Sermon Notes, Third Advent

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION As Pastor Sumpter pointed out last week, Israel’s calendar was part of her pedagogy. But Paul says that we are now full-grown sons (Galatians 4:1-7) and appears to associate observing days and seasons with reversion to childhood (Galatians 4:10-11; Colossians 2:16-17, 20-21). Is recognizing a church calendar an act of Judaizing? THE TEXT “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not... Read more

Sin condemned in flesh

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Here is what incarnation means: God the Son takes all of our broken humanity to Himself, embraces it, lives in it and with it, keeps faith with His Father through it all, even to death. And in His death, He takes our ruin to the grave. The cross is the death of twisted humanity, God’s judgment against sin in the flesh It might seem an end: God tried the experiment of creating man; it failed; so He comes to clean... Read more

Eucharistic meditation, second advent

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:39 pm By Peter Leithart

Deuteronomy 12:18: you shall you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all your undertakings. Deuteronomy 12 is one of the central liturgical passages in the Bible. In it Yahweh promises to plant Israel in the land, clear away... Read more

Exhortation, Second Advent

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

“In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness.” Thus John describes the incarnation of the Son. He comes as the living and life-giving light of the world. That’s good news. In the beginning, God spoke and light shone into the darkness, and unending light is the image of eternal life in the book of Revelation. Between these endpoints, Jesus is the dawn of a new day, the beginning... Read more

Unto death

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:50 pm By Peter Leithart

John Meyendorff gets the nub of Cyrillian – one is tempted to say simply orthodox – Christology in this brief statement: “God without ceasing to be God, made human nature his own to the point of mortality.” God joins Himself to humanity, makes it His, and won’t let go. Even death cannot shake Him loose from us. When death looms, the Son doesn’t play the Nestorian and shrink back in horror. He clings to the assumed humanity even to the... Read more

Proverbs 24:21-34

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

PROVERBS 24:21-22 Verse 21 begins with an exhortation to “fear” Yahweh and the king. Fear involves respect and honor, but also includes an element of what we call fear. To fear Yahweh is to recognize that He is the one who has power to send both soul and body to hell, to recognize that He is the judge. In associating Yahweh and the king, Solomon is expressing a common biblical link. At various places in the Bible, rulers are called... Read more

Cosmic harmony

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:51 pm By Peter Leithart

From Eusebius’s panegyric to Constantine: “as the many-stringed lyre is composed of different chords , both sharp and flat, some slightly, others tensely strained, and others intermediate between the two extremes, yet all attuned according to the rules of harmonic art; even so this material world, compounded as it is of many elements, containing opposite and antagonist principles, as moisture and dryness, cold and heat, yet blended into one harmonious whole, may justly be termed a mighty instrument framed by... Read more

Consider the olive

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:49 pm By Peter Leithart

Constantine says that some created things “possess wonderful properties, and the full apprehension of which is very difficult. Like hot springs. Or “the fruit of the olive-tree and the vine,” which “deserve especial notice; the one for its power of renovating and cheering the soul, the other because it ministers to our enjoyment, and is likewise adapted for the cure of bodily disease.” “Numberless,” he concludes, “are the gifts which God has bestowed for the comfort and enjoyment of man.” Read more

Empires of trust

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Thomas Madden offers a contrarian analysis of American and Roman empire in his recent book, Empires of Trust . Most empires in history, he says, “have sought to build their power in whatever way they can, making war on their neighbors when it seems advantageous and continuing to do so until stopped. They are trusted only to use power for their own benefit and to treat those they conquer as, well, conquered.” Many believe that the Romans were the same.... Read more

Channeling Strauss

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Peter Leithart

In another part of his oration, Constantine analyzes Virgil’s famed Fourth Eclogue, which Christians often took as a pagan prophecy of Christ. Constantine believes that it’s a deliberate prophecy, but one he deliberately obscured for fear of persecution: “these words are spoken plainly and at the same time darkly, by way of allegory. Those who search deeply for the import of the words, are able to discern the Divinity of Christ. But lest any of the powerful in the imperial... Read more