also a complete recognition that the healing took place, something is still complete. So, in this passage we have had faith, we have had gratitude from the one who discerned his healing, and certainty appears in the verse where Jesus says: “be careful, people will say that the Kingdom of God is here or it is there, don't be fooled, behold the Kingdom of God is within you.” We can have the certainty that we have come a long way, the Kingdom of God will be realised within each human being, it will not be realised in the world out there if it is not first realised within the human being. The human being makes the Kingdom, the Kingdom does not make the human being.

The ninth Sunday is for ‘do not worry’, ‘do not be anxious’, ‘do not be fearful’. In Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, where translators have truly found the poetry to describe: “behold the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these”. How does one place one’s trust? How shall we not be anxious? Please note that Christ does not say, “do not attend to these things”, he says, “do not be anxious”. Our attention must be elsewhere, tend to something else and this too will be taken care of. Where then must we place our attention? Christ says: “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you”. Our focus must be to firstly seek the Kingdom of God (we are back at seek, ask, knock), And we have just heard in the previous week, “behold the Kingdom of God is within” us. Seek first the Kingdom of God that is within you and the righteousness of that, the right way of that and all these things will be added. First know what your connection is then everything else will follow. It is important to start in the right place, not the wrong place. “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself, it is enough that each day has its own challenging disposition.”

Finally, now that we have accepted the reality of how we are, we are ready for the future. On the tenth Sunday we hear that a woman has lost her one and only son, and she is a widow. Now she is a widow without a son. It is only when the body is being carried out that we hear the Christ say: “young man, I say to you, arise”. Nowhere earlier does it say that the man who has died is in fact young, it only says that he has died. It is possible therefore to interpret that there is a recognition at this point that the young man must rise. Something young and new is going to rise for him. “Young man, I say to you, arise.” The future human being, young man, arise. Let the forces of youth come now into you. These are words that we could say to each and every other human being. We can say that something of the energies of youth should arise within each human being.

These are our ten words for a new way of relating to the Divine.

In conclusion here are the ten words:

“If anyone desires to follow after me, let them work on themselves, and let them accept and carry their earthly destiny and follow me.”

“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you.”

“Be swift, bring forth the stole, carry out the investiture, place a ring upon his finger and sandals beneath his feet. Let us eat and celebrate for this my son was dead and is risen to life again, was brought to naught and has been found.”

“’You give them to eat.’ So having taken the five loaves and the two fish and having lifted his sight to the higher vision of heaven, he blessed them, broke them and gave to the disciples to set before the crowd.”

“Lord, that I might recover my higher sight.” “Recover your higher spiritual vision, your faith has healed you.”

“Hear me all of you and properly understand the applications of the whole of my words. Be opened fully. And his inner spiritual hearing was opened and immediately the bond of his tongue was unbound and he spoke rightly without deviation and the crowd said: ‘He has done all things well. He makes the dull of hearing to hear and those unable to speak, to proclaim.’”

“Say, ‘peace to this house’, and if a son of peace is resting there your peace shall be transferred as a power upon him, and the one who hears you hears me and the one rejecting you rejects me.”

“Lord, strengthen our faith. And one of them, having discerned that he was healed turned back with a loud voice, recognising the real substance of God, fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving thanks to him. And behold the Kingdom of God is within you.”

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. It is enough that each day has its own challenging disposition.”

“Young person, to you I say, arise.”

by Rev. Michaël Merle

In Chapter 21 of The Revelation to John (The Book of the Apocalypse: Revelation) we read part of the description of the New Jerusalem, a picture of a mighty vision experienced by John in the Spiritual World: “The city has a great and high wall and twelve gates. And on the gates twelve angels, and names were written on them: the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.” (verse 12)

This year we hope to uncover an understanding of the twelve ways in which we can enter the New Jerusalem.

The way of Asher
The name Asher means “happy” or “blessed”. It represents both prosperity and pleasure, and carries the idea of abundance. Asher is, therefore, the dimension of blessing beyond the norm – to be given more than what is necessary for survival. Asher is the epitome of the personality that not only gets what is needed but also enjoys it.

The symbol of Asher is the olive tree. Olives are a particularly important crop of the ancient world. It added through the richness of its oil richness to food. It is this gift of riches and richness in both the acquisition of the things that bless, and the pleasure derived from them that is referenced by Jacob (Israel) in his spoken blessing of his son Asher: Shmenech lachmi, literally: His food shall be oily. Asher reminds us that we are to enjoy and celebrate the blessings we receive and to appreciate the abundance of our blessings even when we may be tempted only to look at the challenges and difficulties of the lack that we also suffer. Metaphorically we could see that our food (the spiritual sustenance we have) is indeed prepared with olive oil (enriching our lives with its substance).​

Report by John-Peter Gernaat

This was of course offered over the period of St. John's-tide in 2023 and those people who attended the course paid for it. The course may be offered again in the future, therefore this report will not be a full report of the course, but a bit of an overview.

Languages first develop as spoken languages and in time when the speakers of the language develop a need to write, an alphabet is developed. The Israelites were a family. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham. He had twelve sons and from each of his sons a tribe developed. Jacob changed his name and took the name of Israel, and his sons are known as the sons of Israel. YHWH (Yahweh of the Elohim) recognised in Abraham a new development in humankind, the development of brain-based thinking. YHWH separated Abraham from his family and instructed him to take a long journey. Abraham encountered many different peoples and different languages, spend time in Egypt, and settled in a land that was far from his home. Israel and his sons moved to Egypt after his youngest son was held captive, and only when they arrived in Egypt did they realise that the captor was his second youngest son who had been taken into slavery. The Israelites remained connected with the Egyptian culture until it no longer served them, and Moses led them out of this culture into ‘the promised land’. This land was inhabited by the Canaanite peoples, and we read from scripture that it seems to have been the intention that the Canaanite people welcomed the Israelites and that the two cultures became assimilated. This did not happen, but the language of the two peoples was similar enough that when the Israelites were looking for an alphabet in which to write their spoken language, they turned to the Canaanite alphabet. Early languages were much simpler than modern languages. The entire meaning of a concept was carried in a single sound. Where is today we have a word such as water, consisting of two syllables it carries a single concept, in the ancient Hebrew the sound “M-a” carried the concept of water, but not only water; water carries within it the concept of birth, and the concept of birth carries within it the concept of bringing forth. Therefore this single letter “M-a”, consisting of the sound “m” ending in a short a-sound, carries a multitude of concepts that only become clear in the context in which the sound is used. When this letter then is used in combination with other letters to form a word, the word carries the concepts of each of the letters, and the translation of such a word cannot simply be another word, it becomes a sentence.

During this three Sunday programme, we began by looking at the languages in their written form. Hebrew today is a modern language that has little bearing on the ancient Hebrew, although it can trace its origins. Modern Hebrew is written in what is called Assyrian Square script. The script of the Canaanite people used by the ancient Israelites was later inherited by the Phoenicians giving rise to what we call the Phoenician Inherited script. There are great similarities between the two scripts. It is of interest to know about the Phoenician Inherited script because this was the script that the ancient Greeks turned to when choosing their written language and they inverted many of the letters in the Phoenician Inherited script when forming their own letters. For this reason, the ancient Greek script is referred to as the Greek Inverted script.

These ancient languages are viewed as consonantal languages, formed as they were under the strong influence of the Elohim, beings of form. Consonants give structure to a language. Vowels, on the other hand, add feeling to a language, and vowels have only come into use as the Archai, the beings of personality, have begun to exert an influence on the development of humanity. The ancient Canaanite language consisted of 22 consonants. A vowel sound was implied within these consonants, and three of the consonants could produce vowel sounds under very specific circumstances. This meant that the ancient Hebrew language essentially had four vowel sounds, a short “a” sound, a full “a” sound, a “i” sound and an “o” sound. We wrote out the a-b-c, the alphabets, of the ancient Hebrew language, the Phoenician Inherited, and the Assyrian Square. With each letter, or sound, we learned the meaning that was ascribed.

Finally, we looked at scripture texts from the beginning of Genesis and some prominent names to ascertain what these words were in the ancient Hebrew and how we can understand the meaning of these words when we translate them by translating each of the letters or sounds individually. Here is a brief example: the first letter of the alphabet is the aleph. In ancient Hebrew this pronounced as a short “a” sound, but implied in it was a consonantal “l” sound at the end. This “al” (which later changed to be being pronounced as “el”) had the meaning of “the Divine”, “the Almighty Infinite One”, it implied “first”, and when the Phoenicians inherited the script, under the influence of Taurus, it meant an ox head and therefore denoted strength. Were one to find two of these letters forming a word the meaning could be “God is first”, “God is strong”, “the first is strong”, “the strength of God”, “first of the Almighty”. This simple example shows how difficult it is to translate the ancient Hebrew language when it comes to translating the scriptures. We experimented for ourselves with a translation of the first seven words of genesis and discovered how many different sentences we could make up from the first word that today is pronounced as “Bereshit” and is translated as “in the beginning”, but could more correctly be translated as “in first breath of a beginning”. This process of translation opened for us a new understanding of what a single word like this holds hidden.​

by John-Peter Gernaat

(This report contains the general information about the Regional Council. The specific details have not been reported here but are available to congregants to request.)

When a person or a community is alone in the world the full burden of one's existence in the world is placed upon one's own shoulders. It is for this reason that human beings seek support from other like-minded individuals or communities. As a congregation of The Christian Community, we carry the full financial burden of our physical presence in Johannesburg. However, there is another reality, that our priests are sent to our altar by a central body within The Christian Community. As a congregation we accept a priest that is sent to our altar and in accepting the priest and, very often, their family we accept the financial responsibility that accompanies the sending of a priest. We can count the number of priests who have been sent to our altar in Johannesburg, some for a few years and some for a more extended period of time. When the sending of a priest ends and they move to a new congregation, a certain financial responsibility remains towards their care in their retirement years as a result of the time that the priest has spent in our congregation. When we add up the total responsibility for all the priests that have been in our community and think forward to all the priests that will still be sent to our community, it can become quite overwhelming if we think that we are alone in the world. Being part of a Region that is also connected to the worldwide body of The Christian Community makes a difference in this regard. This is one of the reasons that the Regional Council was birthed here in Southern Africa. The Regional Council for Southern Africa brings together all the congregations of Southern Africa to jointly carry the consciousness that accompanies the sending of priests to our congregations. The financial responsibility of providing a stipend for the daily needs of the priests and their families remains in the realm of the specific congregation, but the financial responsibility that arises when priests are no longer active in a sending to a congregation and the financial responsibility that may arise as a result of unexpected and unforeseen circumstances are supported by the Region as a whole, and is connected to the support of the worldwide body.

The Regional Council is a public benefit organisation (PBO) in its own right and represents the communities in Southern Africa. It is therefore the communities that are responsible for the decision-making of the Regional Council. These decisions provide a mandate for the executive of the Regional Council to carry out their work. In order to make these decisions the Regional Council meets annually.

A part of this work is to conduct an annual general meeting (AGM) as is required in law for a public benefit organisation. Another part of the work is to come to a deeper understanding of the needs of the individual congregations and see if there is a way that the Regional Council can support one or more of the congregations in a specific manner. It is for this reason that the community representatives that attend the Regional Council, and through their attendance at the Regional Council, are considered part of the Regional Council, playing a vital role for the congregation that they represent. It is also for this reason that the Regional Council meets in the various congregations on a rotational basis, so that the local congregants can also participate at times and feel connected to the greater picture.

The foresight that has gone into establishing the Regional Council is highly praiseworthy and our Lenker and the synod of priests who have supported this endeavour together with the community representatives have placed our Region on a more secure footing as we enter the second century of our existence.

As the Johannesburg congregation we must not lose sight of the fact that now the Hillcrest congregation is our affiliate.

​I cannot end this report without expressing gratitude for the hospitality received in the Windhoek community and the manner in which the Windhoek community supported the meeting of the Regional Council. We were treated to wonderful meals, and we were very graciously hosted by members of the congregation. It was also wonderful to experience and participate in the celebration of the Act of Consecration of Man in the magnificent church in Windhoek.

Report by John-Peter Gernaat

We come to an idea in the New Testament that we can have a sense that Christ came to fulfil and complete the law and the Prophets. We notice in the Gospels that the writers repeatedly write “and this fulfilled the prophecy …”; “and so the words of the Prophet were fulfilled”. This is because the Gospel writers wished to clarify that in the incarnation of Christ in the person of Jesus, all of the prophecies are now fulfilled. There is no more fulfilment after this. Anything that happens after the Mystery of Golgotha is connected to the Mystery of Golgotha and is a part of it. Everything flows from there. There are no new prophecies that are to come.

This is interesting when, for example, we consider the Book of Revelation. It reveals something, it is a revelation, it is not a prophecy that one is anticipating, rather one is living through it, we are in the stream already. Christ did not come to abolish the law but rather to fulfil it so that it could continue, but now in a new way. This is very clear from the transfiguration. Peter, James and John accompany Christ to the top of a mountain and when the transfiguration happens, they recognise that Christ is in conversation with Moses and Elijah. He is in conversation with the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets are not absent from the conversation, rather the conversation is ongoing.

What is remarkable is the arrival of what we often referred to as the New Commandment. The gospels were originally written in what we today call Koine Greek, and what happened was when they were translated into Latin the word that was used was translated as ‘mandātum’. This word would then give us in English the word mandate. ‘Mandate’ would be a far better word than the word ‘commandment’. We now need to clearly understand what the word mandate means. If someone is in a position of authority and they wish to have a task completed, they can delegate the task. However, the person cannot delegate the authority that he or she carries. If the person, in contrast, mandated someone to take charge of the task, they would mandate them to take the full authority for the outcome of the task as well.

When Christ speaks this New Commandment it is the moment in which an inner reality begins for the disciples where they are now starting to take on a sense of themselves as apostles. They are now no longer followers but rather people who are sent out with something that they must accomplish together with the responsibility to accomplish it. For the disciples this does not become a reality until Whitsun. Until Whitsun they locked themselves away from society, afraid of the consequences that they may have to face. Then, when the Spirit comes, they are no longer afraid, they now are able to go out and fulfil that mandate. We hear something of this mandate from the gospel reading from John 14. “These things that I have spoken unto you while I was still with you, but the paraclete, the counsellor, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things that bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. If a person loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (Revised Standard Version)

What is this living word, this logos, how is it going to manifest itself? When we then turn to chapter 15, still part of the Last Supper, we hear: “This is my commandment (this is my mandate), that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no person than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do as I command you (as I mandate you - would be a better translation).” Then He uses the example that they, the disciples, are now his friends they are no longer servants. We could also read this as saying that they are now no longer his followers, but rather his coworkers. They are now colleagues in this task of loving one another as “I have loved you”.

Previously we've read in the gospels that the law had already been summarised into two ‘commandments’: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.” This is a pretty good picture of what the human being should be, based on the Ten Utterances which we studied during the period of Ascension. If one is able to follow this picture of the Ten Utterances one is able to show the kind of respect for one's neighbour that one feels for oneself. In this way one is caring for the neighbour in the same way that one cares for the picture one holds of oneself.

When Christ gives the New Commandment something shifts. The neighbour is someone that the person knows, someone from the house next door, the immediate environment, the town. Christ says: “love one another”. Now one is no longer dealing with the neighbour who lives next door, but dealing as one individual with another individual in the same community. “Love one another” implies that we know one another, that we are from the same circle. These are words that are not reserved only for those who gather in a circle and call themselves Christians, but rather love all other human beings. This now established as the human community rather than a particular grouping of people, a tribe, a nation, a religious following; moving away from something that is insular to something that is universal. This is the first thing about the change from ‘neighbour’ to ‘one another’. And then, not as you love yourself, but, as “I have loved you”. The extraordinary thing about this second part of the ‘commandment’ is that we now have the capacity to love in the way that Christ has loved us. The disciples, at that point in time would have felt within themselves, the complete incapacity to love anyone in the way that Christ had loved them, even the struggle of loving a neighbour as one loves oneself is difficult, but here Christ says to them that they need not fear or have doubt because He will ask the Father to send the paraclete, to send the Spirit, for what they cannot do on their own, they will be able to do with the Spirit within, if they work with the Spirit.

We were reminded on the day when this talk was given, which was Whitsun, that this is ours to do. We are not able to do this on our own, but it is our responsibility to do. This means that it is our responsibility to learn to work with the Spirit in us. We have to learn to work with what the Spirit births in us, which is the presence of Christ in us. It is now possible, from this source to love the another as Christ has loved us; to go beyond loving the other, based on our understanding of ourselves, and to begin to love the other in the way that God loves, in the way that God sees, and the way in which God understands, which is always to see the unfolding human being, and not the stuck human being whom we happen to see in front of us. It is for us to see the potential that is always at work in the other person. This is incredibly difficult to do because it's very easy for us to notice the stuck human being, and overlook the developing potential within the other human being. God loves, not what we are doing, but what we are becoming.

In the conversation that followed this lecture, Rev. Reingard Knausenberger explained that so much of what present-day life offers us is there to prepare us for this future. She proposed two examples: the first that those who work with children do not look at the child as who they currently are, but all the time at what they are going to become. The second example is specific to South Africa, where there are so many different mother tongues. Many people resort to speaking English to be understood, and yet the English that they speak is coloured by their mother tongue, with the result that we learn to listen, not to what they say, but to what they mean. And we do this by listening, one could say, in between. Both of these are preparing within us the capacity to see the other person for who they are becoming. The Act of Consecration of Man offers us the ‘high school’ of listening.

Part 2
The Koine Greek word ἐντολή, entolē (pronounced en-tol-ay') is the word used by the Gospel writers that is translated as ‘commandment’. The translators were bound to the idea of instructions and commands. So when, in John 15, they read: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you”. Earlier the Gospel writer says: “If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love”, providing a strong sense of ‘commandments’. So, what is this word: entolē? It literally means ‘in the end’. Therefore, this is not a commandment, it is a picture of what is to be, in the end. This is the goal, the purpose, the focus. “This is my focus, my goal, my purpose that you love one another as I have loved you”.

This presents a very different concept because, unlike a commandment which one is supposed to understand immediately, there is no requirement here to immediately understand what Christ means. It is not something that Christ expects us to get right immediately, we can strive towards getting it right daily. If one does not get it right, it is because we are not yet at the end point, we are still in process of discovering what it is. Then everything changes: (We will now replace ‘commandment’ with ‘goal’) “If you keep my goal, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's goal and abide in his love.” We can translate this as meaning, “I have kept that which my Father intended from the beginning”. This is something that is really important in understanding spiritual evolution, we can see it in physical evolution, that things do not happen by accident, there is a purpose.

(In a talk given the previous Friday evening at the Anthroposophical Society, Michaël spoke for quite a while about how today in science bipedalism is recognised as the first sign of human evolution. When Dr Rudolf Steiner first mentioned this the picture that science had of the human being was very different, and they could not recognise what Rudolf Steiner said. It shows us how there was a goal from the very beginning that we recognise in that which is produced at the end. Bipedalism gave the human being a completely new perspective; it gave us an upright spine with a different view of the world, being able to look out over the horizon; it lifted our head which meant that we could turn to look upwards. It also freed up our hands which now could be turned towards anything, including toolmaking, so that the human being could become even more specific in certain directions.)

It's therefore important to understand that from the beginning of our evolution, also our spiritual evolution, the course was set, with an end, one could say, but an end that is not the end, it is the end of a specific development and then something new opens up: “And now I make all things new”. We get to what we think is the end, we finally complete everything that is part of the process that we are in, and then we start a new process with a new goal and a new endpoint and a new task.

There is an end point for this earth evolution, the goal is set, the goal is “love one another, as I have loved you”. Therefore, if we are not yet loving one another, it is because the goal has not yet been reached. It is the goal of the unfolding of being fully human.

In the discussion that followed Rev. Reingard Knausenberger pointed out that love is a life creating force. She said this at hand of the private letters of Mother Theresa, written to her confessor, that were published in which she described the inner struggles she daily had to transcend to do the life-giving work that she accomplished. Christianity is the only religious stream that has a goal, from the beginning on. Our Sunday Service for Children instills in children the certainty that there is a purpose. Children who attend this service regularly walk out into the world knowing there is a purpose.

Michaël returned to the reading in John 14: “if anyone loves me, he will keep my word” is the usual translation, but what is it to ‘keep the logos’. The logos is the whole living, creative spirit and expression of Christ. The word ‘keep’ is not sufficient, it also means to ‘guard’. We can see this word ‘guard’ as implying ‘guardianship’. If we are given guardianship of a child, we have an understanding of what the responsibility is that we take on. The guardianship includes ensuring the growth and development of that over which we have guardianship. “If anyone loves me, they will take on guardianship of all of my creative, living, divine spirit - the expression of Divinity, my Father will love him, and we will come to him and to make our dwelling place within him.” The life of the Divine will be in the human being, and the human being in fullness of love will express the full creative, living spirit of God. That is the goal, that is the picture of where we are heading. This is what it means that there will be a preservation of the human being. This picture will be preserved, cared for; it will remain the picture, we will not lose sight of it, it must continue, the continuance of the human being, to what end, to this end, in love.

As said earlier, when we become coworkers it means that we become elevated to the level of the hierarchies. We are not there yet, but this is a part of the picture that the Christ gives to the disciples in this ‘New Commandment’. We are reminded, in the Sunday Service for Children, that “Christ is the teacher of the love of the human being”.

Part 3
We will again look closely at the translation of words from Koine Greek. There are two words in Greek that predate the Gospels. The Gospels themselves, and our understanding of the Gospels, and our study of the Divine, has changed the way in which we see these words. We are looking at two lines from John 15: “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you, greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And then He says: “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends”.

“This is what will be for you in the end that you love one another as I have loved you”. It is not insignificant that the word is used in the past tense, ‘have loved’, because we are not just talking about the love that God has for the human being, but we are talking about the love that God has inspired in the human being. This is the love of the earthly experience of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth. This is Jesus of Nazareth having learned to love through the indwelling Christ. “This is the love that I have had for you for the past three years and it is a love that you can also have as human beings.”

The Koine Greek word ‘agapē’ (αγάπη) was used before it was taken into the context of these Gospel verses. We've come to understand it as meaning the love of Christ, the love of God inspired in the human being, but it actually wasn't used for the love of the Divine by the Classical Greek scholars. They used it mainly to denote the love of learning and reason. They used it to speak of a love that is discriminating in its affection and involves choice and selection. This was not a love that came out of any necessity, unlike for example the love that a parent provides for a child, which is a necessity. This had to do with making a choice and then wishing well for the other, having a regard for their welfare. The choice was entirely up to the person; there was no necessity to make this choice, to have a regard for the welfare of the other. It is clear that there was no preexisting relationship in this choice. That is why there were other words for the love of family and the love of friends, this love was unattached and came from a choice that one made. The correct translation would be, ‘to prefer to love’, ‘to choose to love’, ‘to discriminate affection for another’. It is a choice, it is not something that one is compelled to do, and one is not going to gain anything directly from it. It also has something to do with longing, a longing for something. Therefore, one would use it to describe the love one has for reason, for knowledge, because one longed to acquire it, to acquire ever more of it. It is therefore quite an extraordinary word to use. We now use it exclusively to describe the love of God and the love God has for us, but this world was very much a part of the idea of a decision to love.

We can therefore translate: “This is my end goal picture that you choose to love one another as I have chosen to love you”.

Then, “greater love has no human being then that he lay down his life for his friends”. The immediate thought here would be that the greatest love is to die for a friend, to lay down one's life. This is what Christ did, he laid down his life, he died on the cross. As Christians we have often abused this idea in thinking that it is good to die for one's community, for one's country. This is absolutely not what the original said. The Koine Greek word is ‘tithami’, which means to lay down a foundation, not to lay down but to place or put something in place, to establish, to make possible, to create a place for the realisation of one's purpose. Therefore, the correct translation would be: “no greater love has a human being than to lay down a foundation, create a place through his life, so that his friends will know life and love”. It therefore has nothing to do with dying for one's friends but rather to dedicate one's life in service to one's friends. What one is doing is placing one's life as an opportunity for a destiny for others so that they come to realise something, because my life is in service of your life, it is now set as a foundation so that you too can live. In this way what I do supports the life of those around me and what those around me do supports my life, hence we are in a new relationship.

The discussion that ensued questioned whether the Father and whether Christ make a conscious choice to love. This idea is anathema to the Christian upbringing of many people who were taught that the love of the Father is unconditional. The Divine made a choice to incarnate into the earthly world of separation from the Divine world. In this condition of separation, the Divine experienced a new capacity for love that is based on conscious decision. This experience had not existed for the Divine before Christ incarnated into the man Jesus. It is at the end of the three-year fulfilment of the Mystery of Golgotha that Christ can give this new mandate to the disciples because it is based on the experience that the Divine has encountered in the physical incarnation. Christ took the love of the Father into the earthly condition, and it was on the cross that Christ said: “It is accomplished”. The expression in the past tense was reiterated as being meaningful as Christ wished it to be clear that he had loved, not as a heavenly being, but as a transformed earthly being.

In a discussion on what love is we were reminded that Rudolf Steiner said that the earth was created so that the human being could learn the lesson of love. This is a lesson that we truly have to learn. If this is the aim of the earth, then it stands to reason that this quality of love is not as omnipresent as we may believe. The end goal is for this cosmos to be a cosmos of love in a renewed form that arises through the decision of conscious humanity. Love is being created in a new form and it is this that is the goal of which Christ spoke to his disciples.

The series ended with a complete translation of the words that Christ spoke: