Today is the 3rd Sunday after Easter. The 1st Sunday after Easter is called green Sunday and the 2nd Sunday, last Sunday, is called Red Sunday.  This 3rd Sunday after Easter has no assigned color, but if I did I would call it ‘Blue Sunday.’ ‘Blue Sunday’ because right about now, after the climax of…

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If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.’ (1 Jn 1:7) Today is the 3rd Sunday after Easter. The 1st Sunday after Easter is called green Sunday and the 2nd Sunday, last Sunday,…

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Our church does indeed believe in recycling and has been earth friendly for over seventeen hundred years.  But we also believe in recycling on a much deeper level, which goes to the heart of what it means to be Armenian Orthodox Christians.  You see we don’t just recycle things, we repurpose them. These vestments I…

The post Sermon: Trash to Triumph first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Yesterday April 24th was of course Armenian Genocide Martyr’s Day and this Thursday April 22nd was Earth Day, two commemorations which appear to have nothing in common except the coincidence of being two days apart.   Today in church, however, we commemorate a third day, Red Sunday (Karmir Kiraki) which predates both by a millennia and…

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‘The shoe must never tell the foot how big it should grow.’  This is a good bit of wisdom about church growth from guru Rick Warren.  It seems obvious, but often we leaders of church don’t act like it’s true. At this week’s parish council meeting we spoke a lot about how to keep growing…

The post Sermon: Fear Not, Fear God! first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Acts 9:31 ‘The shoe must never tell the foot how big it should grow.’  This is a good bit of wisdom about…

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We love words in my family. We play scrabble. We keep buying book case after book case and they keep filling up.  Nora’s is catching on too, just this morning she asked to watch Word World, an animated show where animals and things look like the letters of their name. “Dog” has a ‘D’ for…

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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 We love words in my family. We play scrabble. We keep buying book case after…

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Am I asking too much of these six words ‘Christ is Risen from the Dead,’ to make so much out of it?  Well the famous missionary priest of the Church of Scotland Bishop Newbigin, didn’t think so. One day a reporter following this great man’s struggles and triumphs in bringing the Gospel to South India…

The post Sermon: Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist? first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Krisdos Hareav ee Merelots! Christ is Risen from the Dead! Not only am I warming up the crowd with that greeting, I also intend to make this our simple and profound Easter greeting the topic of today’s sermon. Like any greeting, like ‘how are you,’ it is used so formally that it can lose its…

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