Our Mission is to Be On a Mission

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost / Ninth Sunday of Luke, November 20, 2016 Galatians 6:11-18; Luke 12:16-21 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we are wrapping up our five-week sermon series asking this question: What is our mission? The Gospel reading we hear today for the…

Our Mission is to Serve a Higher Order

Feast of St. John Chrysostom / Eighth Sunday of Luke, November 13, 2016 Hebrews 7:26-8:2; Luke 10:25-37 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today is the feast of the greatest preacher among all the saints of Christian history—John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople, whose Divine Liturgy we…

Our Mission is to Act with Faith

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost / Seventh Sunday of Luke, November 6, 2016 Galatians 1:11-19; Luke 8:41-56 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we hear from the Gospel about two healings performed by our Lord Jesus Christ—the healing of the woman with a flow of blood…

Our Mission Is To the Person in Front of Us

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost / Fifth Sunday of Luke, October 30, 2016 II Corinthians 11:31-33, 12:1-9; Luke 16:19-31 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we continue to explore the theme we’re focusing on for several weeks: What is our mission? And with today’s Gospel from…

Preaching Christ in a World That Doesn’t Need God: Orthodox Christianity and Secularism

The following is from a larger talk I am working on about Orthodoxy in the West. Secularism is essentially the idea that one can conceive of a world without God. It is the belief in an autonomous order existing apart from the divine order. It is not necessarily a denial of God’s existence, by the way. Such outright atheism has never been that attractive…

Lenten Evangelism #5: “Come and See” (The Sunday of Orthodoxy)

Sunday of Orthodoxy, March 1, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. “Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.'” This phrase, which we hear in today’s Gospel, has come to be something of an evangelistic watchword among English-speaking Orthodox Christians. “Come and see.” It is used especially…