sin Archives - Page 4 of 9

A Matter of Life and Death

07/06/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 5, 2015 There are very few categories more basic than life and death. For Classical Christian thinking, they are essential. There has also been a tendency in both theology and philosophy, however, to move away from these fundamental categories and become lost in the complexities of other language. Thinking about the moral life is a prime example. A word like “sin” becomes an obscure subset of legal wrangling and tortured

Churchly Humility

06/29/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 3, 2015 There are many Orthodox bumper stickers and internet memes that seek to portray the excellence of Orthodoxy. Some compare us to the “marines,” others to various kinds of extreme sports. There’s the one that declares the Orthodox Church to have been founded in 33 A.D. I understand such boosterism in a culture where proclaiming the excellence of your football team or other product loyalty is seen as important.

Fifth Monday of Pascha. Being Saved—The Ontological Approach

05/18/2020

By Father Stephen Freeman, May 24, 2019 I cannot begin to count the number of times I wished there were a simple, felicitous word for “ontological.” I dislike writing theology with words that have to be explained – that is, words whose meanings are not immediately obvious. But, alas, I have found no substitute and will, therefore, beg my reader’s indulgence for dragging such a word into our conversations. From the earliest times in the

Third Tuesday after Pascha. Death and Resurrection: Do Not Be Afraid

05/05/2020

I am aware of the phrase “true self” occurring only once in the Bible. Paul used the words to describe what he was desperately trying to locate in the midst of some major trials with his false self. He wrote of it in a telling way: “When I act against my own will, then it is not my true self doing it, but sin which lives in me” (Romans 7:20, Jerusalem Bible). Somehow, he knew there was

The Great and Holy Wednesday

04/15/2020

On Holy Wednesday [Matins celebrated by anticipation on Holy Tuesday evening] the Church invites the faithful to focus their attention on two figures: the sinful woman who anointed the head of Jesus shortly before the passion (Matthew 26:6-13), and Judas, the disciple who betrayed the Lord. The former acknowledged Jesus as Lord, while the latter severed himself from the Master. The one was set free, while the other became a slave. The one inherited the

The Sins of a Nation

02/07/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 26, 2015 Can a nation ever sin? If so, how can it be forgiven? The stories and prophetic writings of the Old Testament are replete with examples of national sin. There are certainly stories of God dealing with individuals, but, on the whole, His attention seems to be directed to Israel and other nations as a whole. The promises and pledges are made to a collective people and the chastisement

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Love and Mercy

10/21/2019

The law was given to multiply our opportunities for falling. —Romans 5:20 The pattern of necessary falling or the “myth of transgression” made less and less sense to Western Christianity as it came to think that religion’s purpose was to teach and maintain social and imperial order. The Christian mind eventually had little respect for the ubiquitous disorder in the universe, unlike most native religions—for example, as here in New Mexico where the Puebloan clown deliberately

Sin: Symptom of Separation. The Myth of Transgression

10/14/2019

First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God. —Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–c. 1416) [1] It is in falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually. As many of the parables seem to say, you have to lose it (or know that you don’t have it) before you will really seek it, then find it, and fittingly celebrate (see all three parables of Luke 15).

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Leaving the Garden

10/07/2019

Now let’s look at “The Fall,” as we usually refer to the pivotal event described in Genesis 3. The Fall is not simply something that happened in one historical moment to one archetypal couple, Adam and Eve. It happens in all moments and lives. It is the shape of creation. It sets the plot line. After Adam and Eve took their identity as separate from their Source, “the eyes of both of them were opened”

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Hidden with Christ in God.

09/30/2019

The Judeo-Christian creation story says that we were created in the very “image and likeness” of God: “Let us create humanity in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves” (Genesis 1:26). The true human identity must build on this foundational goodness, a true identity “hidden in the love and mercy of God,” as Thomas Merton once put it. [1] “Image” is our objective identity as children of God and “likeness” is our degree of

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A Matter of Life and Death

Churchly Humility

Fifth Monday of Pascha. Being Saved—The Ontological Approach

Third Tuesday after Pascha. Death and Resurrection: Do Not Be Afraid

The Great and Holy Wednesday

The Sins of a Nation

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Love and Mercy

Sin: Symptom of Separation. The Myth of Transgression

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Leaving the Garden

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Hidden with Christ in God.

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