Judgment Sunday In one of our culture’s most beloved stories, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, we encounter a few people with some character deficiencies. One of them is a boy named Augustus Gloop, whose major flaw is
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Being Filled While Fasting
Doing vs. Trusting
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee In America, we have a saying, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” This saying encompasses our attitude that one will get ahead in life through education and a good hard day’s work. In fact,
Read moreA Dedicated Lifestyle
Perhaps the biggest problem concerning religion in today’s society is that it’s been regulated to a simple set of beliefs—creeds, theology, and dogma—which are often very abstract. This, in turn, has allowed people to create litmus tests around what people
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15th Sunday of Luke Many people think God delights in those who are spiritually superior, and many of us think that God shuns those who are sinners. But, if this is our vision of God, then God isn’t who we
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Why Does the Church Exist? If you were to catch someone on the street and ask them what church is about or why it exists, you’d probably get a bunch of different answers. Some people might say it’s a club.
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12th Sunday of Luke Sometimes, what’s expected doesn’t happen. And, sometimes, what’s unexpected, and maybe even impossible, happens. That’s the case with today’s story. A group of lepers of various backgrounds, including those who worship the same God as Jesus,
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Sunday after Theophany There’s a huge misconception today in the Orthodox Church: the clergy are the hired professionals and the people simply come to be watch and take communion. This misconception leads to division within the church—the clergy vs. the
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Sunday Before Theophany A call from the desert comes saying, “Make way for the Lord.” Our inclination is to hear this as the historical beginning of John’s story, how he baptized Jesus. But, when we do this, we miss so
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Sunday After the Nativity In our world today, what happens when two (super)powers oppose each other? If recent history gives us a clue, it’s war. In our collective lifetimes, we’ve lived through WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War,
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Sunday Before the Nativity Sometimes, it seems life is against you. No matter how hard you try, things just don’t go your way: you lose your job, your landlord terminates your lease, or you don’t get into the school you
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