Reflections in Christ

by Fr. Lawrence Farley

For Thine is the Kin-dom?

Several times a week I drive past a certain church, and recently I was moved by curiosity to find out what their services were like. Since our province is currently under lockdown and gathering for Christian worship inside is currently against the law (yes, you heard that right), many churches make their services available through live-stream. This…

The Emigration of Abraham

Significantly the story of the salvation of the world began in a pagan place far away from what would eventually become the Promised Land.  That is, it began in Ur of the Chaldeans with the emigration of the family of Terah (Genesis 11:31).  What prompted Terah to uproot his family from a prosperous city and to wander afar from all the security he…

Are You Comfortable?

Recently I was reading a foreign-language newspaper (well, the English part of it) and there was an article in it about the church.  My eyes were first attracted to the article by a photo of an old priest in a stole, having a long white beard, and holding a prayer rope.  The article accompanying the photo read as follows:  “The monk priest Father…

Does God Have a Body?

Not so long ago I was asked by a very young child at church the question, “Fr. Lawrence, does God have a body?”  She was not thinking of the incarnate Christ our God, but of God in the Old Testament, Yahweh, the pre-incarnate deity, the Father (though she did not express it in those terms).  The answer, of course, is:  No, God does not have a…

What In the World Can Be Done with Magda?

In discussions about hell and the sad fact that not everyone will be saved (as is clear from the words of Christ, the writings of His apostles, the consensus of the Fathers, and the consistent teaching of the Church throughout the centuries) one quickly encounters the objection that this teaching is too much to bear.  Some affirm that the teaching…

Zacchaeus and the Salvation of Sinners

Zacchaeus lives in the Church, abiding as an image of us all.  In some sense, everyone of us is Zacchaeus, for everyone of us is a sinner at heart.  That is why Zacchaeus is invoked and his example recalled every time the priest enters someone’s home to invoke the presence and blessing of Christ upon it (such as at the Theophany season, and when a…

Unveiling the Scriptures – The Role of the Fathers

We conclude this series by examining the role of the Fathers in Christian Scriptural interpretation and by offering a threefold summary of our study.

The Role of the Fathers

The Church Fathers were a varied lot.  They lived in a number of different centuries, had very different personalities and gifts, spoke different languages, and wrote to…

Unveiling the Scriptures – The Christian Exegesis of the Old Testament

We now turn to a look at how Christians read the Old Testament.

The Christian Exegesis of the Old Testament

The Christian approach to the Old Testament shared with the Second Temple interpreters their approach to the Scriptures in that the Christians combed through the texts carefully to find hidden meanings—i.e. meanings not immediately…

Christmas and the Humility of Yahweh

To really appreciate and understand the Old Testament, one needs to place it in the religious and cultural context of the Ancient Near East.  Having done this, one can then see how much the Old Testament shares with that world and also how much it differs.

Take, for example, the Tabernacle that Yahweh commanded Moses to construct, the house and…

Unveiling the Scriptures – Second Temple Exegesis

We continue our study by a look at Scriptural exegesis during the period of the Second Temple.

Second Temple Exegesis

It is important to understand how the Scriptures were read during this period.  Because the Scriptures functioned as the repository of Israel’s poignant and sometimes desperate hopes, people read and re-read them carefully,…

Unveiling the Scriptures - The Period of the Kings

This series continues with an examination of the Scriptural tradition during the period of the kings of Israel.

The Period of the Kings

This situation began to slowly change under the kings of Israel and Judah.  There had always been prophets in Israel, but they functioned more as seers and diviners than as sources of theological revelation. …

Unveiling the Scriptures - The Mosaic Period

We continue this series with an examination of the Scriptures in the Mosaic period.

The Mosaic Period
   
It was with Moses that the first written records of God’s dealings with His people began to be written.  But even then, the main gift was that of presence, not message.  When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, He came with fire, not…

Unveiling the Scriptures - Introduction

Some months ago it was arranged by the good people of the Russian Orthodox diocese of Souroz in Britain that I would give a talk at their diocesan conference at the end of this month entitled Unveiling the Scriptures.  That plan came to grief with the coming of the COVID virus which resulted in our government cancelling flights to Britain and the…

Praying to the Saints

When I first began to investigate Orthodoxy, my main stumbling block to conversion was prayer to Mary and the saints.  My Protestant formation had trained me (well, brainwashed me actually, for it was long on insistence and short on argument) that it was WRONG to pray to Mary and the saints.  Doing so constituted Idolatry (with a capital “I”),…

The Despair of Elijah

The Prophet Elijah (whose feast day is July 20) is perhaps best known for his final ascent to heaven in a chariot of fire.  He is also famous for being fed by a raven, and also for the dramatic contest on Mount Carmel.

This last event was arguably the pinnacle of his prophetic career.  Elijah served God in very dark days.  Israel had always carried…

Will You Remember Me?

Lately I was listening to Jann Arden’s poignant song Will You Remember Me? and it occurred to me that in one hundred years from now, no one would.  In this I am, of course, hardly unique:  in one hundred years from now, no one will remember you either, nor will they remember anyone currently reading this blog.  My children will remember me, and my…

The Outstretched Arms of Moses

After Israel was brought out of Egypt and as they journeyed to the foot of Mount Sinai, they faced a multitude of dangers in the howling wilderness.  They faced the threat of starvation as they slowly trudged southward through the west side of the Sinai peninsula, and in response God provided for them through the provision of manna.  They faced the…

How the Grinch Stole Pascha

The year 2020 will be remembered by Orthodox as the year without Pascha.  At the beginning of the year, and even at the beginning of Great Lent, it hardly seemed possible.  I remember the second Sunday of Great Lent here at St. Herman’s.  We had served the Liturgy of St. Basil and commemorated St. Gregory Palamas.  We were looking forward to the…

Did God Send the Covid Virus as a Judgment?

In the sometimes over-abundant discussion now taking place about the current Covid virus, one sometimes hears the assertion that God has sent Covid 19 as a judgment upon us for our sins to make us repent.  What are we to make of this?

First of all, repentance is always a good idea.  More than that, it is the usual lifestyle for Christians. …

The Good Place

I have just finished watching the series finale of a wonderful television show called The Good Place, starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson.  It features the fellowship and adventures of a few people who die and end up in hell, but who are told that they are in heaven, the Good Place—all the better to torture them in hell.  Eventually they do…