“What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” –Mk 10:9 Our church operates in the world of contracts, but we aim for something higher than contractual relationships with each other. Can you imagine what would happen if we had a no-show policy for church? At $50 per person, per Sunday, we would…
‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ –Mk 4:40 Some people and some priests truly are disciplinarians, some are thinkers, some are all heart. A friend of ours from Yerevan told us that when she lived there, she and her friends knew all the priests and their personalities, and would pick where…
Indeed all that glitters is not gold, and where did this gold medal come from anyway? Well it was not from the original Greek Olympics, whose first place prize which was not a gold medal but a laurel wreath. These crowns of flowers are splendidly beautiful today, but they are gone tomorrow—a wise reminder that…
Fences and wells. That’s the analogy that will govern this sermon and which reveals a fundamental truth about our spiritual maturity and openness to God’s blessing at church, at work and at home. Here is how the fences and wells analogy goes. If you are a farmer with a ranch, you can build fences to…
On my way back from a family funeral service for Nora Keuroghlian, God rest her kind soul, I passed a sign in front of a humble church with the phrase “God’s ‘no’ is not a rejection but a redirection.” Funny that a sign on Curlew road can reveal wisdom for our everyday lives which also penetrates the depths of God’s relationship…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. –Jn 1:1-3 God speaks and we get it, no other creature is like this. So when we…
Witness to the Armenian Orthodox Way Review The Two MountainsIn session two I mentioned a quote about tribalism and community from David Brooks’ book which I got for my birthday The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. The concept behind that title of that book ‘the second mountain,’ is based on a profound…