Today's Gospel reading is the first eight verses of the Gospel written by Mark. Here's how it begins: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet... The Greek word translated as "gospel" is evangelion = "good news." So how did "good news" …
Christmas: Story of Liberation
Audio File of Sermon, 28 Dec. 2014 (click the arrow to hear) The Bible is a people's history; but we rarely think of it that way. No wonder we have domesticated the Christmas story by turning it into a festival of gift-giving and consumption, with Santa Claus as its symbol. So the story of …
A Christmas Community
(I apologize that I had to remove the audio file of my complete sermon, as there seems to have been a technical glitch. In compensation, I'll try to flesh out the brief version of my sermon below. Check back in a day or two to see if I have expanded what is shown here.) A …
You know what is boring?
Audio file of today's sermon "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means …
Marks of Community
Today's Gospel reading, Luke 13:10-17, should be read in the context of the entire chapter 13 of Luke. Jesus heals the woman who was bent over for eighteen years in the midst of various parables and confrontational dialogues. What unifies all these segments of chapter 13 is the idea of community. A careful reading of this …
Priests of thanksgiving
Today, November 30th, we celebrate the memory of St. Andrew the Apostle, the brother of Saint Peter. The Gospel of John tells us that Andrew was the first of the apostles to follow Jesus and it was Andrew who then brought Peter to Jesus. Thus, in the Orthodox Church St. Andrew is called the First-Called. …
Why we need Mary
The feast of the Entrance of Mary in the Temple is celebrated by the Orthodox Church on November 21st. According to tradition, Mary was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem and she lived inside the holy of holies. It almost certainly is not a historical event in the life of Mary: Only one person, the …
Blessed are those who are scared
November 16 is the feast day of Saint Matthew, the evangelist. On this day, I call to mind another great saint, Antony of Egypt. At the end of his life, Antony is reported to have said to his disciples: “Live as though you were dying every day. Pay attention to yourselves and remember what I taught …
There are no crumbs in God’s kingdom
Today's Gospel reading, Luke 16:19-31, is the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The parable is one of many that Jesus spoke about money and how God sees rich and poor people. Indeed, the context here is worth looking at. Chapter 16 of Luke's Gospel begins with another parable about money and Jesus concludes …
Guard Your Identity
There are many instances in the Gospels of Jesus driving out demons, and the most remarkable of these is the one in Luke 8:26-39 that we read in the Liturgy this morning (Oct. 26th). It is hard for many modern people - myself included - to relate to stories of demon possession and exorcism or …
