Posts tagged “Irenaeus

Irenaeus on the Incarnation, sin and death

Posted on March 16th, 2011

I am rereading On the Apostolic Preaching, this time very slowly (I read it in haste back, I think, in 1999). The first time I read it I was disappointed by its simplicity. I see now how much I missed; the work is brilliant in packing so much into so few words. I now give this work my highest recommendation. Here’s a great bit on the incarnation, original sin, the passion, and the overcoming of death: So He united man with God and wrought a communion of God and man, we being unable to have any participation in incorruptibility if it were not for His coming to us, for incorruptibility, whilst being invisible, benefitted us nothing: so He became visible, that we might, in…

The power of the Name

Posted on March 15th, 2011

Irenaeus interprets the renaming of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua (Greek “Iesous,” i.e., Jesus) in Num. 13:16 as a revelation of the power of the name of Jesus: And when [the Israelites] were near to the land, which God had promised to Abraham and his seed, Moses, choosing one from each tribe, sent them to spy out that land and the cities in it and the inhabitants of the cities. Then God revealed to him the Name which alone is able to save those who believe in it; and Moses, renaming Osee, the son of Nave, one of the envoys, called him Jesus; and thus sent him with the power of the Name, believing that he would receive them back safe because of…

The Pasch: source of liberation

Posted on March 14th, 2011

And because [the children of Jacob] were greatly afflicted and oppressed in a cruel slavery, and they groaned and cried to God, the God of the patriarchs, of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, He led them out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron, striking the Egyptians with ten plagues, sending, in the last plague, a slaughtering angel, slaying their first-born, from man even unto beast. He saved the sons of Israel from this, revealing in a mystery the Passion of Christ, by the slaughtering of a spotless lamb and by its blood given to be smeared on the houses of the Hebrews as a guard of invulnerability: the name of this mystery is the Pasch, source of liberation. –Irenaeus, On…

The first law was given to keep man from self-conceited arrogance

Posted on January 20th, 2011

I’m rereading once again Irenaeus’ On the Apostolic Preaching, a wonderful gem. This passage particularly struck me, where Irenaeus indicates that God forbade man from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in order to keep man mindful that he had a LORD: But, in order that the man should not entertain thoughts of grandeur nor be exalted, as if he had no Lord, and because of the authority given to him and the boldness towards God his Creator, sin, passing beyond his own measure, and adopt an attitude of self-conceited arrogance against God, a law was given to him from God, that he might know that he had as lord the Lord of all. And He placed certain limits…

Happy Irenaeus Day!

Posted on June 28th, 2010

Today is the commemoration of St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, martyred c. 202. I was privileged to take a course while in seminary taught by Dr. William Weinrich on Irenaeus, as part of his wonderful “Fathers and Heretics” series. Other than Luther (and, it ought to go without saying, the Holy Scriptures), Irenaeus has certainly had more impact on my theological understanding than anyone. Dr. Weinrich made Against Heresies (full original title: A Refutation and Subversion of Knowledge falsely so called) come to life. There are two touchstones from that most important work that I keep coming back to in my preaching and teaching: Deus facit, homo fit (God makes, man is made). I didn’t understand when Dr. Weinrich kept emphasizing that just how…

Sanctity of Human Life/Epiphany II sermon

Posted on January 17th, 2010

I was asked to write the sermon for the LCMS Life Ministry’s resource for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, coinciding this year with Epiphany II. The following is that sermon, slightly modified for use in my own parish. “In the beginning, God created” (Gen. 1). That’s who God is. The One who creates. Outside of Himself. The fact that He creates outside of Himself reveals that great attribute of His, Love. “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8) and God makes man that He may have someone to love. That work of God continues today. As we say in the Catechism, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.” The fact that He has made me means that already, and apart from anything…

On reading the Scriptures

Posted on September 12th, 2009

If any one, therefore, reads the Scriptures with attention, he will find in them an account of Christ, and a foreshadowing of the new calling. -Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter XXVI