Sword in the Fire

Of all the posts I have written for this blog, one of my most popular is the one on the Tabernacle . As a Christian, we read those OT accounts of liturgy and sacrifices and know that somehow they are fulfilled in Christ. That is what that post was designed to accomplish. Since that time, whenever I stumble over a Church Father that addresses many of the passages I grab it and digest it to use later. Recently in teaching through Genesis and the life of Moses, I finally read St. Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses. If you have not read this, I promise you that it is accessible to the general audience and you don’t need an advance degree in religious jargon to understand. Gregory like many of the Fathers of the Church read Scripture slightly different than we do today. Today we often read scientifically, meaning that we only look for the literal, historical meanings. We brush aside anything that seems to allegorically because we fear its lack of objectivity, and it seems too s...

Slavery is a distant memory for our culture and one we would like to forget. Yet it is no surprise that the American slaves embraced the images of the Exodus to provide hope and relief during their time of bondage. Sadly, slavery is still with us today but hidden among our neighborhoods and countries throughout the world. Today there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history. This is not metaphorical slavery but true captivity where people are treated as chattel and property and deprived of any outward freedoms. Louis Etongwe rescues people from slavery in Virginia and Maryland. This is not slavery from the old south but from modern America. His stories are harrowing, but touching as this modern day Moses delivers people from hidden enslavement. http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/about/slavery/real-stories-from-north-america/ This modern story of slavery leads us directly into the first Biblical ode. Understanding the slaves of the American past and knowing ...

Today I stumbled onto something in Gregory of Nyssa that made my heart leap. I love the Fathers but occasionally their illustrations need some updating because of the gap in time and culture. But today it was different, and only my time in the Bluegrass prepared me for this one. Our Sunday School is about to jump into a study of Exodus. Besides commenting on the literary meaning of the text, which is extremely important, my goal is also be true to the way the Church and the Fathers read Scripture. Allegory, types, salvation, and moral images were all important for them. Many times it is really hard to communicate this way of reading into modern minds. It helps to follow the Church in her liturgical texts and the way she reads a particular passage and symbols. To accomplish this I try to find as much Patristic commentary on what we are studying, and let it become part of my own heart and understanding. For Exodus, one source I have picked up is St. Gregory of Nyssa's Life of ...