Saint Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona » Special Sermons

Sunday Cermon March 21

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:13:13 +0000

Sunday Sermon March 21, 2010

~ Hope

“But as for me, I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.”

Psalm 71:14

Hope never dies. We can lose hope or it can be asleep in our heart. We should find it or awaken it. But it never dies. A human dies; hope stays. The kind of hope that we realize of our deceased ones that when they are in Heaven with the angels and saints.

To keep hope always alive, we need to trust in God, faith, truth, justice, beauty and such values. Of course, we must be optimistic. In a humorous explanation, always see the donut, not the hole of the donut. Let’s see the thorns that are on the stem of a beautiful flower, not the flower that has thorns on its stem.

Our thoughts and our dreams, our beliefs have power to bring success and happiness or misfortune. In our hands are the tools to improve our lives and our surroundings. With hope, everything is possible.

At times it happens that we might find ourselves in the spotlight of gossip or unfriendly eyes and in a negative atmosphere. Simply remember that there is hope to lead us beyond it. Also it might happen that we are lonely, discouraged, and with our sorrows. At these times, there is always hope to overcome. It can also happen that we work hard, night and day, we sow good seeds of love, unity, reconciliation, peace; but as the answer you might hear, “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

Again, it is never the end. There is always hope.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has passed through all these trials and tribulations and he ultimately was crucified. Even with his death, He brought us hope. Hope beyond the grave. He will never leave us alone; especially when we need his guidance. Let’s say the human mind is always with doubt. Does God keep his promise? We ask where was God when we needed Him the most. In the same way, the Lord asks us where are you, I need you everyday.

Let’s focus and think as collective group, a congregation, a Church, a unity of Christians. The Lord throughout the centuries and until today makes His effort to give us (as a unit) hope. As an individual, have his/her own hopes, we as Christians have a united hope.

Here there is a good trick. First of all, we should be united for hope to become a reality. As a Christian nation, we would love, peace, prosperity and we want to be victorious and stay strong. We pray and we “hope” for it.

Now I would like to demonstrate how God can answer our prayer and how our hope can become a reality. This bunch of sticks is our unity. Only one stick is an individual like me. Let’s separate one from the bunch. Our enemy, evil, misfortune, you name it can very easily break it. Now let’s take two sticks from the bunch representing two persons together. Try to break it. It is more difficult. When we keep adding a third, a fourth, more and more and it becomes a unity of sticks, it becomes more and more difficult to break. We will stay strong as a group. Do you understand the mentality I am explaining to you? Hope becomes reality.

This is the way God works to always make us stronger. God has given us each other and such is the strength. In other words, hope is always with us and we are each others strength. We are each others happiness, peace and love.

The Lord has already answered our good prayers. He has given us His gift and His blessings. He has kept His promise. It is up to us to accept it.

Amen.

Sunday Sermon

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:52:23 +0000

Sunday Sermon March 7, 2010

~ Sin and Fear

“And he said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolater, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death.” Revelation 21:6-8

As we have said in previous sermons, we are in the Lenten season. This is the time to correct our mistakes and be freed from sin. According to the Bible, committing sins is the reason to burn with fire and brimstone. At the same time, the Bible also speaks of the fearful, sending them to hell with the murderers. Why is God equating a fearful person with someone who kills?

Let us find out. Fear was introduced to our world once Adam & Eve sinned. As man sins more often, he begins to become more fearful. In other words, to be able to conquer fear is to conquer sin. But not all of us challenge fear.

There are those who try to impose their mistakes and sins onto others. For example, as God was questioning Adam in the Garden of Eden, Adam replied, “That woman who you gave to me, she fooled me.”

There are other people who try to lighten the effect of their mistakes or sins by encouraging others to join their effort and continue making mistakes. They hide themselves amongst others. We are afraid to be different than others.

The human being is the tangled bundle of fears. Some are afraid of future, some of us are afraid of the past. The businessman is afraid that others will surpass him, the shopkeeper is afraid that he will loose his customers, the landlord is afraid that the price of land will drop, the stockholder is afraid their stock will drop, etc, etc, etc.

Over the years, all these fears have made man suspicious, anxious, phony, and even evil. Man is afraid to be righteous, virtuous or humble so that someone does not take advantage of his kindness. Man is afraid to become charitable because he is afraid that when he needs help on a rainy day, he won’t receive it. Man becomes egocentric, greedy, unwilling and bold.

Man by using the phrase, time is money, runs to gain the time which to him equals money. Of course, not every man is thinking to merely secure himself from poverty by gaining riches; but sees it as the source of well to do entertainment. Man is afraid not to have enough time during his life to show off, to eat all the foods, to be dressed up with all the fine clothing, etc.

Man wants to be praised, be bowed down to and to be applauded. They are afraid of not being noticed. They want to be the center of attention. They are loosing their conscience because conscience lives in the heart and not in a bank account.

The Armenian poet, Barour Sevag wrote in one of his poems this question, “What is it God that everyone sooner or later seems to loose himself within his own humanity.”

The religious answer would be because of sin. This is the truth. Man is afraid of truth, too. What should you do? You can open your heart to truth. As we read in the New Testament, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” That truth is Jesus Christ. When we walk hand in hand with Jesus Christ, our live can become fearless. Our heart will sing with King David uttering these words, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalms 27:1

Nothing and no one shall we fear because we have found Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: God’s Building, August 16, 2009

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:27:22 +0000

“…you are God’s field, God’s building.” I Corinthians 3:9

Every man who works with the soil knows to reap from that soil, you shall patiently pass through a long winter, work hard planting during the Spring, be watchful during the Summer which will bring the full harvest during Autumn. It is the second half of August now. During centuries, farmers and villagers gather their first harvest and dedicate it to God. The Armenian Church has chosen the grapes as the symbol of all goods grown from Mother Soil to dedicate to God.

We, Arizona Armenians, as children of the Church, today have brought our very first harvest in front of God’s holy altar which surrounds us. Our gift to Him is this new temple of worship. God bless the hard workers, all the volunteers, all the benefactors, for all those who have prayed for this project’s completion and for all those who believed in our dream. The dream of half a century ago is now a reality. It is not by chance, the Assumption of Mother Mary celebrated the same day as the grape blessing ceremony. The Virgin Mary gifted the birth of Jesus as the first harvest for our salvation. Her sacrifice was the greatest gift to humanity. In Jesus Christ was founded and built the church. It was not built by stones and blocks; but with flesh and blood.

Today we are the living stones and blocks in which God continues to build his church. The church which is built with stones and blocks needs sand, mortar, cement, iron, wood, etc. What do we need for the spiritual church? In order to make it strong, beautiful, and illuminated. The first component is faith. Abraham and Peter had that type of faith. The faith is solid and resembles rock. A church built on that rock would not be afraid of tribulations, disasters and temptations.

Dear faithful, we need Abrahams and Peters amongst us.

The second component is prayer. A church is a meaningless place without prayer. Prayer is the conversation between man and God. What can we talk with God? We can talk about everything, like Father and child. Our prayers should be full of trust, forgiveness, and openness. Like prophet Elijah and King David prayed. The apostle James says to pray when you are suffering and pray when you are cheerful. Pray when you are sick and pray when you are healthy. Pray

for one another. The spiritual church needs another component, which is fire. It is called the fire of love which sanctifies and cleanses ourselves. This fire does not burn. It warms our hearts and souls. This fire was absorbed by the apostles. Living church also needs true worship with your heart and soul. We are not coming to church to only see each other and to chit chat and catch up with one another. We are not coming to the church merely to say we were here. We are not

coming to listen to the choir’s concert. We are not coming to fill out an application for volunteerism. But we are here to worship, cleanse ourselves from sin and repent and become a servant of God. We are here to glorify and honor God. The one who looks for his own glory is a Pharisee, therefore be cautious and keep your distance from them. A living church should be dynamic, fruitful and alive. Life is a constant motion. To keep up, we should console, enlighten, continue to grow in our faith and bear the fruit of the Heavenly Kingdom, happiness, love and peace.

To keep our church alive, we need to practice the art of sacrifice. Jesus Christ died on the cross for us to live eternally. Today the living church needs our sacrifice.

What can we give to God when everything belongs to him as it is? Let’s think. Is it considered a sacrifice for us to attend

Divine Liturgy? It is a part of the Christian lifestyle. Is it a sacrifice when we give our savings to the church? It is a good deed. Volunteering is a good deed, also. When you give to God what is absolutely necessary for your own self that is truly a sacrifice. That is how the Virgin Mary and all the saints & martyrs lived.

Indeed we are God building, if today we are ready to sacrifice that which is precious…Amen.

by Rev. Father Zacharia Saribekyan