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A woman is walking on the beach with her little grandson. Suddenly a huge wave sweeps the boy out to sea. Desperate, the woman looks up to heaven and says, “God, please rescue my grandson, my only grandson, the light of my life!” Miraculously, the next big wave deposits the little boy at her feet,…
As I often say, where a lot of other churches modern churches just say and understand things, old churches like ours actually recall, represent these holy people and places in icons, worship and architecture-as living realities that are still with us. We shape our church, then our church shapes us.
Life is full of turning points and so are our Holy Scriptures. There are always points in life where you might have gone one way or the other, and in choosing, things were never the same again. Or, as is often the case, we don’t choose events–sometimes events chose us.
The Armenian Church reminds us today that this birth is neither sentimental nor symbolic. Trees, gifts nativities, these are just trifles, things. Christmas is the turning point of history-Asdvadzahaytnutyun-Theophany, when God pours himself into his broken creation, filling and fulfilling what was lost. Before Bethlehem, humanity waited. After Bethlehem, humanity is invited.
Our altar servers, who are lovers of mixed martial arts and all things Armenian, tell me that Armenian UFC fighter Arman Tsarukyan will be wrestling Lance Palmer in Sunrise FL next Saturday night January 10th. I know very little about MMA or wrestling, but I am a big fan of one of the greatest wrestling match…
The story is indeed about us, not about the investments we make, but the investments we are. Each of us is, first and foremost, an investment by God. Our lives, our talents, our families, churches, ethnic background, health, etc. are all given to us by God. This is his investment in each of us. We…
In our culture, waiting has come to feel like missing out like weakness. And yet today’s reading for Advent and Christmas we are reminded of the opposite-that waiting is strength. ‘But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,’ says the Prophet Isaiah, ‘they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall…