On the Third Sunday of Pascha we are called to remember the healing of the Paralytic 38 years sick. Jesus asks him a question and confronts him with a command: "Do you WANT to be healed?" and "Take up your pallet and walk." The power of desire and obedience challenges us to allow the grace of God to transfigure our past from a burden to a badge of grace and mercy.
On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, we are confronted with the commun hunger of all humans, the common thirst of all of us: to be loved and to love. But how do we avoid the traps of trying to fulfill this hunger and thirst in the wrong way? How do we avoid wrecking our lives by bad choices?
Our society has become a place where Radical Autonomy has been elevated to the highest good. What "I" want is considered the highest value and the measure of the happiness of my life. But Christianity has a different value system based on Radical Communion.
Jesus promised His disciples that He would transform them from fishermen to "Fishers of men." How does that apply to us today as Orthodox Christians? In fact, why are you Orthodox?
The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the Coming of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples of Jesus. But why? As followers of Christ, we too, have been given the grace of the Holy Spirit in our lives as well. So, does the closeness of the Spirit in your life reflect a reality or an untapped resource?
Jesus confronts two men who have become "demoniacs" that is these men had so been overcome by their passions and unbridled desires that they were more animal than man. What a powerful picture of the dangers to us in today's society! Learn how the Faith is meant to tame the passions!
The crowd followed the Lord into a "lonely place" knowing full well there was no food there. But heir courage and desire for Christ overcame their fear of physical hunger. Does your love and desire for Christ overcome your fear of lesser desires?
So, why, on the Sunday before Christmas, does the Church call us to read this lineage of Jesus? Because there's an irreplaceable power to community memory. And more so for we moderns who have sacrificed our attention span for entertainment!
The guests invited to the rich man's banquet didn't value their invitation to his dinner as much as they valued other things. In the end, none of the expected elite got to go, but the most unexpecting group were invited and enjoyed the hospitality of the rich man!
On the Sunday of the Synaxis of the Archangels, we confront the challenge of hearing the Message from the Messengers of God. But to be able to hear, we must first want to hear. Do you want to hear what the Messenger says to the Churches?
The Gadarene Demoniac was possessed by a "Legion" of demons. His spirit was so fractured and divided that he was not only his own worst enemy, but he was a threat to all around him.
What a very familiar passage is this passage about a sower planting seed! We've heard this message forever, but I wonder, do we know how to cultivate "god soil" in our lives so that the seed of the Word of God will grow within us?
All great religions have a form of the Golden Rule. But in the Christian Faith this wisdom has specific wisdom on not only how to actually follow the Golden Rule but to share this faith with others.
There wasn't a Jew within the sound of Jesus' voice when He said if any man would be my disciple, he must take up his cross... You see, there's only one use for a cross, and that's for an execution. The Christian message invites us not only to follow Christ but to die to everything that isn't like Christ in our lives. That's what it means to "bear your cross!"
Why does the Orthodox Church celebrate the Elevation of the Holy Cross? A device meant for torture and a grizzly death is held up, venerated, and even kissed! Why? Well, because what humanity meant for evil, God transformed into Victory and Life!
A Servant owes his Master millions and he's forgiven. Then this wicked servant turns on a fellow servant who owes him a few dollars and he throws his co-worker in prison! The Master is not happy and takes His servant he had forgiven such a great debt and throws him into prison too! So shall the Father do to everyone who doesn't forgive "from the heart."
Jesus uses seemingly harsh language when a father brings an epileptic son to the Lord for healing. But it's only because it's only this kind of language that can break past the selfishness of our own hearts to teach us how to have faith the size of a mustard seed!
Matthew was a hated tax collector for the occupying Roman Empire. His encounter with Jesus Christ changed him forever. It is this life changing encounter that invites us today to further renew the spirit of our minds about just what is this Christian life anyway!
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus confronts us today about a real change in the way we think. Only the courageous will comply!
The Gadarene Demoniac had been reduced to an animal existence by his misuse of his freedom. Jesus comes and heals him and he is finally in his right mind. Are you in your right mind?
Avoiding the twin temptations of fear and wishful thinking.
We have all heard the Golden Rule, but there is so much more to this passage and it has everything to do with a very serious challenge to the status quo of our lives. After all, even sinners love those who love them!
Isn't it interesting after the Lord blessed Peter and his partners in their fishing business, Peter saw himself as a sinful man and asked the Lord to leave him? But that's the risk of standing so close to the Light. It reveals who you really are! But Christ invites us to be close to Him without fear or shame and allow His Light to set us free!
The message of the Cross is God's invitation to you and me to break the destructive patterns of our lives and embrace the wise pattern of Purgation, Illumination, and Union in a perpetual growth and maturity pattern of becoming like Christ! It is a pattern that gives life instead of the slavery of the destructive patterns of selfish living!
Why does the Church offer us the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross? Because the Christian faith is about dealing with reality and having our all too easy temptations to delusions and the fantasy of what I'm afraid of or what I wish for blind us to the reality God wants us to embrace! Waking up is hard, but it has to be done!
We hear it all the time - God loves you - but our modern world has so lost the depth and beauty of God's love, we are in danger of emptying this profound truth of its powerful meaning. Today we look at a familiar passage of scripture with new eyes, with God's eyes, and what we discover is life changing!
When faced with a life-changing forgiveness of a huge debt, this man in our Gospel Lesson revealed his own wicked heart by not showing that same forgiveness and mercy to his fellow servant. It did not end well for that wicked servant. And it won't end well for we who refuse to forgive from the heart!
Trust is a foundational building block of any relartionship. Without it there simply is no way to have anything more than some superficial connection. But trust requires risk. And we humans avoid risk most of the time. Jesus challenges us to risk trusting Him.
Circumstances can be intoxicating and Fr. Barnabas says that true contentment begins in the heart not with our circumstances.
When the disciples were confronted with the impossible task of feeding 5,000 men plus women and children, they forgot that their Lord was all they needed!
