In which I plagiarize my favourite of St. John Chrystostom’s sermons on “The Rich Man and Lazarus”, which focuses on the leveling effect of an earthquake (no pun intended) and how the Christian perspective, seeing disasters as literal “acts of God”, can actually help us in our pursuit of holiness by prompting self-examination and repentance – and by revealing our roles in this life for the transitory contingencies that they really are. I touch in this sermon on my own experience of an earthquake, which I have documented on my own personal blog (here and here), for anyone interested.

However much power we give evil, it is powerless in the presence of Christ.

Warning: As with almost all of my homilies, much of this sermon is based on what I have encountered and struggled with during the week. Given that, this one touches on suicide. If this is a sensitive topic for you, you may want to skip this one. Also, given that suicide is not the primary focus of the sermon, it does not attempt any sort of systematic, authoritative, or well-rounded treatment of the subject; if you are looking for that, I recommend the 2007 SCOBA Pastoral Letter on Suicide, available here: https://goo.gl/Se7FQE

What does it mean for us to be “the temple of the living God”?

Following Jesus Christ, there is only one way of life; there is only one way to live: that is the Way of Love, which is the Way of the Cross.

In which we celebrate the ultimate triumph of the Way of the Cross over and within the very empire which had made the cross the ultimate symbol of its cruel power

In which we identify – and identify with – the source of the unforgiving servant’s unforgivingness so that we may know better how to forgive

How do we engage in activism/activity without judgement? Mary shows us the way…

Three apologies are in order for this episode:

* You will notice that this is a relatively “old” sermon, from Holy Saturday. I will be “catching up” a bit over the next few episodes, and, while I am, episodes will not always be posted in chronological order.

* You will also notice that I had a bit of a cold on Holy Saturday. Sorry about the sniffling!

* And, of course, Hanania, Mishael, and Azaria are the Three Holy Youths’ Hebrew names, not their Chaldean names!

Two reasons why Christ’s Ascension is important to us

On Palm Sunday, as we stand, palm-branches in-hand, we do not just remember or re-enact, but, as we reflect on what went wrong in the light of the cross, we embody, as we follow in our Leader’s footsteps, the Ultimate Revolution.

(Inspired in part by one of my favourite podcasts, Revolutions, and, in even larger part, by The Lenten Spring.)