Light Bulb Moments
by Silke Chatfield
Stepping through the door of the Seminary is like stepping into another world.
Outwardly, not so much different; there is community, laughter, joy, an endless supply of good coffee and snacks and of course the daily celebration of the Act of Consecration of Man.
The entrance to the Seminary of the Christian Community of Nord America, March 2022
Inwardly it is a different story, for me anyway. When the “Knowing Christ” group (the program for the first year at the Seminary) started the studies at home in the Fall Semester, we were all separated and only connected via zoom. We began by reading through the four Gospels, reading one or two chapters each day. This was a new experience for me.
I thought I knew the Gospels well, but I soon noticed that I never had read all the way through them. From September to December, I was slowly reading chapter by chapter, starting with Matthew and finishing with John.
We were encouraged to deepen our understanding of the Gospels by answering the questions:
What stood out for us?
Who is this Jesus Christ?
How is he pictured in the four accounts?
And more importantly, we were encouraged to wrestle with the question “Who do YOU say that I am?”
Viewed from four different angles, each unique in the way of describing the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ I thought that I had formed a complete picture of this Being. How wrong I was!!
The Library of the Seminary
When we were finally all gathered together in person here at the Seminary, the real process of “Knowing Christ” had begun. Under the wise tutelage of Rev. Jonah Evans and Rev Patrick Kennedy, it soon became clear that this “complete picture” was a mere fragment of the whole story.
This realisation dawned on me during the two classes called “Bible” and “Second Coming Themes” taken up every single morning. During them, I felt as if every moment was spent deepening our understanding of this Being we call Jesus Christ beyond everything I had previously understood so far.
This process was accompanied by numerous Light Bulb Moments.
A Light Bulb Moment for me is like weaving a large tapestry, working with different types of wool and yarn. There might be contrasting colours and the thickness of the yarn might be different. The back of this tapestry looks messy, knotted and tangled. Then comes the sudden realisation that so far only the underside was perceived. Only by looking at the other side, a beautiful woven picture emerges, and the seemingly messy strings make sense!
What were some of those Light Bulb Moments?
-that the two creation stories (The Genesis 1 Seven Day creation and the Genesis 2 Garden of Eden creation) are NOT two descriptions of the same event.
-the story of the Son of Man as the Christ is already starting in Genesis with the forming of the earth and is ending in the Book of Revelation with the New Jerusalem!
-the profound discovery of the presence of Christ in the workings of bringing the earth and humanity into life.
-the discovery that the Son of Man is this first Adam, the paradisial Blueprint for all of Humanity!
These are just a few strings of wool that suddenly fell into place by looking at the whole of the tapestry through a careful study of the creation story, its translation from the Hebrew into English with different bibles, the rhythm and wording used.
Christ was present in the workings of bringing the earth and humanity into life. In the first creation story, the Elohim created a place for the “Paradisial Man” and were shaping the first Human in their image and likeness. However, by looking closer into the text, this first “Adam” is linked to Jesus as the Son of Man.
Looking at the Creation stories by drawing out certain words and phrases, describing the activity of the Elohim, diving deep into Hebrew word study opened up a whole new perspective.
We also studied the pre-earthly deeds of this Son of Man, and thereby combining and interweaving the pure biblical aspect with the more modern approach of Anthroposophy. With this bringing together of old and new, there were many moments of Wonder and indeed a deeper sense of reverence for this Being we call Jesus Christ.
We are only in our fourth week, and already so much is happening inwardly, and I am eager to explore more in the months to come; to really try to get to “know Christ” and get a sense of the whole story and a good look at the beautiful tapestry.
Our Author: Silke Chatfield
grew up in East Berlin and currently lives in Bristol, UK.
She has worked in Camphill, in England as well as Germany. She is married and has seven children, who where all homeschooled.
Silke has begun studies in the “Knowing Christ” program
in
the Seminary in Toronto.
This is a blog entry by a student at The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. These are posted weekly by the student editorial team of Marc Delannoy and Silke Chatfield. For more information about our seminary, see the website: www.christiancommunityseminary.ca and for even more weekly podcast and video content check out the Seminary’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts.
The views expressed in this blog entry do not necessarily represent the views of the Seminary, its directors or the Christian Community. They are the sole responsibility of its author.