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The Third Friday of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled (Part II)

~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 This bondage or slavery to sin is also similar to language applied to the devil: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. (Heb 2:14-15 RSV) St. Paul

The Third Thursday of Great Lent. Good News – Your Debt is Being Cancelled (Part I)

~By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 27, 2016 Recent conversations on the blog have bounced around the imagery of debt in the Scriptures. Contemporary Protestant thought often likes to express the notion of a “sin debt.” The idea runs that God’s righteousness and justice have proper demands. When we fail to keep the commandments, we create a debt for which God’s justice demands payment. Christ’s innocent self-offering on the Cross is seen as the payment for

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: A Modern Lent

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 29, 2019  Few things are as difficult in the modern world as fasting. It is not simply the action of changing our eating habits that we find problematic – it’s the whole concept of fasting and what it truly entails. It comes from another world. We understand dieting – changing how we eat in order to improve how we look or how we feel. But changing how we eat in order to know God

What Do We Need? Love Amidst the Clutter

~By Stephen Freeman, September 18, 2023 I’ve been slowly making my way through the book, An Empire of Things. It’s subtitle, How We Became a World of Consumers from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Centuries, describes the fascinating journey outlined in the text. It tracks the gradual evolution of the modern world as seen in our acquisition of stuff. The average citizen in the 1400’s would have been lucky to have a change of clothes and the

What Do We Need? Love Amidst the Clutter

~By Father Stephen Freeman, September 18, 2023 I’ve been slowly making my way through the book, An Empire of Things. It’s subtitle, How We Became a World of Consumers from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Centuries, describes the fascinating journey outlined in the text. It tracks the gradual evolution of the modern world as seen in our acquisition of stuff. The average citizen in the 1400’s would have been lucky to have a change of clothes and

The Path of Transfiguration

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, Sunday, August 6, 2023 In my reading this week I came across a wonderful quote perfect for a sermon today on the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. It is by Marcus Borg a Protestant biblical scholar with an academic perspective most Orthodox would avoid. No, I do not agree with everything he says, but in his teaching lie

God, the All-Vulnerable

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 2, 2017 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (10:32-45) James and John desired power. They wanted to sit at the right and left hands of the All-Powerful God, the Imperial Majesty on High, the Divine Potentate, the Inescapable and Invulnerable Judge. Jesus corrects them by asking a question. You may note in reading the Gospels that Jesus is much more into asking

Epiphany: Eureka!

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 10, 2021 Epiphany means: “a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. An intuitive grasp of reality through a simple and striking event. An illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” It is not only a religious term. It can refer to any other sphere of human interest as well. For example, there is the famous story of the Greek mathematician Archimedes who,

The First Friday of Great Lent: Getting to the Point

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 20, 2017  English is a great language, except when it isn’t. We have an incredible range of vocabulary, both as a legacy of the many languages that have invaded the homeland, as well as its incredible propensity to borrow words. The English vocabulary exceeds 200,000 words, the most of any language in the world (I am told). Thus, it is interesting when English doesn’t quite have a word for something.

The Devastation of Love

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 26, 2021. Ken Wilber is a contemporary philosopher and writer in Transpersonal Psychology. In his book entitled GRACE AND GRIT he tells his personal story of loss and transformation. In it he speaks about love in a way you may never have heard. He does not use the romantic language you hear on TV or in movies. He tells the truth. In fact, his definition of