Homily – The Hypocrisy of Defending Bad Habits and Rules

Homily – The Hypocrisy of Defending Bad Habits and RulesSt. Luke 13: 10-17 This Gospel lesson is profound, teaching us many things about the nature of healing, hypocrisy, and thanksgiving.  Today I would like to focus on three of the things that it teaches us. One: We Really Should Come to Church  The first has […]

The Holodomor, Lazarus, and the Rich Man

Holodomor (dedication and blessing of the Holodomor Memorial in DC). Background info: the Holodomor (i.e. murder by starvation) was an intentional policy of the USSR under Stalin.  In 1932-33, the Soviet regime killed upwards of ten million people (the number is disputed, but no one doubts that it was several million)  through the forced acquisition of […]

Homily: On the Need to Ritualize Gratitude

Reflection on the Rich Young Man St. Matthew 19:16-26 Prologue What would you give to inherit eternal life?  Because we are here together right now, I know that you are at least willing to give up the best two hours of the week for worship on Sunday morning.  But if that is all you are […]

Homily on Stewardship (the talents)

Homily on the Talents: What is (getting to) Heaven Like?St. Matthew 25:14-30 Main point: What do do with the riches God has given us? Multiply them! How? By investing all those riches in spiritual activities that provide a strong return on investment and having enough self-discipline not to waste them on activities that cause spiritual […]

Homily notes on the man born blind – Hope for the Hopeless

Homily Notes on the Man Born BlindSt. John 9:1-38 [Memorial Day weekend: self-sacrifice among soldiers, self-sacrifice in the family, self-sacrifice in the Church] Meme in a demotivational poster:  It could be that [the purpose] your life is only to serve as a warning to others. How are we supposed to deal with the fact there […]

Homily – “What do you want?” vs. “Who are you?”

Homily for the Sunday after Christmas [“On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…”] It is common for us to lament the commercialization of Christmas, complaining that we have lost the “reason for the season.”  I think this is true.  Many of us are thankful that we are on the “Old […]

Homily: The Sower – Surviving the Coming Storm

Homily on the Sower: Surviving the coming stormSt. Luke 8:5-15 There is a storm coming and I am not sure we are ready. God sowed His seed here in the Blackstone Valley.  It grows within the heart of everyone here.  Like a garden in the spring, there are beautiful shoots waking up to the possibilities […]

Homily: Loving vs. Commodifying (St. Luke 6:31-36)

Summary of the Gospel (“The Rules”) Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Offer yourself without expecting anything in return. Love your enemies. This is the way God is (and you should be thankful for that!). Introduction: missing the point It is hard for us to live the way we should.  From […]

Homily: Threading the Needle

Homily on St. Matthew 19:16-2615 September 2013 And that thou mightest learn, that not by addition but by taking away this evil is stayed; if thou hadst ever had an absurd desire to fly and to be borne through the air, how wouldest thou extinguish this unreasonable desire? By fashioning wings, and preparing other instruments, […]

“Children are not our future – they are our present!”

Homily in Celebration of our Children and Youth (All Saints Day, 2013) “Children are not our future – they are our present!” These words of our beloved Metropolitan Constantine of blessed memory are not a call to put our children and youth on some kind of throne, but to expect and allow them to join […]