Saint Hagop Armenian Church

I was getting an oil change for the church car last week and by the garage across the street I saw a sign ‘Free brake check, stop by if you can!’  It gave me a laugh and then gave me pause to reflect on a theme of all our readings of these past weeks. The post Sermon: Stop By, If You Can first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Often to find the right direction for your life, your career, your faith, we have to correct our course after a bunch of misdirections. Christian thinker Rob Bell calls events, people and paths we discover we don’t want to follow ‘south stars.’  North stars are all the positive role models, aspirations and paths we hope… The post Sermon: South Stars first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Two big and complex ‘Can I’ questions came up in American civil life just this weekend. One set of questions were these: Can I use weapons of deadly force to defend myself?  Can I use military weapons of deadly force to defend myself?  Can 18 year olds or mentally troubled people use military weapons of… The post Sermon: 613 Can I’s first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Well the good news is that colleges and states are rediscovering the benefits of apprenticeship and are incorporating them to improve the education of our youth. But of course in this church, on father’s day, we aren’t just looking to improve the higher education of our youth, we aim to improve our highest education as… The post Sermon: Apprentices first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Today is the feast of the Old Testament prophet Elijah.  Reading Elijah’s ups and downs in today’s assigned readings is like watching the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals; one quarter they look absolutely unbeatable and the next feels like if I suited up I could improve the team. Like the Celtics, Elijah has had… The post Sermon: Hero Ball first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

For some reason we love watching people fail miserably at things. Why do we love this?  Well maybe it’s a reaction to perfection culture, where everyone cherry picks only the best events, photos and videos of themselves to create an ideal image online. These failures bring us back to how life really is, with as… The post Sermon: Epic Fails first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Jesus’ Resurrection was not resuscitation.  He didn’t die and come back to live out his natural life, before eventually dying again.  Jesus’ death was intentional, it had a purpose, and that purpose was to raise up all things, to Ascend to the Father and lead us to the same.  Jesus’ Resurrection, the Gospels make 100%… The post Sermon: The Ends of Easter first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

For whatever reasons, God chooses not to reveal himself fully until the time is right, until his people are right. And because none of us like it when we aren’t in on the secret, we tend to make up stuff about heaven to fill in the gaps. I think that’s why there are dozens of… The post Sermon: Now & Not Yet first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

If you want God’s great magic tricks, head out to Tampa Bay in the evening and watch a sunset. If the beauty of the sunset itself doesn’t have you whispering a prayer, maybe one day you’ll see a giant cross in the sky or the face of our Lord in the clouds. But then let’s… The post Sermon: The Miracle Waiting to Happen first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Rather, when we celebrate holidays sacred and secular, we celebrate and recognize something that is everywhere and always true but is so close to us that we tend to take it for granted.  I confess to you that I do this all the time.  I bought my mom a mug this year which says, “Happy… The post Sermon: Stewards of Love first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

You may think at first that this old music, this ancient church is irrelevant, just ‘in the way.’  But listen a few more times, come to worship and fellowship with us for a while and you will find that this old music, this old church is ‘in the Way’ with a capital W, meaning ‘in… The post Sermon: Old & In the Way first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

It is not only hard to find words to describe the great goodness of God, it is also hard to put into words the great badness of evil.   We Armenians come up against this problem whenever we refer to the greatest evil which has ever befallen us, the Armenian Genocide whose 107th anniversary we commemorate… The post Sermon: When Words Fail first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

As you may know, I like to have a joke in my sermons from time to time. I recently found out that today on Easter Sunday, it is even more appropriate. It is actually a long standing tradition in some Eastern Orthodox churches for the priests to come prepared with a joke on Easter Sunday.… The post Sermon: God is Missing first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

A story reads best when we can read ourselves into it. We might find a particular character delightfully or despicably relatable. Maybe it’s a relationship we long for or a mystery to unravel. We find ourselves imagining how to interact with this character and resolve that situation. When we are drawn into a story, it… The post Sermon: Reading Ourselves Into the Story first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Christ’s words and actions are so beautiful and yet so challenging, that we tend to caricature him in one of two ways. First, with all of Jesus’ harsh words in today’s reading, it is easy to see Him as the great judge in the sky whose sole purpose is to call out our sins, dole… The post Sermon: Hate Generally, Love Specifically first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

So the other day when I was bringing the bulletins to church and setting up for Sunday, this teenager rides up on his skateboard and comes into church. [Loud] ‘Yeah I want an espresso double shot on ice with two raw sugars.’ Are you kidding’ I say,  ‘bro, this isn’t Starbucks, this is St. Hagop… The post Sermon: Clueless first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

‘Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any group that will have me as a member.’ This is Groucho Marx’s joke, and as with all good jokes, much truth lies within.  The truth is that in all important communal efforts, family, work and church, we tend to see everyone else as the… The post Sermon: The Greatest Resignation first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

As we were setting up for a wedding last week, the videographer asked me for the password to use our internet.  I gave him our password which ends in 333.  Why 333 he asked?  Wait till you see the sacrament, I said, then you’ll know.  In the Armenian Church, echoing the Holy Trinity, we say… The post Sermon: Love 3 Ways first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

The last time we were all together, we were having a great time.  There were two big weddings and a baptism to celebrate, it was Poon Parekendan, the day of good living.  We ate, drank and were merry, because God blessed creation into existence and called everything good. When we woke up this morning, however,… The post Sermon: The Hangover first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.

Tonight we begin Great Lent, and follow Jesus through his 40-day season of fasting. We surrender food and/or other attachments so that we might discover and recover the fundamental truth that we too crave God above all else. While Lent often involves withholding things we desire-like candy from our kids-we must remember the greater goal… The post Sermon: Hunger Games first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church.