Genesis Archives - Page 5 of 7

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man

03/22/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 15, 2016 Several years ago, someone wrote and asked, “Why did Christ have to die on the Cross?” It is the question that prompted this article. Recently, we have been having a discussion regarding the atonement within the comments section of the blog. I have pointed out that the notion of Christ being punished by the wrath of God for our sakes is not, in fact, found in the Scriptures. Sin

The Eighth Day of Great Lent. The Cross. The Cross as Cure

03/18/2019

The second sacred image that the cross echoes is the “Lifted-Up One,” and it comes from the bronze snake in the desert. YHWH tells Moses to raise up a serpent on a pole, and “anyone who has been bitten by a serpent and looks upon it will be healed” (Numbers 21:8). It is like a homeopathic symbol. The very thing that is killing the Children of Israel is the thing that will heal them! It

Persons in Communion: Singular and plural (Part I)

02/12/2019

Personal existence has a ‘vertical’ dimension, a desire to be plunged into the fullness of God. And this fullness is not a solitude but an ocean already alive with the movement of infinite love. The depth is not unrelieved gloom; it contains reciprocal activity, interchange, the presence of the other, while duality is avoided in the communion of the Three in One. The depth itself suggests the inexhaustible character of the Persons and of their

The Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. Every Human Birth

11/20/2018

Birth, every human birth, is an occasion for local wonder. In Jesus’ birth the wonder is extrapolated across the screen of all creation and all history as a God-birth. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”—moved into the neighborhood, so to speak. And for thirty years or so, men and women saw God in speech and action in the entirely human person of Jesus as he was subject, along with them, to the common

Sex and the Moral Imagination

09/28/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 12, 2015 …. For although the Supreme Court is not the arbiter of morality, its decisions generally signal a deep level of cultural acceptance. Of course, in American practice, the Court represents the apex of legal/forensic imagination. Its decision[s]…signal the bankruptcy of the forensic model for continuing Christian thought. When questions of sexual behavior are placed before the legal model, Christians are simply unable to make a persuasive case for much

Abraham at the End of the World

07/20/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 24, 2015 This is an exercise in the Orthodox reading of the Scriptures. My thoughts frequently return to this story and this line of thought. This article is greatly expanded from an earlier version. The habits of modern Christians run towards history: it is a lens through which we see the world. We see a world of cause and effect, and, because the past is older than the present, we look

Behind Every Rock and Tree – An Allegory

06/15/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, January 17, 2015 How is an allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures possible? In the fourth chapter of Galatians, St. Paul invokes the story of Abraham and his two sons, one born of a bondwoman (Hagar) and the other of a freewoman (Sarah). As he prepares to draw a lesson from the story he says of it: “These things are an allegory.” He then proceeds to draw a very authoritative (for him)

Nativity Devotion, November 14: In the Beginning

11/14/2017

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis in The Prayer Team In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3 Good morning Prayer Team! Unlike our American culture which celebrates from now until Christmas, with celebrations ending promptly on December 26,

Leave-Taking of the Ascension. The Holy Spirit Comes Down as Fire on All People

06/02/2017

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:1-4

Holy Saturday. And God “Rested”

04/15/2017

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, ”Let there be light” and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3 (From a Prophecy at the Vesperal Liturgy on Holy Saturday Morning) Have you ever wondered why the Crucifixion happened on a Friday, as

Archive

The Twenty-Second Day of Great Lent. The Death of Christ and the Life of Man

The Eighth Day of Great Lent. The Cross. The Cross as Cure

Persons in Communion: Singular and plural (Part I)

The Sixth Day of Christmas Advent. Every Human Birth

Sex and the Moral Imagination

Abraham at the End of the World

Behind Every Rock and Tree – An Allegory

Nativity Devotion, November 14: In the Beginning

Leave-Taking of the Ascension. The Holy Spirit Comes Down as Fire on All People

Holy Saturday. And God “Rested”

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