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December 28
The Language of the Spirit and the Bride (2)
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” - Rev. 22: 17.
Read: Rev. 22:6-12 Sing: Ps. 90:2
It is only a matter of faith that the Church calls for the Great Coming. By that faith the origin of its
speaking always distances itself from what can be seen or “heard.” And only by that faith do I know that today, one
of the last days of the year of our Lord {1932} 20__ the bride calls, that she calls with the Spirit, that she
calls for the Coming. And that this nearly past year was thus “a year of our Lord.”
In this I have no business to ask if I can perceive that calling out, in order to establish afterwards, on the
basis of this perception, that the bride indeed is calling, or also, in how far she calls. For this
calling out is for me a fact, even if I would not see a single believer in the Church, even if I would not meet a
single man who prays, who on the last evening of the year would turn himself to the great Shepherd of the
sheep.
Just as I believe God, whom I have not seen, only thus do I believe that the Spirit and
the bride call out what I do not hear.
And only when I believe, will I hear. I hear this calling today, {December 31, 1932} December 28, 20__
“after Christ” (as, alas, the secular historian has taught us to express it).
Thus, I have here in that word the text, the canon, which God really hears on New Year’s Eve.
For He always hears the Spirit.
He also always hears the Bride of His exalted Son.
God does not listen if that prayer still is voiced on New Year’s Eve. For that little word “still” is very
fatal here in this foolish sentence. If it was still an open question, in the presence of heaven or hell, of angel
or Satan, of world or Church - objectively spoken, if the bride indeed is praying with the Spirit for the Great
Coming, then heaven and the counsel and actions of God Himself are made disputable. But heaven does not doubt it.
Just as little as it makes the coming of Christ disputable, so will it make the prayer for that coming disputable.
For in and by that prayer He comes Himself, the Bridegroom, the King. The coming can never be
separated from the prayer for the coming.
Thus God hears the prayer, for the Spirit exists always and so does the Church, according to her
own confession.
And in that prayer, which heaven hears, all the world finds rest.
For this prayer is so positive. It does not say “no,” but “yes.” It does not say “no” to history,
but “yes” to its crowning. It does not cry out “Perish!” to the world, but “Reach higher!” to its
purified fullness. Nietzsche once thought to formulate the difference between petty-minded Christianity and its
arrogant (yet not conceited) pride in these words:
The pangs are calling out: perish -
But every desire wants eternity,
Wants deep, deep, eternity.
But this was one of his great mistakes. For the Church is still present. She is different than he saw her. She is
the bride. And as bride she does not say: “Perish.” She does not say to nature and culture, to world and beauty,
that they should disappear. For she says something positive. She says, calls, and prays:
“Come! Come!” She says this to the King of complete beauty. She says “Come!” to the King of the world. And
to the world of that King. She does not say:
Let the day perish on which light began to shine,
The night, in which the will woefully was stirred,
Which to this world, born as dissatisfied fruit of mind,
As a majestic temple of mystery gave birth.
Instead, she reaches out with a pure and heartfelt love to the King of the greatest beauty with her, “Come!” This
King, the most beautiful of all mankind, will complete culture, and fulfil time. To Him, who not only wanted
the “deep, deep, eternity” but in addition time with it, and thus deepened that time by His
eternity.
Source: http://www.inhpubl.net/Gold-Frankincense-and-Myrrh.html
We wish all our customers the Lord’s blessings for 2013. The
recording of these meditations coincides with the publication of 366 meditations upon the Bible for
Reformation of Family, Church, and State in bookform in, the Lord Willing, March 2013. An ebook is already
available on our website inhpubl.net and we soon hope to have the complete audio book available as well, both
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