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The prominence of motherly, and especially of breastfeeding imagery in this hymn, with which he closes the work, indicates the importance of this picture for Clement.

Eusebius c. God is shepherd and among 'his' sheep are 'those that give suck'; i. Eusebius and Jerome interpret these motherly ewes in God's flock similarly. Jerome, however, is led to further reflection. This in turn causes him to mention that in Semitic languages the Spirit is feminine.

He then quotes from Psalm , As the eyes of a slave follow his master's hand as the eyes of a slave-girl her mistress, He sees in the mistress a feminine figure of the Holy Spirit. This leads the scholarly Jerome to quote also from the, now lost, Gospel of the Hebrews.

According to Michael J. Jerome is well aware that such talk of God as motherly is unusual and may seem strange. So he points out that no one need be offended by it, for whilst in the Semitic languages the Spirit is feminine, Latin uses masculine and Greek uses neuter gender for the word Spirit. This shows that sexuality does not apply to the Godhead. Augustine A little later the great Augustine extends this idea of the apostle as mother and father.

He links it with Jesus' words about the mother hen, and so speaks of Christ in a motherly way. The Lord, he says, has the authority of a father and the affection of a mother, indeed in Christ's blood we have all been called to life. He says that we can see that a hen is a mother because she looks worn out, so Christ wearies himself for us, his children, in the incarnation.

Chrysostom The early Christian writers loved to build up lists to illustrate the richness of Christ who is all and in all. Typical of such lists is one from the great Greek father John Chrysostom. This seems to have encouraged the Syriac speaking church to associate the birthing imagery of baptism with the Spirit as mother to the new Christian.

The idea of the Spirit brooding is often found in connection with baptism. Aphrahat c. From all who are born of a body the Spirit is absent till they come to birth by water, and then receive the Holy Spirit. This link is natural. Baptism is new birth, spiritual as opposed to fleshly birth John So, the baptismal water is pictured as a womb, or mother.

Brock gives examples from Ephrem and later writers, as well as liturgical evidence. Dekkers, J. Fraipont eds. Willems ed. See also H. VI, 1; H Epiph. The meaning is this.

As long as a man has not taken a wife he loves and reveres God his father and the Holy Spirit his mother, and he has no other love. It is not surprising that this phrase occurs in connection with the sending of the Spirit.

Some texts of the Syrian Orthodox Baptismal service, which is usually attributed to Severus , contain the epiclesis Have mercy on us, O God the Father almighty, and send upon us and upon this water that is being consecrated, from your dwelling that is prepared, from your infinite womb, the Paraclete, your Holy Spirit, the establisher, lord and life-giver.

Actually, a similar picture was found in connection with the Word in the apologists Justin, Tatian, Athenagorus and Theophilus of Antioch. And while the unspeakable part of Him is Father, the part that has sympathy with us is Mother. By his loving the father became of woman's nature, a great proof of which is He whom He begat from himself; and the fruit that is born of love is love. Anselm provides a fine example.

However, after a well known flowering in Julian of Norwich, it seems to die out in Western Christianity. This happens at about the time when devotion for Mary the Mother of God was burgeoning. I am suggesting that the example of the early theologians is one we might usefully recover as we seek to speak of the ineffable God.

This double imaging of the invisible God has resulted in a tendency to imagine God as male. There are however also signs within the New Testament talk of God as Father which may assist us in resisting this tendency.

Evidently the fact of Jesus' maleness is an unquestioned 26 Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom, But what is its theological significance.

What characteristics of the human Jesus have significance as theological descriptors? For example, one would not, presumably, claim that the son asarkos has certain genetic characteristics such as eye colour or body shape as individual essence.. Such characteristics are clearly accident not essential. God does not have dark curly hair, any more than a long white beard! If his gender applies to the Godhead, why is his ethnic inheritance not determinative of God?

If his eye colour, or any other aspect of his genetic makeup are not descriptive of God, then on what grounds could his gender be so understood? Surely it is evident that all such particular genetically determined characteristics of Jesus imply nothing about the nature of God. Equally, since we are to call him father, the intra-trinitarian Father-son relation cannot be meant. What Rutler must mean is that Fatherhood is an analogy or metaphor of Godhead.

The Old Testament is very sparing in its use of father imagery to speak of God. It prefers language like shepherd, kinsman-redeemer, rock and other pictures which had less dangerous echoes in polytheistic systems of thought. Interestingly, undetermined parental imagery as in Hos ff. Jer is found. The match is not percent. The better the photograph — the image — the better the computer can identify someone.

Colossians tells us that Jesus is the image of God. We are able to recognize what is unseen — the invisible God — by what was seen: Jesus. Hebrews tells us that. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high….

Unlike Adam, Jesus is not made in the image of God. To know Jesus is to know God. By seeing how Jesus interacted with the people around him, we get to see some of the characteristics of God. Here are just a few examples of what we learn about God the Father by seeing Jesus the Son. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. Luke The demon-possessed man in the country of the Gerasenes must have frightened any who came close.

Manifestation—The general idea of the Logos[a] is the manifestation of the hidden. The incarnate Word, in His nature, attributes, and actions, is the true epiphany of the unseen Deity, setting forth, like distinct rays of the one and the same glorious light, His infinite wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and power. Our obligations to Christ for His wondrous revelations are unspeakably great.

In verse 15 Paul is speaking of the Son, the author of redemption and forgiveness of sins. Men saw Him, heard Him and handled Him. They saw in Jesus a weeping, suffering, loving God. Jesus was a living image—not a mystical being, not a spirit from another world—but God in flesh. Jesus while on earth held out to men an image of God in love. He displayed love as no other had ever displayed love on this earth.

He was tender, self-denying, kind and long-suffering. No man ever lived or loved or sacrificed as Jesus did. Those who knew Jesus best knew that He was more than a man; His wisdom, His holiness—everything about Him—testified to that fact. Through stormy weather He came to His disciples—walking upon the waves.

When the dead were recalled from the grave. Be still! Back to the Basics. The Best Christmas Ever. The Always God. The Prince of Peace. View all Sermons.



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